Half of U.S. Advertisers Missing Trillion Dollar Hispanic Market

by Jack Loechner, Mar 23, 2010, 8:15 AM

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According to a new Hispanic marketing trends survey, commissioned by the Hispanic advertising agency Orcí, the 2010 U.S. Census is expected to find that Hispanics number more than 50 million in the United States, and command $1 trillion in buying power. Yet half of U.S. advertisers, says the report, who acknowledge the cultural impact of Latinos, do not include Hispanics in their marketing efforts.

Latinos comprise more than 15% of the U.S. population, and are predicted to rise to 50 million in the 2010 Census, an increase of 42% since the last Census in 2000. In the 2000 report, the Hispanic growth rate of 24.3% was more than three times the growth rate of the total U.S. population, which was 6.1%.

Yet the research showed that 82% of respondents have no plans to begin or increase existing efforts aimed at American Hispanics in the next 12 months. This despite the fact that the great majority of respondents agreed that Latinos will impact U.S. companies' product and service offerings in the next five years, particularly in food tastes, fashion and technology.

Hector Orcí, co-founder and chairman of the agency, says "... for the last 30 years, a minority of companies that have been smart enough to take advantage of engaging Hispanic consumers, have seen their efforts make a difference to their bottomline... "

 The survey also found that 78% of respondents do not use social media to engage Latinos despite the fact that Hispanics are the heaviest users of wireless access through mobile phones and laptops than any other ethnic group. In addition, close to 80% of Latinos engage in some kind of online socializing. Among those companies who do use social media to market to Hispanics, Facebook was the site of choice with Twitter a close second.

"Hispanics are tech savvy, young trend setters with incredible spending power..." Orcí said.

Other key results of the survey include: 

• 89% believe Latinos will somewhat or significantly impact American taste in foods in the next five years 
• 87% believe Latinos will impact fashion and beauty 
• 82% expect Hispanics to impact entertainment 
• 78% believe Hispanics will impact technology/communications

The survey was conducted via email to 9,300 senior marketing and advertising executives of B2B, consumer, small, medium and large Fortune 1000 businesses across the country in February of 2010.

And, according to a recent study by The Nielsen Company released almost simultaneously with the Orci study, America's demographic profile is undergoing major changes, and describes the potential impact on consumer packaged goods.

The report says that by 2050, more than half of the U.S. population will be non-white (African-American, Asian, Hispanic). This dynamic growth represents not only significant cultural shifts, but also one of the more remarkable marketing opportunities in history. By that 2050 milestone, the economic opportunity for brands in the multicultural CPG space is projected to exceed $500B.

MultiCultural Opportunities in CPG (Billion Dollars)
	Today	2020 (+25%)	2050(+74%)
Total	$299	$373	$520
Asian	33.3	47.4	60.0
Black/African American	129.7	158.7	220.1
Hispanic	136.3	166.8	240.1
Source: The Nielsen Company/U.S.Census Projections (w/o inflation), March 2010 (Rounded from charted data)

Key information on the Hispanic portion of the Multicultural CPG Buying Trends from the Nielsen study includes these observations.

When compared to the general population, on average Hispanic Shoppers:

• Tend to spend more on categories for babies and children. Hispanic households represent 11.8% of CPG total spending, but 16.6% of disposable diaper sales.
• Tend to spend more in traditional mass merchandise and warehouse clubs.
• Tend to spend more on food consumed at home.
• The Hispanic TV audience in the US is growing faster than the TV audience for the total population, showing a continued increase of Hispanic TV homes (2.3%) compared with total US TV homes (0.3%) for the 2009-2010 TV season.
• The number of people ages 2 and older in Hispanic TV homes will also grow, with estimates showing a 2.4% increase to a total of 44.3 million

The full copy of the survey results is available through Orci News here, and for more about the Neilsen multicultural study, please visit Nielsen here.

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0 comments on "Half of U.S. Advertisers Missing Trillion Dollar Hispanic Market".

1. George Penz
   

   commented on: March 23, 2010 at 11:57 a.m.

   We are all Americans ... let’s not lose sight of that.
   I agree with most marketing strategies.... We are all Americans not a fragramented society. Learn the English language like the Asians and
   let’s not continue to fragment the country.
   True, Latinos are only 15%, Blacks, 12% what about Italians, Germans, French English, Asians, etc., they have assimilated!
   Remember assimilation is the KEY to the strength of the USA, not fragmentation ... one language, one economy, one country equals prosperity for every "American
   A concerned American.

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