The Hispanic market remains an important segment for most all vertical product and service sectors. As the Latino population grows and their socioeconomic power expands, the potential for increased profits exists for all companies. While major corporations are marketing at many levels to Hispanics, other marketers are still taking shots in the dark on how to best reach Latinos. Utilizing precious multicultural marketing dollars at optimal levels is important in getting the most out of those resources.
At BFG, we have been exploring Millennial Hispanics (Gen Y) and how they may or may not differ from older generations of Latinos. In an in-person, large-scale study BFG found that the Hispanic tradition of seeking product and service recommendations face-to-face has shifted among Millennial Hispanics ages 21-26. While younger Gen Y Latinos still seek face-to-face recommendations from family and friends, they more often go to the Internet.
More importantly, BFG found that the age 21-26 Hispanics look very much like Non-Hispanics in the same age cohort on numerous behavioral metrics. The 36+ aged Hispanics still rely mostly on family and friends as evidenced by significantly higher dependence compared to Non-Hispanics in the same age group in seeking product and service recommendations.
This introduces the question that if continued findings indicate that the youngest of the Millennial Latinos look and act very much like their Non-Hispanic friends, is there a need to break out marketing dollars into multicultural buckets for Millennials? Or, can you focus those dollars on older Hispanics and use general market approaches in marketing to younger Hispanics?
