Are Agencies Overlooking the Latino Market?

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By: Dwayne W. Waite Jr.

We have seen several posts and thought pieces about how the niche-focused agency (Hispanic, African-American, etc.) is no longer relevant in this kind of marketplace. With international business being commonplace, it is not being culturally sensitive that is necessary, but focusing on your target audience, whoever is included. That thinking means that our market segmentation is no longer demographically based, but psychographically; we're looking more for behavioral tendencies than cultural identities.

Morales of the Imperial Valley press interviewed several Hispanic marketing agencies who believe that thinking is misguided.

As the Hispanic population grows in the United States, the group has seen its purchasing power nearly explode. And according to ISISWorld, the purchasing power is supposed to increase by 48% between 2011 and 2016, compared to a mere 27.5% growth of the general population. Those are certainly interesting statistics that shouldn't be ignored, but how should the findings be approached? The Hispanic agencies believe that companies should start investing more in in-house departments or advertising budgets catered solely to the Latino market. The article also points out General Mills, General Motors, Google, Kraft Foods, and T-Mobile are already heavily invested in Latino-oriented marketing activities.

The advertisers who cater to the Latino public tend to prefer print and television campaigns, though Lee Vann of the Captura Group, a Hispanic online marketing agency, says that AdLand is ignoring a social media-savvy Latino population. According to eMarketer, 63% of all U.S. Hispanics are online. Along with the online presence, the population is young, with an average age, according to the U.S. Census, of only 27 years old. Clearly something must be done to stop completely ignoring this public!

We see both sides of the argument. True, it is important to make your advertising campaigns relevant, appealing, and audience-specific, and there may be some cases that call for really specific ads. But calling the Latino population out from the general population, we feel, does the group an injustice. To one of the article's points, the average age of the Hispanic population is 27 years old. What they choose to omit is that many of them are also bilingual, and can speak and understand English as well as Spanish (some may speak better than the "general population"). Also, the young Hispanic consumer will have more Millennial habits than traditionally Hispanic traits due to being immersed in social media and the rate these young people are attending college.

What is being said here is that it is important to look at the situation from all sides. Yes, there aren't many agencies or ad professionals dedicating budgets and capital to the Latino and Hispanic markets, but that doesn't mean that their other activities are missing them. But that is the joy of advertising; you can be successful and reach an audience in many different ways. Just make sure the ways are appealing and incite a call to action.

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About the Author

Dwayne W. Waite Jr. is partner and principal at JDW: The Charlotte Agency, a marketing and advertising shop in Charlotte, NC. He enjoys consumer behavior, economics, and football.

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