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Using the Internet to Reach Hispanics

Written on

Dec 6, 2005 

Author

Paul Epstein  |

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Using the Internet to Reach Hispanics

The typical Hispanic-American Internet user is 28 years old, single and slightly more likely to be male. Approximately half of all users are Spanish-language dominant-they speak Spanish at home more than English. Typical Hispanic Internet users also watch 18 hours of television per week (about 50 percent in Spanish) and listen to 15 hours of radio per week (also about half in Spanish).

Clearly, Hispanics are an important part of the American customer base. Because so many of them are using the Internet, marketers should find ways to reach this demographic online.

Foreign-Born vs. Native-Born
There are two discrete groups of Hispanics in the United States and marketing to each requires a slightly different approach. The first group consists of native-born Hispanics who have lived exclusively in the United States, while the second group is made up of immigrants. The two groups usually behave quite differently in the consumer context.

Native-born Hispanics who speak English fluently are usually in touch with mainstream American culture and have buying habits similar to those of whites, blacks and other non-Hispanics that have spent most of their lives in the United States. Second-generation Hispanics, in particular, have become much more acculturated and are likely to replace their native Hispanic identity with a mainstream American identity. Immigrants, on the other hand, shop in ways that reflect their heritage. They are more likely to use Spanish-language media and shop in places where the employees speak Spanish. Immigrant Hispanics usually view themselves as completely Hispanic and have little interest in, or contact with, mainstream American culture.

An article in Hispanic Business entitled, “A Melting Pot With Flavor,” explains this duality. When foreign-born Hispanics arrive in the United States, they are culturally isolated. However, their children and grandchildren become more and more acculturated or assimilated. Foreign-born and third-generation Hispanics are at opposite poles of the cultural spectrum and much of the market moves between those two poles.

Successfully Tapping the Growing Hispanic Market
Catering to the Hispanic immigration population can have big payoffs, as some U.S. companies are finding. In its first major Hispanic project, H&R Block hired 4,100 bilingual tax preparers in 2002 and aired comical Spanish-language commercials. Taking those steps helped Hispanic traffic grow by double digits. Lincoln Mercury featured actress Salma Hayek in its first Spanish-language ad campaign with a celebrity. And in an effort to woo Hispanics-a group that traditionally prefers soccer and baseball-the National Football League has completed a Spanish-language version of its Web site, NFL.com, and now features preseason games such as the 2001 American Bowl matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and the Oakland Raiders at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City.

It’s not US residents alone who’ll be taking advantage of Spanish based marketing initiatives. The worldwide online Spanish-speaking population is estimated at 50 million people. Firms who do not have a Spanish-language presence on the Internet may be missing 20 percent of all online users. Clearly, marketers should building Spanish-language Web sites: as a Terra Lycos study pointed out, in 2002, Hispanics spent 55 percent of their online time using Spanish-language sites, up from just 39 percent in 2001.

With a translated Web site or bilingual Web pages, firms can expand their market to appeal to millions more visitors from around the world. And plenty of Internet translation companies-such as Trusted Translations and Translations.com-can make that process an easy one to complete. (On its Web site, Trusted Translations claims it can translate a single Web page or a whole Web site into Spanish, without losing any functionality.)