Retro-Acculturation Process and the Importance of Marketing towards Hispanics

Every Hispanic family that has been introduced into the United States by migrating has experienced a large change with each new generation. With each generation, schooling and work opportunities made it possible for English to become one of the more dominant languages learned. When this generation decided to have children, then they decided to bring some of the culture and language that defines them into their children’s lives. The process of predominantly speaking Spanish and watching Spanish programming with their children in order to allow them to keep in touch with their Hispanic roots. This is also known as the retro-acculturation process and is one of the factors of increased growth of the Spanish language in the US.

The retro-acculturation process is relatively new in a sense, but has been in effect for the last 2 generations of Hispanics. The third generation, the now great grand children and grand children for more recently migrated families are being taught Spanish as their primary language as a child. With schooling being predominantly English in the United States, some states have schools with bilingual programs that allow some children to retain their Spanish adding to the growth of the Spanish language in the US. Regardless of whether or not the generation was specifically taught in Spanish, the factor of having to retain Spanish to communicate with elders and understand the older generations, makes speaking Spanish a requirement for most Hispanic families.

Sebastian Aroca, Managing Partner with Hispanic Market Advisors®, explans that, “Retro-acculturation is a term coined by Hispanic marketing researcher Carlos E. Garcia and it refers to the conscious search for ethnic identity or roots, especially by second, third, or fourth-generation Latinos who feel they have lost their cultural identity.”

Retro-Acculturation’s Impact on Internet Marketing

Retro-acculturation has had a major impact on Internet marketing, especially now when more and more Hispanics are receiving devices that allow them to access the Internet other than computers. Devices such as cellular phones, gaming consoles, and laptops are much more obtainable in recent generations than that of the older generations who poured all of their money into raising families. The growth of the Spanish language in the US will need to be tended to, and as such will have to make some very important changes to the way marketing is targeted towards Hispanics and Latinos. The language barriers must be broken in order to receive any benefits from marketing towards such individuals.

In an important blog post about retro-acculturation it is said that “Truly Spanish dominant consumers will think in Spanish as opposed to English.” This is especially true in marketing and will not change as long as Spanish language use in the United States is able to continue growing. Marketers should take note of this phenomenon among Hispanics in the US, as this will be a very important target group when making marketing decisions. Spanish is the second largest language spoken in the US, and does not show any decline, especially when more and more Hispanics find it suitable to teach their children Spanish at an early age.

There are no tricks to marketing towards Hispanics, so the only reliable method of getting your message across about products or services is by connecting with them past language barriers. Taking the time to accurately have your marketing materials presented in a way that Hispanics can have access and understanding, allows them to take part in your marketing efforts. Many companies will be left behind on this venture when they do not take the retro-acculturation process seriously and do not make the effort to present marketing materials in Spanish.

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