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Reaching America's e-Latinos: Otra Vez
 
Keywords
multicultural, ethnic, Latino, Hispanic, minority language

Abstract
Decades after being discovered by the U.S. census, the Latino community remains an underserved online demographic in the United States. Whether we’re discussing Spanish-language content or sites tailored to the cultural differences of Hispanics, most American retailers tend to ignore this market segment. This fact follows a pattern that we have observed repeatedly in our research over the last three years. It also underscores a basic reality of minority culture neglect that we have seen in other countries with sizable ethnic and immigrant populations. Finally, it shows that most American online retailers have yet to realize that selling to domestic, non-Anglophone consumers is a good training ground for international markets.

This report contains two major sections and an appendix:

  • Overview of e-mail responses. In this section we describe our survey methodology. We also present our finding on how well companies responded to English and Spanish e-mails. Besides this qualitative assessment, we also evaluate responses using criteria such as response rates and latency.
  • Analysis of e-mail responses. In this section, we name the best respondents, categorize the responses, and provide guidance on what can go wrong.
  • Appendix of data. This section includes the processed data for all 100 companies that we contacted.

Benefits
In General: Anyone selling anything online. Communities not speaking the dominant or official language can mean a lot of underserved consumers. These potential buyers bring new opportunities to e-tailers aiming to reach multicultural markets.
For Buyers: Anybody engaged in corporate public relations and public awareness including marketing heads, strategists, and business development managers will find something of interest in this report.
For Suppliers: Language service providers, web developers, web designers, online support, and usability experts. They must be aware of the importance of communicating with prospects and customers in a language that is preferred in a market segment. As this report shows, some communication will be inbound and require special attention.

Physical Details
Authors: Donald A. DePalma
Date: 21 May 2007
ISBN: 978-1-933555-38-6
Pages: 28

Companies
1-800 Contacts, 1-800-Flowers, Abebooks, Abercrombie & Fitch, Amazon, Army & Air Force Exchange Service, Art, Allposters, Avon, Barnes and Noble, Bass Pro Outdoor Online, , Best Buy, bidz, Blair, Blockbuster, Blue Nile, Buy, Cabela's, CaféPress, CDW, Circuit City Stores, Coldwater Creek, CompUSA, Costco Wholesale, Crate & Barrel, Crutchfield, CVS, dElia*s, Disney Direct, Drs. Foster & Smith, Drugstore, eBags, eBay, eCost, Eddie Bauer, Etronics, Macys, Bloomingdale's, Follet Higher Education, Foot Locker, FreshDirect, FTD, Gap, Gateway, Clearance World, Harry and David Holdings, Home Depot, HP Home , HSN, IbuyDigital, J. Crew, J.C Whitney, J.C Penney, L.L. Bean, Lilian Vernon, Victoria's Secret, Lowe's , Market Day, MLB Advanced Media, Musician’s Friend, Napster, Neiman Marcus, Netflix, Newegg, Nordstrom, Northern Tool , Office Depot , OfficeMax, Omaha Steaks, Orietal Trading, Overstock, Palm, PC Connection, PC Mall, Peapod, Pro Flowers, Quixtar, QVC, RealPLayer Music Store, Recreational Equipment, Chadwick's, Saks 5th Ave., Scholastic , Schwan's Home Service, Sears Holding, Lands end, Kmart, Shop NBC, Smart Bargains, Sonystyle, Spiegel Brands, Staples, Systemax, Target, The Sharper Image, The Sportsman's Guide, The Talbots, Toys ‘R Us, VistaPrint, Walgreen, Williams-Sonoma, and Zappos.

Table of Contents
  • Topic
    • Globalization in Your Backyard
    • Structure of the Report
    • Who Should Read This Report?
  • Survey
    • Globalization Begins at Home with Domestic Multicultural Markets
    • How We Collected and Analyzed the Data
      • The Messages: What We Asked Online Retailers in English and Spanish
      • Message 1: Request for Product Information
      • Message 2: Minor Complaint
      • Message 3: Compliment about Website
    • Response Time: Don’t Hold Your Breath
    • Conclusions from Our E-Mail and Webform Survey
  • Analysis
    • Nine Online Retailers Excelled in Spanish-Language Response
      • Sites with Spanish Content Were More Likely to Respond
      • English E-Mail Is More Likely to Get a Response than Any Webform
    • The Quality of the Responses Varied Greatly
    • Flawed Inbound Response? Why a Better Model Makes Sense
  • Implementation
    • Step 1: Managing a Low Volume of Foreign-Language Inquiries
    • Step 2: Setting Up Procedures for More Systematic Response
    • Step 3: Investing in Multicultural Markets
      • Collect the Right Data on Your Webform
      • Deploy Language Sniffers to Identify Language
      • Explore Where Text Mining of Messages Might Improve Your Business
      • Invest in More Powerful (and More Expensive) CRM Systems
    • If You Run a Consumer-Oriented Website, What Next?
  • Appendix
    • Responses by Company, Sorted Alphabetically
    • Responses by Company, Sorted by Most Replies in Spanish
    • Response by Company, Sorted by Most Replies in English
  • Figures
    • Figure 1: A Best Practice – Webforms Rather than E-Mail
    • Figure 2: Over Three Quarters of Companies Prefer Webforms
    • Figure 3: Response Times Range from Minutes to Weeks
    • Figure 4: Companies with Spanish Content Responded Better Than Those Without
    • Figure 5: Webforms Increase the Chance of Responses to Spanish Inquiries
    • Figure 6: English E-Mail Drew More Responses than Webforms
    • Figure 7: Webform Structures Communications with Online Visitors
  • Tables
    • Table 1: Messages Sent to Online Retailers
    • Table 2: Guide to Interpreting Data Tables for Responses to Web Inquiries
    • Table 3: How Companies Answered Requests for Information
    • Table 4: How Companies Reacted to Complaints
    • Table 5: How Companies Reacted to Compliments
    • Table 6: Companies with Spanish Content Were Not Always Responsive
    • Table 7: Quality of Spanish Responses Varied Greatly
    • Table 8: Some Problems Show Up Repeatedly in Company Responses
    • Table 9: Free Machine Translation Approximates What Correspondent Wants
    • Table 10: Summary of All Responses – Sorted Alphabetically
    • Table 11: Summary of Responses – Sorted by Spanish Response Rate
    • Table 12: Summary of Responses – Sorted by English Response Rate
Paid Research - Membership Required
Reaching America's e-Latinos: Otra Vez
 
Keywords
multicultural, ethnic, Latino, Hispanic, minority language

Abstract
Decades after being discovered by the U.S. census, the Latino community remains an underserved online demographic in the United States. Whether we’re discussing Spanish-language content or sites tailored to the cultural differences of Hispanics, most American retailers tend to ignore this market segment. This fact follows a pattern that we have observed repeatedly in our research over the last three years. It also underscores a basic reality of minority culture neglect that we have seen in other countries with sizable ethnic and immigrant populations. Finally, it shows that most American online retailers have yet to realize that selling to domestic, non-Anglophone consumers is a good training ground for international markets.

This report contains two major sections and an appendix:

  • Overview of e-mail responses. In this section we describe our survey methodology. We also present our finding on how well companies responded to English and Spanish e-mails. Besides this qualitative assessment, we also evaluate responses using criteria such as response rates and latency.
  • Analysis of e-mail responses. In this section, we name the best respondents, categorize the responses, and provide guidance on what can go wrong.
  • Appendix of data. This section includes the processed data for all 100 companies that we contacted.

Benefits
In General: Anyone selling anything online. Communities not speaking the dominant or official language can mean a lot of underserved consumers. These potential buyers bring new opportunities to e-tailers aiming to reach multicultural markets.
For Buyers: Anybody engaged in corporate public relations and public awareness including marketing heads, strategists, and business development managers will find something of interest in this report.
For Suppliers: Language service providers, web developers, web designers, online support, and usability experts. They must be aware of the importance of communicating with prospects and customers in a language that is preferred in a market segment. As this report shows, some communication will be inbound and require special attention.

Physical Details
Authors: Donald A. DePalma
Date: 21 May 2007
ISBN: 978-1-933555-38-6
Pages: 28

Companies
1-800 Contacts, 1-800-Flowers, Abebooks, Abercrombie & Fitch, Amazon, Army & Air Force Exchange Service, Art, Allposters, Avon, Barnes and Noble, Bass Pro Outdoor Online, , Best Buy, bidz, Blair, Blockbuster, Blue Nile, Buy, Cabela's, CaféPress, CDW, Circuit City Stores, Coldwater Creek, CompUSA, Costco Wholesale, Crate & Barrel, Crutchfield, CVS, dElia*s, Disney Direct, Drs. Foster & Smith, Drugstore, eBags, eBay, eCost, Eddie Bauer, Etronics, Macys, Bloomingdale's, Follet Higher Education, Foot Locker, FreshDirect, FTD, Gap, Gateway, Clearance World, Harry and David Holdings, Home Depot, HP Home , HSN, IbuyDigital, J. Crew, J.C Whitney, J.C Penney, L.L. Bean, Lilian Vernon, Victoria's Secret, Lowe's , Market Day, MLB Advanced Media, Musician’s Friend, Napster, Neiman Marcus, Netflix, Newegg, Nordstrom, Northern Tool , Office Depot , OfficeMax, Omaha Steaks, Orietal Trading, Overstock, Palm, PC Connection, PC Mall, Peapod, Pro Flowers, Quixtar, QVC, RealPLayer Music Store, Recreational Equipment, Chadwick's, Saks 5th Ave., Scholastic , Schwan's Home Service, Sears Holding, Lands end, Kmart, Shop NBC, Smart Bargains, Sonystyle, Spiegel Brands, Staples, Systemax, Target, The Sharper Image, The Sportsman's Guide, The Talbots, Toys ‘R Us, VistaPrint, Walgreen, Williams-Sonoma, and Zappos.

Table of Contents
  • Topic
    • Globalization in Your Backyard
    • Structure of the Report
    • Who Should Read This Report?
  • Survey
    • Globalization Begins at Home with Domestic Multicultural Markets
    • How We Collected and Analyzed the Data
      • The Messages: What We Asked Online Retailers in English and Spanish
      • Message 1: Request for Product Information
      • Message 2: Minor Complaint
      • Message 3: Compliment about Website
    • Response Time: Don’t Hold Your Breath
    • Conclusions from Our E-Mail and Webform Survey
  • Analysis
    • Nine Online Retailers Excelled in Spanish-Language Response
      • Sites with Spanish Content Were More Likely to Respond
      • English E-Mail Is More Likely to Get a Response than Any Webform
    • The Quality of the Responses Varied Greatly
    • Flawed Inbound Response? Why a Better Model Makes Sense
  • Implementation
    • Step 1: Managing a Low Volume of Foreign-Language Inquiries
    • Step 2: Setting Up Procedures for More Systematic Response
    • Step 3: Investing in Multicultural Markets
      • Collect the Right Data on Your Webform
      • Deploy Language Sniffers to Identify Language
      • Explore Where Text Mining of Messages Might Improve Your Business
      • Invest in More Powerful (and More Expensive) CRM Systems
    • If You Run a Consumer-Oriented Website, What Next?
  • Appendix
    • Responses by Company, Sorted Alphabetically
    • Responses by Company, Sorted by Most Replies in Spanish
    • Response by Company, Sorted by Most Replies in English
  • Figures
    • Figure 1: A Best Practice – Webforms Rather than E-Mail
    • Figure 2: Over Three Quarters of Companies Prefer Webforms
    • Figure 3: Response Times Range from Minutes to Weeks
    • Figure 4: Companies with Spanish Content Responded Better Than Those Without
    • Figure 5: Webforms Increase the Chance of Responses to Spanish Inquiries
    • Figure 6: English E-Mail Drew More Responses than Webforms
    • Figure 7: Webform Structures Communications with Online Visitors
  • Tables
    • Table 1: Messages Sent to Online Retailers
    • Table 2: Guide to Interpreting Data Tables for Responses to Web Inquiries
    • Table 3: How Companies Answered Requests for Information
    • Table 4: How Companies Reacted to Complaints
    • Table 5: How Companies Reacted to Compliments
    • Table 6: Companies with Spanish Content Were Not Always Responsive
    • Table 7: Quality of Spanish Responses Varied Greatly
    • Table 8: Some Problems Show Up Repeatedly in Company Responses
    • Table 9: Free Machine Translation Approximates What Correspondent Wants
    • Table 10: Summary of All Responses – Sorted Alphabetically
    • Table 11: Summary of Responses – Sorted by Spanish Response Rate
    • Table 12: Summary of Responses – Sorted by English Response Rate