The Hispanic population in the United States will grow to 103 million by the year 2050, from 40 million at present. Currently, one in eight Americans is of Hispanic origin: 66.1 percent from Mexico; 14.5 percent from Central or South America; 9 percent from Puerto Rico; and 4 percent from Cuba. In that same time, the Caucasian-American population will decrease 19 percent.
That’s why smart direct marketers are focusing on building a powerful presence in the Hispanic market, and they’re beginning their marketing programs right now.
Some industry analysts think that 70 percent of financial services growth will come from the Hispanic marketplace. No DMer can afford to ignore this market. You must have a specific program in place to reach out to this powerful segment of the market.
This is particularly attractive for banks because 56 percent of America’s Hispanics have never had any kind of bank account. Hispanic wealth and population are rising three times faster than the U.S. average. This translates to a massive opportunity, not just for financial services DMers, but for every company engaged in direct marketing. This new group is worth $200 billion in new business over the next decade.
The facts don’t just pertain to individual consumers. The number of Hispanic-owned businesses is expected to grow 55 percent to 3.2 million by 2010. In this period, total Hispanic-owned business revenue will increase 70 percent to almost half a trillion dollars.
Within five years, the purchasing power of the U.S. Hispanic population will reach $1 trillion. That’s larger than the GDP of Mexico. This massive income will be spent on every consumer product and service.
Many list providers have created specifically Hispanic mailing lists to help direct marketers reach these consumers. Each month about 400,000 Hispanic new move names are identified. Almost 200,000 Hispanic new credit card issues are brought to the mailing list marketplace monthly. And there are general consumer mail response files that generate more than 100,000 Hispanic monthly hotline names.
There also are Hispanic business-to-business lists. One example is the Net-Exec@Work BTB file, which has almost 500,000 Hispanic business executives.
There are also many Hispanic database lists available from various list compilers, most offering selections including age, income and other demographic data.
Don’t think of this as just another market into which you can expand. Between the shrinking Caucasian population and the rapidly expanding Hispanic population, you must address this critical segment.
