What is Hispanic Marketing Nowadays?

The Latino community in the U.S. is more diverse than ever. Take my niece Nicole who was born in the U.S. but is bicultural and bilingual.  Throw her in a room full of Latinos and she is able to hold her own with all the jokes and innuendos, not to mention the music and dancing. Put her in a room full of Non-Hispanics and she’s just as comfortable and in her element. While she listens to some Spanish-language music, almost all of her media consumption is in English. My nephew Bryan, on the other hand, who was also born in the U.S., has gone through great lengths to retro-acculturate with his Hispanic roots. He proudly wears the colors of his motherland flag, speaks Spanish perfectly, follows his fútbol team religiously, drinks ‘mate’ every day, and consumes hours of Spanish language media from here and there.

So what is Hispanic marketing nowadays with such diversity within our own community? This question sometimes keeps me up at night because it’s what I do for a living. I wonder sometimes if it would be easier to switch to the general market side of marketing, you see Hispanics come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and accents.

Add to that mix, different language preferences, different acculturation levels, U.S. born vs. foreign born, media consumption in different languages, and the whole thing becomes rather complex. And to make matters even more challenging, Hispanic families in the U.S are becoming more culturally diverse as many younger generations are born in the U.S.

Then there’s the fact that the majority of Hispanics nowadays consider themselves to be bicultural – or in other words, living in both worlds. So in essence, they are viewing everything through the lens of two cultures. Two sets of perspectives with which to interpret messaging, behaviors, actions, and needs…yikes! Get my drift? This is enough to drive any marketer crazy.  Oftentimes, I’m invited to attend total market focus groups and this is really great for understanding Hispanics’ “American” point of view, but often what is missing is their Latino POV.

So being a strategic planner for the U.S. Hispanic market requires looking at my consumer audience from various angles, using a Latino and U.S. mainstream lens. Our strategies must be as dynamic as they are because we know all too well that a one-size approach does not work.  I aim to take a bicultural approach in my strategies, because that’s what we do in life, that’s how we live everyday.  Throughout the course of one day for example, I switch back and forth many times between my Latina self and my American self. Even my 11-year old son, who is 3^rd generation embraces that reality and has flexibility of thought just from being bicultural.

This was evident recently at a swim meet. My son was hanging with about five of his teammates in between races listening to Drake, and the only other Latino kid in the group was eating an empanada. At one point, they looked at each other, and my son asked him, in Spanish, ¿es de carne? The other kid responded ‘si’ and my son said “mmmm, esas son las mejores.” They both smiled knowingly at each other, knowing that only they understood this exchange, and that’s when I knew my son understood his own bicultural identity.

It’s that sentiment, that knowing look, that subtle understanding that I strive to achieve in my Hispanic communication strategies.