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Understanding the Hispanic consumer is one of the most difficult challenges facing brand marketers. One proxy to explain consumption differences across Hispanics is to use language preference as a marker for acculturation. Research has shown English-speaking Hispanic consumers to have consumption patterns similar to the general population. Conversely, the more Spanish-dominant Hispanic consumers may diverge from the general population in their consumption decisions. In between these two extremes is a population, often called bicultural Hispanics, which manifests a spectrum of language and consumption differences.
Language preference is one piece of a very complicated puzzle. To unravel the other dimensions, Spectra created a consumption-driven acculturation model that uses a combination of nine demographic variables (including age, income, language preference, and more) to identify distinct consumer packaged goods consumer segments within the Hispanic population. The resulting Culture Point Model describes the three segments of the population as follows:
- Least Acculturated Hispanics—have consumption patterns that are most divergent from the general population and are primarily foreign born, with a high percentage of adults with no high school education.
- Most Acculturated Hispanics—reflect consumption patterns that are very similar to the general population, and are primarily at least the second generation to be born in the United States.
- Bicultural Hispanics—of the three segments, bicultural consumers form the largest segment of the Hispanic population (53%), and rather than being an amalgamation of most and least acculturated Hispanics, comprise a distinct segment in their own right. Bicultural consumers are the most difficult to describe because they are neither as culturally isolated as the least acculturated Hispanics nor as fully integrated as the most acculturated Hispanics.
Consumption Behavior of Bicultural Hispanics
Unlike the most and least acculturated Hispanics, bicultural Hispanics do not tend toward a simple demographic profile. For instance, many of the most acculturated Hispanics have at least some college education. A majority of the least acculturated Hispanics never completed high school. The bicultural Hispanic education profile is less intuitive: about one-third have a high school degree and another 22% stopped their education before the eighth grade.
As one would expect from such a demographically heterogeneous group, the consumption patterns within the bicultural segment as a whole do not track as neatly as the consumption patterns within the most and least acculturated segments. As a result, a multi-dimensional acculturation model is vital when targeting this consumer base. Within the Spectra Culture Point Model, five urbanization (population density levels) and affluence segments are used to help understand differences in consumption behavior. An urban vs. non-urban split is shown below for high indexing bicultural brands in the breakfast cereal and carbonated beverages categories.
Breakfast Cereal
Bicultural non-urban Hispanics consume over twice as many portions per week of Brand C as do their urban counterparts. In this example, non-urban consumption matches least acculturated Hispanic consumption most closely while bicultural urban and most acculturated Hispanics have relatively low levels of consumption
[See chart 1].
Carbonated Beverages
Bicultural urban Hispanics consume almost three
times as much Brand A as do bicultural non-urban consumers. In addition, the consumption patterns of the bicultural urban Hispanics are clearly divergent from both the least and most acculturated Hispanics [See chart 2].
In these examples, consumption patterns are very distinct between the three acculturation levels, and within the bicultural segment itself. The lesson here
is twofold:
- Bicultural Hispanics cannot be described as mid points between the least and most acculturated segments. The bicultural segment is distinct from these other groups.
As a result, bicultural Hispanics merit their own, unique
marketing plans.
- Executional strategies that are aimed at bicultural
segments will be much more efficient when urbanization is taken into account. Effective trade strategies will take both the acculturation and urbanization of the shoppers into account.
Execution Strategies
As the consumption data above indicates, the bicultural acculturation group is a collection of smaller segments
that cannot be defined by acculturation measures alone. Therefore, effectively targeting this group requires the
identification of the proper sub-segment (urban vs. non-urban, in the cases we're describing) and the ability to develop strategies around a precisely defined consumer group. The chart below illustrates that while bicultural urban and non-urban consumers share some viewership patterns, efficiency can be gained with a precise consumer definition. For example, viewer penetration for Court TV is twice as high among bicultural urban adults vs. their non-urban counterparts [See chart 3].
Conclusion
The importance of efficiently reaching Hispanic consumers continues to grow. Used in isolation, language preference does not capture the breadth of diversity within the Hispanic population, especially among bicultural Hispanic consumers.
Augmenting language-based research allows the important bicultural segment to be understood. These consumers are grounded in both their cultural heritage and the larger American population. Given that they are the largest of
the three segments, it is vital that marketers be able to
efficiently reach these bicultural Hispanics.
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