Marketing and the
Hispanic Market Segment
Marketing Research Paper
Maria Torres
12/12/2016
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Marketing and the Hispanic Market Segment
The Hispanic market segment of the United States’ population is important to marketing
and some of the reasons will be explained in this research paper. First, I would like to start by
explaining why market segmentation is important and its definition. Market segmentation is a
marketing strategy which involves dividing a broad target market into subsets of consumers,
businesses, or countries that have, or are perceived to have, common needs, interests, and
priorities, and then designing and implementing strategies to target them. As we all know, not all
people are the same even in the same culture, so it is important to find out what people want in
order to provide the right products to the correct consumer at the right place and at the right time.
This paper will focus mainly on the Hispanic segment for the reasons that will be explained next.
The first reason is because Hispanics are the largest growing minority in the United States.
According to the US Census Bureau, the United States has 50 million Hispanics and the project
this number to grow to 133 million by 2050. A second reason for choosing the Hispanic market
segment is because of their purchasing power. Hispanics purchasing power is on the rise. They
had a 1.5 trillion buying power in 2015, a staggering fifty percent increase from 2010. Their
purchasing power is growing at a faster pace than African American, Native American and Asian
buying power. This just shows that Hispanics have money to spend on the brands they like and
want. It has been shown that Hispanics spend more on fresh foods than other consumer groups in
the US. Understanding the influences of Hispanic shoppers and cuisine is far more multifaceted.
A third reason for studying the Hispanic market segment is because they normally are very loyal
to the brands they buy. The main point is to be consistent and to understand the culture levels
that exist between the people that recently moved to the United States and the ones that have
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been living in the US for a while. Based on the reasons mentioned above, it is important to look
at the Hispanic market segment. The body of this research paper will be developed in the
following sections: where do Hispanics come from? How to target the Hispanic market segment?
Language and bilingual advertising, businesses that have been successful at targeting Hispanics
and finally future generations in the Hispanic market segment.
This section of the research paper will explain: where do Hispanics come from? First, it is
important to look at the meaning of the word Hispanic, and why people use it. Hispanic comes
from the Latin word for Spain, and it has a broader reference that encompasses all Spanish
speaking people, and it emphasizes the common denominator of language among communities
that might sometimes seem to have little else in common. People sometimes use the word Latino
which means Latin. This word refers more specifically to the people or communities of Latin
American Spanish speaking origin. Hispanic is preferred over Latino because it is more general
among those expressing a preference, while those having no preference constitute a majority
overall. Based on nationality, Mexicans are sixty three percent of the Hispanic population. The
group that follows them is Puerto Rican with nine percent. Cubans are third on the list with three
and a half percent. The fourth group in the list is Salvadorians with three percent. Spanish are
eight on the list with one point three percent. All the countries that follow them are mainly from
South America. As we can see, there is a variety of cultures in the United States, so it is
important to use the right tools and understand each of the cultures to target the right market.
The next section of this research paper will explain some of the best techniques to target the
Hispanic market segment.
This section of the research paper will explain how to target the Hispanic consumer based
on experiences and research that has been done before. Finding the best techniques to target the
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Hispanic consumer is essential to meet a successful goal. There are a few things that companies
can do to market to the Hispanic consumer and they will be mentioned next. First, it is important
to have clear goals and objectives. A lot of companies that fail to target Hispanics don’t do the
required research to market their products to this specific group. These companies have an
unclear view of their goals and objectives. Companies need to have a strategy that is based on
data and facts. An example of a company that failed to do this is Anheuser Busch. They had a
very hard time trying to market to the Hispanic segment, but when they hired InBev that had a
Brazilian management, things changed for them. The new management understood the culture
and how to target this market giving them a competitive advantage over the competition.
Another thing that businesses can do to target the Hispanic segment is to hire people that have
knowledge and understanding of the Hispanic market. They don’t have to be Hispanic to be
