The ad:tech conference in Miami this week provided some great insights on U.S. Hispanic acculturation. Felipe Korzenny, Professor of Hispanic Marketing at Florida State University, John Gallegos, CEO of Grupo Gallegos, and Natasha Funk, Director of Research for Terra Networks US, discussed the topic during the ad:tech session "Hispanic Audience Segmentation: The Complexities of Acculturation."
Felipe Korzenny provides an excellent definition of acculturation in his book Hispanic Marketing: “the process by which individuals acquire a second culture in addition to their first culture.”
During the panel, Felipe highlighted the evolution of acculturation models from a linear model, which assumed movement from being unacculturated to acculturated, to a bidimensional approach composed of four quadrants - Hispanic Dominant, Culturally Unique, Bicultural and Assimilated. He shared research that indicates that the Hispanic audience skews toward bicultural, and that more often than not Hispanics acculturate but do not abandon their original culture. He also talked about a multi-dimensional model, which breaks segments down by acculturation level and life stage to better understand the makeup of the U.S. Hispanic audiences.
John Gallegos, used "Beto" a bi-cultural Latino from Southern California to illustrate that it is not easy to quantitatively measure an individual's level of acculturation. In the first clip, Beto, speaking fluent English, talks about his use of technology, including his Verizon cell phone and his plans to purchase the most recent dual -operating system Mac, and his entertainment preferences, going to the movies and to clubs to meet people from multiple cultures, both behaviors that are widely shared with the general market. In contrast, in the second clip, Beto is speaking fluent Spanish with a strong Mexican accent and talking about the importance of his Mexican heritage, making numerous music and cultural references that show his in-depth connection with his Mexican culture.
John pointed out that we should see acculturation as just one of the tools in our toolbox to understand the Hispanic audience, not see it as a silver bullet that will provide us with all the answers.
Natasha offered a first glimpse of the results of a study conducted by comScore for Terra that highlight an excellent online target for digital marketers: the highly connected Latina. The results of this research are coming soon. Stay tuned!
