Living in the USA and not having a Latino friend or classmate is nearly impossible.
As a child, I was always fascinated by Latino culture. This fascination grew even more as I started interacting with the Latino community and watching Spanish telenovelas. Eventually, when I stepped into business and launched my first marketing campaign for a Hispanic audience, all this information came in handy.
While my competitors were busy targeting Hispanic audiences with basic demographics like age, gender, location, etc., I had much more precise information about the cultural references and the pop culture. This also helped me grow more organically without spending too much money on paid marketing.
If you are also running a small business and struggling with marketing your product to a Hispanic audience, here are some quick ways to learn about your audience in depth:
How to Explore Hispanic Culture and Values?
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Learn Language
Language will open more opportunities for you than you can think of. There is no doubt using auto-generated subtitles can help but most of the meaning gets lost in translation. Once you learn the language, you will be able to learn directly from the literature and the general public.
How it helps:
Learning the language will help you write compelling copies that can convert. Historically even billion-dollar companies have made a few blunders when translating their campaign into Spanish. So, to avoid a similar situation, learning the language can really help.
Moreover, learning a language can help you create a genuine connection with your client. Xfinity is already using a similar approach by allowing their customer to interact with the team via número de Xfinity. Their customer can complain about the service, upgrade the package, or just pay the bill while interacting in their mother tongue.
What to notice:
While learning the language, notice the difference between formal and informal tones. Also, look at the way words are used in advertising campaigns and general conversation. In most cases, these details can help in creating a marketing campaign that can benefit the company.
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Watch Movies
Watching movies is an excellent way to learn about any culture. In most cases, people try to pick words, references, tone, and phrases related to each character. However, there is so much more to uncover here that most people eventually forget.
How it helps:
Through the movie, you can learn about the mannerisms, humor, entertainment sources, famous food items, and cultural references. As a marketer, movies can help you understand your target audience, their interests, and their overall outlook on life.
What to notice:
One thing that most people forget to notice is the humor. Now, most people will think humor is more about common jokes. However, in reality, noticing humor will help you understand what kind is considered appropriate among Hispanic audience.
Moreover, you will learn about different communities and their origin within Hispanics. From Mexicans to Puerto Ricans, you will get to notice their basic characteristics and shared values.
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Follow Hispanic Influencers
Movies and TV series offer a more literature-based outlook on culture, social life, and beliefs. However, if you want to learn about their mannerisms in real life, following Hispanic influencers is your best bet.
How it helps:
Influencers post content that is updated and since most of the influencers are young and trendy, you get to learn about pop culture references and fun memes. Moreover, influencers post content that resonates with the audience, which eventually helps the brands go viral as well.
What to notice:
While watching content shared by Hispanic influencers, check out the concept of the content and their dominant audience. Noticing these things will help you learn about different content ideas that might work for your brand as well.
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Watch Travel Vlogs
Travel vlogs are also an excellent way to learn about the cultural content of a country. Since Hispanic users come from different countries, their cultural references are also different. By watching travel vlogs, you will learn about the roots of these countries.
How it helps:
Learning about cultural roots via digital travel diaries will help businesses explore the common issues in these countries. Moreover, it offers an excellent opportunity to learn about the differences, interests, and overall lifestyle that appeal common audience.
What to notice:
While looking at the travel-based content, look at the average price tag on most of the products. Also, look at the payment plans and what quality of the products are being offered. This will help the business to understand in depth the quality of the product to offer and the acceptable price tag.
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Join Online Communities
Online communities are all the hype right now. They require no investment yet offer high-value insight that otherwise might cost a business a lot of money. Through these communities, businesses can learn a lot of things about their target audience.
How it helps:
Communities offer direct access to the public. As a business, you can ask questions about the pain points, which will eventually help you improve your product or service.
What to notice:
Notice the common pain points of the public and what they discuss. Most people seek guidance and advice online about the best product or service. You will get to know about other similar products in the market and what is working for these brands.
Some Other Ways to Explore Hispanic Culture
- Learn Hispanic history via books
- Attend cultural events
- Connect with Hispanic community
- Explore Hispanic media
- Know about regional variations