• Ad Age, Wednesday, September 1, 2010 10:53 AM

Chiqui Cartagena, senior vp of multicultural marketing at Story Worldwide and author of Latino Boom!: Everything You Need to Know to Grow Your Business in the U.S. Hispanic Market, surveys some recent research into the changing demographics of the U.S. and recommends that you read both a "yellow" paper issued by AlmaDDB -- "The New State of America: What the 2010 Census will reveal about the evolution of the United States of America" and a book, The Culture Code, by marketing consultant and psychoanalyst Clotaire Rapaille. Not to mention a few studies published by Ad Age itself.

The bottom line is that by 2020, minorities are expected to account for 40% of the country, with Hispanics representing the largest segment. Isaac Mizrahi, who wrote the AlmaDDB paper with Howard T. Konig, says "few people realize that Hispanics are influencing the general market more than vice-versa. They are trendsetting ... and the debate that papers like this provokes ... well, that's the most interesting thing."

Indeed. Responding to the column, Richard Todd Aguayo comments: "I wonder why it is that the 'Hispanic' market is talked about as if they're some separate species that has landed here from another planet whose thoughts and ideas and dreams and challenges are different from everyone else? I'm Hispanic, and my family enjoys a lot of the same TV shows and movies and music that the rest of the country likes.... Heck, we even use Dawn dishwashing liquid because we, too, like soap that 'cuts through the grease'! Wow, what are the odds against that?"

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