You don't have to speak Spanish

One of my radio stations used to do a nightly Spanish language music program. At the time, it was the only daily (nightly) local media outlet for 3 hours each evening.

Now we have a full time Hispanic Music station in town.

Who advertises? Sure there are some Hispanic businesses, but there are lot's of non-Hispanic businesses that want to reach out to the Spanish speaking population and invite them to spend their money in their store.

But guess what? You don't have to speak Spanish to get the Hispanic population in your town to do business with you.

Take a look at this report:

English-Speaking Hispanics Represent Two-Thirds of Hispanic Boomers

Marketers and advertisers have recognized the importance of Hispanic consumers for some time but have segmented within the Hispanic community primarily on the basis of language -- creating Spanish language ads and communication for the unacculturated, Spanish-speaking population while relying on their mainstream communication to reach more-acculturated, English-speaking Hispanics. Recently, however, marketers have started to realize that messages aimed at the general market may not resonate with more-acculturated Hispanics. A new report from Focalyst focuses on the 7 million Hispanic Boomers in the U.S. and examines whether marketers are missing important segments by using language as the defining characteristic.

There are more trailing Hispanic Boomers (64%) than in the General Market (57%), meaning that they have additional years before many will be reaching the age when critical insurance and financial decisions are made. Employment among Bicultural Hispanic Boomers is about equal to the General Market, however they earn 23% less income on average. Hispanic Boomers live in larger households (3.3 vs. 2.9 for the General Market), often made up of younger children, adult children, or older relatives. With extended families, Bicultural households have the largest household composition (3.6 people). Acculturated Boomers are the most likely to be a caregiver for a family member, with 14% recently taking on this role. Besides supporting larger households, a quarter of Hispanic Boomers are providing substantial financial support to someone outside of their homes. Acculturated Hispanic Boomers are more likely to aspire to continue their education (28%), while Bicultural Hispanics are almost twice as likely to desire to start a new business than the general market Boomer.

(Source: Radio Business Report, 2/7/08)

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