The Hispanic purchase process language barrier
Many Clients ask me, “is it important for the full buyer experience to be in Spanish”? Sometimes I just shrug my shoulders and nod slightly…but most times I can’t help myself and say YES, of course! Most of them are very intelligent marketers, why would this part of the process be any different? This is part of any operational readiness plan.

Some industries are regulated much heavier than others. For instance, in the financial sector, there are laws protecting consumers that state if a bank solicits a consumer in a specific language, they must service that consumer in that same language. This prohibits banks from preying on consumers by baiting them in Spanish and confusing them when it comes time to collect on the debt. Unfortunately, it also prevents many banks from wanting to do business with the Hispanic market. Many don’t want to get into the legal mumbo-jumbo that many don’t understand. Many also assume that Hispanics do not have money or that they keep it in their mattresses or send it to family in Mexico. But then there’s WaMu and BofA who have figured it out and that is why they are reaping the benefits of having waiting areas filled with Hispanics.

In an age of bilingual packaging and “share of shelf”, many companies do not have a choice but to speak Spanish if they want to grow. Bilingual packaging has been the package goods industry’s response to the need for operational readiness and a key factor in responsible marketing. Many people think, “Well this product is also distributed to Mexico and Puerto Rico and they are just being efficient by printing once”. In some cases, this is true, however the demand for bilingual packaging has forced companies to either package in 2 or 3 languages (French for Canada) or pictorially demonstrate the usage instructions. This was my experience when I worked on the Raid brand (SC Johnson). A year or two prior, an inner city boy (not sure of cultural origin) had been injured when the family set off multiple insect foggers in the apartment and a fire or explosion had occurred because they could not read the instructions (due to illiteracy or not able to speak the language). Consequently, today, most packaging on Raid products are is both languages. Not for marketing purposes, but for safety reasons. That is corporate and social responsibility. In following years, P&G launched Physique in both general and Hispanic markets. The packaging, at launch, was in both English and Spanish making bilingual packaging “business as usual” for the marketing giant.

The online world is no different than say a direct mail campaign or a TV spot. Would you change the language of the direct mail campaign from mailing to mailing? This only confuses consumers and highlights the fact that there are inconsistencies in your voice as a brand. This all goes back to what many of our mothers used to say…”Do it right, or don’t do it at all”. God only knows how many times I’ve heard that. Well, Hispanic marketing is no different than that wise lesson we learned from mom.

Many companies have been quick to develop fancy Hispanic websites with all the bells and whistles you can think of. Many fall short and can’t figure out why. When you evaluate what they are doing to determine the issue, you often realize that pivotal components like the “shopping cart” are in English. Now, think about it…would you like to speak to someone in your language and develop a comfort level and when it’s time to take your money they speak a foreign language to you all of a sudden. How’s that for trust-building? “Hand over your wallet Señor.”

Where this is going in the future I don’t know, but it’s certainly not going away. The days of 14 pt. type instructions on packaging are gone, but in return we’ve gained more informed, safer and wiser Hispanic consumers.

- Written by Miamiadguy