Driving down the 605 freeway the other day by golf ‘n stuff, a billboard on the side of the highway advertised a new Infiniti brand car. The text of the add was entirely in Spanish.
This post is not to knock the Spanish language, or people that speak that language. This is not to attack illegal immigrants, or anyone that comes to this country and speaks another language. My question is purely one of marketing interest. I don’t have the capability of doing the research, but here is my question.
How many people with the economic buying power required for an Infiniti only speak Spanish?
As widespread as Spanish has become in Southern California, the number of people that ONLY speak Spanish can’t be very high. I constantly hear people ordering their “queso blanco” which drives me nuts, but the percentage of people that speak ZERO English has got to be in the single digit percentile. And of that group of people, how many can afford an expensive luxury car?
Any decent job in this country that pays wages high enough for someone to afford a luxury car will be conducted in English, not Spanish. Speaking Spanish will help you get a job at McDonald’s, but it won’t help you get a job at a law firm. The only exception I can think of is a wealthy person that moves from a Spanish speaking country to the United States, or a Spanish speaking person that builds a successful business here in the states while only using their native language.
Why would a business spend money to target 1% of the population? Even for the significant portion of the population that speaks both English and Spanish, are they only reachable in a Spanish language ad?
