Cultural Insights: Getting Personal with the Hispanic Market.

Culture is one of the most complex concepts for an individual to understand and grasp, even when it is dealing with one’s own culture. To further complicate this issue, there are deeper concerns that comprise the basis of each individual cultural group. Behind every culture lays certain ideas and beliefs that help to shape each individual within that group. These ideas and beliefs can be referred to as the subjective aspects of that particular culture. The subjective elements enable marketers to relate to their target market. Every great marketer is in search of these underlying cultural insights, yet only few are able to reveal these very personal links to other cultures. Once a marketer knows these emotional ties and how a group generally relates to an issue such as death, happiness, or family, then the marketer can use marketing messages that touch the individuals in that group intimately.

Many marketers may scratch the surface of understanding these cultural insights through the use of surveys, but in order to get the best grasp on what motivates these consumers a more in-depth approach is needed. The best tools that a marketer can use are personal interviews and the word “why.” With these tools, a researcher can unearth the real reasons a consumer may act in a particular way. In recent years there has been a growing interest surrounding the cultural insights that comprise the Hispanic culture. The Hispanic market is a steadily growing segment within the United States, with vast buying power, forcing companies to learn what motivates these consumers and what the best way to touch their innermost emotions is. It has become imperative for market researchers to “understand cultural differences, language treatments, and purchase-drivers and to integrate those variations” into all of their marketing messages (Murphy and Stachura).

Even though more research is needed regarding Hispanic cultural insights, many marketing campaigns can use previous knowledge to build meaningful messages. An important Hispanic segment that can be targeted through current cultural insights is the Hispanic youth. Market researchers have already learned that the Hispanic family is a very important facet within this culture and the bond between parents and their children is very strong. Hispanic parents want the best for their children’s future and the Hispanic youth usually plan to take care of their parents as they age. Since the family unit is so important to the Hispanic community, companies can use this knowledge to help target this market more successfully. One use of this information could be to help higher education institution increase their Hispanic enrollment. It is common knowledge that the family unit is important in the Hispanic community, but it is also known that Hispanics rarely plan for their future and that only 18% of U.S. Hispanics have completed some college (Synovate). In an informal interview with Carlos Flivapalomino, he discussed the importance of family over education in his home country. Even though his siblings and he may have wanted to continue their education, they had to stop attending school in order to work on the family farm. He concluded that if there was a way to satisfy both, he would have, but his family was his most important priority. All of these facts/insights coupled together can help some higher education institutions appeal to the college-aged Hispanic youth in their communities. In areas where there is a large Hispanic population, institutions can stress the fact that these young adults can receive an education while staying close to home. Although the majority of Hispanics do not place high value on future planning, marketing messages can be created that correlate higher education with the ability to support their families more efficiently, now and in the future. By tying the strong family unit and its dependency on each other, with bettering their children’s education, institutions can increase the number of Hispanic students that enroll from the surrounding community.

Meaningful marketing messages are difficult to create and that difficultly increases dramatically when these messages penetrate different cultures. In order for companies to truly connect with their Hispanic consumers, they need to understand the beliefs that motivate these individuals on a daily basis and use marketing messages that utilize this knowledge. All consumers, no matter their cultural background, have the desire to feel as though marketing messages were designed specifically for them and the Hispanic market is no different.

Ashley E. Holloway

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Florida State University

IMC Master’s Program

Works Cited

Korzenny, Felipe and Korzenny, Betty Ann. Hispanic Marketing: A Cultural Perspective:2005. Butterworth Heineman, New York.

Murphy, Meg and Stachura, Jim. “Multicultural Marketing: Why one size does not fit all,” HispanicAd: October 10, 2005. http://www.hispanicad.com

Personal interview. Carlos Flivapalomino, October 9, 2005. Native of Zacatecas, Mexico; currently resides in North Myrtle Beach, SC.

Synovate. U.S. Hispanic Market Report (2004).