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01.30.2004

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The Latino Consumer?: a Quest For The Elusive "Jose Six-Pack"

There is a lot of discussion in marketing circles these days about the Latino consumer. Ever in search of new markets and fresh opportunities - and armed with recent data from the 2000 census - marketeers, analysts and strategists are increasingly looking to the Latino consumer as a source of future revenue growth. Not surprisingly, the Latino consumer is an equally hot topic among the business press. While we, too, share this sense of opportunity and optimism, we are also increasingly aware of the significant complexities that lie ahead for those wishing to serve this most diverse consumer base.

Without question, the single biggest challenge facing those courting the Latino consumer stems from our tendency to generalize and simplify from our own limited, often idiosyncratic experiences. Let's be honest here, we all do this. After all, the marketplace is a vast and confusing space inhabited by a diverse cast of characters, so it's only natural that we carve it up into easily recognizable caricatures that we can understand and predict based on our familiar observations and stereotypes. This is how we arrive at figures such as "Joe Six-Pack," "soccer moms," "yuppies" and "metrosexuals."

And as The Hartman Group have recently discovered in our own research, once one moves beyond the single commonality linking the entirety of the Latino consumer base - familiarity with the Spanish language - the Latino consumer proves to be far more diverse and unpredictable than most would expect.

Who are they, anyway?

We recently had the opportunity to interview an assortment of Latino consumers in Cleveland, New Orleans and Chicago. In Cleveland we interviewed Karen, a first-generation Puerto Rican transplant struggling to make ends meet while working as a security guard. Karen snacks frequently on Fruity Pebbles and Hawaiian Punch, longs for the day she will own an expensive, red sports car, and admits that she had absolutely no interest in - or knowledge of - politics.

In New Orleans we interviewed Frank, a New Orleans native with, in his words, "only distant" ties to his Mexican ancestry. As he readily admits, "I don't even speak Spanish." When not busy raising his foster daughter or participating in the Knights of Columbus, Frank works underground in a vault counting money.

Amidst the swamplands that surround greater New Orleans, we met Elena, Esteban, Felicia, Maria and Vincente at a social network party. Childhood friends from the same Nicaraguan village in a life of relative privilege, Elena and Esteban relocated their families to the US in the 1980s before the Sandinista government assumed power. Esteban is a successful businessman with an infectious persona who demonstrates a fondness for baking cookies and doing the family grocery shopping. When not lauding the Bush administration's recent political maneuverings, Esteban's booming, masculine voice waxed poetically on the differences between Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice frozen entrees ("Healthy Choice tastes empty."). Maria, Esteban's daughter, is a fully assimilated, recent college graduate pursuing her progressive agenda as a social worker in the city's roughest neighborhoods. Maria's youthful, edgy style is compromised only by her admission that "Dr. Phil is a hunk." Excepting their shared connections to that same Nicaraguan village, the strongest bonds linking these five appeared to be their mutual love of, of all things, Chinese food. Go figure.

Finally, in Chicago we talked with Jimmy, a recent college graduate and self-professed sports fanatic. The interview proved challenging as everything in Jimmy's life - including his apartment with a view of Wrigley field - quite literally revolved around the Chicago Cubs. Jimmy spends much of his free time drinking beer, eating hot dogs and talking sports at a neighborhood sports bar. Did we mention that Jimmy sells billboard ads for the Cubs?

And therein lies the challenge: How to look for behavior and preference patterns in a radically diverse group whose only obvious connection is the ability to self-identify as the same category when answering ethnicity inquiries? Of course marketers aren't the only ones facing such challenges, just ask the folks at the census, who in 2000 relied on several questions with multiple response categories to track Latino heritage. And while we offer here no quick solutions to this dilemma, we can suggest two potential approaches to the problem along with some associated advice derived from our own experiences.

Cultural foundations and linkages
Consider looking for deep-seeded, cultural commonalities among the assorted ethnicities and ancestries comprising Latino identity. The idea here is that by uncovering the most foundational linkages between the multiple heritages and experiences, marketers might be in a better position to shape strategic platforms. For example, our initial evidence suggests rice and corn appear to play a significant role in the dietary and eating habits of many of the assorted ethnicities comprising Latino identity. If this is the case, these ingredients might prove ideal entrance pathways for major brand manufacturers in the packaged foods industry seeking greater awareness among the Latino consumer.
While such exploratory research is often time consuming and difficult to justify from a management perspective (i.e., no guarantee of actionable results) the potential payoffs, particularly from a brand loyalty perspective, are significant.
Deconstructing Demographics
Another approach is to rely on more traditional demographic analysis to first highlight and identify apparent behavior patterns before turning to ethnographic and field research to more clearly specify causal mechanisms. If, indeed, this diverse group is linked largely by their ability to self-identify, why not compare such identifications with purchase and consumption behavior, looking for apparent patterns along the way. While this "data-dredging" approach is fast and convenient, the challenge comes in figuring out what's driving such patterns, for this is the sort of information that proves crucial to identifying relevant need gaps. Here qualitative research provides an invaluable asset.
For example, results from our recent survey findings tells us that Latino consumers are significantly involved with organic products (to read more, go to "The Organic Consumer May Not Be Who You Think It Is"), a most surprising finding that wasn't readily explainable given our current (at-the-time) understandings of the organic consumer. Upon closer investigation we found that there are actually multiple causal pathways operating within the Latino consumer experience that resulted in the surprising finding. Specifically, we found that many educated, professional Latinos from a variety of ethnicities are purchasing organics as part and parcel of their connections to the larger world of wellness. Digging a little deeper, we then found that among Latinos who have strong recent connections to a Mexican ancestry, many are purchasing organic produce because it looks more similar to the offerings available at Mexican produce stands. Apparently conventional (i.e., non-organic) produce doesn't have the proper "look and feel." Still other Latinos with strong commitments to their individual ethnic identities tell us that their interest in organic products (mostly produce) is driven by their intense ideological belief in supporting local farmers and producers.
The point here is that while we can capitalize on the results of survey research to identify top-level phenomenon related to one's Latino status, we can not overlook the importance of intensive, ethnographic-style research when it comes to identifying the multiple causes and linkages.

Conclusion

While there is surely a lot of talk about the much ballyhooed Latino consumer, it is our belief that much work remains to be done before we can properly understand how to meaningfully connect with this growing consumer base. If our early experiences are any indication, this task may prove much more challenging than previously imagined - if for no other reason than the Latino consumer is engaged in an ever-changing, rapidly evolving lifestyle that integrates past cultural traditions with realistic, resonant elements drawn from the contemporary American experience.

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