Minorities and Social Media

The Growth of Minorities in the U.S.

Minorities are groups whose members share unique behaviors based on a common racial, language and/or nationality background. In the most recent national Census the U.S. Census Bureau (2010) confirmed that the U.S. ethnic population is booming and the biggest segment is Hispanics. Hispanics now constitute 17-percent of the nation's total population. (Census Bureau 2014)

There are many ethnic minority groups in the United States including:

African-Americans
Hispanics
Asian-Americans
Native Americans
Asian-Indian Americans
Arab Americans
Irish-Americans

According to the PEW Research Center (2014), “The distinction of being the fastest-growing racial/ethnic group in the United States has alternated between Asians and Hispanics in recent decades. Since 2010, though, Asians have had the edge. Census Bureau data estimates that the U.S. Hispanic population topped 54 million as of July 1, 2013, an increase of 2.1% over 2012. Meanwhile, the Asian population grew to 19.4 million, with a growth rate of 2.9%.”

According to “The Next America” by PEW, “By 2060, the United States will only be 43% white. We were once a black and white country. Our intricate new racial tapestry is being woven by the more than 40 million immigrants who have arrived since 1965, about half of them Hispanics and nearly three-in-ten Asians. Now, we’re a rainbow.” (The Next America | Pew Research Center 2014)

“Every so often societies experience “aha” moments, when the change is right there in plain sight. We had several such moments in early 2014, as three iconic American brands, Coke, Chevy and Cheerios, rolled out ads during the Super Bowl and Olympics that were aimed at what one voice-over called "the new us." (The Next America | Pew Research Center 2014)

In this course, we'll primarily focus on the first three groups since they represent the largest minorities in the country and are typically those adopting emerging media at the highest rates. Let's begin with the largest of the minority groups—Hispanics.

Hispanics and Emerging Media

The 2014 Census report revealed that the U.S. Hispanic population had risen to 17%. "Overall, we've learned that our nation's population has become more racially and ethnically diverse over the past 10 years," said Nicholas A. Jones, chief of the bureau's racial statistics branch, during a CNN interview following the release of the latest Census data (Martinez & Ariosto, 2011).

Hispanics come from a variety of national backgrounds including Mexico, Central and South America, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. Social media is providing an essential way for brands to make meaningful connections that lead to purchase. Marketers are particularly fond of the fact that Hispanics tend to be brand loyal. Further, Hispanics who strongly identify with their ethnic origin are more likely to seek Hispanic vendors, to be loyal to brands used by family and friends and to be influenced by Hispanic media.

The continued growth and evolution of the Hispanic market requires more nuanced marketing efforts, better insights and more targeted approaches. Today, 70 percent of U.S. Hispanics consider themselves bicultural or English dominant. We now have up to four generations of Hispanics living in the U.S. from about 21 different nationalities that are concentrated in five core regions: New York, Chicago, Miami, Texas and California. They represent three core (and young!) demographics under 40: 14-17, 18-24 and 25-34. Thus, the need for cultural understanding and geo-targeted focus has never been greater.

Are Hispanics online? You bet. The most recent studies show that nearly 60 percent of all adult Hispanics are online, making Hispanics the fastest-growing segment of online consumers. Compared to the general market, Hispanics are the truly early adopters, making them the most sophisticated technology users. Hispanic consumers are more likely to use a wide range of devices (e.g., smartphones and gaming devices) to access the Internet and are, in general, more comfortable with and willing to try new technologies (AOL Hispanic CyberStudy, 2010).

According to the Captura Group (2013), “Hispanics are very engaged with social media, very active mobile users, and access the Internet for education, empowerment, communication and entertainment.”

“Latinos own smartphones, go online from a mobile device and use social networking sites at similar—and sometimes higher—rates than do other groups of Americans, according to an analysis of three surveys by the Pew Research Center.” (2013)

86% of Latinos say they own a cellphone, a share similar to that of whites (84%) and blacks (90%).

Among adults, Latinos are just as likely as whites or blacks to own a smartphone—49% versus 46% and 50% respectively.
Latino Internet users are more likely than white Internet users to say they go online using a mobile device—76% versus 60%.
Among Internet users, similar shares of Latinos (68%), whites (66%) and blacks (69%) say they use social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook at least occasionally.
Nearly half of all Hispanic adults live in cellphone only households.

Source: pewhispanic.org 2013

Like never before, online information is influencing major purchase decisions among Hispanics. Nearly 80 percent use Internet sources to inform their purchase decisions, and more than 72 percent say they trust product ratings sites. Over 60 percent of online Hispanics consider the Internet the best information source for making their final brand decisions. They turn to the Internet as a medium of self-improvement and a means of creating a better life for their kids. Although the Internet engages the Hispanic community, many Hispanics still feel that something is missing. Specifically, online Hispanics say they would spend even more time online if they were given information more relevant to their community.

Special Considerations in Targeting Hispanics

Traditionally, marketing to Hispanics in the U.S. has focused simply on translating from English to Spanish. Countless research has indicated that this approach leads to a "one-size-fits-all" result, which in the Hispanic community means one-size-reaches-none-effectively. Simple translation efforts tend to discount language and nationality, and they don't account for the mistrust of Spanish language efforts that is common among Hispanics (the view is that translated efforts must mean dumbed-down efforts without true depth and breadth of original English-language campaign.)

The newest data also indicates that second- and third-generation Hispanics tend to favor English as a starting point, with nuances to account for cultural distinctiveness. The result is a rapidly evolving Hispanic marketing space. Ad dollars continue to flow into this segment, but more and more companies are looking to hire specialists who have deep understanding of how to best reach these consumers using geo-targeted, in-culture approaches.

Increasingly in U.S. presidential campaigns, the Hispanic electorate is critical to the outcome.

African-Americans and Social Media

African-Americans are the second largest minority group in the country, numbering more 13%.
Together with the Hispanic population, these two groups make up the largest non-European ethnic group in the country.

According to the PEW Research Center (2014), “African Americans have long been less likely than whites to use the Internet and to have high speed broadband access at home, and that continues to be the case. Today, African Americans trail whites by seven percentage points when it comes to overall internet use (87% of whites and 80% of blacks are internet users), and by twelve percentage points when it comes to home broadband adoption (74% of whites and 62% of blacks have some sort of broadband connection at home). At the same time, blacks and whites are on more equal footing when it comes to other types of access, especially on mobile platforms.” (PEW Research Center 2014).

“Young, college-educated, and higher-income African Americans are just as likely as their white counterparts to use the Internet and to have broadband service at home. Some 86% of African Americans ages 18-29 are home broadband adopters, as are 88% of black college graduates and 91% of African Americans with an annual household income of $75,000 or more per year. These figures are all well above the national average for broadband adoption, and are identical to whites of similar ages, incomes, and education levels.” (PEW Research Center 2014).

“Overall, 73% of African American internet users—and 96% of those ages 18-29—use a social networking site of some kind. African Americans have exhibited relatively high levels of Twitter use since we began tracking the service as a stand-alone platform, and this continues to be the case—22% of online blacks are Twitter users, compared with 16% of online whites.” (PEW Research Center 2014).

Researchers estimate this group spends over $900 billion a year. The factors driving this buying power, such as improvements in education, income and employment are also increasing African-American Web usage.

Asian Americans and Emerging Media

Asian Americans are the most diverse of the major ethnic minority groups, characterized by a wide variety of nationalities, languages and religions. Asian Americans are becoming a very appealing group to new media marketers because they have the highest average household income of any ethnic subculture in the U.S. ($56,316), and are generally the most affluent, best educated and most likely of any subculture to hold technology jobs.

Projections from the U.S. Census Bureau indicate that Asian-American spending power has surpassed $579 billion—an increase of nearly 350 percent since 1990. However, from a marketing perspective, it's not appropriate to consider them as a single group; instead, Asian Americans are best approached as a number of subcultures based on nationality.

Chinese
Filipino
Korean
Vietnamese
Japanese
Pacific Islander
Other

Now that we're clear on who these consumers are, let's close the lesson with a look at a company that has marketed to each of these groups—McDonald's.

Case Study: McDonald's

Visit the McDonald's Web site and spend a few minutes traveling through the various sections. You'll notice the site does a very nice job of using new media technologies. The site includes podcasts, bios of McDonald's top executives, nutrition facts, stockholder information (including an up-to-the-minute stock quote), press releases, a list of McDonald's core values and a restaurant locator. There are also dedicated sections for minorities including Latinos (Me Encata), Asians (My InspirAsian) and African-Americans (365 Black).

McDonald's has been a pioneer in ethnic advertising. One relatively new technique the company uses is adopting a Total Multicultural Marketing approach -- The Total Market strategy. According to Gilbert Davila, CEO of Davila Multicultural Insights and Chairman of the Association of National Advertisers' Multicultural Marketing and Diversity Committee, “"It's a necessity. It's time for us to embrace a total market approach, while still targeting individual demographics. In this plan, everyone is included. Everyone is represented. Every single time." (AdAge.com 2013)

References