Posts Tagged: multicultural
Look beyond language to reach Hispanics
A paper in the Journal of Cultural Marketing Strategy, authored by MAGNA GLOBAL and the Center for Multicultural Science, looked at media behaviors across three generational levels – first, second and third – for the US Latino population, in what it claimed was the first such study.
And it reported that marketers' understanding of the nuances of the Latino population needed to go beyond language to encompass a broader cultural understanding.
The study highlighted the fact that Spanish-language TV stations Univision and Telemundo ranked first and second in the most-watched TV networks among first-generation Hispanics.
But Univision ranked only fifth among second-generation Hispanics, while for third-generation Hispanics, the top five most watched TV networks were all in English.
The trend was apparent within age groups as well as across generations, in that the greater the length of time in the country the more likely first-generation Latinos were to watch English-language TV networks; the proportion increased by as much as 20-30 percentage points depending on how long they had been in the US.
Dr. Jake Beniflah, executive director at the Center for Multicultural Science, described the findings of the study as "paradigm shifting" and said there were major implications for how marketers effectively reach Latinos on television.
"Because the Latino population is changing, we need to adopt new TV audience measures," he explained. "Our research showed that using generational level is an effective predictor of what TV programs US Latinos are watching."
For MAGNA GLOBAL, Brian Hughes, svp/audience measurement, said "using generational level and years-in-country can help marketers pinpoint which type of media outlet will reach a specific Latino audience most effectively".
Source: Published originally on Warc.com as Look beyond language to reach Hispanics, October 20, 2015.
The language of search: getting it right
With the growth in the number of bilingual and English-dominant Hispanics in the United States, search marketing cannot simply be a matter of translation. Even someone who is very comfortable in English may switch to Spanish for some searches, according to Gonzalo del Fa, president of GroupM Multicultural.
"Even though digital overall has been growing extremely fast against Hispanics, I still feel search is not there yet and … the biggest barrier is language," he says.
More evidence for the importance of getting the language question right: A recent survey by One Hour Translation found that more than 75 percent of consumers are more likely to buy from a website written in their native language.
The most common mistake marketers make, according to Lior Libman, president of One Hour Translation, is assuming that a simple translation is enough. He says marketers often think, "If a campaign is working in English, I'll hire a translator, and it's good to go." Especially in search, where a tiny difference in wording can result in huge changes in clicks, copy should be fine-tuned and tested by local, native speakers.
The translators need to understand the objective of each keyword, as well, according to del Fa. He points out that there can be many more keywords in Spanish that can express a single product or idea. "Think about 'furniture,'" he says. "In Spanish, we have five ways of saying it. Often, with search campaigns, the client comes in with 50 keywords, and when we put it into Spanish, it becomes 120."
Localization involves more than translation, as Doug Platts, iCrossing's head of SEO, points out. He says that translators should not only be local to the campaign, they should also "be on top of what the trends in that culture are."
Nuance becomes even more important when marketing products that have more emotion attached to them, such as insurance, finance or healthcare. "I don't want to make a mistake in those cases," del Fa says.
But it's even more complicated! Many Hispanics switch between English and Spanish when searching. In a July, 2014, blog post, Lisa Gevelber, Google's vice president of Americas marketing, pointed to a Google consumer survey that found that the majority of U.S. Hispanic mobile users typically search in English or a mix of English and Spanish. At the same time, the number of Google searches that included common Spanish-language question words had nearly doubled since 2011.
Del Fa says that 65 percent of Hispanics know how to search for something in English; if they don't find what they're looking for, they switch to Spanish.
Landing the deal
Finessing the language doesn't stop with the search campaign: How marketers handle landing pages is equally important. According to research by GroupM, the majority of consumers who consider themselves bilingual can operate at work in English but are more comfortable speaking Spanish in their personal lives – including while using search.
In the best of all possible searches, someone who searched for a Spanish keyword would get results leading to pages that were in Spanish and appropriate for his or her region. In the real world, every site can't offer all its pages in English and Spanish. At iCrossing, the advice is to build some core landing pages at the product or service level.
Another good practice, according to del Fa, is to deliver search results in the language in which the landing page is written. "If results are in Spanish, but clicking on one takes them to a website that is not in-language, it will throw the person off," he says.
If it's not possible to create a landing page in Spanish, he advises that it's better to return English-language search results for an in-Spanish search. "If the results are in English, I know the page will be in English, so it's not an issue," he says.
In global campaigns, Spanish-language landing pages need to be localized, as well as the search campaigns themselves, Platts advises. Using hreflang tags to denote the correct regional URL in search results ensures that searchers find what they need. "We don't like to create a Spanish page and that will cover everybody," Platts says. He also notes that paid search paid is an excellent way to test whether a larger digital campaign should be launched in English or Spanish, before a brand invests larger assets.
Finally, search marketers need to remember that language is a tactic, not a strategy, del Fa says. "Let's put a strategy together. Then, when we are down the road planning the tactics, then language will kick in."
Source: Published originally on PortadaOnline.com as The Language of Search: Getting It Right, by Susan Kuchinskas, May 21, 2015.
Hispanics overtake whites to become California’s largest ethnic group
About 15 million Hispanics lived in California on July 1, 2014, compared to roughly 14.9 million non-Hispanic whites, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released late last week. The California Department of Finance predicted in 2013 that Hispanics would outnumber whites in 2014; the census figures confirm that prediction.
The new data represents a historic shift over a short period of time. California has six times as many Hispanics today as it did in 1970. The number of non-Hispanic whites in the state has declined since 1970.
California Hispanics today enjoy more influence than ever before. They run tens of thousands of California businesses; they support scores of Spanish-language newspapers, radio and TV stations; they make up a sizable proportion of nearly every county in the state, and they hold political positions ranging from mayor of Long Beach to president pro tem of the state Senate.
“It's a milestone for California,” said Mark Hugo Lopez, director of Hispanic research at the Pew Research Center. “In many respects, California's large population growth has been driven by Hispanic population growth.”
Two factors largely explain the growth in California's Latino population: immigration and high birth rates.
From the 1970s through the 1990s, millions of Mexicans, Guatemalans and other Latinos crossed the border into California, some legally, some not. That immigration has lately slowed, particularly during the last recession, several demographers said.
For the past decade or so, most of the population increase among California Hispanics has come from a high number of births and a low number of deaths, several experts said. Latinos tend to be significantly younger than their neighbors; they are of an age where they are likely to have children.
“What's mostly going is the difference in birth rates in Latinos and non-Hispanic whites,” said Laura Hill, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California.
Conversely, the birth rate among whites is relatively low as the population ages and young, non-Hispanic whites put off having children, Hill and others said.
“Along with this, we see people who have left,” said Robert Suro, a professor at the University of Southern California and director of the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute, a research center that studies demographic diversity. “Somebody who doesn't want to live in an intensely multicultural area has left coastal California by now. Most of them were non-Hispanic whites. Most of them were older adults.”
Latinos in California are largely concentrated in rural farming counties or urban Southern California. About 21 percent of the Sacramento region's residents identify as Latino.
The large majority of Latinos in California are here legally and are working, federal statistics show. Legal immigrants make up more than 80 percent of the state's Latino population, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. More than 90 percent of Latinos in the California labor force hold a job, according to the state Employment Development Department.
“It's a mistake to think California Latinos are just a bunch of undocumented people,” said Jim Gonzalez, chairman of Sacramento's Cien Amigos, a civic action group dedicated to improving California-Mexico relations. “The Latino community is a young, dynamic community. They're excellent consumers, constantly providing for their families, so in pure economic terms alone, this is positive news.”
Even so, many Latinos continue to face barriers. Total Latino household income in California was roughly one-third of household income for non-Hispanic whites in 2013, census figures show. Activists continue to work at increasing voter turnout and social mobility among Hispanics.
When it comes to politics in California, “Latinos punch under their weight,” Suro said.
That could change. Due to population growth alone, California Latinos will make up an estimated 33 percent of voters in the 2040 presidential election, compared with about 24 percent in 2012, said Mindy Romero, director of the California Civic Engagement Project at the UC Davis Center for Regional Change.
“If they increase their turnout rates more, coupled with the increase in population, you are going to see even larger increases in their political influence,” Romero said.
Latinos and other ethnic groups have also made California increasingly attractive to those seeking to live in a diverse community, Suro said. Their growing presence helps the state's economy, he added.
“The population change has a magnet to a certain type of person,” he said. It attracts “people looking for a quickly changing ... new-economy ... multicultural-type place.”
Source: Originally published on the Sacramento Bee as Census: Hispanics overtake whites to become California's largest ethnic group, by Phillip Reese and Stephen Magagnini, June 30, 2015.
Latino food purchases most influenced by family, emotional values
According to the data, though the Latino population in the U.S. is diverse, there are significant commonalities when it comes to food; specifically, Latinos prefer fresh, locally-grown, whole ingredients for their traditional dishes.
Latino food purchases and eating healthy
The results from the new study show that Latinos want to make healthy food choices despite previous data suggesting there are a number of barriers standing in the way. Access to fresh produce and meat, cost and general knowledge regarding healthy choices have all previously been cited as hurdles Latinos face when it comes to eating healthy.
An earlier study in 2013 published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine looked at the effects of poverty on the Latino diet. The research sought to showcase how poverty generally led to a diet full of calorie-dense, low-cost processed food. Diets of this nature have been linked to a higher risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, which disproportionately affect the Latino community.
What experts found, however, was that once educated on where and how to find whole and organic foods, Latinos—regardless of income—were more likely to make healthy choices. The findings were consistent even among Spanish-speaking Latinos, suggesting that it was mainly nutrition education which stood between Latinos and a healthier diet.
But while nutritionally-educated Latinos will make healthy food choices, the missing piece of the puzzle when it comes to reaching Latinos about food choices is the family connection. Healthy eating is important, but only if it can be done in a way which still promotes the close relationship typical of the Latino family.
Other findings in The Multi-Cultural Latino Consumer study on Latino food purchases included:
- Latinos are less likely than others to eat alone (38 percent to 47 percent).
- 32 percent of Latinos believe having a family meal is important, compared to 22 percent of non-Latinos.
- Latinos see dining out as a way of enjoying other ethnic cuisine.
- Latinos are more likely to dine out compared to non-Latinos.
- 82 percent of Latinos chose fresh foods over packaged foods.
- 63 percent of Latinos consume organic foods.
- 63 percent of Latinos eat meals influenced by their Latin country of origin.
Source: Published originally on Saludify.com as Latino food purchases most influenced by family, emotional values by Hope Gillette, August 5, 2013.
What is American?
“The entire Western Hemisphere is the Americas, North and South. Therefore, it’s inappropriate to use American when referring only to the United States.” There is some truth to that argument. Randy Newman called attention to this verbal conundrum in his classic parody, “Political Science,” when he satirically sang, “South America stole our name.”
As I’ve discussed in my blogs, national and ethnic labels are arbitrary and sometimes confusing. In Latin America, norteamericano is often used to refer to the people and things of the United States (and sometimes Canada). This occurs even though, geographically speaking, Mexico and Central America are part of the North American continent. I’ve heard critics (usually non-Latinos) argue that using the term American in reference to only the United States is arrogant or even offensive, especially to Latinos. Well, not to me. I’m not offended. Rather, I find its use to be a proud tradition, a historically-grounded expression of national identity.
Admittedly, not all traditions are sacrosanct, but our use of the label American has deep, hallowed roots. We sing “America” at public events and that’s not about to change. When Latino veterans formed an organization shortly after World War II, they proudly called it the American G.I. Forum. My forthcoming four-volume encyclopedia of ethnicity in the United States will be entitled Multicultural America.
Our country certainly doesn’t have a monopoly on the term American — after all, our schools teach Latin American history. I taught Latin American history. Nevertheless, I’m going to continue using American to depict the people and things of the United States. One reason for this is that I’ve never encountered a good alternative.
Occasionally I’ve heard suggestions of other terms, such as U.S. American and even United Statesian. However, I find these labels to be clunky, distracting and overly self-conscious, and I’d rather not use them.
On the other hand, one day some expression might replace American as the standard. After all, language does change. African-American was not widely used half a century ago. Maybe in the distant future American will become a linguistic relic, like Thee and Thou. But don’t hold your breath.
Source: Published originally on Univision’s Hispanic Insights Weekly Digest as What Is American? by Dr. Carlos E. Cortés, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Riverside. He can be reached at carlos.cortes@ucr.edu.