Editor’s note: Mario Carrasco is a partner at ThinkNow Research, Burbank, Calif.
Marketers and market researchers in the U.S. have known about the Hispanic boom for years now. While the size of the Hispanic population in the 2000 Census caught most people by surprise, the 2010 census confirmed the growth of Hispanics in the U.S and showed quicker growth than many anticipated. With all of this data showing how many Hispanics there are in the U.S., you would think researching them online via panels would be straightforward, right? Unfortunately, this is not the case.
We want to explore what factors in Hispanic online research, specifically online panel research, lead to a low percentage of Hispanic panelists in relation to their large demographic numbers and how to find the right panel that meets your Hispanic research needs.
We have isolated the three main issues in Hispanic panels that lead to low recruitment rates and low retention rates that ultimately lead to not being able to research Hispanics online with meaningful base sizes.
Straight translation of English portal. This approach is what most panel companies do when they launch a Hispanic panel. Just like in advertising, taking an English panel portal and translating it to Spanish does not lead to a vibrant Hispanic panel. Hispanics, both non-acculturated and acculturated, can pick up on inauthenticity when a site is marketed as Hispanic but is clearly just a translation of a general market site.
Tip: If you are ready to move forward with a Hispanic panel for your research but are unsure if it is a straight translation of a general market panel, ask your research account manager whether the panel was created specifically for Hispanic research or if it is a translation. For certain types of research among certain Hispanic groups this is not always a bad thing but knowing what type of panel you are tapping into is always a good thing.
Representativeness issues. The population of U.S. Hispanics skews toward the West while the population of Hispanics in panels skews toward the East. Furthermore, language preference of Hispanic panelists skews toward English whereas there’s a slight skew toward Spanish in the Hispanic offline population. To address these issues panel companies need to be experts in the demography of the U.S. Hispanic population to deliver samples that are representative of the overall Hispanic population and not of Hispanics who have joined panels.
Tip: When requesting a nationally-representative sample of Hispanics from a panel, ask for a sample plan and compare the percentages of Hispanics coming from each region of the country to Census figures. Also, make sure the language quotas match either national averages or the language preference of your target consumers.
Lack of Hispanicity. This is a more difficult concept to nail down when dealing with online portals but it is similar to the lack of authenticity in translation referenced above. Lack of Hispanicity can be characterized as a missed attempt to connect culturally to Hispanics through a combination of cultural language cues, semiotics, images, etc. When Hispanicity is correctly executed, it can be a powerful marketing tool but many research companies miss the mark here when creating Hispanic portals and it proves to be one of the most detrimental mistakes regarding recruitment and retention.
Tip: Checking the Hispanicity of a Hispanic panel can be difficult but if you are a multicultural expert or have a multicultural expert on your team or in your professional circle, take a look at the portal or have them review the portal and get a sense of the Hispanicity. If it feels inauthentic, it probably is and you now know that this panel will have a hard time recruiting and retaining Hispanic panelists.
The Hispanic boom is great for market research as we now have access to many more Hispanics of all acculturation levels via online panels at lower costs than traditional methodologies. As this demographic grows, there will be more and more Hispanic panels on the market and it’s crucial to have the knowledge to pick the right one for your research needs.