A Fast Growing Multidimensional Hispanic Market

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan enacted a law to authorize the designation of the National Hispanic Heritage Month, officially expanding the previously designated Hispanic Heritage Week.Each year afterwards, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, by honoring the contributions of Hispanics throughout American history. Join us in our celebration of the Hispanic Heritage Month, this is the time to celebrate them en grande!

The $1.2 trillion Hispanic consumer market in the U.S. is larger than the entire economies of all but 13 countries in the world, according to a recent UGA Selig Center Multicultural Economy study. The US Hispanic Population as reported in US Census estimates is now 53.6 million (16 percent of the total US population), not counting the residents of Puerto Rico, which amount to over 3.7 million. Rapid Hispanic population growth will persist, even if immigration is completely halted.

The median age for non-Hispanic whites is 42 – meaning the bulk of women are moving out of their prime childbearing years. Hispanics, on the other hand, are squarely within their peak fertility, with a median age of 27, said Jeffrey Passel, senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center.

Hispanics are currently represented in almost every sector of our society, from government, to sports, to nonprofits, to C-level seats at Fortune 500 companies. By and large, companies realize the imminent need to market to Hispanics. However, more often than not, their efforts lack substance and most settle for the quick fix of translating documents and marketing materials into Spanish. Those companies using traditional marketing methods and traditional ways to reach target audiences are sure to lose ground amongst present and future generations of Hispanics.

Spanish is indeed the second most spoken language in the US. According to a report published by Pew Research, 37.6 million persons in the US over the age of 5 speak Spanish at home, including 2.8 million non-Hispanics. The latter are likely to come from a Hispanic lineage, the report shows. Furthermore, a new widespread phenomenon is the initiative of many industry leaders to learn Spanish in order to better communicate with their rapidly growing Hispanic labor force.

On the other hand, US Census reports that 66 percent of Hispanics living in the US were born in the US. This group of US born Hispanics, the majority of which fit within the “Millenial” Generation, will likely speak Spanish as their language of choice for family affairs, but will be proficient in English at school, work, and in conversations with peers. Hispanic Millenials are generally characterized for being bicultural, and in most cases multicultural. Although they essentially have the immigrant mindset, they can move seamlessly between both worlds.

Think “The Sofia Vergara Effect”. Sofia Vergara is a Colombian born actress residing in LA. Sofia’s work in both Spanish and English language TV, theater and movies has earned her international recognition. Here in the US, she endorses product lines with English and Spanish ads, social media campaigns, and appearances that reach beyond the traditional Hispanic marketplace.

That said, there is much more to reaching Hispanics than language alone. The first step it to understand that Hispanics are not one large, homogeneous group, they are as multidimensional as the countries of origin and social classes they come from, and they have quite varied levels of assimilation, even within the same family. Even language is not the ultimate common denominator, with some Spanish words having completely different meaning to people from different countries. The culinary differences are as vast as the countries and regions within a country. Culture, entertainment, music, etc., are all viewed differently in every country in Latin America. Much of that multidimensional culture is brought up and held on to when they move to the US.

The fact is that the current spending power of Hispanics is $1.2 trillion, and is expected to grow to $1.5 trillion by 2015. Every company should be marketing their brands to Hispanics. The more successful marketing campaigns will be the ones that capture the essence and flavor of the multidimensional cultures of US Hispanics.

At Ethnic Technologies we are ready to help you market to the Hispanic consumer with fresh, accurate and comprehensive data, modeling and analysis.

Ethnic Technologies, LLC is the platinum standard in multicultural marketing. The result of over 40 years of continuous ethnic, religious and language preference research, E-Tech allows clients to segment their database by ethnicity, religion, language preference and Hispanic Country of Origin more accurately and comprehensively than any other approach.

Ethnic Technologies has done extensive research into important cultural traits, resulting in the incorporation of the Hispanic Assimilation Module as a complement to the E-Tech 8.1 ethnic enhancement product. There are four levels of Assimilation analyzed:

4 – Unassimilated – Speaks primarily their native language

The incorporation of Enhanced Neighborhood Analytics (ENA) technology in E-Tech Version 8.1 establishes a new and unprecedented level of granularity and completeness in the ethnic marketing industry. Clients also benefit from and acquire ethnic mailing, telemarketing and email lists for both the United States and Canada.

For more information, questions or to schedule a meeting with marketing leadership at Ethnic Technologies, please contact Karen M.. Sinisi, Director of Sales at 866-333-8324 ext. 117 orkarens@ethnictechnologies.com.