Everybody's Green Right...?

Everyone is going green! Green t-shirts. Green water bottles. Green cars. Green Houses. Green Everything. Recently, the trendy thing to do is go green. Therefore, marketers have aimed to capture this green market by investing millions of dollars in green marketing. While this investment may be worth while in some segments, it may not work for all segments. In particular, the rising Hispanic population in America may not be quite ready to embrace the green frenzy.

In Miguel Gomez Winebrenner’s blog titled “Man vs. Naturaleza: How “green” are Hispanics?” he argues that Hispanics lifestyle and cultural origins may not be ready for the green movement. To prove his point, the author cites numerous examples as to why Hispanics may not go green. Through these examples, the author shows that Hispanics are already subconsciously green due to their spending habits and historical origins.

When I read the author’s blog, I could immediately relate to the author’s examples through personal experiences. For instance, Gomez discusses the tendency of Hispanics to have grown up in a home where economic thriftiness forced families to saved pennies wherever possible. These money saving techniques include washing dishes by hand, always turning off the lights, and conserving hot water. As a child, my family constantly raised me to do all these things because we were always watching our spending. Consequently, I have grown up partaking in green living without really even intending to do so. These tendencies make me a less profitable target for marketers aiming to sell me the latest green product. While I do care about going green, I do not see it necessary to always buy the latest energy saving dish washer because I have always been conservative in my electricity and water usage.

This blog made me realize the importance of gaining proper customer insights about the entire population before developing a marketing program. In particular, as a marketer, you must take into account race and ethnic origins to best fit the needs of consumers. While I may be classified in the same Millennial groups as my Asian, Indian, and white friends, I still possess many different needs than these other Millennials. Therefore, it is important for marketers to discover the diverse needs of a group that is largely considered homogeneous (i.e. different ethnic groups within generation y).

Another point made in Gomez’s blog that I could relate to involved how pragmatic Hispanic consumers are in their purchase decisions. The author cites an example that a Hispanic may purchase a hybrid not because “it says that they are sophisticated, compassionate, smart etc. (which is what hybrid cars seem to have embodied for many in the general market);” rather, they would buy it because it saves money in gas in the long-run. This pragmatic tendency completely relates to how my family and I make purchase decisions. We often tend to stick to the necessities we need rather than opting for the more expensive, trendy items.

Based on the insight gained from Hispanic practicality, markets should aim to target products to Hispanics that have functionality. These basic tools will attract the Hispanic population who is looking for something simple and efficient in getting the job done. The important learning point comes from the fact that ethnographic research must be done to gather insight. Without going beyond surveys, marketers would miss the little details that make a certain population unique. Therefore, as future marketers, we must encourage our companies to not make decisions based solely on a few data collection methods. Instead, marketing programs should be developed from a conglomerate of many research methods that discover new customer insight.

Despite the blogs impact on customer insight, I felt like its scope was too small. The author tended to make gross generalizations about the Hispanic race. He even goes as far as to say that most of the Hispanic population is uneducated so they do not see the value in recycling. While I’m unsure if this is true, I would like to have received more support to his reasoning behind his conclusions. This additional information would have helped me gain more insight into the social problems occurring amongst the Hispanic population. Based on this insight, I would better understand how to create more suitable marketing programs for the Hispanic population.