Latinos’ Money Talks; Question Is, in Which Language?
Spanish long has been the preferred language for advertisers targeting Latinos, and all but a small percentage of the $1.7 billion spent in this country on Latino advertising runs in Spanish-language media.
Now, however, a debate over which language to speak is pitting Spanish-language advertising agencies against their English-language counterparts. The debate is intense--and not just because of philosophical arguments. Neither camp wants to lose billings to the other as advertisers court the nation’s 31 million Latinos.
“It’s about dinero,” said Adolfo Aguilar, president of the McLean, Va.-based Assn. of Hispanic Advertising Agencies and founder of Creative Civilization, a San Antonio-based advertising agency. “There’s going to be a shaking-out period in which [advertisers] are going to have to show leadership and guts by telling their Hispanic and general market agencies to do what’s right for these consumers.”
Which language to use when courting Latinos matters to such advertisers as the California Milk Processor Board. Earlier this year, the milk board ran its English-language “Got Milk?” ads in some Spanish-language media. The board, which is struggling to revive milk sales to Latino teens, subsequently funded market research that led to a daylong discussion last week of the language issue.
“This isn’t a philanthropic exercise that we’re engaged in,” said Jeff Manning, the milk board’s executive director. “We’d really like to sell these kids more milk. This is a demographic that’s projected to grow six times faster than the general teen population.”
Advertisers are only now awakening to the idea that they might not be speaking to Latinos in the right language.
The milk board’s initial research suggests that Latino teens who are bilingual tend to gravitate toward English-language media, and that they pay attention to English-language commercials. It’s too early to say if English-language commercials alone will revive milk sales to Latino teens, but Manning believes the group’s message has a better chance of being heard.
In large part because most media outlets are monolingual, “the percentage of dollars targeting Hispanics in English media is negligible,” Aguilar said. “It wasn’t until a few years ago that you’ve seen growth in this area.”
Data generated in Los Angeles by market research company ACNielsen Corp. show that acculturation--the process by which newcomers adapt to a different culture--has an impact on Latino buying habits. Shopping patterns in Latino households where English is the preferred or dominant language closely parallel the general market. But in homes where Spanish is the preferred or only language spoken, buying habits are noticeably different.
English-language proponents maintain that media-savvy Latino teens gravitate toward English-language advertising, which tends to have stronger production elements. Focus group research conducted by the milk board, Manning said, suggests that teens appreciate English-language ads because the creative approach often is more relevant than in Spanish-language ads.
Advertisers know they can’t afford to ignore Latinos, whose spending power has mushroomed to $350 billion, up from $80 billion three years ago. DRI/McGraw-Hill, a New York-based research firm, predicts that Latino spending will swell to $458 billion next year.
Even though Latinos account for 11% of the nation’s population, Latino advertising attracts just 1% of the $189 billion spent on advertising and marketing in 1998. The Assn. of Hispanic Advertising Agencies argues that, based on population estimates, American companies should be spending $20.5 billion marketing to Latinos.
Aguilar suspects that the war between Spanish-language and general market agencies will heat up as advertisers contemplate which agencies are best equipped to produce English-language ads targeting Latinos. Advertising agencies on both sides of the language divide don’t want to lose potential billings to competitors. “Both sides are going to have to show some flexibility,” Aguilar said. “There is going to be a reshaping of how advertising works, of how money is spent.”
In Southern California, where most newspapers, radio and television stations remain monolingual, cracks are starting to appear in the language wall.
Los Angeles-based KJLA-TV, now available in 985,000 households in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, broadcasts bilingual programming. During a half-hour entertainment show, for example, hosts switch smoothly between English and Spanish as they discuss such English-language groups as Propeller Head and rock en Espanol favorite Cafe Tacuba.
“It’s truly bilingual,” said Jesse Nunez, a sales and marketing staffer at the station. “You’ve got two bilingual hosts holding a conversation. That’s the way the world out there operates.” KJLA runs both English- and Spanish-language advertising that appears on rival networks.
It’s not often easy for advertisers to switch languages. Chevron Corp. earlier this year irritated some general market consumers when it ran a Spanish-language commercial on English-language television. And such Spanish-language networks as Univision regularly reject English-language ads and programming.
Even as advertisers struggle to understand when English fits into their Latino-oriented campaigns, demographic researchers are weighing in with cautionary notes. One potential barrier is the boomerang effect: a trend involving Latinos who, as teens, flock to such general market fare as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “The Simpsons,” but eventually return to their roots when they turn 20. Researchers wonder if that boomerang means young consumers will tune in Spanish-language media and speak Spanish around the house to ensure that their children retain a sense of their heritage.
“The boomerang impact is an important issue that we’re not going to be able to resolve today,” said Juan Faura, an executive with Cheskin Research, a Redwood Shores, Calif.-based company that has researched teen media habits for the milk board. “The question is, what language will they be using in their homes when their own kids eventually come along.?”
Aguilar suspects that many advertisers need to revisit basic marketing tenets as they struggle to fashion effective advertising. “It gets back to the fundamental approach we all learned in college,” Aguilar said. “It’s all about demographics and psychographics. It’s clear that the numbers are growing larger, larger, larger. But the psychographics show that the Hispanic marketplace is changing, evolving. There’s not a simple, clear-cut solution any longer.”
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This story has been edited to reflect a correction to the original published text. The name of the “rock en Espanol” band is Cafe Tacuba, not Cafeta Cuba.
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