Why should I target Hispanics?
Hispanics are becoming a huge, growing minority in the US. According to JupiterResearch, 31.5 million US Hispanics are currently online in 2009. Comscore reported that in February 2009, Hispanics accounted for 11% of the total U.S. Online market.
Also, another interesting fact is that the amount of time spent online by Hispanics is growing at a speed that is almost 4 times greater than the speed of the USA as a whole. The average Hispanic spends 52% of his media consumption online (approximately 14 hours a week) according to eMarketer.
Areas in the USA with a Hispanic population.
Something unique about this market group is that they don’t carry a lot of debt which makes them less likely to be affected by the recession. Idea Hall reported that the Hispanic buying power is expected to rise to 1.1 trillion in 2009.
How does this Apply to a local business?
Since 83.9 of Hispanics live in metropolitan status areas, it is easy for you to know if they should be included in your target. According to the 2006 US Census, the states with the highest Hispanic concentration are California, Texas, Florida, New York, and Illinois.
According to InfoPlease, the cities with the highest percentage of Hispanics are:
1. East Los Angeles, CA
2. Laredo, TX
3. Brownsville, TX
4. Hialeah, FL
5. McAllen, TX
6. El Paso, TX
7. Santa Ana, CA
8. El Monte, CA
9. Oxnard, CA
10. Miami, FL
Hispanic Magazine also created a list of Hispanic-friendly cities (sorted alphabetically):
1. Albuquerque, NM
2. Austin, TX
3. Chicago, IL
4. Dallas, TX
5. San Antonio, TX
6. Houston, TX
7. Denver, CO
8. Miami, FL
9. San Diego, CA
10. Tucson, AZ
If the city that you’re in doesn’t show up on either of these lists, Wikipedia has a list of U.S. cities with Hispanic-majority populations (over 50%). If cities near your business office make it on this list, then you can conclude that targeting Hispanics might be a good option for you.
Once you’ve figured out whether or not you should target the Hispanic market, you can come up with a marketing plan for them. Our next post will cover how to do this.