Connecting With Hispanic Millennials

Out of the approximately 60 million Millennials in the U.S., 12 million are of Hispanic descent. In other words, one out of every five Millennials in the U.S. is Hispanic. It is no wonder that this audience has become of particular interest for decision makers and communicators in both the private and public sectors. However, as companies make an effort to convince this generation to buy their products and politicians their ideas, the most effective way to communicate with this audience is a recurring question. It may therefore be unsurprising that at Ipsos, one of the main questions we get from clients who are looking into reaching out to Hispanic Millennials (and indeed Hispanics of all ages) is: "Should I communicate in English or in Spanish?"

To answer that question, Ipsos Public Affairs used its eNacional Hispanic Omnibus to reach out to 502 Hispanic Millennials across acculturation levels, and ask about their in-home language usage and their language preference for several types of media. All respondents were given the option of completing the survey in English or Spanish.

Language Spoken at Home

Historically, marketers and market researchers have used language spoken at home as the key variable to determine the best language to communicate with Hispanics. However, our research suggests that this approach may not be the most appropriate when determining which language to use when communicating with or marketing to U.S. Hispanic Millennials.

Among the 502 Hispanic Millennials interviewed in our survey, close to half report speaking English and Spanish equally at home (44 percent). While 38 percent report speaking Spanish more than English or speaking Spanish exclusively, just 18 percent report speaking more English than Spanish or speaking English exclusively.

Based on these results alone, one could conclude that using Spanish is the most efficient way of communicating with Hispanic Millennials. However, results from our questions regarding the preferred language for consuming media (including TV, radio and Internet) paint a very different picture.

Language Preference for Media Consumption

When Hispanic Millennials were asked which language they preferred for consuming different types of media, without the option of "both equally," English emerges as the language of choice among the majority of this audience for each type of media: six in ten (61 percent) indicated that they prefer watching TV in English vs. 39 percent who prefer it in Spanish, and 56 percent prefer listening to English-language radio vs. 44 percent who prefer Spanish. The same pattern is found for print media, with nearly twice as many indicating a preference for English over Spanish (63 percent vs. 37 percent, for both newspapers and magazines). In fact, the gap in language preference is especially dramatic for Internet use, where 69 percent prefer English, compared to just 30 percent who prefer Spanish.

Based on these results, one could conclude that, in fact, English is indeed the most efficient language to communicate with Hispanic Millennials. However, further results prove it is not so simple. For instance, most Hispanic Millennials that we interviewed tend to gravitate toward the middle of the scale, meaning that they prefer one language more than the other, as opposed to preferring one exclusively. More specifically, the skew towards a preference for English is based on a plurality of Hispanic Millennials saying that they prefer English more than Spanish, not that they prefer English exclusively.

Furthermore, when Hispanic Millennials are not forced to indicate a preference for one language over the other (i.e., when adding an answer option for "Spanish and English equally"), roughly one third report having equal preference, or no preference, for English vs. Spanish across different types of media.

When watching TV, 37 percent of Hispanic Millennials report that they have no language preference, an equivalent proportion to those who prefer to watch TV in English (36 percent), and slightly greater than those who prefer to watch TV in Spanish (26 percent). A similar pattern is observed when it comes to radio (33 percent equal, 37 percent English, and 29 percent Spanish).

However, a clearer preference for English is more evident when it comes to online and print media consumption. When consuming online media, roughly one third (36 percent) indicate having no language preference, while a plurality indicate a preference for English (45 percent), and just 19 percent for Spanish. While to a lesser extent, English also has an edge when it comes to print media (newspapers and magazines), with also about one-third indicating that they have no preference for either language (34 percent for newspapers and 36 percent for magazines), four in ten preferring English (41 percent and 39 percent respectively), and one-quarter Spanish (25 percent for both).

Interestingly, unforced preference when it comes to the language in which to take a survey mirrors unforced language preference for various media outlets. For surveys, roughly one third indicate an equal preference for English and Spanish (37 percent for online surveys and 34 percent for telephone surveys), and a similar proportion report preferring surveys in English (36 percent for online, 35 percent for phone surveys), while fewer prefer them in Spanish (26 percent for online surveys, 31 percent for telephone surveys).

Furthermore, the language chosen to complete a survey may hint at the language of preference for media consumption. In this particular instance, among the 44 percent of Hispanic Millennials who chose to complete this survey in English, a majority (63 percent) prefers media in English, 29% have no language preference, and only 8 percent prefer media in Spanish. While similar, this trend is much less pronounced among the 56 percent who chose to complete the survey in Spanish: just 43 percent of these Millennials prefer media in Spanish, 42 percent have no preference, and only 15 percent prefer media in English.

Key Findings and Implications for Researchers and Marketers

Two key findings emerge from this study. First, that as far as Hispanic Millennials are concerned, it should not be assumed that the language that is dominant in the home will also be the language that is preferred for media consumption, or vice-versa. The second is that forcing Hispanic Millennials to choose one language over the other as that which is preferred for media consumption leads to an overstatement of a preference of English over Spanish. While in reality, with the exception of online consumption, if not forced, a plurality of Hispanic Millennials do not exhibit a preference for one language over the other for media consumption.

These findings translate into two key implications for researchers and marketers. The first is that, whenever possible, language preference for media consumption should be asked systematically when conducting research among this audience. Furthermore, that any question referring to language of preference for media consumption should avoid forcing respondents to choose one language over the other; a mid-point option of equal preference or no preference should be included.

A second implication and conclusion is that while it is possible to reach a majority of Hispanic Millennials using either Spanish or English, monolingual communications will result in the exclusion of a sizeable proportion of this audience. Therefore, to reach the entire population of Hispanic Millennials, communications should still be in both English and Spanish.