Writing in the January issue of Nielsen’s “Consumer Insight” online newsletter, Palak Patel of NeuroFocus Inc., explains that the real truth lies beyond the reach of typical consumer research methods, like surveys and focus groups — in the subconscious mind.

According to Patel, answers are essentially corrupted information — biased by the conscious mind, which is influenced by everything from what language you speak to what your grandmother told you as a child.  Only by monitoring actual brainwaves, can marketers gain access to the deep subconscious mind, where brand identity and purchase decisions are formed.

“When you are asked a question about how you think about something, or what you feel, or what you remember, in the course of formulating your answer your brain actually changes the original data it received,” Patel writes.  “Since information gathered with other conventional forms of market research… is collected at this stage, the answers are filtered through too many mental mechanisms to produce the level of pure, precise information that neurological testing does.”

Read the full article.

View the latest issue of “Consumer Insight.”

In households where adults speak English less well, children often wield significant influence on purchase decisions, from choice of category or brand to playing the role of negotiator with vendors, Anderson notes.  Overall, two-thirds of the Hispanics in the U.S. who speak only English are children.

As a community, young Hispanics exert influence over some $930 billion in consumer purchasing power.  And the more acculturated their households become, the more their spending patterns resemble those of U.S. natives. 

Anderson cites data from Nielsen’s Los Angeles-based Homescan Hispanic Panel showing that households with members who have been in the U.S. less than five years make an average of 61 shopping trips per year, while households whose members have been in the U.S. for more than 20 years — or have U.S. natives — average more than twice that many.

Among Hispanic consumers in L.A., those who have been in the U.S. longer are also more likely to buy specially discounted items, Homescan data shows.  On average, a Hispanic household whose members have been in the U.S. for less than five years will devote 7.7% of its purchases to such “deals,” while an acculturated Hispanic home, whose members have been in the U.S. for 15 to 20 years, spends 36.2% of its grocery dollars on discounted goods.

Read the full article.

Learn more about marketing to Hispanic consumers in the U.S.: attend Nielsen’s Webinar, “Honey, We Acculturated the Kids: The Influence of Household Composition on Buying Behavior,” on November 5.

Read about multi-cultural marketing in the U.S. — also in the latest issue of “Consumer Insight.”

View the latest issue of “Consumer Insight.”