The Need For Expression

By John R. Cutts and Martin G. Cerda On September 1, 1989, Target Market Research (the original name of the company now known as Encuesta, Inc.) was founded in Miami, Florida. On April 3, 1990, Founder Martin G. Cerda and Research Director John R. Cutts wrote the company’s first white paper in response to an article written in Hispanic Business (at the time a leading Latino business magazine). The paper was submitted to the magazine as a follow-up piece at the behest of the editor (unfortunately never printed) and released publicly to coincide with the campaign activities related to the 1990 Census. On April 30, 2010, the original white paper (see the attached scan of the original document) was re-released to the public in an effort to continue to foster thought and dialogue on these topics that are debated to this day.

The Need For Expresgion

By .Iohn R. Cutts and Martin G. Cerda

we are currently surrounded by a great deal of debate on theissue of Spanish as a cr i ter ion of Hispanic-ness. rn anyfield debate and even controversy should be welcome: they aresigns that people are active in seeking new approaches and insearching for new solut ions. Above al l , i t . is encouragingthat, people are wi l l ing to face up to the need forquest ioning and re-thinking current ideas on t .he def in i t ionof ethnic identity. And lt is in this area that the questionof dominant language usage among Hispanics ar ises: a f ie ldr ,qhich an increasing number of professionals consider to beripe for re-examj-nation.

The extent to which our industr l r has taken an ostr ich- l ikestand on this problem was brought home by a reveal ingincident a few years back. The occasion was a presentat ionto the media of the high points of a market study on thebehavior, character ist ics and language habi ts of Hispanicconsumers. At question t ime, a young execut, ive from a localradio station rose to enquire how much longer the 1evel ofdominant Spanish usage in the 1oca1 Hispanic market would bedepended upon, given the growt.h of a largely young andpredominantly english speaking sector. He volunt,eered theopini-on, drawn from his own experience, that his station wasnot reaching younger Hispanics. The ef fect . of h is s implequest ion was start l ing: the react j -ons of the invi tedpanel ists var ied f rom embarrassment to exasperat ion. Ananswer was at tempted, fumbled, f inal ly put aside andsalvat, ion thankful ly sought in the next questi-oner. The sadconclusion to be drawn from this exchange is not the responseof the speakers, buL their al l Loo evident assumptj-on t,hat,decl j -ne in Spanish usage signal led the end of t ,he Hispanicmarket. And bang went a golden opportunity to break awayfrom first base thinking.

One of the reasons - and an understandable one- for putt ingoff deal ing wi th the problem is the daunt. ing prospect ofhaving t,o f ind - and to reach agreement on - a workablealt,ernat. ive to the criterion of language. But we feel thatthis obstacle may be more easily overcome than many of usanticipate. Our experience Suggests that a great deal of thedebate on language as a cr i ter ion of Hlspanic-ness isunnecessar l r and ar ises as a resul t , of our fa i lure to def ineour terms. we bel ieve that t ,he issue can be seen in aclearer l ight i f we st ,arL by making a basic dlst inct ionbetween Txtguage and express:o/r.

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Target, Market Research/april 3, l-990

We emphasize language usage by Hispanics basical ly becauseall of us regard language as expressing ethnic ldentity. Butthis should not make us lose sight of the fact (most evidenton the social and personal leve1s) that r language' is not thesame thing as 'expression' . Too of ten, language is a poormeans of expression. we know from dal1y experience that whatwe say may be only an approximation of what we really want toexpress. LeL us take t ,he example of a bi l ingual Hispanic:granted, he may choose to speak in Spanish or Engl ishprimari ly in order to suit the language of his l ist,ener; buthe wi l l f requent ly choose to mix the languagesinterspersing phrases or even single words - because he canbetter express hj-msel f in th is way. Take t .h is examplefurt.her: is i t , then logical to assume t,hat because a personof Hispani-c orlgin does not communicate j-n Spanish, he or shehas no Hispanic values to express?

The fact t .hat, Spanish (and not unglish) is used to express aspeaker's Hispanic identity is unquesti-onably relevant. Butlanguage by i tsel f is not an 'a11 or nothing' cr i ter ion ofethnic ident l ty. Nor is i t the only form of expressingident i ty: a person's at , t i tudes; the nature and closeness offami ly t ies; choosing Hispanic f r iends; tastes in musiceven an interest in Hispanic art or l i terature - al l of thesecould be val id expressions of Hispanic-ness. Thus, i t seemsent, irely logical that, a person of Hispanic origin or descent,although noL a Spanish speaker, wil l contj-nue to express hisHispanic identity: he wil l do this in ways independently ofwhether he or she communicates in Spanish; ways whj_ch areexpressive of his personali ty and background.

We would go further and assert that not only could suchexamples as enjoying Lat in music represent expressions ofHispanic identity: they would also act to make the individualmore aware of his Hispanic origins. Obvious examples wouldbe through a large fami ly reunion or l is tening to Ciel i toLindo or Guantanarnera on the car radio. But it could equallywell be a fund raisj-ng, dD item on the six o'clock news, evena name on a roadside sign. In most cases, the l ink wi l l beinvolunt,ary rather than deliberate.

what are the implications of al l this? Ttrere are three whichdirect ly af fect t ,he Hispanj-c market ing industr t r : f i rst , wesuggest re-defj-ning Hispanic identity by including the aspectof expression. This f rees us f rom the r ig idness of the ronelanguage, one market. ' t ,hinking addressed by Carl ,J. Kravetzin his percept ive art , ic le in Hispanic Business (Decemher,1989). Instead, iL opens up a s i tuat , ion which betterref lects the real i t ies of the U. S. Hispanic unj-verse: inpart j -cular, i t takes account of the generat , ional d i f ferencesbetween Hispanics.

2Target Market Research,rApri l 3, 1990

Second, by expanding the def in i t ion of the Hispanicpopulat ion to include those who are not pr imari ly spanishspeakers, w€ open the f ields of medj-a and communicat. ion tof resh and creat. ive approaches. one example l ies 1n t ,hepossible development of English language marketing techniquesspeci f ica11y t ,argeted at Hispanics; another would includeEngl ish language media channels - a l ready adopted by thepioneer l -ng v ista publ icat ion - and even bi l ingualprogramming along the lines planned by Telemundo with its ltwSecond Generation.

Third, i t opens the door to addi t ional spending byadvert isers on the ent i re Hispanic market, inst ,ead oiconcent,rat ing on that t radi t ional spending target, : theSpanish dominant sector. No, i t is not going to be an easyprocess t ,o se1l to advert isers. Sel l ing the Hispanic markethas never been easy, and it wil l get progresslvely tougher i fwe continue to evade these key issues. Only in this way wil lthe ent i re Hispanic market, get t ,he fu11 at tent ion i tdeserrres.

The next decade wil l continue to show dramatic improvement.samong U.S. Hispanics in areas such as educat, ional and income1eve1s. Their numbers wi l l cont inue to swe11 faster thanthose of any ot,her ethnic segment,. The coming of a newtelevis ion rat , ing system and the pending release of an"improved" census measurement will attract many new faces andwi l l provide some sorely needed credibi l i ty and marketdef in i t ion. How wi l l u.s. l t ispanic speclal ists adapt tothese improvement,s? How else can Hispanic marketing evolvet,o meet the challenge of the future?

IJet us hope that ten years f rom now, when an advert is ingexecutive asks the simple questj-on: 'How can I reach youngEngl ish-dominant Hispanics?' , we wi l l be able to give him aconstruct ive, informed answer. In t ,h is way, the ent, i reHispanic market, wil l benefit and continue t,o thrive.

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Target Market Research/apri l 3, 1990