Telemundo Multi-Part Study Offers Marketers In-Depth Look at Hispanic Families

By John Consoli -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/1/2012 3:18:08 PM

For marketers who want to tap into the Hispanic consumer market, a new series of studies that Telemundo is set to start rolling out in early 2013 will offer extensive insight into the Latino family, the role relatives and culture play in purchasing decisions and the viewing patterns of the various segments of the family.

Telemundo executives gave an overview presentation of the series of studies during early October's Advertising Week show in New York City. But Jackie Hernandez, chief operating officer at Telemundo, called the overview "just the tip of the iceberg" as far as the detailed information that is eventually going to be made available to marketers.

"To help formulate the scope of the study, we talked with about 30 of our top advertisers to see what information they were interested in learning about the dynamics of the multi-generational Latino family, and what those dynamics mean to media consumption and consumer purchasing," Hernandez said this week.

The overall study is called Familia Americana Moderna (FAM), and it strives to document how the Latino family is changing, help explain the impact of family members on each other, show how millennials in the family can impact decisions and clarify the role of culture in purchasing decisions.

The study identified five different family models. They are: Multi-Gen, which includes three or more generations living in a family home together; Multi-Fam, which includes two or more families living together in one home; ReNesters, the young adults who have returned to live with the family after living elsewhere for a time; Comings & Goings, which include persons living in the family home who came to the U.S. in the past three years or left the family home to return to their country of origin; and Inter-Ethnic, which are families that include one or more persons who are not Hispanic.

Telemundo is putting together detailed studies on each one of the five models and will begin releasing the information in January. This first overview study mainly talks about the Hispanic family as a whole, while also providing some breakouts by each family model.

One overriding finding is that Spanish-language advertising is important to all types of Hispanic families. And another equally important preference is that advertising and communication directed at Hispanic families should reflect Latino culture.

Of all those respondents polled in the survey (the sample size was 1,118 with representation by country of ancestry, gender, age and education), 60% said brand advertising in Spanish is either extremely or very important, while another 21% said it is somewhat important. The percentages were virtually the same on the question of the importance of reflecting Latino culture in brand advertising. A total of 61% said it was either extremely or very important, while another 23% said it was somewhat important.

While a majority of those surveyed stressed the importance of receiving their ad messages in Spanish, 80% overall believe speaking English is necessary, 90% say being bilingual is an advantage, 91% strongly encourage their family members to speak Spanish at home, 86% want their children to speak Spanish as well as English and 86% believe they should never forget their native language.

What role does culture play in everyday behavior and how might it impact consumer purchases? The survey found that 87% use recipes and cooking styles from their country of ancestry, 79% follow the rituals and celebrations of their home country and 77% use natural and holistic remedies from their country of origin.

Regarding media habits, 61% watch TV on Spanish-language-only networks compared to 39% who watch English-language-only. The only group among the five family models that watch English-only as a majority was the Inter-Ethnic group with 51% watching English-only TV, compared to 49% that watch Spanish-only TV. A close second is the ReNesters group where 44% watch English-only TV and 56% watch Spanish-only TV.

This overview study also found that more Spanish-only TV viewers watch together as a family compared to English-only TV viewers. The survey found that children in Hispanic families watch TV with adults 70% of the time, sports events in Spanish are watched together as a family 48% of the time and Hispanic families overall watch Spanish-only TV together 69% of the time. Those percentages are all higher than for Hispanic families who watch English-only TV.

The survey also delved into the types of tech devices that Hispanic families use. It found that 85% of those surveyed own an HDTV set, 81% own a laptop computer, 78% own a smartphone, 74% own a gaming console, 65% own a desktop computer, 57% own a handheld gaming device; 57% own a mobile phone with internet access and email but no apps; 48% own a DVR and 42% own a Blu-ray player.

What do Hispanic families record on their DVRs? The study found that 65% record novelas on their DVRs, 58% record movies, 45% record sports and 26% record news. As to what they watch on smartphones, 61% watch news, 37% watch sports, 36% watch movies and 21% watch novelas. And on tablets, 62% watch novelas, 50% watch sports, 48% watch movies and 37% watch news.

What do they use the Internet for? The survey found that 84% of Hispanic families use search engines such as Google or Bing, 68% use the Internet to gather general information, 66% use it to connect with relatives on Facebook, 42% use instant messaging to chat with family members, 39% use it to shop or make purchases, 27% use Skype to speak with family and 21% help grandparents to connect with grandchildren online.

Regarding advice on purchases among product categories, 73% of those surveyed get food purchasing product advice from family members, 60% get family advice when making insurance and health product or services purchases, 58% get family advice when making tech and electronics purchases, 56% get family advice when making automotive purchases and 55% get family advice when buying beauty products.

The overview study shows that there are multiple touch points within Hispanic families and that if marketers use this information, it will help them facilitate their ad campaigns to reach Hispanic consumers. The next series of studies will focus on the five individual family models and get into more detail about each one.

The gathering of information for these studies was conducted in three phases. Six focus groups were interviewed in New York, Los Angeles and Houston in the first phase. The second phase was a quantitative survey done nationally of Latino adults over 18 years of age. And the survey, conducted by Ethnifacts in September 2012, was statistically weighted to correspond to Census-based parameters.

The third phase of the study involved videographies that were conducted in category-specific homes to demonstrate visually the realities of contemporary Latino family life.

Telemundo's Hernandez said that as each spinoff study is released, the information will be shared with the advertising and media agency community.