Report: Hartman Group helps better define Latino demographic

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Part of the challenge in reaching the Latino community with a uniform marketing message is the diversity that exists within that community, suggested a new report issued Thursday by the Hartman Group. 

According to the report, 22% of Hispanics were described as un-acculterated, 47% are bi-culture and 31% identify with the American culture as fully acculturated Latinos. 

The report outlines two key points of understanding and offers meaningful ways to reach this diverse population with effective communication tactics for reaching the Latino consumer.

Acculturation is one method of analyzing the Latino consumer group, the Hartman Group offered. The acculturation model used in this study is an algorithm that incorporates language spoken at home, overall cultural identification, media habits and years spent in the U.S. to determine where on the acculturation spectrum an individual falls. 

Based on this algorithm, Hartman Group has determined the following groupings of Latinos: unacculturated, bi-cultural and acculturated. While acculturation can explain how the identities, experiences and distinctions of the Latino group living in the U.S. may change over time, it may not paint the full picture of this consumer group, the Hartman Group cautioned. 

A second method of forming analysis around the Latino consumer is to help create a more robust picture of the Latino group. The Hartman Group explored the idea of “multi-cultural” influences. Dimensions of this perspective include relationship with one’s country of origin, knowledge of contemporary American culture and participation in global cultural. 

"The multi-cultural framework allows for an appreciation of how Latinos are just as much a part of the American fabric as any other consumer, a greater perspective on each level of acculturation that goes beyond simple demographic considerations and an understanding of how shifts in global culture affect individual consumers and that these shifts are reciprocal — all cultures give and take with one another," the firm stated in its executive summary. 

According to the infographic below, nine-in-10 unacculturated Hispanics identify closely with their origin culture, while more than half of acculturated identify themselves more closely to the U.S. culture. The variance is also apparent with age — almost half of all Latino baby boomers identify with their country of origin, while one-in-five Millennials gravitate toward mainstream messaging.

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