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Facts about the Hispanic Market

• In 2005, the Hispanic population comprised 14% of the total population with 41,861,413 people

• By 2010 the Hispanic population will be 49,144,556 or 15.9% of the total population

• The annual U.S. Hispanic buying power is over $700 Billion ($704,595,400,000)*

• 10 % (11,072,835) of all households in the U.S. are Hispanic

• 13 states have a least half a million Hispanic residents

• 31 million U.S. residents age 5 and older speak Spanish at home, constituting a ratio of more that 1 in 10 residents

• 7.6 million Hispanic citizens reported voting in the 2004 presidential election, up from 5.9 million in 2000

• In 2002, there were 1.6 million Hispanic-owned businesses, up 31% from 1997

  Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Facts for Features 2005
  * According to the 2006 Synovate estimates

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For America's 39 million Latinos, the numbers speak for themselves. According to the University of Georgia's Selig Center for Economic Growth, the fastest-growing consumer group in the country spent nearly $700 billion last year, and Hispanic consumer spending is expected to top $1 trillion by 2008. Faced with these astounding figures, the U.S. business community has made unprecedented overtures toward Latinos since 2000, changing the way the mainstream United States sees its largest minority -- and itself -- in the process. "The sleeping giant ain't sleeping no more," says Valdez (a California base Hispanic Marketing Expert).

For more than two decades, Hispanic marketing consisted mainly of U.S. ad agencies translating their mass-market, English-language ads and TV spots into Spanish. But U.S. businesses now realize they need creative strategies aimed at specific Latino subgroups. To do this, they've turned to Hispanic ad agencies that employ what Valdes calls "in-culture" marketing techniques. That means using key values and cultural traits -- family, music and food, for example -- to connect with Puerto Ricans who live along America's East Coast, or Mexicans in the American Southwest. The broad-brush approach hasn't entirely disappeared; the use of Latino celebrities to tout products has become commonplace. In the past year, both Kmart and Hershey's have successfully teamed up with Mexican singer Thalia to peddle clothing and chocolate.

Courtesy of Newsweek International Edition, Nov. 22 Issue.

By Malcolm Beith

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The 2005 Census update reveals that the Puerto Ricans are still the biggest Hispanic group in Broward county with over 78,000

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