"Interactive Food & Beverage Marketing" (PDF)

African Americans are
more likely to spread
influence in
homogenous African
American networks,
while Hispanics are
more likely to get
their influence from
others outside their
network.
Interactive Food & Beverage Marketing | Appendix: Multicultural Marketing in the Digital Age
While African Americans, according to the Multicultural Marketing Project, are
good candidates for peer-to-peer and viral marketing campaigns (since “in-culture networking
and word-of-mouth about products and commercial messages is much higher for
AA [African Americans] than for anyone else”), “Hispanics are lowest in this attitude scale.
What this means is that AA are more likely to spread influence in homogenous AA networks,
while H are more likely to get their influence from others outside their network.
This is a finding that has important implications for grass roots campaigns and the stimulation
of word-of-mouth.” 34 But the diverse Hispanic “community”—immigrants from some
20 different countries that have helped make the U.S. Hispanic population second only to
Mexico in size—is no less active online. According to the AOL Latino 2006 Hispanic
Cyberstudy, “Online communications among Hispanics goes well beyond email. Hispanics
meet electronically with others in unusually high numbers. They visit chat rooms, send
instant messages, read blogs and post to online message boards at far greater numbers
than their online general population counterparts…. Based on our research, we also see
that online Hispanics enjoy social networking online: 68% use instant messaging; 63%
share photos online; 52% read or post blogs; 43% visit social networking sites; and 40%
talk on a phone using the Internet.” 35 Mobile communications also come into play in
reaching Hispanics with advertising. “In general,” observes Emily Burg, “Hispanics tend to
respond better to SMS-based promos than online ones as the proliferation of mobile
phones is higher among that population and is their most popular way of connection to
the Internet.” 36
Increasingly, as Hispanics spend more time online, advertisers are turning to
new-media technologies to capture their attention. This community is seen as a crucial
and growing new market online, as a new study entitled “Conexión Cultural/Connected
Culture” makes clear. “Hispanics with Internet access outpace the general population in
reported hours of daily media and technology use,” the report explains. Hispanic users
regularly “utilize more than one device at a time.” 37 According to Michele Madansky,
Yahoo vice president for global market research and co-author of the report, Hispanics
are using all these media simultaneously. The Internet has really
become central to their lives. The television is on all the time in the
background, but the Internet is a critical part of their daily lives. Really
it’s about how TV and Internet are being meshed. The Internet is not
replacing the television, it’s enhancing the experience. 38
As the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population, the Hispanic community
is especially attractive to advertisers. “The term ‘ethnic marketing’ does not intrinsically
include or exclude any group,” observes Jennifer Zegler, “but with 58 percent growth from
1990 to 2000, and continually increasing, the burgeoning Hispanic steals the focus from
other groups.” 39 According to the Census Bureau, Hispanics are also the youngest segment
of the U.S. population, with a median age of just under 27 years (compared to 31
years for African Americans and more than 40 years for non-Hispanic whites). Comprising
14 percent of the U.S. population in 2004, Hispanics accounted for nearly half of the
nation’s growth from 2000 to 2004. 40 Nor is there any lack of opportunities for advertisers
to reach this coveted demographic, with some 75 cable networks, four broadcast networks,
and 160 stations catering to Hispanics, along with a number of popular websites
(led by AOL Latino and Yahoo! en Español). 41 Little wonder, then, that Kagan Research
predicts that Hispanic advertising growth is expected to exceed that of the general market,
reaching some $5.5 billion in gross advertising revenue by 2010. 42
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