Marketing

By David L. Rawle

The U.S. Hispanic population surged by nearly 19 million between 1990 and 2005 with a growth rate nearly four times that of the total population. Today, one in seven people in the United States is Hispanic, and the U.S. Hispanic population stands at 41.3 million.

What are the marketing implications of this explosive growth, and how do they manifest themselves in the Charleston area?

First, advertisers need to know that the U.S. Hispanic population has a younger-than-average profile. Half of all U.S. Hispanics are under age 27. And one of every five children under age 18 in the United States is Hispanic.

Furthermore, Hispanics tend to have larger families, more full-time employment than the average and heavy spending in certain categories, such as groceries, infant and children clothing, telephone services and fast food.

Age and large family size contribute to tremendous buying power. Hispanic buying power is growing at an annual compound rate of 8.2%—almost double the non-Hispanic buying power growth rate. By 2008, Hispanic buying power is expected to top $923 billion.

From 1998-2003, the number of Hispanic radio stations almost doubled, from 302 to 598 nationwide. And, in the first quarter of this year, advertising spending on Spanish-language television stations increased 19% over last year’s first quarter.

How can we maximize the impact of all this new Hispanic-directed advertising?

There are three ingredients to reaching the Hispanic market successfully.

Language. Understandably, people like to be spoken to in the language with which they are most familiar. Sixty-nine percent of Hispanics get more information about a product when it is advertised in Spanish than when it is advertised in English only.

Cultural adaptation. That means using Hispanic faces, and adjusting to different color preferences and forms of graphic presentation. It is not enough to translate the words. You must translate the look and feel of your communications.

Understand the marketplace. What are the Hispanic media choices? What Web sites and search engines are most popular with Hispanics?

For example, radio is a vital market for Hispanics. In some major markets, Hispanics listen to the radio nearly twice as much as they watch television and almost three times as much as they read newspapers.

Relatively few marketers recognize that Hispanics are active Internet users. More than 14 million Hispanics in the United States were online as of last year, and more than half of those not yet online expected to connect within the next two years.

Smart marketing to the Hispanic population pays off. Look at Nextel: the company spent a year targeting Hispanic customers and was so successful that today one in three of all its new customers are Hispanic.

And because South Carolina is ranked among the top 10 states by rate of growth of Hispanic buying power from 1990-2002, we must take advantage of this growing opportunity to reach a previously unrecognized segment of the population.

Here in the Charleston market, there is an estimated 50,000 Hispanics who are served by two television stations (plus Univision on cable), one radio station, a local newspaper (Vida Latino) and a soon-to-be-launched local magazine.

In addition, WAZS-TV and WAZS-FM operate as local broadcast stations to communicate information of specific interest to the Charleston-area Hispanic community. That information includes job lines, live interviews and programming addressing such issues as schools, language and financial matters.

We all know the old saying, “You reap what you sow.” And America’s Hispanic population poses a real opportunity for smart marketers.

Sow the seeds of effective communications and be prepared to reap enormous rewards.

David L. Rawle is chairman of Charleston-based Rawle Murdy Associates Inc., a marketing, advertising and public relations firm. He can be reached at drawle@rawle-murdy.com.

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