Ad
agencies say companies missing opportunities to target Hispanics
By
Doreen Hemlock
Business Writer
April
22, 2004
Corporations are quickly boosting their spending
on ads aimed at U.S. Hispanics, but their outlays still fall relatively
short compared to the number of Latinos in the U.S. population.
That's the conclusion of a study released Wednesday
as part of an Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA)
meeting now under way in Coral Gables.
The report looked at 671 major corporate advertisers
and found they spent 5.1 percent of their total U.S. ad budgets
on Hispanic media last year, up from 3.6 percent in 2000.
Still, that falls below the 9 percent the researchers
figure they ought to spend in the mainly Spanish-language media,
so they can reach those Hispanics who prefer Spanish or who are
comfortable in both Spanish and English.
"While progress has been made, American
corporations continue to show insufficient investments to spark
sustained, profitable, revenue growth that is proportionate to
the huge opportunity in the Hispanic market," Aida Levitan,
the Miami-based Hispanic marketer and AAHA president said in a
statement announcing the results.
The report comes as Hispanics rapidly strengthen
their position as the largest minority in the United States, accounting
for about 12.5 percent of U.S. residents in 2000 and forecast
to reach nearly 15 percent next year. Nearly two-thirds of U.S.
Latinos are estimated to prefer Spanish or use both Spanish and
English, the study found.
Many giant corporations, including McDonald's
and PepsiCo, long have spent heavily on Hispanic media, exceeding
9 percent of their total U.S. ad outlays last year.
The biggest growth now is coming instead from
companies outside the top 100 advertisers and ranked in the 101-250
range, said the report, "Advertising Budget Alignment: Maximizing
Impact in the Hispanic Market."
By business category, retailers spent proportionally
more than manufacturers: 7.3 percent of their ad budgets compared
with 4.8 percent last year, said Carlos Santiago, president of
the New York-based Santiago Solutions Group that prepared the
study.
Consumer electronics chains, food retailers,
drug stores and telecom companies are among the biggest spenders
proportionally. Those spending least include pharmaceutical makers,
apparel makers, financial services and entertainment firms.
"The value of the Hispanic market is still
largely unrecognized in America's highest boardrooms and planning
organizations, while enterprises with an eye on cash registers,
store traffic and call volumes best seize Hispanic wallets,"
the report concluded.
San Diego-based TNS Market Development/CMR
analyzed the data for the study, which will be formally presented
at the AAHA meeting at the Biltmore Hotel today.
Doreen Hemlock can be reached at dhemlock@sun-sentinel.com
or 305-810-5009.
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