Digital Media Use in the Multicultural Marketplace

At the end of 2013 at the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University we conducted a survey of 735 Hispanics, 647 non-Hispanic Whites, 744 African Americans, and 732 Asians. The data was collected courtesy of Research Now, under the supervision of Ms. Melanie Courtright and Dr. Kartik Pashupati.

One of the segments of the online survey asked about the number of hours per week that respondents engage in different activities. Many of the items measured digital media usage. The data confirms many of the trends we have observed over the past few years and also provide some interesting surprises. As can be seen in the chart below, Hispanics and Asians watch the largest number of hours of streamed videos per week.

African Americans follow in order of weekly time spent and as found in prior research, non-Hispanic Whites use the least amount of video streaming. This picture should certainly send a message to providers of digital video streaming services. And note that this is the media used in English. The amount of time spent in another language is negligible for African Americans and non-Hispanic Whites, and relatively small for Hispanics (half an hour) and for Asians (slightly over one hour per week). The fact that most streaming is done in English may be related to the nature of the online panel, the availability of content, and the fact that English is becoming more prevalent among culturally diverse groups. Still, the key implication is that the new emerging majority is diverse, and is using English language video streaming. This is important because programmers of streaming media need to understand the cultural programming that is relevant to these consumers. The chart below illustrates the use of social media like Facebook. The findings are even more surprising.

That Hispanics spend the largest amount of time with social media compared to anyone else is revealing. As learned in prior studies we found again that cultural minorities were more likely to use it.  In this study we found that Asians and non-Hispanic Whites are using social media less than their Hispanic and African American counterparts. The notion that these new technologies of liberation appeal the most to those who were previously deprived from such means of self-expression is interesting. Also, these findings show the relative sociability of the different cultural groups. The use of social media in another language for Asians and Hispanics is less than half an hour per week.

The picture of the amount of time spent listening to satellite radio is also revealing. Non-Hispanic Whites use this medium the most, followed by Hispanics and African Americans. Asians use it the least, as seen in the chart below.  These trends may be due to the costs associated with the medium and also to the availability of content relevant to these consumers.

Listening to streamed audio on the Internet (like Pandora), presents a different pattern as seen below.

Hispanics are the most avid listeners of Internet radio, followed by African Americans, then Asians and finally non-Hispanic Whites.  The amount of exposure to Internet radio in another language is about an hour a week for Hispanics and about a quarter of an hour for Asians. As discussed in our book “Hispanic Marketing: Connecting with the New Latino Consumer” the cultural affinity of Hispanics to radio appears to strongly transfer to online offerings. And that seems to be also the case for African Americans.

For the purposes of a reality check we asked about the number of hours that these different cultural groups spend talking to friends in face-to-face situations. The most socially engaged are African Americans, they are followed by Hispanics and non-Hispanic Whites. Asians lag to some extent in English, but in general the levels of interpersonal face-to-face contact is high compared with social media, for example.

Thus the notion that social media is replacing interpersonal contact may not necessarily be correct.  The study of how social media and interpersonal face-to-face contact complement each other appears to be a priority. In this case, however, the use of another language does make a substantive difference as Hispanics spend almost two hours per week talking to friends face-to-face in another language (most likely Spanish, of course), And Asians spend almost an hour and a half per week in interpersonal communication with friends. When another language is included Hispanics are the most socially engaged, and Asians closely match non-Hispanic Whites. The use of one’s native language in personal communications seems to be more relevant than when using social media, and it makes sense. Still the largest amount of interpersonal contact is in English.  Again, we need to caution the reader that the composition of the sample may be responsible for the dominance of the English language, nevertheless the trends seem to be in line with current data and observations of increased English language usage among Hispanics and Asians. Clearly, this trend highlights the importance of understanding how culture and language use intersect and change the identity of culturally diverse individuals. The overall use of the Internet is documented in the chart below:

The overall use of the Internet is very high in general and when added to Hispanic and Asians the approximately one hour they spend in another language, they all seem to use it to very much to the same extent.

This data is robust in that it was collected with quotas for US region, age (18+) in different brackets, and gender. That it may be over-representing those who prefer English is possible.  Nevertheless, the numbers make sense in light that about 30% of US Hispanics prefer to communicate in Spanish, and the rest are a mix of English language preference or no preference.

The trends generally confirm that emerging minorities continue to lead in the use of digital media. While Netflix and Pandora, for example, are doing more in satisfying content preferences of culturally diverse audiences it seems like they could be doing more to the benefit of their own businesses and these audiences are their present and their future.  It is not just having Latin American, Asian, or African American movies and music that can bring increased revenue, but the understanding of non-obvious tastes and preference. A Netflix or Amazon series that reflects the values of Latinos, for example, without necessarily being just for Latinos could be more attractive than a mafia or government affairs theme.

Again, “all marketing is cultural.”

Communication Behaviors in the Multicultural Marketplace

In 2011 with our national online data set we summed the number of hours per week that different cultural groups spend on different communication activities in English and in another language. These included:

●     Listening to CD’s

●     Listening to the radio

●     Listening to MP’3’s on any device including an iPod or mobile phone

●     Listening to music on television

●     Using social media like Facebook or Twitter

●     Listening to Internet radio like Pandora or Last.fm

●     Talking with friends

While these are not all the communication activities a person can engage in, the list should be a good indicator of overall communication activities by different cultural groups. The graph below reports the total number of hours per week reported in the average by each of the cultural groups in English and in another language. Clearly, the other language used would be almost universally Spanish in the case of Hispanics.

Average Sum of Diverse Communication Behaviors

The results are quite striking. Hispanics in general spend more time per week in the communication activities measured, and those Latinos who answered in Spanish (HS) reported spending more than 60 hours in media and communication per week, almost double the amount of time than non-Hispanic Whites (NHW). What is particularly salient is that the amount of time Latinos who prefer Spanish engage in English language communication is almost the same as non-Hispanic Whites. These Latinos are on “double communication duty.”

It is also important to emphasize that while Hispanics who prefer Spanish spend at least half of their time with English media and communication activities, they still spend the other half with English language communications. So it is not one language that is dominant for these online consumers, they split their communication world in two.

Hispanics who prefer English (HE) spend about 25% of their time with Spanish language media and communication, and they are the second most communicative group of all, with more than 50 hours per week. The third most communicative group is that of African Americans (AA) with about 43 hours per week, followed by Asians (A) with about 38 hours per week. Non-Hispanic Whites reported the least amount of time per week engaged in communication activities. A next posting will break down each of the activities. Here, however, the striking overall differences in amounts deserve some discussion.

The sheer amount of time spent on communication by Latinos in general should be of interest to marketers as these consumers should be especially available to receive commercial messages. We have known for some time that Hispanics are more welcoming of marketing messages, but this analysis substantiates the amazing communication openness of Hispanic consumers.

Further, marketers that produce entertainment content should find here substantiation of the enormous potential of this Latino audience. Social media use and personal interactions not only serve for the reinforcement of social ties but they also spread the word about marketing efforts.

In this case as in others we have reported earlier, we find that Hispanics and minorities in general tend to be more communicative than their non-Hispanic White counterparts. This should give some food for thought to marketers who think that their future still resides in the so called “general market.”

The data for this study was collected during March 2011. This online sample was comprised of 500 respondents per segment, for a total of 2,500, based on quotas by gender, age, and geographic location. DMS Insights managed the sample and data collection and they graciously contributed their effort to the academic program of the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University. Melanie Courtright, previously with DMS Insights championed this effort. She is now with Research Now and continues to support our research. This study was conducted by the faculty and students of the graduate Multicultural Marketing Communication course offered by FSU.

The Multicultural Opportunity of Internet Radio

We have known for a long time that listening to radio is a favorite activity of Hispanics and African Americans. In particular, listening to the radio has a long tradition in Latin America where radio is the town crier and the central point of communities where people find lost items, find jobs, get announcements, news, etc. Clearly also, music is a great part of the tradition of listening to the radio. I have been curious as to whether or not Internet radio has continued that tradition or not.

In our Spring 2011 Multicultural Marketing study at Florida State University with the support of DMS Insights, we asked consumers of different cultural backgrounds to tell us “In an average week about how many hours do you spend listening to Internet radio like Pandora or Last.fm in English” and also “in another language.” At first we recoded the data so we could simply know who listens and who doesn't in either English or another language.

We found that those consumers who are online are listening to Internet radio to a surprising extent, and the groups most likely to listen are those that I suspected would. In English, African Americans and Hispanics who prefer to communicate in English are the most avid listeners. But when it comes to listening in another language the picture is interesting if not surprising.

Those who are more likely to use a language besides English seem to have some attachment to Internet radio in their native language. Hispanics who prefer Spanish are particularly keener on listening to Internet radio in Spanish. And remember, that besides Pandora, Last.fm, and others, there are radio outlets like Batanga.com that specialize in Spanish language and Latin music.
While we cannot directly add those who listen in Spanish with those who listen in another language because there is an overlap, it is interesting to notice that there is a noticeable predilection for Internet Radio among emerging minorities. I then added up the average number of hours per week of radio listened over the Internet for English and other languages. The results of actual time spent are remarkable.

Online Latinos who prefer Spanish spend almost six hours per week listening to Internet radio, compared with about four hours for Hispanics who prefer English and African Americans. Asians spend about two and a half hours, and non-Hispanic Whites spend the least amount of time in this endeavor.

To me the implications for marketers are clear.

Internet radio as an emerging medium and a promising advertising vehicle, is being favored by Hispanics and emerging minorities to a larger extent than by the shrinking non-Hispanic White population. Using this medium to promote both music and commercial messages seems like a no-brainer, particularly when attempting to get the favor of the consumer groups that are leading the new digital era.

The data for this study was collected during March 2011. This online sample was comprised of 500 respondents per segment, for a total of 2,500, based on quotas by gender, age, and geographic location. DMS Insights managed the sample and data collection and they graciously contributed their effort to the academic program of the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University. This study was conducted by the faculty and students of the graduate Multicultural Marketing Communication course offered by FSU.