This is part of what Alejandra Soto, Director of Latino Communications at Planned Parenthood, shared with Mario Carrasco in the latest episode of The New Mainstream Podcast: understanding Latino audiences requires much more than speaking their language.
“Latino consumers” may seem like a clearly defined audience. In reality, it includes people with very different identities, experiences, generations, languages, and cultural contexts.
And that difference matters.
A recent immigrant who is predominantly Spanish-speaking, a second-generation bilingual consumer, and a fourth-generation Latino who primarily speaks English may all identify as Latino—but they can consume media, respond to messaging, and engage with brands in completely different ways.
For brands, reaching Latino audiences requires much more than translating an existing campaign.
It means understanding who the audience is, what cultural context shapes their behavior, where they get information, and what makes a message feel authentic.
In her conversation with Mario Carrasco, Alejandra Soto explains how research, listening, and the ability to adapt strategies are essential to building more relevant multicultural communications.
Cultural relevance also isn't about adding recognizable cultural symbols to an advertisement.
A campaign can use the right language, imagery, or cultural references and still fail to connect with its audience.
The difference lies in whether those elements reflect a genuine understanding of the community or simply reproduce stereotypes.
For brands looking to Understand, Reach, and Engage multicultural audiences, that distinction can be decisive.
Mario Carrasco and Alejandra Soto explore what it really takes to build effective communications with Latino audiences, why “Latino” doesn't represent a single audience, and how research and cultural understanding can help brands build more authentic connections.
As the United States becomes increasingly multicultural, representation can no longer be reduced to simply including diverse people in a campaign. Consumers expect brands to understand their context, lived experiences, and the cultural cues that shape their identities.
The first era of multicultural marketing focused on increasing the presence of diverse communities in advertising. That progress was important.
Today, however, the conversation has evolved. Representation is no longer just about being seen—it's about feeling understood. Consumers quickly recognize when a campaign authentically reflects their reality…and when it simply checks a diversity box.
ThinkNow's World in One City research puts numbers behind this shift.
The result is a nearly 30-point gap between what consumers expect and what they actually experience.
ThinkNow calls this difference The Representation Gap.
Los Angeles serves as a signal market—a place where cultural trends often emerge before spreading across the rest of the United States.
Understanding how identity, representation, and cultural influence evolve in Los Angeles helps brands anticipate the changes that will shape consumer behavior nationwide.
Studying Los Angeles is about much more than understanding one city. It's about understanding where the future of consumer behavior is already taking shape.
Closing the Representation Gap requires far more than creating more inclusive campaigns.
Organizations need to understand how identity, culture, influence, and consumer behavior interact throughout the entire decision-making journey.
That's exactly what ThinkNow's new framework is designed to do.
More than a research report, it provides a practical approach to helping brands, agencies, and organizations turn representation into a competitive advantage through research, audience intelligence, synthetic insights, and activation.
The Representation Gap explores the data, strategic framework, and business implications for organizations looking to build more relevant brands in multicultural markets.
Download the complete framework and discover how ThinkNow helps organizations Understand, Reach, and Engage the audiences shaping the future of the marketplace.
We surveyed 1,548 U.S. adults about how they use AI for health decisions, with oversamples of Hispanic, Black, and Asian consumers. Forty-three percent have asked an AI chatbot a health question in the past year. Among Hispanic consumers it's 57%. Among Asian consumers, 54%.
Doctors are already feeling this. Sixty percent of people who've used AI for a health question said it sent them to an appointment they wouldn't have booked otherwise. Sixty-five percent said it gave them a specific drug or treatment name to bring up once they were in the room.
That second number surprised us more than the adoption figure did. Forty-three percent using a chatbot sounds like a curiosity stat but patients showing up already able to name a treatment changes the actual conversation happening in the exam room.
Download the full report here.
Trust hasn't caught up to usage, though. Forty percent of people trust AI chatbots for health information. Trust in Doctors sits at 81%, pharmacists at 70%.
We expected that gap to be about quality. It isn't, at least not according to the people who've actually used these tools: 85% or more of AI health users, across every group we measured, rate the information they got as accurate. So the 40% trust number isn't a verdict on whether AI gets things right. It's a judgement on who's saying it.
We tested that directly. Would you trust an AI health tool built by a big tech company? Thirty-four percent said yes. Would you trust one provided by your own doctor or hospital? Sixty percent said yes.
A 26-point swing on branding alone is a bigger lever than most product features a health system could build this year. If you're a hospital or a pharma brand hesitant to touch AI because it feels like Silicon Valley's territory, this data says the opposite: your name is worth more here than theirs is.
Hispanic and Asian respondents lead nearly every measure in this study: usage, trust, optimism about where AI is headed, interest in new features. Fifty-six percent of Hispanic consumers are optimistic about AI's future, against 47% for the total market. Fifty-seven percent of Asian consumers trust AI chatbots for health info, against 36% of White consumers.
Some of that comes down to language. Fifty-three percent of Hispanic consumers have used AI to get health information in Spanish or another preferred language, and 38% said it worked well. Forty-one percent of Asian consumers have used AI in a heritage language, and 47% said it gave them information they couldn't easily find elsewhere.
We want to flag something in that number, “Worked well” and “worked” aren't the same claim, and we're relying on self-report here, not a clinical accuracy check. Still, for a household that's been stuck translating a pamphlet by hand or waiting weeks for a bilingual appointment slot, “worked well enough to help” is a real result, and it's one users are reporting without much prompting from us. A brand that shows up early with genuine language support in this space is solving a problem that's been difficult to address for a long time.
Black consumers show lower AI usage for health questions (35%, against 43% market-wide), but the reason isn't distrust of the technology. The top answer non-users gave was “I prefer a real doctor.” The second was simply not using AI much at all. Black non-users were also more than twice as likely as Asian or White non-users to say they didn't know AI could help with this kind of question in the first place.
Women lag men on almost everything we asked: usage, trust, comfort, optimism. Only 23% of women who've used AI for health questions have told their doctor about it, compared with 37% of men. Whatever's driving that gap, it isn't education or income, since we controlled for those. It looks more like confidence, and confidence gaps close differently than awareness gaps do.
Boomers are the strangest case in the dataset. Once they try AI for a health question, 90% rate the information as accurate, the highest of any generation. But general trust in AI chatbots among Boomers sits at 27%, the lowest of any generation. They rate it best and trust it least.
One more thing worth noting on the doctor side of this: trust in providers themselves is high and fairly even across the market, with one exception. Black consumers report comfort discussing health concerns with a provider at 82%, ten points below every other group we measured. That gap predates AI and probably says more about the health system than about any chatbot.
AI will continue to shape how consumers find health information and prepare for medical decisions. Thirty-nine percent expect their use of AI for health to increase. The figure reaches 51% among Asian consumers and 44% among Hispanic consumers.
Healthcare organizations should begin with several priorities:
Build AI tools around established relationships with doctors, health systems and trusted health brands. Develop practical features tied to clear consumer needs. Invest in multilingual and culturally informed experiences. Explain privacy protections and information sources. Give consumers clear guidance about the appropriate role of AI in health decisions.
The adoption data shows that consumers have already incorporated AI into their healthcare routines. Their questions, expectations and behaviors will continue to evolve as the technology becomes more familiar.
Healthcare brands now have an opportunity to shape that experience with accuracy, transparency and cultural relevance.
Download the full report here.
This analysis is drawn from ThinkNow's national study of 1,548 U.S. adults, fielded with oversamples of Hispanic, Black, and Asian consumers. Full topline data and methodology available on request.
For years, many organizations have approached multicultural marketing by asking who their audience is. Increasingly, however, the more important question is how people define themselves, experience representation, influence culture, and make decisions.
ThinkNow's latest Diversity OS report demonstrates that diversity is no longer simply a demographic characteristic to account for during campaign execution. Instead, it functions as the operating system shaping consumer behavior, brand perception, and purchasing decisions, particularly in markets like Los Angeles that often foreshadow broader national trends.
One of the clearest findings from the report is that consumers do not think about diversity the same way many marketers still do. Nearly seven in ten Los Angeles residents (69%) say everyday diversity best represents the city, while 67% believe brands should reflect that diversity in their advertising. These findings suggest that multiculturalism is no longer viewed as a niche audience strategy but as a baseline expectation for brands operating in diverse markets.
The report further shows that traditional marketing models often treat diversity as a downstream campaign decision through casting, language adaptation, or audience segmentation. ThinkNow’s diversity OS model, a market research framework designed to help businesses understand how modern consumers make choices based on consumer cultural background, identity, personal values and spending habits, positions diversity as market infrastructure that should inform consumer outreach strategies from research and creative development through media planning and customer.
The report also shows that while consumers expect brands to reflect diverse communities, they do not believe current advertising meets those expectations. Although 67% of respondents say diversity in advertising is important, only 37% feel Los Angeles is accurately represented in advertising and media. In what we document as a ‘representation gap,” we find that consumers are not simply asking to see more diverse faces. They want authentic portrayals of neighborhoods, families, languages, values, and everyday experiences. For organizations, accurate cultural representation means measuring cultural accuracy and credibility in advertising, not just diversity in visible representation.
Our report also further reinforces Los Angeles' role as a leading indicator for national consumer behavior. Sixty-five percent of Los Angeles residents agree that the city sets trends for the rest of the country. Respondents point to entertainment, food, fashion, sports, and neighborhood culture as major areas of influence. The implications of our findings point to more targeted efforts to connect with the communities where trends first emerge. Understanding local cultural signals can help brands anticipate broader shifts in consumer expectations before they spread nationally.
Perhaps the most practical finding in our report is that cultural relevance directly influences purchasing behavior. More than half of respondents (58%) say local authenticity matters when it comes to purchases and experiences. These trends are even higher among Black and Hispanic consumers. In this context, authenticity cannot be added at the end of a campaign. Instead, the data shows that it should shape research, messaging, partnerships, media strategy, and customer experience from the beginning, because consumers increasingly evaluate brands based on whether they demonstrate a genuine understanding of the communities they serve, not simply whether they acknowledge diversity.
Our diversity OS framework encourages organizations to rethink multicultural marketing as an ongoing strategic discipline rather than a campaign-level tactic. Overall, our findings highlight four interconnected drivers of consumer behavior: identity, representation, influence, and decision-making. Together, these dimensions provide a more comprehensive way to understand how consumers connect with brands in increasingly multicultural markets. As consumer expectations continue to evolve, organizations that build cultural intelligence into research, creative development, media planning, and customer experience will be better positioned to create messaging that feels relevant, credible, and authentic across the communities they hope to reach.
Download full report here.
Brands have spent years investing in segmentation, personalization, and multicultural marketing strategies. Today, consumer decisions are shaped by more than age, income, or geography. Identity, representation, cultural influence, and a sense of belonging all play a growing role in how people discover brands, interpret messages, and decide what to buy.
This is the foundation of Diversity OS, ThinkNow's new framework designed to help organizations better understand consumer behavior in multicultural markets.
Los Angeles is one of the most culturally diverse markets in the United States and has long served as an early indicator of trends that later spread across the country.
The research behind Diversity OS found that 69% of Los Angeles residents say the city's everyday diversity, expressed through its languages, culture, and food, best represents what Los Angeles stands for. This makes the city a valuable environment for understanding how consumer behavior continues to evolve.
The study also found that 65% believe Los Angeles sets trends for the rest of the country, reinforcing its role as a leading indicator for brands looking to anticipate cultural and market shifts.
Demographic segmentation remains valuable, but it provides only part of the picture.
Diversity OS introduces four interconnected dimensions that shape every consumer decision:
Identity: How people define themselves and how that identity influences their preferences.
Representation: How consumers perceive the way brands and media reflect their communities and lived experiences.
Influence: How ideas, behaviors, and cultural trends spread across different communities.
Decision: How authenticity and cultural relevance shape brand preference and purchasing decisions.
Together, these dimensions help explain why consumers with similar demographic profiles can respond very differently to the same campaign.
One of the study's most important findings is the gap between consumer expectations and their experiences with brands.
Sixty-seven percent of Los Angeles residents say it is important for brands to reflect the city's diversity in their advertising. Yet only 37% believe Los Angeles is accurately represented in advertising and media.
For brands, this gap represents an opportunity to build greater relevance, trust, and stronger connections with their audiences.
Understanding how identity, representation, and cultural influence interact enables organizations to develop more relevant strategies for increasingly diverse consumers.
More than a segmentation model, Diversity OS provides a practical framework for understanding the forces that drive consumer behavior and turning those insights into smarter business decisions.
Download the full framework and discover how Identity, Representation, Influence, and Decision are reshaping the future of consumer behavior.
For decades, brands have treated diversity as just another category within their marketing strategies. A segment to target, a specific audience to reach, or an additional variable within the broader market.
Today, that way of thinking is becoming outdated.
In Los Angeles, diversity influences how people build their identities, how cultural trends spread, and how consumers make decisions. It is not simply a characteristic of the market. It is the environment in which everything happens.
This is the central idea behind ThinkNow’s latest report, The Diversity OS: How Los Angeles Runs the Future of Consumer Behavior.
Los Angeles is one of the most diverse cities in the world and often serves as an early indicator of cultural shifts that later spread across the country.
ThinkNow’s research found that everyday diversity is the defining characteristic of the city. Elements such as language, food, communities, and shared cultural experiences carry more weight than many of the traditional associations people have with Los Angeles.
This makes the city more than just a local market.
To help brands better understand this reality, ThinkNow developed the Diversity OS framework.
The model explains how four key dimensions of consumer behavior interact:
Identity: How people define themselves across different cultural and social contexts.
Interaction: How communities connect, share experiences, and exchange cultural influence.
Influence: How ideas, behaviors, and trends spread across different groups.
Decision: How cultural relevance, representation, and belonging influence consumer choices.
Together, these four layers provide a more complete understanding of how multicultural markets operate today.
Today’s audiences are increasingly complex. People participate simultaneously in multiple communities, identities, and cultural spaces.
Brands that better understand these dynamics will be better positioned to create relevant messaging, build trust, and develop stronger connections with their audiences.
For organizations looking to understand where consumer behavior in the United States is headed next, Los Angeles offers a unique window into the future.
Explore the complete findings from The Diversity OS: How Los Angeles Runs the Future of Consumer Behavior and discover how identity, culture, and representation are transforming the way people connect with brands.
Download the report here.
In the latest episode of The New Mainstream, Mario Xavier Carrasco sits down with Ingrid Otero, President and CEO of Casanova McCann, to discuss how multicultural marketing is evolving and what is shaping brand decision making today.
The conversation offers a grounded perspective on the forces influencing the industry.
In recent months, several brands have reduced the visibility of their multicultural initiatives. This shift reflects budget scrutiny, internal alignment, and the need to justify investment across organizations.
At the same time, research focused on multicultural audiences continues. Insights, strategy, and data teams remain actively engaged in understanding behaviors, motivations, and growth opportunities within these segments.
The episode highlights the role of Latino consumers within the U.S. market. Their influence is reflected in consistent consumption patterns, strong community ties, and a meaningful role in shaping cultural trends.
For brands, this calls for sustained engagement and strategies grounded in this reality.
A central theme of the conversation is how authenticity is built.
Effective decisions are rooted in a deep understanding of the consumer, their context, and their cultural identity. Relevance comes from messaging that reflects lived experiences and real connections.
Drawing from her experience leading Casanova McCann, Otero shares how she has navigated key decisions during periods of uncertainty.
During the pandemic, she led a transformation of the agency’s model, focusing on flexibility and independence. This involved operational shifts and a reassessment of priorities.
The current environment requires clarity in how brands engage with multicultural audiences.
Strategies benefit from consistency, deep consumer understanding, and alignment across insights, creative, and execution.
Listen to the full episode of The New Mainstream and hear the complete conversation with Ingrid Otero.