After a recent meeting with Entravision, a Spanish-language media company based in California, to discuss media partnership opportunities for a client, NST was encouraged to take a deeper look into the Hispanic market.
What we found reinforced what we already knew – Spanish-language outreach can be a valuable component of public relations.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Hispanic population increased 5 percent from 2000 to 2010, while the non-Hispanic population increased only 2 percent. Overall, Hispanics now number nearly 1 million in the San Diego market, which means approximately one out of every three San Diegans is Hispanic.
Because the Hispanic population is fast-growing, relatively young and has larger households, they can potentially be more vital to future growth in consumer spending. According to 2013 Nielsen Universe, Hispanics are more likely to be involved in the up-and-coming “best years of economic influence and acquisition.”
However, many companies fail to include the Hispanic market when discussing who their target audience should be. This could be due to language barriers or lack of information, but this audience should not be ignored.
Since 91 percent of English-speaking Hispanics in San Diego prefer to speak Spanish at home, it would be valuable to reach them with advertisements and other media announcements in their preferred language. Even as many Hispanics are bilingual, they may appreciate and respond better to companies who make the effort to communicate to them in Spanish. For example, if a company were to have a Spanish-speaking spokesperson for interviews and community events, Hispanics may better relate and feel like their concerns are being met.
Targeting the Hispanic population can positively influence brand awareness and with San Diego being the 12th largest Hispanic market in the U.S., it will be hard to ignore this market. In fact, Global Insight’s 2010 Hispanic Market Monitor estimates that San Diego’s $22.4 billion Hispanic buying power is expected to grow 22 percent by 2015. For that reason and many others, open your mind and help tear down this language barrier by directing more attention to the Hispanic population.
