It’s Not a Silo, It’s an Ecosystem
The U.S. Hispanic market is big. We hear that all the time. Nearly one in five people in the United States is Hispanic, and the population is younger than the country overall. Research also puts U.S. Hispanic economic power in the trillions of dollars.
Marketing to Latinos, of course, is nothing new. Spanish-language television, radio, advertising and media have served Hispanic audiences in the United States for decades. The question isn’t whether marketers should suddenly discover Latino consumers.
The question is whether the way we’ve traditionally thought about reaching them still captures what the market is becoming.
For years, language provided marketers with a relatively clear way to identify and reach Hispanic audiences.
Spanish-language media remains important. But what happens when English-speaking Latinos remain culturally Latino, audiences move across streaming and digital platforms, generations behave differently, and the lines between the Hispanic market and the broader American market become less distinct?
That’s where I think the traditional idea of a separate “Hispanic market” can lead us in the wrong direction.
Build a Hispanic strategy. Translate the campaign into Spanish. Buy Hispanic media. Check the box.
But is that really how this market works today?
I don’t think it is.
The U.S. Hispanic consumer isn’t a silo. It’s an ecosystem.
There Is No Single Hispanic Consumer
Consider the differences within the audience itself.
Someone whose family has lived in New Mexico for generations can have a very different relationship with Hispanic identity than a recent immigrant from Bolivia. A bilingual second-generation consumer in Miami may move between languages and cultures differently than someone growing up in Los Angeles. Age, geography, country of origin, language, family and life experience all affect how someone sees themselves and how they respond to marketing.
That makes “Hispanic” useful as a demographic category, but much less useful if we assume it tells us everything we need to know about the consumer.
Language is one good example. Spanish is obviously important, but speaking English does not make someone less Hispanic. Culture doesn’t disappear when the language changes.
For marketers, that distinction matters. Reaching Hispanic consumers cannot simply mean translating something that was originally created for everybody else.
Culture Can Travel Without Translation
Ugly Betty is an interesting example to look at.
The ABC series was based on the Colombian telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea, but Ugly Betty was an English-language American television show. Its cultural roots didn’t disappear because the language changed. The story could speak to an American audience while still reflecting a recognizably Latino family and experience.
Are we targeting a language, or are we trying to understand a consumer?
Those are not necessarily the same thing.
Media behavior is changing too. Hispanic audiences are moving aggressively toward streaming and digital platforms, creating media habits that don’t necessarily fit neatly into the traditional idea of “Hispanic media.”
That tells me Hispanic audiences are not simply waiting for brands or traditional media companies to decide where “Hispanic content” belongs. They are creating their own media mix.
Think Local, Even When the Market Is National
My background in television also makes me think about this geographically.
Local television stations don’t talk about an “American viewer” and stop there. They understand their designated market area. The audience in Albuquerque is not the same as the audience in Miami, even though both are watching American television.
Why wouldn’t marketers bring some of that same thinking to Hispanic consumers?
Miami’s Hispanic market is shaped by different histories, nationalities and cultural influences than New Mexico’s. Los Angeles has another mix. New York has another. There are common threads, but the composition of the ecosystem changes from place to place.
Which Hispanic consumers are we trying to reach? Where are they? What matters to them? How do they consume media? What relationship do they already have with our brand?
Consumers and Competitors
The influence of this market isn’t limited to consumption.
One of the things that interests me is Hispanic entrepreneurship and the businesses being created to serve these consumers. If established companies don’t see an opportunity, or don’t understand it well enough to serve it, someone else may.
That makes this more interesting to me than simply “multicultural marketing.” The question isn’t only how established brands advertise to Hispanic consumers. It’s how the growth of this population may change products, media, businesses and eventually what we think of as the mainstream market itself.
From Hispanic Strategy to Consumer Strategy
Maybe the biggest mistake is beginning with the label rather than the person.
Data matters. Language matters. Culture matters. Representation matters. But none of those things alone explains a consumer.
The opportunity for marketers is to understand how those pieces interact.
That’s why I think of the U.S. Hispanic market as an ecosystem rather than a silo. It overlaps with the broader American market while still containing distinct cultural, geographic, generational and linguistic communities within it.
For marketers, the goal shouldn’t be to find one perfect formula for reaching “the Hispanic consumer.” There probably isn’t one.
The better opportunity is to keep asking questions, paying attention to how the market is changing and understanding the consumers who are already there.
Maybe the future of Hispanic marketing is not figuring out how to market to Hispanics. It’s getting better at understanding the American consumer.