Research

A Rice study of Korean Americans shows just how important an influence churches can be in the lives of many first- and second-generation Americans. Those who attend multiethnic churches in their communities are encouraged to reach out to other ethnic and racial groups, while churches whose members are exclusively second-generation Koreans tend to reinforce old stereotypes and inadvertently build barriers of “us” and “them.”

The question that has been plaguing marketers for years has been: do we use Spanish or English to reach the Hispanic market? At first glance the answer may be simple, use Spanish because the market you are trying to reach is the Hispanic market, but the answer is not that simple. The use of language for marketers is complex because there are so many Hispanics that have different levels of English proficiency.

Polychronism is kind of a big word. It was pretty intimidating at first. But I fell in love with the word and its many implications as I began to study it and observe the differences between the polychronistic paradigms of Hispanics and the monotonous monochronistic mindsets of us Anglos.

When it comes to targeting the Hispanic market, finding the right words, per se, is only part of the issue when creating an ad. Finding the right code is the bigger concern. While the question of whether to market to Hispanics in English or Spanish is quickly becoming one of the largest debates related to Hispanic marketing, there seems to be one answer that not only circumvents the problem, but it can relate to every U.S. Hispanic’s language preference, proficiency, and cultural experience. This answer is code switching, or as it is more commonly known, Spanglish.

We never have enough time. It’s flying, wasted, or spent. In marketing, we strive to be punctual for meetings and deadlines. So when do we have time to consider time? For culturally sensitive marketers, time is key. When we look to establish an emotional link with a Hispanic consumer, we must consider the elements of culture that control values, thoughts, and behaviors; and time is one of these “dimensions [that] provides the nesting place for archetypes to take root.”

Sex in print advertisements improves the ad effectiveness for men, including ad-like, product-like, and purchase intent, while it decreases ad effectiveness for women. For both men and women, sexual ads make it less likely that they will recall correctly which brand an ad was promoting.

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.

Without cognitively recognizing it, humans are subject to their language. Though all humans experience these parameters, there are differences in the actual languages spoken. This phenomenon poses several problems and opportunities for the Hispanic consumer market. Language molds the way people think (Koslow, Shamdasani, and Touchstone: 1994), how they identify themselves and therefore the way in which people strategize for the Hispanic market.

Communication issues related to Spanish and English speaking populations create challenges for the marketing industry. The marketing department that can identify and successfully overcome these identified communication barriers can be successful in targeting the Hispanic communities using the language and the cultural identity that contribute to their purchasing decisions.

How Hispanics identify themselves, use reference groups, and perceive labels have many implications in marketing. Why is it important that you as a marketer understand these? The relationship between them has an impact on Hispanic consumer behavior and purchasing decisions.

The division between the two columns of this paper represent the division U.S. Hispanics feel as they establish their identity and role as a Hispanic consumer in an American economy. There is a division between the English and Spanish language.

There’s just something else to Hispanics that makes them not only a prized, targetable market, but also an impressive culture to understand and appreciate. It could be the richness in the music, art and architecture, or the passion and insight within the voice of a Hispanic, the warmth, or even the historical ties that formed the roots of some opinions and beliefs. Whatever the charm may be, this is a culture that brings new demands and new needs to U.S. producers and consumers. Keen insight, understanding, and appreciation for the culture must be finely tuned in order to successfully reach this up-and-becoming-trillion-dollar market.

The study of cultures is a complex field. The American community frequently does not spend appropriate time or effort to learn about the people who share their daily lives. If those people speak a different language or look different, the community can react by labeling all persons who speak that language or look differently with general and sometimes negative labels. This lazy behavior, speaking generally about persons with different cultural values and attributes, exposes the lack of education and sensitivity of the person or group of persons making such statements.

The way people organize and create words that convey thoughts, emotions and understanding has long been a source of interest for social scientists. Throughout the years, it has been realized that language is more than just a way to exchange words and thoughts, but a way to convey cultural identity and connection. This paper will focus on the roles of code-switching, the Sapir-Wharf theory and cultural memory, and how they relate to language and the Hispanic market.

Double Fusion has released findings of a Nielsen Interactive Entertainment study indicating that advertising in video games has a significant influence on purchase decisions and brand recall.

Latin Pulse has introduced a new methodology for quantitatively measuring the emotional response to advertising, new product concepts, packaging and other marketing applications – the Latin Pulse “E-Factor”.

More than 150,000 people who were born outside the United States lived in the counties affected by Hurricane Katrina. In the October Issue of the Migration Information Source (MPI).