There are roughly 59.8 million Hispanic people in the United States, making up 18.3% of the population. This demographic also has an estimate of 1.7 trillion dollars in consumer spending power. Yet despite the weight that this group holds, they remain misrepresented in advertising and media. Undoubtedly it can be difficult for brands to depict people in a community they remain unfamiliar with and/or have limited interaction with. There are efforts for equality in representation on behalf of agencies that are willing to bridge the gap between advertising and audiences. SwayBrand prides itself on its meticulously designed matching systems for brands and authentikas, authentika being a term to define a truly authentic face for a brand. One of the company’s goals is to organically implement diversity in branding and marketing. The relevance of this work lies in the fact that the growing population continues to diversify itself and most brands remain behind the curve in terms of diversity.
The Hispanic population is expected to compose just under a third of the U.S population by 2050. This quickly growing demographic has power in numbers as it begins to influence which products dominate the marketplace.
The Hispanic population in America is expected to significantly increase in the coming years and there remain few effective marketing strategies tailored toward this community. Factors to consider when approaching this include cultural behaviors and practices, language, and influencers popular among this community. There are some platforms that are more popular among Hispanics without necessarily directing efforts toward Spanish media.
The data above considers consumer mentalities between individuals from different ethnic/racial backgrounds. The Hispanic community tends to move away from consumerism as opposed to Non-Hispanic whites. Perhaps this is due to the lack of representation in mainstream media that deters them from purchasing products in which this group does not see themselves reflected. This may also be a cultural difference between Non-Hispanic whites and Hispanics that agencies have yet to figure out due to the gap among brands and cultural awareness. Attempting to market to this group without a clear understanding of the identities and cultural practices that exist within it leaves a superficial attempt at garnering attention from this community.
A strong example for brands is the AT&T phone service and wireless company. AT&T launched their “Mobile Movement’ campaign in 2014 in which they released a number of ads in Spanglish. Spanglish being a dialect popular among Hispanic identities in the United States that incorporates parts of the English and Spanish language. The Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis analyzes the role of this dialect and its relevance to the large numbers of bilingual Hispanics in the country.
‘As a threshold matter, it is necessary to adopt criteria for classifying program content as Hispanic-oriented. The data available does not allow us to make this distinction in a precise way. One obvious option in classifying program content is to ask whether the programming is in the Spanish language, and we adopt this criterion here. This criterion is limited, however, because a large fraction of the U.S. Hispanic community is bilingual, so one can easily imagine English-language content aimed at this community.” (Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis and Industry Analysis Division, Media Bureau, 2016)
The use of Spanglish creates an organic form of advertising in which Hispanic communities can begin to recognize AT&T. It’s not at all shocking that AT&T also happens to be the No.2 Advertiser in Hispanic media, spending $124.7 million in 2013 toward marketing efforts. The goal is eventually to create a new dynamic between brands and consumers that accurately represents them without overtly pandering in hopes of support. AT&T’s diversity statement also reports to have nearly 44% people of color employed for them. The wireless company employs many of the users they reach out to in impactful ways. The correlation between these two factors illustrates the power of diversity and inclusion when done organically.
For more information about SwayBrand, contact Cat Munoz at cat@swaybrand.com