By Alvaro Cabrera
Executive director of integration,  Dieste, Inc.

1. U.S. Hispanic spending power growth has significantly outpaced non-Hispanic with an average of $5 more per basket.

On average, Hispanics spend 13% more than GM consumer in the CPG category. As food plays an important role in Latino culture and they tend to have higher monthly food expenditures than non-Hispanics.

Hispanics also spend more than the GM on clothing because of their higher proportion of children and their younger demographic more prone to keep up with the latest trends. The average Latina has 11 pairs of jeans, while the average Caucasian female has nine.

2. Hispanics are quickly becoming the savviest of shoppers.

Hispanic women are significantly more aware (by a 48% to 36% margin) of “sales” before going to the store than GM shoppers.

Hispanics have always been savvy consumers and yet, the economic downfall has forced Latina moms to add new tactics to their repertoire like usage of coupons and in-store communications.

Although the current crisis hasn’t affected Hispanics shopping patterns as drastically as the GM, Latinos are looking for partners that will help them navigate their current reality. Going forward, the key challenge for merchants is to redefine the consumer’s value equation from “value = price” to “value = price + something else” (e.g., customer service, product’s healthy attributes, designer exclusives).

3. Hispanic research and plan for each trip.

Hispanics plan their trips well — more so than the GM population — not only for what’s needed, but also for the value that can be attained.

For Hispanics, the planning phase is important in organizing the shopping trip and controlling impulse purchases and budgets, not eliminating additional fill-in shopping (the general market’s primary motivation is limiting the number of trips in a given time frame).

4. Hispanics are macro shopping.

Hispanic consumers are almost four times more likely than GM consumers to make their grocery shopping at mass merchandisers and mega stores.

Hispanic consumers travel significant distances to shop in these channels and spend considerable time and money in each visit, thus making large purchases and family-sized items a top priority for those shopping trips. Also, these mass merchandisers allow the consumers to shop for multiple-product categories.

5. Hispanics are not one-stop shoppers.

Hispanics significantly outpace the national spending averages across nearly every channel in CPG spending. The shopping experience plays a far more important role in their lives than for their non-Hispanic peers, making them a highly attractive segment for retailers. Hispanics are not only shopping to fulfill a list, but to fulfill different needs and experiences as well.

6. Hispanics enjoy the shopping experience.

37% of Hispanics “enjoy any kind of shopping” (vs. 25% of non-Hispanics).

No matter where, Hispanics report that shopping is a “feel good” experience. 53% of Hispanics evaluate their trip satisfaction on being “a fun place to shop.” While, 43% of Hispanics “enjoy shopping even when they are not buying,” vs. 37% of non-Hispanics. For retailers it is important to embrace the market by making store investments to become a FUN-shopping destination for Hispanics.

7. Shopping is not a chore.

“The store is a place where I can spend time with friends and family.” Department – 50% Hisp. vs. 28% GM; Grocery – Hisp. 48% vs. 19% GM; Mass – Hisp. 46% vs. 24% GM; Drugstore – Hisp. 41% vs. 25% GM.

For Hispanics, shopping is a destination for meeting with friends and family, an opportunity to catch up and spend time together. Offering a more interactive environment allows retailers to become a preferred destination.

8. Advertising impacts and attracts Hispanics

36% of Hispanics say that they remember advertised products while shopping. 31% say that ads help them pick products for their kids.

Hispanics tend to be more receptive to advertising and marketing efforts than GM. Another important aspect of advertising is retail promotions that in most cases will influence their decision to visit a particular store.

They are actively seeking choices that allow them to increase their brand selection with new and better products and advertising plays an important role in getting brands noticed and differentiated.

9. It is a myth that Hispanics, overall, are more loyal.

Only those Hispanics who are recent arrivals (fewer than four years in the US) display above average brand loyalty.

There is no conclusive proof to say, in general, that Hispanics are more loyal shoppers. Retailer loyalty is strong among Hispanics but it pertains mainly to the store of choice, based on the need. Continued loyalty relies on value offer, product quality, and experience consistency.

10. Hispanics are quickly adopting online shopping.

Nearly two-thirds (62%) of Hispanic Internet users are buying online.

Retail initiatives for Hispanics have been primarily focused on brick and mortar, but the time has come to expand initiatives to the virtual shopping world.

In 2007, Hispanic online purchases accounted for $12.8 billion, 11% of all online retail spending. Furthermore, Hispanics are more likely to provide online feedback: 34% vs. 27% of non-Hispanics.

Now it is imperative that brands and retailers offer the opportunity for online purchases. Additionally, this will open up a whole new avenue for building a brand relationship through online activations and promotions. It also multiplies the impact through digital word of mouth via consumer feedback.

Story courtesy MediaPost Engage:Hispanics

A new research from the Pew Hispanic Center shows that from 2006 to 2008, internet use among Latino adults rose by 10 percentage points, from 54% to 64%.  In comparison, the rates for whites rose four percentage points, and the rates for blacks rose only two percentage points during that time period.  Though Latinos continue to lag behind whites, the gap in internet use has shrunk considerably.  

For Latinos, the increase in internet use has been fueled in large part by increases in internet use among groups that have typically had very low rates of internet use.  In particular, foreign-born Latinos, Latinos with less than a high school education, and Latinos with household incomes of less than $30,000 experienced particularly large increases in internet use.

Whereas Latinos gained markedly in overall internet use, the pattern of home internet access changed very little.  In 2006, 79% of Latinos who were online had internet access at home, while in 2008, this number was 81%.  White and black internet users show a similar leveling off.  In 2006, 92% of white internet users had a home connection, compared with 94% in 2008. In 2006, 84% of African American internet users had a home connection, compared with 87% in 2008.

While there was little increase in the likelihood of having a home connection among internet users from 2006 to 2008, rates of broadband connection increased dramatically for Hispanics, as well as for whites and blacks.  In 2006, 63% of Hispanics with home internet access had a broadband connection; in 2008 this number was 76%.  For whites, there was a 17 percentage point increase in broadband connection from 65% to 82%, and for blacks, the increase was from 63% in 2006 to 78% in 2008.

These results are derived from a compilation of eight landline telephone surveys conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Pew Internet & American Life Project from February to October 2006, and from August to December 2008.  In total, the Pew Hispanic Center surveys included 7,554 adults, and the Pew Internet & American Life Project surveys interviewed 13,687 adults.

Courtesy of Hispanic PR Blog  Hispanic Market Facts/Research, Hispanic Social Marketing/Web Insights

1. Markets are conversations.

    

2. Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.

    

3. Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.

    

4. Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived.

    

5. People recognize each other as such from the sound of this voice.

    

6. The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.

    

7. Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy.

    

8. In both internetworked markets and among intranetworked employees, people are speaking to each other in a powerful new way.

    

9. These networked conversations are enabling powerful new forms of social organization and knowledge exchange to emerge.

    

10. As a result, markets are getting smarter, more informed, more organized. Participation in a networked market changes people fundamentally.

     

11. People in networked markets have figured out that they get far better information and support from one another than from vendors. So much for corporate rhetoric about adding value to commoditized products.

     

12. There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than companies do about their own products. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone.

The month of September is Hispanic Heritage Month in the US.

So… What is does Hispanic mean?

It depends who you ask.

If you ask people from Hispanic origin, they will agree that it is certainly not a racial identification. And that it is indeed a name used mostly inside the US. There are no Hispanics in Latin America!

US Hispanics represent 20 Spanish-speaking nationalities; they are Colombian, Venezuelan, Mexican, Cuban, Argentinean and Hispanic Americans, and so on...

There are Catholic, Protestants, Jewish, Arab, Asian, Indian, Black and White Hispanics as well as Brown.

For some it is a shared culture, a community of interests, like language, food, or music; although you will find many nuances and regional varieties across the country and among generations. You will also find that many Hispanic Americans use English as their first language and they are comfortable in both the Hispanic and the North American Culture. But still they self-identify themselves as Hispanics.

It is above all about a sense of identity. A strong sense of identity. 

Here, there and everywhere... It is known that the new generation of U.S. Hispanics is an early adopter of technology. And as the cultural nuances that unite and separate US-Hispanics not only among themselves but from the general market seem more elusive than ever, this is an article worth reading.

July 2, 2009

Expect significant growth in this sector, eMarketer says

NEW YORK. The U.S. Hispanic Internet population is young, vibrant and growing -- in numbers, broadband connections and time spent online.

In 2009, there are nearly 23 million Hispanics online, about 51 percent of the U.S. Hispanic population, according toeMarketerestimates. Hispanics make up about 12.3 percent of the U.S. Internet population in 2009, and will increase to 13.9 percent in 2013.

Like its offline counterpart, this group of Internet users is young -- 63 percent are under age 35 -- and mobile. Some 81 percent of Hispanics own a mobile phone, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, and for 25 percent of these adults, their mobile device is their primary phone. Hispanics use more phone features, including Internet access, at higher rates than other mobile subscribers.

Marketers and online publishers are creating campaigns and Web sites in English and Spanish to reach an audience that switches between languages and cultures. For example, some Hispanics who consider themselves Spanish-dominant say they prefer to read Web pages in English, while online publishers have noticed some English-dominant Hispanics gravitate toward online ads in Spanish. There is no simple, single way to reach this diverse population, except to respect their broad cultural values.

Source: ADWEEK