Hispanic Online Best Practices: In Culture

To most effectively communicate with U.S. Hispanics online, it is critical to connect with them through an emotional thread that all Hispanics, regardless of country of origin, can identify with. This thread is culture, and it probably one of the most difficult concepts in U.S. Hispanic marketing, as this group is very diverse from a cultural perspective. U.S. Hispanics come from different countries and have adopted the U.S. culture to varying degrees. They do, however, share several central cultural values and are unique in that they celebrate not only the heritage of their countries of origin but also their experience in adopting the host culture of the United States.

What is culture?
According to Isabel Valdes, coauthor of “Hispanic Market Handbook,” culture can be defined as the system of social institutions, traditions, values, and beliefs that characterize a particular social group or country and that are systematically transmitted to succeeding generations. While cultural relevance is perhaps one of the most significant success factors for organizations interested in reaching online Hispanics, it is also one of the most elusive. Achieving a true in-culture experience requires that you understand how culture influences a target audience’s attitudes, usage, and behaviors before you tailor an online experience to resonate with these cultural needs. If an online experience does not connect culturally, you may well miss out on a key opportunity to develop an emotional connection with online Hispanics.

Two common approaches used by marketers to connect culturally with U.S. Hispanics are

leveraging the strong connection that Hispanics have with their countries of origin To appeal to Hispanics’ strong sense of heritage, marketers can profit with strategies that make reference to keeping in touch with loved ones back home, the differences within Hispanic culture in the U.S., and other themes that reinforce feelings of nostalgia. A successful approach can be to remind Hispanics of the importance of their countries of origin and of maintaining a strong connection to their past. Companies promoting wire transfers, communications, and travel have had great success using this approach to market their products and services. For marketers in other product categories, connecting with a key Hispanic passion can achieve an emotional connection. As was exemplified during the 2006 World Cup, companies such as Coca-Cola and MasterCard leveraged U.S. Hispanics’ passion for their “home” soccer team to associate their brands with this favorite Hispanic pastime.

Catering to the importance of family Family is paramount in the Hispanic market, and this cultural value is manifested clearly online. The 2004 AOL/Roper U.S. Hispanic Cyberstudy shows that online Hispanic Americans are far more motivated than the general online population to use the Internet as a tool for providing advantages to their children and learning how to be good parents. They see the Internet as an empowerment tool that helps improve their lives and the lives of their families, thereby helping them achieve the American dream. The strong connection between Hispanic Internet users and their families influences online perceptions, preferences, and routines, and marketers who can craft an online experience that appeals to strong family principles will appeal to the core Hispanic value of family.

One company, two approaches
To illustrate the U.S. Hispanic online marketing best practice principle of “in culture” let’s examine two Pfizer Hispanic brand sites.

On the one hand, the U.S. Hispanic site for Lipitor, www.colesterol.com, is culturally relevant. This site was developed from the start specifically for the U.S. Hispanic segment. The entire user experience—content, information architecture, visual design—was developed to addresses the unique healthcare needs of Hispanics online.

The content of the site focuses on the health of the entire family and provides culturally relevant information around the incidence of high cholesterol within the Hispanic community. From an information architecture perspective, the site is simple and intuitive and addresses that Hispanics tend to be novice Internet users. Pfizer also leverages imagery of Hispanic families in order to deliver visual cues that support the cultural relevance of the site, the site “feels Hispanic.”

A quick glance at the general market site, www.lipitor.com, will help illustrate the principle of cultural relevance. The look and feel of the two sites is very different, the content on Lipitor.com focuses on the individual, and the site uses a more advanced information architecture.

In sharp contrast is Pfizer’s Hispanic online strategy for Viagra. Unlike www.colesterol.com, it seems that the U.S. Hispanic Website for Viagra, www.viagra.com/espanol is a direct translation of the English-language Viagra site. Although the translation may be accurate from a linguistic perspective, the Hispanic site may not account for differences in perception and attitudes between Hispanics and the general market regarding erectile dysfunction. In addition, the design elements on the Hispanic and the general market sites are exactly the same and were most likely driven by general market user needs.

Language communicates…. but culture connects
To achieve cultural relevance, you must define how culture affects attitudes, usage, and behaviors of your Hispanic online target audience and develop a Hispanic online user experience that addresses these cultural needs. Consider conducting user research to understand your Hispanic online target audience’s user needs and to be able to develop a culturally relevant online experience. In addition, testing the effectiveness of your Hispanic online strategy through usability testing or other validation testing can help inform and optimize the effectiveness of the intended solution. Consider cultural relevance as one of the critical success factors for providing a valuable Hispanic online experience.

Lee Vann is the cofounder of Captura Group, a leading Hispanic interactive services firm. He was recently recognized by the Interactive Advertising Bureau as one of the top 10 Hispanic online pioneers.