Editor’s note: Jim Loretta is president of Loretta Marketing Group, a Miami research firm. He is also a member of the Qualitative Research Consultants Association.
For years now we have heard that the Hispanic market is large and growing. Why all the current buzz surrounding the Hispanic market? According to Strategy Research Corporation’s (SRC) population estimate, based on the U.S. Census for the year 2000, there are nearly 34 million Hispanics in the U.S. One out of every eight persons is Hispanic. By the year 2020, one out of every five persons will be Hispanic. Twenty percent of the total U.S. population is a lot of people. In addition, this growing market has an impressive economic potential. SRC estimates the buying power for this market niche for the year 2000 to be $325 billion! We now see why U.S. marketers and brand managers are seriously paying attention to this large, lucrative market. But beware: the uninitiated may be walking in areas that are full of perils and pitfalls.
If you are seriously looking at increasing your bottom line, the Hispanic market is probably a good bet. As good marketers we must all test the marketplace by conducting research. Qualitative research is basic in assessing the attitudes, opinions and feelings of any market. It is especially necessary in the Hispanic market, where culture and tradition are often cherished and many times quite different than the general market. Before research is done, you must be conscious of at least three critical areas in order to succeed in Hispanic qualitative or focus group research: screening, recruiting and moderating.
Screening
Any good moderator knows that the screening qualifications in a focus group study are critical. With the Hispanic market it is key to know the correct screening questions to determine your market. Let’s assume that your study calls for researching the non-acculturated Hispanic market because you or your client want to develop a marketing and promotional campaign that will be using Spanish-language media. Besides the standard qualifying questions that you normally ask in a screener such as gender, age and category usage, additional questions regarding preferred language use, media habits and time in country need to be considered in order to talk to the correct audience.
The ability to speak Spanish is key in screening out Hispanic respondents. It is important to ask the potential respondent what language they prefer speaking when they are at home. The language used at home is the place where Hispanics feel more comfortable and are probably exposed more to Spanish-language media. A good way to see if a respondent qualifies for the group is to ask a five-point rating question as follows:
“Thinking about the language you speak at home, would you say you speak: Spanish all the time, more Spanish than English, Spanish and English equally [answering any of these three would qualify respondent], more English than Spanish or English all the time [answering any of these two would terminate respondent].”
Media use is another qualifier that is critical if you are researching the non-acculturated market. A suggestion is to ask how many hours of Spanish-language media they normally watch/listen to in a week. A good measure is to qualify those who say 10 or more hours. If the campaign is television-specific, you may want to screen for a minimum of six hours of weekly Spanish-language television use.
Time-in-country is another screening qualifier that many people use to screen for non-acculturated Hispanic respondents. Obviously, the longer a person is in this country, the more acculturated they will likely become. Screening out those persons who have been in the U.S. longer than 10 years will eliminate the people you would not want in the study.
Recruiting
Fully understanding the Hispanic idea of time is critical when recruiting Hispanic groups. A 6 p.m. group to a general-market mother in Plymouth, Minn., is different than to an Hispanic mother who lives in East Los Angeles. As Hispanics, we still have a little bit of the mañana syndrome in our culture. In other words, Hispanic groups don’t always start on time. A good recruiter must take this in consideration. Having a cash lottery for those who arrive before 5:45 p.m. is a good incentive to avoid any time delays. In a cash lottery, every respondent receives a ticket for a chance toward a $50 drawing. This is a proven technique that minimizes time delays.
The idea of baby-sitters has not fully infiltrated Hispanic culture. Hispanics go everywhere as a familia. Rarely do Hispanics leave their children with baby-sitters. It is a good idea to use facilities that have baby-sitting services. In the rare times that Hispanics leave their children at home, it is usually with a spouse. This is one reason why Hispanic groups are usually done in the evenings, when the spouse returns home after work.
It is also a good idea to recruit more respondents for an Hispanic group than you would in a general market group. A good rule of thumb is to recruit 14 to 16 to get eight to 10 to show. This is another reason why using a cash lottery is a good idea.
Moderating
Understanding the culture is key with the Hispanic market. Trust is ingrained in the Hispanic culture. A good moderator quickly establishes trust or confianza with the respondents. The primary language that is spoken in a focus group should be one of trust, either Spanish or English. It is more important in a qualitative study to establish trust with respondents than to worry about how linguistically perfect groups are conducted or in what language the “should” be conducted.
Ideally, a good Hispanic moderator must be bilingual and bicultural. This means he/she speaks perfect English and Spanish and understands the cultures of both the Hispanic and American cultures. Let’s say for example that you want to do focus groups among non-acculturated Hispanic mothers. The moderator will probably conduct the non-acculturated mother groups in Spanish because that is the language in which the Hispanic mothers express their feelings better. They can more easily reach a trust level with the moderator and fellow respondents.
It may be different with other groups, however. For instance, a group of Hispanic kids aged 8 to 10 years old regarding ready-to-eat cereal brands often are done primarily in the English language, because English is the language that is most comfortable to them. An 8- or 10-year-old may speak some Spanish to an abuela or a padrino but with his/her peers it may be in English because that is what they are most comfortable speaking. A good moderator understanding the world that the Hispanic kid in America lives in would conduct the groups bilingually, making the focus group experience comfortable and establishing trust with the respondents.
The local market that you are conducting the research in often dictates the language that you will use when moderating. For example, if you want to do a general, exploratory study in an Hispanic market that is populated by a large number of acculturated Hispanics, like San Antonio, Texas, it is wise to do the groups bilingually. This provides respondents a setting where they can comfortably give their opinions and express themselves honestly. The moderator has to feel and sense when it is appropriate to switch to English or to Spanish in the group.