The Hispanic market is one of the most diverse and complex of all consumer demographic groups. Hispanic people in the U.S. share a language but come from many different countries. Some are first-generation immigrants, others are the children of immigrants and still others have grandparents or great-grandparents who were born in the US. They speak English to varying degrees, with many in the younger generation growing up bilingual in both language and lifestyle. At the end of 2007, the Hispanic population in the U.S. was 44 million, approximately 15% of the total U.S. population. Hispanic buying power is expected to grow to $1 trillion by 2010. Marketers are understandably eager to learn more about this diverse and increasingly powerful segment and how best to engage them, both off and online.

There are about 23 million Hispanic Internet users in the U.S. today (over half of the total Hispanic population), and this total is expected to rise to nearly 30 million by 2012. This means that the number of Hispanic Internet users will soon approach the number of African-American users. Especially relevant to marketers, over 60 percent of online Hispanics consider the Internet the best source of information for product research and making brand decisions. As traditional marketing methods increasingly move online, the question arises: Can brands have success using this platform to build relationships with Hispanics of all backgrounds? What is the best method by which to do so? And, what exactly are the cultural and language barriers?

There are certainly many successful public, Spanish-language sites targeted to Hispanics, some general social networks and some brand-centered. Earlier this year, MySpace launched MySpace Latino; traditional media conglomerate ImpreMedia soon followed with impre.com, an online community and news site for the U.S. Hispanic market. Univision.com, the largest network of Hispanics online, has spawned Mi Página, a social networking service that allows participants to share media and stay in touch with friends and family in both Spanish and English. According to Mark Lopez, publisher of AOL Latino, “understanding diversity, Hispanic online social behavior, Hispanic language needs, and their unique shared passions may help engage this expanding market segment.” However, it’s difficult to know much about the language dominance, generation, and lives of the people who visit the types of public sites mentioned above. For this reason, we took advantage of the intimacy and deep consumer knowledge enabled by small, private, long-term communities to study the online behavior of Hispanics.

The recent study looked at over 1000 Hispanic members in two private, online communities run by Communispace Corporation—one sponsored by a leading hospitality company, one sponsored, though unbranded, by a major health and beauty care manufacturer—and both facilitated entirely in Spanish. The purpose of both communities was to engage these consumers as ongoing advisors who would share their opinions, experiences, and preferences, enabling the sponsoring companies to more effectively address the needs of Spanish-speaking Hispanics. The aim of this research was to determine, among other things: if companies can be successful engaging with Hispanics in this type of online environment; what factors affect participation (e.g., primary language, generation, time in U.S.); and how Hispanic participation compares to that of similar English-speaking communities.