Attitudes of Consumers in the Multicutlural Marketplace

As part of our ongoing series of reports supported by DMS Research, the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University has released in March 2009 a new study of attitudes of consumers in the Multicultural marketplace.  The full report can be obtained at:  http://hmc.comm.fsu.edu.

The data in this report includes 39 attitudes and multiple demographics to provide a sense of how members of different cultural groups feel about select aspects of life and commerce. The list of specific attitude items is in the section dealing with overall trends below.

The data revealed a six factor structure that resulted in six factor score coefficient weighted indexes:

• Network Oriented or an inclination to use social media and being sociable
  
• Gay Favorable or a positive predisposition to GLT issues and people
  
• Sports Oriented or a favorable disposition towards sports
  
• Brand Lifestyle or strong positive feelings about brands
  
• Social Cultural Sensitive or empathy and openness to other cultures
  
• Marriage Oriented or strong feelings about the importance of marriage
  

The results indicate that Hispanics who answered the online questionnaire in Spanish (HS) are more likely than anyone else to be Network Oriented, and interestingly, that Non Hispanic Whites (NHW) are least likely to be Network Oriented. Hispanics who answered the questionnaire in English (HE) and Asians (A) are most likely to be Gay Favorable, while HS were most negative. Also HE and A are most Sports Oriented, while NHW are least sports involved. Brand Lifestyle is more prevalent among African Americans (AA) and least among HS. The most Socio Culturally Sensitive are HS, while the least are NHW. A are the most Marriage Oriented while HS and AA are the least.

Alternative explanations were explored with the data, by looking at gender and age groups, and

conclusions and implications were derived for marketing to these diverse groups. These findings

highlight the importance of considering attitudinal orientations when positioning products and servicesnin these diverse cultural communities. The results make it evident that not all members of the different major cultures in the US can be reached with homogeneous messages and ideas.  Find the report at: http://hmc.comm.fsu.edu

Start Planning for the Online Hispanic Marketing Course for this Fall 2009

While the Summer 2009 course on Hispanic Marketing has started and is closed you can plan for this Fall 2009.  Classes begin August and it is never too early to apply to secure your place.  Visit http://hmc.comm.fsu.edu for details on the online course.  

 

For application information, contact Jennifer Boss at inquiries@campus.fsu.edu.

 

THOSE INTERESTED ARE ENCOURAGED TO APPLY IMMEDIATELY AS REGISTRATION IS LIMITED.

BE SURE TO REGISTER SOON!

The Multicultural World of Social Media Marketing

By:
Felipe Korzenny, Ph.D., Director, Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University, and Senior Strategy Consultant, Captura Group
Lee Vann, Founder and CEO, Captura Group

Social media is now ubiquitous. Usage of blogs, social networks, and video sharing sites is increasing rapidly and millions of people now look to social media websites as their primary source of news, opinion, and entertainment. As we witness this dramatic shift from traditional to social media, we believe it’s important to examine its cultural dimensions—that is, who is driving this shift, what are the cultural factors behind it, and what are the implications for marketers seeking to reach specific ethnic/cultural groups via social media?

We recently conducted an analysis of newly collected data to examine the patterns of social media behaviors of different ethnic/cultural groups in the US. The data comes from the Florida State University Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication with the support of DMS Research from a national online sample of nearly 2,500 people with approximately 500 cases in each of the following cultural groups: Hispanics who prefer English, Hispanics who prefer Spanish, Non-Hispanic Whites, African Americans, and Asians in the United States.

Ethnic minorities visit social networking sites more frequently than non-Hispanic Whites

We aggregated information to find out what ethnic/cultural groups are more likely to visit social networking sites. We found broad diversity in social media behaviors among different ethnic/cultural groups and that emerging minorities visit social networking sites more frequently than non-Hispanic whites.

We then broke out the data for leading social networks, MySpace and Facebook, to see if there are any groups leading usage of the most popular social networking sites—again, minorities lead the way, with English Preferring Hispanics being twice as likely to visit MySpace regularly than Non-Hispanic Whites. The relative importance of emerging minorities as compared with the traditional majority points to a major shift in social influence.

Demographics, culture and market factors drive ethnic minorities to social networks

This data is interesting, but in order for these findings to be useful and actionable for us as marketers, we need to determine the reason for the strong representation of ethnic minorities on social networking sites and how to best engage with this audience. We believe that there is a mix of cultural, demographic and market factors that make social media particularly appealing to emerging minorities.

Demographically, ethnic minorities are younger than non-Hispanic Whites. It’s no secret that younger people in general are more likely to adopt new technologies, particularly technologies that enable communication and provide social connectivity. This age gap between minorities and non-Hispanics only partially explains the gap in social media involvement.

Age is only a partial explanation for the use of social media among ethnic minorities

In order to analyze the influence of age on social media behavior, we divided respondents into two segments, those 35 years of age and younger and those 36 years of age and older. The following chart shows that people 35 and younger of all cultural backgrounds are more likely to use social media, with Hispanics who prefer to communicate in Spanish and African Americans lagging behind. Young Spanish preferring Hispanics may lag because they are likely to be newer to the Internet, and also because their friends and relatives are less likely to be online due to economic and access factors. While Hispanics in general are aggressively getting online, those less acculturated are still somewhat less represented in the digital realm today.

When examining the usage of social networking sites among those 36 and older, we find that that older Hispanics, regardless of language preference are more active especially when compared non-Hispanic Whites within the same age group.

This substantiates the notion that age is only a partial explanation for the higher usage of social media among Hispanics and other ethnic minorities. Culture and market factors also play an important role in promoting online social connectivity among these groups.

Collectivistic values, communication and lack of relevant content are key drivers of social behavior online

Culturally, ethnic minorities tend to be drawn to collectivistic values and often look to one another to help guide decisions and opinions. In addition, ethnic minorities are more likely to leverage social networks to communicate with groups of family and friends who are geographically dispersed. Social media facilitates such collective sharing of information and communication.

In addition, market forces are driving ethnic minorities to use social media. There is a dearth of culturally relevant and in-language content available online. As a result, ethnic minorities tend to be proactive and create and share their own content and social networks are ideal platforms for publishing and distributing such original content.

Social networking services allow people to organize and enhance their relationships online, but regardless of technology, culture is still the glue that bonds people together. Marketers seeking to reach ethnic minorities through social media must reinforce and connect with the culture of their target audience if they seek to strengthen their clients’ brands on social networks—doing so requires a strategic long term approach that should include the following elements:

Define your social media marketing objectives

Using social media can accomplish a number of business objectives. Do you want to advertise a new product? Gather research? Provide customer service and build goodwill? Knowing what you’re looking for will make it much easier to find it.

Understand your audience and be strategic

A successful social media strategy requires a clear definition of objectives, understanding o your audience and a strategy for engaging them. Consider the cultural motivations that are driving your target audience to social media. Are they there to talk about music? Are they keeping in touch with relatives overseas? Are they there to connect and share their collective culture? What language are they using? They may be doing all of these things and more, but if you can determine what’s drawing your audience to social media in the first place, you’ll have a better chance of engaging them when you join their conversations. Building and maintaining conversations with a target audience requires research, careful planning and a strategic approach.

Dedicate resources to proactively engage your audience with timely and relevant content

Ethnic minorities are turning to social networks to express themselves, connect with their culture and communicate with each other. To be successful, marketers must be open to engaging audiences with timely and relevant content that stimulates feedback and sharing. Engaging in meaningful conversations is the goal of social media marketing and doing so requires a deep understanding of needs, openness to negative commentary and dedicated resources. A social media presence is worthless if it lies dormant.

The time is now

Few marketers are proactively targeting ethnic minorities online and even fewer are leveraging social media to do so. A first mover advantage is available for those that devote the time and resources to engage these critical audiences in ways that they find meaningful. The fact is that we now have an unprecedented ability to reach and interact with ethnic minorities; and companies that deliver value to this segment today will be rewarded with the long term loyalty of this market.

Originally published by Media Post on February 19, 2009.

A Stronger Sense of Hispanic Pride and Unity

I think that we, Hispanics, Latinos, or whatever label we are assigned, those of us with roots in Latin America, are strengthening our sense of common identity in the United States.  A sense of identity based on pride.  What we have in common appears to be overshadowing what makes us different.  Our heritage from Latin America has a common cultural influence from Spain, the native peoples of the American continent and Africa, a common language, and beliefs in the supernatural that shape how we look at the world.  Now, in the United States our heritage is being further shaped by the "American" experience.  Being of Latin American origin in the United States promotes a unique way of looking at the world.  

We have found commonality in the being different, immigrant backgrounds, pride in art, music, literature, food, architecture, and, perhaps more importantly, a subjective perception of the world that runs as a common theme in our sense of identity.  The largest immigration of Hispanics to the United States was in the past 30 years.  We grew from 10 million in 1980 to about 50 million in 2009.  Most likely, this growth will continue but now fueled by children born in the United States, and not so much by immigration.  Many contend that eventually we will just melt like everyone else has done in the past.  I believe that our numbers, our culture, and our sense of difference will keep us distinct to a larger extent now than ever before. 

Discrimination has always been a force unifying people.  We have experienced that.  Being seen as foreigners and immigrants has been a common experience even if many of "us" have been here longer than those who look at us as newcomers. But this pressure makes us strong. This stress is unifying us.  Most Hispanics in the US have not had a strong avocation for activism or a need to organize.  In my opinion, the time has come.  Hispanics are now a strong force recognized by marketers, first and foremost, and by politicians who want our vote.  Now we can leave behind anomie and fatalism and see that we have real power.  We have money and many of us have a vote to cast.  We have become increasingly aware that if we do not unite we will have no power. Look at the unprecedented immigration protests of the recent past.

The time has come for us to gather around what is important.  Our sense of cultural identity unifies us in a very special way.  We look at personal relationships in very different ways.  We look at time and space as continua that transcend our existence.  We have a sense of the supernatural that makes us feel awe in a different way.  We have gender relationships that work differently.  We have dual identities.  We are different and also similar.

Samuel Huntington, rest in peace, was wrong.  The work ethic of Hispanics is as good as or stronger than a "Protestant Work Ethic."  We have demonstrated that since we have been in this great country.  We do not want handouts.  We want work.  We want to achieve.

It looks to me like Hispanic identity is strengthening and becoming a great force in making the United States a greater country.  We are here and we are ready to achieve, to be online, to buy products, to serve this great country, and to continue being essentially family people, proud of whom we are and now united by a common experience.  We are now ready to organize and be a stronger social and cultural force.  This has to be our future.

So, what does this have to do with marketing?  Everything!

 

Hispanic Marketing Trends: 2009 and Beyond

The future for Hispanic marketing in the United States is bright, full of "dualities" and opportunities. The future is indeed bright. While the media propagates bad news as their way of attracting attention, they ignore the positive trends in the economy. Hispanic marketing is one of them.

1. Economic crises are not new to Hispanics… Hispanics should be more optimistic in comparison to other cultural groups, thus leading the recovery with optimism... that is our only choice

2. On the other hand migration misinformation and increasing discrimination are setting a negative tone for the role of Hispanics in the US... the voices of negativism can not prevail

3. As a consequence of the above marketers should emphasize achievements and contributions of Hispanics to raise self esteem and build brand equity

4. Faster acculturation. Marketers should place more emphasis on what unites Hispanics beyond language. More leadership potential and higher aspirations for the future can mean a major transformation

5. Identifying the core of the new and emergent multicultural society… third culture…

6. A growing emphasis in communicating in Culture, while communicating in language will stabilize

7. A stronger emphasis on lifestyle segmentation as opposed to sheer acculturation

8. Increasing cross-over from Hispanic products and brands to the overall population… the Hispanization of America

9. Increased used of technology, particularly the Internet… over indexing in several categories… and this goes for all emerging minorities--- Hispanics are leading in the use of social media, and social media marketing is a great vehicle for incorporating Hispanic sensitive brands in the culture

10. Better appreciation of the consumer bicultural chemistry in the home… English and Spanish incorporated in the decision making… more collective than individual decision making

11. Almost 2 million Hispanic owned businesses… more of a focus on BtoB

12. Integrating marketing efforts in corporations and avoiding the marginalization of ethnic marketing… targeting needs to be more inclusive and precise

13. More cause marketing… as these consumers are increasingly green and socially aware

14. The future is in grassroots and high-touch marketing

Hispanic Marketing - What’s Next?

Having spent over 30 years in Hispanic marketing, I have been fortunate to see the evolution of this fascinating market. I founded one of the first multicultural market research companies, Hispanic and Asian Marketing Communication Research, and experienced first hand the explosive growth of a market and an industry. Now, as the Founder and Director of Florida State University’s Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication, I am training the next generation of Hispanic marketing leaders and I am continually asking, “What’s next”?

Marketing experts have been heralding the reign of digital communications for years, but few are aware of the importance of Hispanics in this digital era. Through my research dating back to 2000 when I conducted the study “The Digital World of the US Hispanic” and now as a professor at Florida State University, I have discovered powerful insights regarding Hispanics and technology in our research program “The Multicultural Marketing Equation.”

The fact is that Hispanics, along with other emerging minorities, are leading the technology revolution in this country.

Hispanics are one of the fastest growing and most active segments of the online population. They are using technology to enable social connectivity and enhance their cultural identity. In a recent study that I authored, I found that Hispanics, regardless of language preference and age, are more likely to be active on social networking sites than non-Hispanic Whites. Hispanic market growth and technology adoption are converging, making digital communications the next frontier in Hispanic marketing.

In 2001, I spoke at the Hispanic Internet Summit with an entrepreneur named Lee Vann who is the Founder and CEO of Captura Group. Lee founded Captura Group to help companies reach Hispanics through technology. We have maintained a personal and professional relationship since that initial meeting more than 7 years ago. Recently, we decided to join forces to enhance Captura Group’s strategic Hispanic online offering and provide marketers with actionable insights to inform Hispanic online strategies. I am very excited to be consulting with Captura Group as Senior Strategy Consultant as they share my passion and respect for the Hispanic culture and have demonstrated proven thought leadership in the Hispanic online market.

I look forward to helping shape the next stage of Hispanic Marketing through my collaboration with Captura Group.