¿Que tán Americanizados son éstos Hispanos?
September 13, 2005
Language and culture is becoming an increasingly important matter, in marketing to the Hispanic population. Due to differing levels of acculturation; different Hispanics understand different things. There are three different groups or categories that Hispanics can be placed into; Hispanic dominant, intercultural, and assimilated. Hispanic dominants are for the most part people who have recently arrived to the United States or people who are unwilling to adapt to a new culture. Intercultural Hispanics are those who have been here for a while, and accept the English language and culture, but remain strongly tied to their own Latin culture. Finally assimilated Hispanics, are those who have completely adapted to the American culture and way of life, and for the most part only watch English television, or listen to English radio. This does not mean however that they have completely dropped their original LANGUAGE AND CULTURE. According to Alexandra DeFelice, “there is a need to reach multiple acculturation levels, instead of targeting one large group.” (DeFelice p.1)
I interviewed my mother for this project and asked her a few questions about language, culture, and Hispanic marketing, (my mother has been here for 17 years now and would categorize as intercultural) the questions were as follows:
Q: What is more effective in reaching you, a commercial or ad in English or Spanish?
A: It does not matter as long as I am interested in the product.
Q: What is your opinion about other Hispanics, and they language that reaches them best?
A: I think it matters a lot if they speak English, poor Hispanics don’t speak English so they are more inclined to Spanish.
Q: What part of Hispanic culture do you think is important for marketers to know?
A: I think that a commercial is more effective, when they show the whole family with the Grandparents and everything, emotional appeal, not just something out of the blue.
Q: How do you feel about Spanglish Marketing?
A: Sometimes it is a little bit funny, but I think that it is offensive, it is slang, and the commercials make it seem acceptable. It ruins our culture.
In the text Korzenny & Korzenny speak of importance of words and syntax. For example that there are words that are similar across cultures, but some words cannot readily be translated because they are, “Conveyors of experience.” (Korzenny & Korzenny p. 87) This simply means that Marketers cannot just translate everything into Spanish, that they will be more effective by trying to understand the culture itself. “They have to make sure they’re doing culturally relevant messages.” (DeFelice p. 1) As DeFelice further notes, it is important to reach people the way they want to be reached … how to be appropriate to each segment of the Hispanic population to keep things in culture.” (DeFelice p. 1) Due to the ever constant influx of Hispanics to the United States there is never going to be a traditional level of assimilation. So as Sonya Suarez-Hammond (director of Yankelovich’s research) says, marketers must not look at Hispanics as one huge group, “but as a segment of people continuously evolving through various acculturation levels.” (DeFelice p.1)
In conclusion messages will not connect with the consumers unless marketers have gained some sort of cultural insight. If the message is going to be in Spanish a direct translation will not be as effective as “‘cultural adaption,’ which is understanding the intended message and then casting it into the second language;” this way the meaning comes across, not a bunch of words put together.” (Korzenny & Korzenny p.90)
Finally, “to be successful in this diverse community, marketers must target their position, be culturally relevant, empower their customers, and get into the community,” Suarez-Hammond says, “If you give to the community they are going to give back.” (De Felice p.1) In my opinion marketing to Hispanics is not something you can just throw together and “walla” it is like anything else, it involves much research, and effort on the part of the Marketing team.
Isidro Iturralde
Student in the Hispanic Marketing Communication Program at Florida State University
References
Korzenny, Felipe, and Betty Ann Korzenny. Hispanic Marketing: A Cultural Perspective. Massachussets; Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005
DeFelice, Alexandra. “Understanding Hispanic Culture.” Customer Relationship Management June 2005. 28 Sept. 2005. http://proquest.umi.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/>
