Why Word-of-Mouth Should Be A Key Focus of Your Hispanic Marketing Strategy

October 19, 2016

kellerfaygroup-hispanics-and-brand-word-of-mouth-oct2016Word-of-mouth is the leading influencer of consumer purchase decisions in the US, topping all paid advertising channels. New research from Keller Fay Group, an Engagement Labs company, shows that Hispanics are not only more likely to engage in word-of-mouth than the general public, but also more likely to pass along the information they hear to others.

Why is this important? Some 47% of brand word-of-mouth (W-O-M) among Hispanics leads to high purchase intent (top-2 box on a 10-point scale), including a majority (52%) of brand W-O-M among Spanish-speaking Hispanics.

W-O-M Activity

Let’s get to some more specifics, based on a survey of 36,202 respondents aged 13-69 tracked from August 2015 through July 2016.

First off, the analysis demonstrates that Hispanics are more likely to talk about brands than the general public: they averaged 80 brand mentions per person each week, 29% higher than the total average (62) and 38% higher than the non-Hispanic average (58).

Brand mentions were particularly high among Bilingual Hispanics, who mentioned brands 87 times on average per person each week.

As with the general public, Hispanics’ brand word-of-mouth skews positive, with about two-thirds of sentiment positive compared to 8% negative.

Overall, 44% of W-O-M was rated as highly likely to lead to shared information by Hispanics, a figure 10% higher than for non-Hispanics (40%). Spanish-speaking Hispanics are the most likely to share brand information learned in conversation, with almost half (48%) of W-O-M highly likely to be passed along.

Interestingly, media and marketing has a strong role to play in influencing word-of-mouth. Slightly more than two-thirds (68%) of Hispanic brand mentions online or offline referenced some form of marketing and/or media, compared to 60% of non-Hispanics. The influence of media and marketing was greatest among Spanish-speaking Hispanics, who referenced digital, TV or some other media in almost three-quarters (73%) of brand conversations.

Advertising also has an outsized influence among Spanish-speaking Hispanics: 30% referenced advertising in their brand mentions, compared to 28% of Hispanics overall and 22% of non-Hispanics.

If you’re keeping score, then, Spanish-speaking Hispanics are the most likely to referenced media, marketing and advertising, the most likely to pass along brand information learned in conversation, and the most likely to act on the information they learn. Word-of-mouth has a critical role to play in influencing purchases for this group!

Top Brands

So which brands are set to benefit? The most talked about brands among Hispanics are Coca-Cola, Walmart, Samsung, Apple and McDonald’s, per the report. While Hispanics largely talk about the same brands as the general public, their top 20 included Chase (#18), Wells Fargo (#19) and Honda (#20), each of which failed to crack the top 20 among the general public. By contrast, Chevrolet, NFL and Dr. Pepper made the general public’s top 20 but lay outside the list for Hispanics.

The top-5 indexing brands among Hispanics measured in relation to the total public are Goya (index of 477), Food 4 Less (392), Aeromexico (389) and Carl’s Jr. (336). Among Spanish-speaking Hispanics, MetroPCS (381), Colgate (375), Bank of America (310) and JC Penney (305) were the top-indexing brands.

Category Analysis

Finally, the study indicates that in each category studied, Hispanics are more likely than non-Hispanics to have at least one conversation per day. The following indicates the percentage of Hispanic and non-Hispanic respondents having at least one conversation per day in these categories, along with the Hispanic segment most likely to talk about the category:

  • Food & Dining: Hispanics (63%); Non-Hispanics (61%); and English-speaking Hispanics (65%);
  • Media & Entertainment: Hispanics (57%); Non-Hispanics (53%); and English-speaking Hispanics (60%);
  • Beverages: Hispanics (53%); Non-Hispanics (47%); and Bilingual Hispanics (54%);
  • Retail & Apparel: Hispanics (49%); Non-Hispanics (41%); and Bilingual Hispanics (51%);
  • Sports, Recreation & Hobbies: Hispanics (43%); Non-Hispanics (40%); and Bilingual Hispanics (45%);
  • Technology: Hispanics (46%); Non-Hispanics (37%); and Bilingual Hispanics (48%);
  • Health & Healthcare: Hispanics (36%); Non-Hispanics (33%); and Spanish-speaking Hispanics (42%);
  • Telecom: Hispanics (37%); Non-Hispanics (30%); and Spanish-speaking Hispanics (41%);
  • Automotive: Hispanics (34%); Non-Hispanics (29%); and Bilingual Hispanics (36%);
  • The Home: Hispanics (33%); Non-Hispanics (28%); and Spanish-speaking/Bilingual Hispanics (35%);
  • Personal Care & Beauty: Hispanics (37%); Non-Hispanics (26%); and Spanish-speaking/Bilingual Hispanics (39%);
  • Household Products: Hispanics (33%); Non-Hispanics (25%); and Bilingual Hispanics (36%);
  • Financial Services: Hispanics (31%); Non-Hispanics (25%); and Spanish-speaking/Bilingual Hispanics (33%);
  • Travel: Hispanics (26%); Non-Hispanics (19%); and Bilingual Hispanics (28%); and
  • Children’s Products: Hispanics (24%); Non-Hispanics (16%); and Bilingual Hispanics (26%).

About the Data: The data is based on a year’s worth of conversation tracking, from August 2015 to July 2016. Total brand mentions numbered 336,126 for the general public, and survey respondents (aged 13-69) numbered more than 36,200.

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