Future Blogs: Blog to Come Acculturation vs. Assimilation: Empathy vs. Action Reaching the Pocho Nation: Novelas or Desperate Housewives? A Time For Every Idioma: Situational Language Usage Dulce De Leche to Chipotle: The Latinization of More Chocolate Flavors than M&Ms: The Segmentation Challenge Bridges Bring Business: Border Dynamics, from Brownsville to Closing the Techno Gap Via Mobile and LOL: Hispanics and Technology How Cousin Ralph Became Primo Rafael: The Magic of Retro-Acculturation Latina Belleza: Insights Into How Women AND Men Think About Beauty The Loyalty Gene: Latino Brand, Real or Wrong Chico-ismo: Check out my Guest Book. Sign in and let me know what you think. Any preferences on topics? Any catch your attention? Which might you like to read?
A list of topics I'm working on and/or thinking about. Ideally, updated every Monday, and in no specific order. But,I'm on MST (Mexican Standard Time).
How Kids Affect Assimilation
Present/Past Blogs: 5.19.08 Hispanic Insights: Myth or Reality? I’m old enough to remember (just barely) that the term Hispanic was first used as a Census category in 1970. Before that we were mostly “Spanish” or “Latins”. If you were a little “hip” (yes, that was the term back then) you might call yourself Latino. If you were more on the radical side (a lot of people were in the 70s, not just us) then you might have been “Chicano”. (For those of you born after 1980, there was a big Chicano Power movement in the 60s and 70s and we had Brown Beret’s lined up to protest educational inequality and it was all very exciting and scary and important. You should read about it, but not here. I digress.). I remember asking my grandfather about what we were, listing the options. He got very upset that I didn’t know, saying, “Mijo, my parents were from Mateguala. They’re Mexicanos. I was born here in Today, the two labels heard most often are Hispanic and Latino. Technically there is a difference in that Latinos are people from countries IN Latin America, which doesn’t include So, for the most part I don’t think people really care much anymore whether you use Hispanic or Latino, unless you’re from
Clients often ask, "What makes that spot Hispanic?" Not all of them and not all the time. What they're looking for is generally some stereotype that reassures them that their message will be identifiable and relevant to the Hispanic target: jalapeños, piñatas and salsa (either the dancing or the music kind will do), kids playing soccer, etc. Things that are obviously Hispanic. They often mistake those stereotypes for Hispanic "insights".
Most of the time, it's not even our client's fault. (I don't want to alienate anyone.) They've been trained to expect that these typically-Hispanic elements will be in the ad. And, many times we've trained them that way. (I mean our industry, not me specifically but really we're all guilty.) For years, many Hispanic marketers have perpetuated the need for stereotyping. We've told advertisers to trust us because we're Hispanic and we "know". And, as one of my passionate colleagues, Scott McCracken (who got me started on this week's blog) points out in a forum contribution on this site, it's still happening today. Scott argues that people within the industry are still part of the problem.
We've used stereotypes to sell, not to Hispanic customers, but to generally non-Hispanic brand managers. They may not understand the market, but they know a good stereotype when they see one. They just think it's an insight.
Insights are important. But, insights are simply facts: facts that make a difference, facts that help determine direction, facts that inspire the creative. Insights can be about the consumer, the brand, the category or product, or even about the people or things that influence consumer behavior. Every target group has some relevant fact that we can mine relative to these topics that affects what we do in terms of advertising and marketing. And yes, we do find insights that relate to our Hispanic targets, but they're not necessarily specific to the culture.
We have to move beyond "Hispanic insight" stereotypes to "Human insights". We need to stop thinking of the Hispanic market as a segment by itself, one big chocolate flavored box to check off. We need to start thinking more about Hispanic market segmentation and focusing on groups WITHIN the market. Our Hennessy target is very different attitudinally, behaviorally and socio-economically than our Bud-Light target. And, both are really different from our Chef Boyardee target. Do you think there's one Hispanic insight, related to music or food or family or passion or aspiration (classic stereotype fodder) that covers them all? Our Hispanic Hennessy guy has much more in common with the General Market or Af-Am Hennessy drinker than he does to a Chef mom. Many times we're dealing with a similar insight and nuance of the same message. What's different is the context in which the message, the brand story, is told.
Would you put American flags, hot dogs and apple pie in a General Market spot, just because we're in the good ol' U.S.of A.? Does every execution developed regionally have to reflect that specific region? Do Chevy and Dodge and Ford have to put cowboys with 10-gallon hats and dusty boots in every "Texas Tough" commercial? (Well, maybe yes in that case.) Still the point is, if you wouldn't put an American flag in every General Market ad just because we're in the
5.12.08 Hispanic vs. Latino: What’s in a Name?
