Latinos Role in National Politics

With the reapportionment changes recently released by the 2010 U.S. Census, Latinos likely will play a larger role in national politics in the coming decade. Two states that gained seats, Florida and Nevada, have been key swing battlegrounds in recent presidential elections (having voted for the Republican nominee in 2004 and the Democrat in 2008). In both states, Latinos are a growing share of eligible voters.

The number of the Latinos eligible to vote continues to grow. Since 2000, nearly 6 million more Latinos have become eligible to vote. The bulk of this growth was attributable to the 5 million U.S. born Latino youths nationwide who turned 18 during this past decade. That translates into an additional half-million U.S. born Latinos coming of age each year-a pattern that is certain to persist, and grow, in the coming decades.

Source: The 2010 Congressional Reapportionment and Latinos

Barack's Message for Hispanic Heritage Month

[- September 15 to October 15 is National Hispanic Heritage Month -]

This year's theme recognizes the strength and hard work of Hispanic Americans, whose zeal for family and country has helped shape society.

Generating Leads in the Hispanic Market

According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the Hispanic population in 2009 made up almost 7% of the total U.S. population. The total population of the United States was 301 million people, of which 45 million were Hispanic. This community is a major force in the U.S. economy, and is continuing to grow each day. Any company would be wise to try and capture the attention of Hispanics, but how can they?

Values and traditions of Hispanics

First, it is important to understand the values and traditions of Hispanics. When designing and implementing a marketing plan, the content must be relevant to the consumer. Hispanic culture and tradition relishes the idea of family, festivities, siestas, and vacations. Like many previous immigrants, they are sacrificing the life they've known for a future that is uncertain. Hard work and long hours are slowly replacing past cultural and traditional values. Hispanics are working harder than ever to support their families and work toward the American dream. Any advertising geared to a Hispanic audience needs to address this battle, and applauding the people for their hard work and family values can go a long way.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 85% of the Hispanic population in the U.S. is high school graduates. They read and write in English. Additionally, 23 million Hispanics were online last year. More than 50% of this group was accessing the internet from web-enabled phones. From these facts, it is clear that any marketing plan devised for this group needs to have a five-part focus: television advertising, radio advertising, internet marketing, print ads, and a mobile effort. When it comes to language use, the campaign can be executed in English, Spanish or bilingual. It all depends on the level of acculturation of the population being targeted.

The influx of Hispanic immigrants into the United States is not slowing down. It is important to remember Hispanic populations in their respective countries. These are the people who are looking for the same "American dream" that their families in the U.S. speak of. Developing and maintaining an internet presence in these countries will establish a familiarity with your name or brand.

Strategize for success in your Hispanic marketing efforts

Once you have taken all of these factors into consideration, it is time to strategize. Hiring a Hispanic marketing consultant or a company that understands the nuances of the US Hispanic market can be of assistance. Having your Web content available in English and Spanish will maximize the likelihood of reaching the entire spectrum of US Hispanics. At the same time, using different mediums such as blogs, websites, social media, radio, and television will maximize the visibility on the internet by maximizing your search engine presence. In short, this company will have a wealth of resources to tailor to your specific marketing needs and will help you engage in a process of attaining qualified leads and turning them into real clients.

Keying in to the Hispanic market is a great decision in today's economy. Entrusting your Hispanic marketing strategy to a company who understands your audience and knows how to better reach it - in each corresponding geographical area - while maximizing your presence in the market at the same time, is a cost-effective home run!

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Niche marketing during tough economic times

Marginalizing Hispanics as a “minority” is something of a misnomer: presently, US Hispanics comprise 15% of the population; by 2050, that number will double, making Hispanics the largest ethnic group in the country.More significantly for you as a marketer, the combined buying power of the 46 million Hispanic consumers in the United States is close to a whopping one trillion dollars. The number of purchases made by Hispanics between 1995 and 2007 grew twice as fast as that of non-Hispanics. Twenty-three million of these buyers are online: US Hispanic consumers spent $12.8 billion shopping the Internet in 2007, a number that’s projected to jump 90% by 2011. US Hispanics use search engines to research their purchases before they buy (and 44% of them know the difference between paid advertising and “organic” search results,) and they are more likely to use the Internet to find recipes, read news and blog postings, and download music than the general population.

Yet many companies persist in ignoring this market. Citing the down economy, they cut back on marketing to this huge emerging market segment, stubbornly imposing a false economy because they’re not forsightful enough to see the return on investment.

But let’s look at what actually triggers a purchase. Though companies may spend millions developing marketing plans and advertising campaigns, research indicates the most powerful driver still remains word of mouth. Moreover, word of mouth has a ripple effect: people talk about the commercials they see on TV and the Internet.

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Hispanic marketing allows a company to harness the power of word of mouth. US Hispanics, on the whole, live in a networked community. Advice is offered on the street, at church, in the grocery store. Need to know which pre-paid cell phone is best? Ask someone. Other marketing strategies are amplified through this information exchange and a satisfied customer becomes a brand recruiter. This phenomenon translates into the world of online social media, where Hispanics are present in ever greater numbers.

Simply put, Hispanic marketing offers more bang for the buck.

So how do you reach the US Hispanic market?

Well, first, of course, there is no homogenous “Hispanic market”: a Hispanic living in California may have a very different consumer profile than a Hispanic living in Florida or Texas, and search engine marketing (SEM) should target these differences explicitly. Niche marketing dictates that selected keywords for regional products and services resonate with their markets; both English and Spanish words should be tested to see which combination of the two is better for converting surfing into sales and maximizing revenues. US Hispanics also come from a wide variety of geographic regions: the content that acts as an entry page for a person with Latin American roots will be substantively different than that enticing someone whose family was from the Caribbean.

And like all consumers, Hispanic consumers will respond to outreach cues depending upon where they are in their own life cycle. A marketing blitz targeting younger consumers, and second and third generation of Hispanics might do best to focus resources on bilingual campaigns, social media and music sites while one aimed at seniors and first generation of Hispanics -- whose primary language is more likely to be Spanish -- might see better results with more traditional media like Spanish language newspapers and websites, radio and television placements.

One thing’s for certain: The US Hispanic market remains an underappreciated market. Those companies who have listened to the market cues and acted on them are a few steps ahead of the game. One sure way to boost your company’s profits is to tap into Latino buying power. If you dismiss this emerging market as merely a small “niche market” that may develop some day you are hurting your own bottom line.

So, what did you think of this post? Post a comment (good or bad) and if you liked it, please tweet or email about it!

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Hispanic Social Networking Activities Continue to Thrive

Since the dawn of the digital age, people have been drawn to the immediate virtual interconnection of the internet, its functions and its products. Millions of people use the internet not only as a source of news, opinion, and entertainment, but specifically as a route to maintain friendships, relationships, and communities, which otherwise would be impossible due to long distances or other complications. In particular, the advent of the social networking website has led to the domination of interpersonal relationships by the intangible presented on the screen. What is the relationship between the US Hispanic population, and popular (or unpopular) social networking sites, how do they consume online information, and how will their participation in these sites likely continue?

First, a distinction must be made between English speaking Hispanics, and non-English speaking Hispanics. Though the majority of Spanish speaking nations have a balance of English and Spanish linguistic ability present in (especially) the youth culture, this duality is not without exception. Many English speaking Hispanics are of second generation immigrants to the United states, or perhaps those of a higher educational range. Most Latinos in the United States who cannot speak English are older, and subsequently less likely to adapt to new technologies.

The Florida State University Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication recently did a study on ethnic and cultural influence on social media participation, and found that of a group of 2500 test subjects, each divided into five groups of English Preferring Hispanics, Non-English Speaking Preferring Hispanics, Non-Hispanic Whites, African Americans, and Asians, 36% of the English Preferring Hispanics reported visiting a social networking cite 2-3 times a month; this was the highest percentage featured out of all the ethnic subdivisions. Also, 46% of English Preferring Hispanics reported visiting Facebook or Myspace "regularly", again the highest percentage of the groups.

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These sites, Facebook and MySpace, along with Twitter, are the three largest social networking sites on the internet. Social networking sites, according to Time Magazine and Hitwise.com rank no. 1 in popularity of internet access in groups 18-24 years olds, with search engines coming in second, and then web-based email access and subsequently adult entertainment. Social networking sites are being accessed often by Hispanics in the United States and abroad, but why?

First, Hispanic culture, specifically native to South America, has a long history of community based organization. The individual is less important than the whole in Hispanic tradition, which has traveled through time and geography to hold true to Latinos in the United States today. Also, more Hispanics in the United States are younger than their non-Hispanic counterparts. According to the United States Census Bureau, the median age of the Hispanic population in the United States was 27.7 years in 2008. The median age for the general population, including all ethnic and cultural minorities as well as Whites, was 36.8 years old in 2008. This leads to the inference that there are more young Hispanics in the United States, and so more Hispanics may be able and/or willing to acclimatize to new technologies such as social networking sites. In addition, it is widely viewed that Hispanic cultures reinforce emotional rather than rational behavior, and thus are likely to participate in relationship building more easily than non-Hispanics.

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