Hispanics Display Unique Mobile, Web Habits

October 18, 2011

US Hispanic adults 18 and older display mobile and internet habits notably different from the non-Hispanic and general adult populations, according to data released in October 2011 by the Prosper Insights Hispanic Insight Center. For example, almost 68% of Hispanic adults download mobile apps, 28% more than the 53% of non-Hispanic adults who download mobile apps.

In addition, 56% of all adults download mobile apps, meaning Hispanic adults are 21% more likely to do so.

Cable TV, Magazines Trigger Hispanic Search

When it comes to triggers for online search, Hispanic adults are much more likely to have their search behavior triggered by cable TV and magazines than non-Hispanic adults or the overall adult population. The leading online search trigger for Hispanic adults is magazines, used by almost 41% of Hispanics. This makes them 17% more likely than non-Hispanic adults (35%) and 14% more likely than overall adults (36%) to perform a magazine-driven online search.

In addition, 35% of Hispanic adults have online searches triggered by cable TV, 21% more than non-Hispanic adults (29%) and 13% more than overall adults (31%). Hispanics have similarly higher rates of online searches triggered by blogs, cell phone and email advertising. Their rates are significantly lower for the triggers of direct mail and reading an article.

Hispanics Blog More

Hispanics use blogs more frequently than other adults. About 15% of Hispanic adults read blogs regularly, 25% more than non-Hispanic adults (12%) and 15% more than overall adults (13%). Hispanic adults also maintain blogs (6%) at a rate 50% higher than non-Hispanic adults (4%) and 20% higher than overall adults (5%).

In addition, 6% of Hispanic adults post to blogs, compared to about 5% of both non-Hispanic and overall adults (roughly 20% more likely to post).

Other Findings

• 51% of Hispanic adults perform online research before shopping in a store regularly, 27.5% more than the 40% of non-Hispanic adults and 24% more than the 41% of overall adults who do so.


• 24% of Hispanic adults perform online search via cell phone, 71% more than 14% of non-Hispanic adults and 50% more than 12% of overall adults.


• Hispanic adults are much less likely than non-Hispanic adults to own a desktop computer but somewhat more likely to own a wireless laptop or netbook, Droid or iPad, and much more likely to own an iPod or iPhone.

Pew: Latinos Less Plugged In

US Latinos are less likely to access the internet, have a home broadband connection or own a cell phone than whites or blacks, according to an August 2011 study from the Pew Research Center Project for Excellence in Journalism. Data from “The State of the News Media 2011″ indicates that about two-thirds of Latino (65%) and African American (66%) adults went online in 2010, roughly 14% less than the 77% of white adults who did so.

Furthermore, only 45% of Latinos have broadband access at home, 13% less than the 52% of blacks and 31% less than the 65% of whites with home broadband access. Just more than three-quarters, 76%, of Latinos owned a cell phone in 2010, 4% less than the 79% of blacks 11% less than the 85% of whites who owned cell phones.

About the Data: Data was collected by BIGresearch in June 2011.

Resource: Marketing Charts. Retrieved from: http://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/hispanics-display-unique-mobile-web-habits-19706/?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_source=mc&utm_medium=textlink

Walmart Goes Local on Facebook, Launches Store-Level Messaging

Poses No Threat to Circulars, Radio at This Time, Says CMO By: Jack Neff

Walmart is launching a Facebook app that customizes marketing for each of its nearly 3,600 U.S. stores, allowing tailored communications about local deals, events or limited-distribution products.

Eventually, Walmart also hopes to use the My Local Walmart app to grow its site-to-store e-commerce program and evolve it into an individualized marketing program, said Stephen Quinn, chief marketing officer for Walmart U.S., in a telephone press conference.

But for now, the focus is "to allow us to make our stores relevant locally at scale," he said.

He declined to disclose financial considerations or exactly how Walmart will promote the app, but he said it would likely draw on the giant retailer's traditional media mix, including in stores. He also said the partnership includes an unspecified amount of advertising with Facebook.

The deal brings together two of the biggest institutions in U.S. marketing -- Walmart, which gets about 150 million shoppers monthly, and Facebook, with 165 million U.S. users.

The overlap is huge, but it's centered on Walmart's 9.4 million Facebook fans. So, at least for now, Mr. Quinn doesn't foresee the app displacing circulars it distributes via newspapers or direct mail or the local radio advertising it does around such events as Halloween.

"Over time, I guess if it became a really huge scale effort, it might have that impact," Mr. Quinn said. "But right now it's not really impacting us in that way, because it's really an extension of what we ought to be doing anyway, which is paying attention to what customers want."

One reason Walmart wanted to get the app out before the holidays, Mr. Quinn said, is that it lets users download maps of their local stores to their smartphones to find Black Friday-discounted merchandise in the store.

Much of the information directed at local store shoppers will be based on data analysis by marketers and merchants at the retailer's Bentonville, Ark., headquarters, he said, but there will also be "a local override" that lets store managers customize content.

But the app will also allow Walmart to tailor marketing based on local weather events or such things as Nascar races and fishing tournaments, Mr. Quinn said. At least initially, such communications will come only about twice a week to avoid "bombarding" customers, he added.

"The unique thing here is that Walmart has taken it to another level," said Carolyn Everson, VP-global marketing solutions for Facebook. "They're not just having a local tab on their fan page where people can find their nearest retailer by putting in a ZIP code. There's actually going to be fundamentally different business being done and a different relationship at the local level because of being able to launch new products at the local level" or offering localized news about savings and events.

My Local Walmart won't permit what Ms. Everson called "frictionless open-graph sharing" of what people are shopping for or buying, a la Spotify data on who's listening to what that goes out over Facebook's new ticker. But Walmart does hope the app generates more "likes" of products to increase the viral effect of its fan base.

The announcement comes as Walmart Stores prepares for its annual analyst meeting Oct. 12 and the retailer seeks to end a series of nine straight quarters of declining same-store sales. But it stops short of what some Walmart watchers and analysts have openly called for -- a direct answer to the increasingly sophisticated database-driven shopper loyalty programs of many competitors.

"It will be very personalized" eventually, Mr. Quinn said of My Local Walmart. "Right now we're just focused on making it a very localized experience.

"Our customers have been asking for this," he said, adding that "loud and clear" Facebook feedback the past two years was among factors that recently led the retailer to reinstate layaway.

Source: AdAge.com http://adage.com/article/digital/walmart-local-facebook-store-level-messaging/230327/