Hispanic market composed of several niche markets

Madison Avenue often homogenizes ethnic markets under tidy categories such as African American, Hispanic and Asian Americans. However, BIGresearch's latest Simultaneous Media Survey (SIMM 10) of 15,439 consumers indicates that the categorization into generic groups leaves marketers with an inaccurate picture of ethnic groups. This is particularly true with Hispanics as many of whom report being from multiple racial ethnic descents. In SIMM 10, Hispanics identified themselves racially as: as Caucasian (44.2%), Other Race / Heritage (34.6%) and Multi-Racial (16%). "The breakout of Hispanic/Caucasian, Hispanic/Other Race and Hispanic/Multi-Racial consumers reveals differing cultural identities within the categories which give a real insight into the complexity of marketing to Hispanics who have their own internal diversity," said Joe Pilotta, VP, Strategy of BIGresearch.

Advertisers should also pay close attention to age and income as social and cultural markers of mobility within Hispanic groups. For example, those Hispanics who identify themselves as being Caucasian are generally older and report a higher income than other Hispanic races. "Still too often marketers and advertisers lump Hispanics into over-simplified categories. Through increased research we aim to help advertisers and marketers better understand how they can optimize their ad dollars by effecting targeting niche markets within the Hispanic market that often times have more affinity for a product or service," said David Taggart, GM/Televisa Publishing.

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