September 16th, 2014

Hispanics are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population and are making a big impact on social consumerism. According to Keller Fay’s TalkTrack® Hispanic study, Hispanic Americans average 85 weekly conversations about brands, versus 76 per week for average Americans, making them key word of mouth influencers.  With such a high volume of brand conversations and recommendations, Latinos have tremendous power to influence their peers.  Keller Fay helps marketers develop strategies to unleash that influence for their consumer brands.

Not only do Hispanics talk about brands far more than the average, these multicultural consumers are highly engaged with marketing content as well.  They talk about and refer to media or marketing in many of their conversations about brands.  They are more likely to make references to digital content and ads (25%), followed by TV (21%).  But we also see that point-of-sale elements (11%) and promotions (11%) are also important touchpoints to help drive conversation, and these are especially important in certain key product categories.  The role of media and marketing is higher for Hispanics in comparison to other demographics and the total public.

The majority of Hispanics’ conversations about brands occur offline (88%); meanwhile, about 1 in 10 discussions are online.

Spanish speakers talk about brands and do so in larger gatherings than other people:  Hispanics are more likely to talk about consumer brands in groups of three or more people.  Indeed, brand Word of Mouth (WOM) among Spanish-speaking Hispanics happens in groups of three or more people 31% of the time versus 28% for the total public.

Spanish-speaking Hispanics have larger social networks compared to average Americans, providing them with the greatest opportunity to spread WOM.  Latinos have an average of 15 people in their close circle of contacts.  Their larger network size is mostly attributed to large families, but they also talk to their friends more often than most. For this reason, Spanish-speaking Hispanics are more apt to be classified as consumer influencers, or Conversation Catalysts®. This holds true across every category measured by Keller Fay.

Hispanics are a large, influential population that converse regularly in large groups.  Marketers can engage in and build trust with the Hispanic community.  It takes know-how and insight to spread word of mouth about your brand.

Keller Fay Group is an authoritative and leading source of insight for marketers.  We specialize in word of mouth and social marketing.   Contact the Keller Fay Group today to learn how we can help your brand thrive by unleashing the power of word of mouth advocacy.