When it comes to advertising to Hispanics, the conventional wisdom is that we need to do more than just translate existing materials into Spanish. And that’s what the headline for this piece over at Adweek is clearly suggesting. Yet the data in the article that follows doesn’t seem to support the claim.
Looking at all the pretty charts and graphs, it’s clear to me that second-generation Hispanics don’t care nearly as much about their ethnicity as their first-generation peers. It stands to reason that third- and fourth-generation Hispanics will care even less. We used to call that “assimilation,” but I think “acculturation” is the more generally accepted term these days. In other words, the longer you’re here, the more American you become. (And no, that’s not a bad thing.)
So should we care about targeted messaging when marketing to Hispanics—or any other ethnicity? I’m not so sure. In fact, I’d venture to say that focusing on ethnicity might actually slow down the assimilation process by treating individuals as nothing more than part of a monolithic cultural block. Something doesn’t seem quite right about that.
by Susanna