When people look to measure the response of Hispanic advertising tactics, the knee-jerk response is often to try to isolate Hispanic populations sets so as to see the impacts more clearly.  Unfortunately, not only is that very hard to do, but it’s also misleading.

Here’s why it’s wrong:

When in fact:

In a nutshell, drawing a line around a Hispanic consumer is a very hard thing to do because the spectrum of acculturation is broad.  And even worse, the minute you do so you end up ignoring people just past the boundary you set who may in fact be responding to your advertising.

So what’s to do? Measure them both!

For a large retailer we put together a measurement program that did indeed draw a line in the sand for what they considered a store with a high Hispanic penetration.  We simply measured all four quadrants below to give them a full look at the total response:

As an anecdote, here’s how the question actually arises “in the wild.”  A field leader at one of our clients who tracks sales through a set of outlets that have high Hispanic populations said “I know San Antonio has a high [Hispanic] penetration, but I think that English advertising actually resonates better.”  What he’s really expressing is that the GM advertising might be working better along the middle of the acculturation spectrum.