The Hispanic market is the fastest-growing in America, and like all markets it is full of consumers. According to BIGinsight, advertisers that want to present a message to this group need to know a few key facts.
According to the study, the biggest fact is that as a group, Hispanics tend to be early adopters, and it is demonstrated by the fact that they are ahead of the curve when it comes to the use of smart phones and tablets. Another is that they use the new word of mouth, or WOM – which still involves conversing with friends and family face to face, but increasingly involves conversing with peers using social media.
BIGinsigt reports, “Hispanics are more likely to use their mobile devices to view email (41.8%), news (26.6%), sports (15.2%) and video/TV (15.5%) online than Non-Hispanics at 29.2%, 17.5%, 10.2% and 9.6%, respectively. Hispanics’ regular usage of social media also largely outpaces that of their Non-Hispanic counterparts. Usage among Hispanics indexes higher across all sites tracked in the InsightCenter.” It provided some specifics:
Regular Use of Social Media/Online Communities – Index
(Hispanics 18+ vs. Non-Hispanics 18+)
* Facebook — 109
* Foursquare — 166
* Google+ — 133
* Hulu — 144
* LinkedIn — 127
* MySpace — 155
* Pinterest — 109
* Twitter — 141
* YouTube — 133
Source: BIGinsight.com
On the WOM front, the fact that social media is moving up in the category does not diminish the face to face element, which is used by three out of four Hispanics.
Here’s the breakdown:
Top 10 Ways to Seek Advice about Products and Services
Hispanics 18+
* Face-to-Face — 75.1%
* Read Product Reviews — 34.6%
* Email — 24.8%
* Text Messaging — 23.7%
* Mobile Device — 23.3%
* Ask Facebook Friends — 20.1%
* Read Blogs — 16.2%
* Telephone (Landline) — 15.1%
* Instant Messaging– 11.3%
* Visit Facebook Retailer/Brand Pages — 8.4%
Source: BIGinsight.com
To demonstrate the importance of taking WOM into account when developing marketing plans, BIGinsight produced a list of media rated by their use by Hispanics planning to purchase a consumer electronics item. The results are weighted by overall consumption. The struggling newspaper medium is at the bottom of the list, but WOM is at the top by a comfortable margin:
WOM includes: Face-to-Face, Social Media, Mobile, Text, Instant Messaging and Blogging
Hispanics 18+
* WOM — 30.6%
* Trade Promotion — 19.0%
* Direct Marketing — 11.7%
* TV — 11.0%
* Radio — 10.6%
* Internet Advertising — 6.6%
* Magazines — 5.9%
* Newspaper — 4.7%
Media influence is weighted by consumption
Source: BIGinsight.com
