Values drive purchase
Representation drives action: 63% of Latinos say they are more likely to buy from brands that feature people like them in their advertising, and 75% are confident their economic situation will improve in the next year, compared with 60% of all U.S. consumers.
For years, culture was treated as a creative layer, something applied after the strategy was set. Today culture is the strategy itself. Language evolved, but culture endures, and that endurance is the key to personalization. NielsenIQ finds honesty, protecting the family and freedom at the top of Hispanic consumers’ values, with self-reliance, authenticity, self-esteem and hard work close behind, and Hispanics are more likely than other consumers to call ambition a guiding principle. The guide adds, citing ThinkNow, that collectivism makes purchasing decisions a family conversation.
Optimism about the year ahead runs high: three-quarters of Hispanic consumers are confident their economic situation will improve in the next twelve months, versus 60% of all U.S. consumers, which makes them particularly receptive to brands that align with growth, progress and empowerment. Marketers who lead with aspiration and community, rather than price alone, win this audience.
The fluency gap is closing but slowly. Collage Group measured a 4.5% average increase in its brand cultural fluency scores, across all the consumer segments it tracks, in the first half of 2025 compared with the second half of 2024, a sign that more brands are embedding cultural intelligence into strategy, while significant gaps remain. Audiences can instantly detect culture used as decoration rather than foundation, and they disengage just as quickly.
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