Most U.S. Hispanics believe that as a group they have a high degree of importance to U.S. companies and brands —59% feel they’re very important, and 34% say they’re important, according to a Newlink Research survey for management consulting firm Garcia Trujillo. The majority feel that U.S. companies respect Hispanics as consumers; 46% believe they show Hispanics a high level of respect (8-10 on a 10-point scale).
When it comes to how they’re treated as employees, however, Hispanics hold less-positive views of U.S. companies. Four in 10 (42%) believe Hispanics have few opportunities to climb the management ladder, and 23% think they face serious obstacles to advancement and training.
Hispanics who perceive a lack of advancement opportunities cite language (60%) and lack of college/university degrees (22%) as their chief obstacles. They welcome opportunities to improve their skills at work. Seven in 10 Hispanics (72%) consider on-the-job training or professional development courses to be very important. In general, Hispanics rate U.S. companies favorably in terms of their level of commitment to their Hispanic employees: 45% rank companies 8-10 on a 10-point scale.
They’d like to see companies become more involved in social, political, and economic issues of concern to Hispanic communities, and they want companies to hire more Hispanics, especially in managerial and executive-level positions. Two thirds (67%) say they’d be more inclined to buy products and services from companies that demonstrated real commitment to the U.S. Hispanic community.
Hispanics would also like to see more U.S. companies provide Spanish-language versions of their websites and create advertisements in Spanish as well as English. Nine in 10 (91%) consider it very important (62%) or important (29%) that U.S. companies offer Spanish-language websites. Both English-dominant and Spanish-dominant Hispanics would like to see more ads and websites available in Spanish.
Most likely this reflects the significant amount of language crossover in daily use, even among those who favor one language or the other. About four in 10 English-dominant Hispanics use some Spanish-language Internet on a daily basis, according to Nielsen data cited.
Similarly, one in three English-dominant Hispanics spend an hour or more per day watching Spanish-language television, and about the same proportion of Spanish-dominant Hispanics spend an hour or more per day watching English-language television, according to Nielsen data cited. [Emerging Majorities, Opinion, Workforce/employment, Advertising/Marketing]
Source: “Garcia Trujillo Hispanic Consumer Insight Survey: Latinos’ Emotional Connection With Companies and Brands, February 2011,” Garcia Trujillo, Charles Garcia, CEO, 1221 Brickell Ave., #1200, Miami, FL 33131; 305-390-0532; angela@garciatrujillo.com; www.garciatrujillo.com. Price: This study is available for download at no charge.
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