Marketing to Hispanics in the United States
Posted by Jim Cottrell on Sun, Oct 05, 2008 @ 05:57 PM
I recently came across an article in "Direct Marketing News" that discussed how in the past couple of years, many more companies are marketing directly to the Hispanic population within the United States. Obviously, in order to do that, your marketing materials and corporate website will need to be in Spanish. But, the payoff could be huge!
Here are some facts about the Hispanic market:
- Hispanic Population - 45.5 Million (2007 Census Est.)
- Hispanics Comprise 14% of US Population
- Hispanic Spending Power Hit $1 TRILLION in 2006
- Of Second-Generation Hispanics, 84% Own Computers
- Children of First-Generation Hispanics Are Very Influential in Family Purchasing Decisions
Kathleen Haley, the Hispanic marketing manager of HP, said "the grand majority of Hispanics in the US are bicultural and bilingual, and we want to make sure we talk to them in their language and their culture." They obviously want part of that $1 trillion in spending power. What about your company?
I also read another study where Hispanics would rather do business with those companies who communicate to them in their native language (even though they know English). They feel a special connection to companies who make an effort to reach out to them in Spanish.
Of course, this can be a big undertaking. The first thing would be to make sure you have someone on staff who is bilingual in English and Spanish. After getting everything translated into Spanish, you want to make sure if a Spanish-speaking person E-mails or calls in Spanish, you can respond accordingly.
Once you have that figured out, we can help you with all of your spanish translation needs from website translation to doing an english to spanish translation of your brochures, business cards, advertisements and more.
One question that we ask our clients is if they want "Universal Spanish". That's where it's not localized for one particular country but something which all Spanish-speaking people can understand. But if you know the Hispanics in your area are from a particular country, then our spanish translators will definitely use the words and phrases which best match their home country.
One Trillion Dollars...definitely something to think about!