Today’s headlines read: “Hispanic growth extends eastward to less diverse areas,” “Whites Now Minority in 1 in 10 Counties,” and “Minority growth surges in suburbs.”
The USA Story, “Hispanic growth extends eastward to less diverse areas,” in my opinion is the most relevant to communicators, because it speaks to a huge challenge we now face in reaching Latinos. For audience segmentation in the Hispanic market, we need to look beyond acculturation and country of origin.
The development of a traditional Spanish-language media infrastructure – community papers, radio and TV stations – lags behind the initial immigrant population growth spurt in small markets like Paulding County in Georgia. Therefore, we first need to look at a grassroots approach to reach these new communities. If we look at other such past shifts, communities start forming with influential micro networks and the emergence of Spanish-language newspapers and radio is not far behind.
But before such mechanisms appear, it is important for communicators to look at traditional and non-traditional channels (i.e. faith-based and community based organizations), as well as language (Spanish or American Indian languages) and cultural nuances based on country of origin (i.e. Guatemalan vs. Mexican immigrants) to reach these populations. This approach will have an impact, now more than ever, in the effectiveness and relevance of a campaign.
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