May 29, 2006
"Our People Die for This Country . . . We are Proud of It"
A decorated U.S. veteran of Hispanic descent talks to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the contributions and sacrifices of Hispanic veterans:
On Memorial Day morning, Texas will bury another young hero.
A crowd in an Edinburg church will gather for Benny Ramirez. At 21, he was killed Sunday by a roadside bomb in Iraq.
The crowd has been there before. Edinburg has given four lives for America in Iraq.
Ramirez is one of 67 Texans of Hispanic descent killed in Iraq, some from immigrant families who came to the U.S. hoping for citizenship.
Posted by John at 10:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackYet elsewhere on Memorial Day, some politician will probably demand that America "stop the invasion" and send troops to protect America from people who look like Ramirez.
One veteran isn't afraid.
"The children of Mexican immigrants have a proud history of fighting to defend this country," said Tony Morales of Fort Worth.
He is the national commander of the Colorado-based American GI Forum, the primary national organization for Hispanic veterans and their families.
In a time when some American veterans join border-patrol militias, GI Forum strongly favors legal work permits for immigrants and opposes the U.S. House immigration bill as a "racial discrimination effort by those who fear change."
Complaints about an "invasion" are simply "a rallying cry for people who don't like Hispanics," Morales said. "They don't like Mexicanos, in particular."
If somebody says, "I'm only against illegal immigrants," Morales said, "that's just sugar-coating."
Often, the same complainers call anyone of Hispanic descent "illegals."
"I think deep down, they still have this racist attitude embedded in them," Morales said. "They don't want to accept somebody who might be different."
Morales, 66, served in France and Germany in the 1950s with the Air Force's 417th Tactical Fighter Squadron.
He is serving his second term as commander of the 145,000-member GI Forum, founded by a Corpus Christi doctor in 1948. The organization took up the cause of defending Hispanic veterans' rights in 1949, after a South Texas funeral home turned away the body of a Hispanic soldier.
Soldiers of Hispanic descent not only fought proudly in World War II, they fought heroically, earning 12 Medals of Honor -- more per capita than any other demographic group.
"History shows that we have always been there to fight for freedom," Morales said.
"Veterans should remember who has been fighting alongside them in World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Our people die for this country. We are proud of it." . . .
May 28, 2006
A Dying Mexico, A Rising "united states of Americas"
Richard Rodriguez has a challenging commentary in the Washington Post on the death of Mexico and the attendent rise of the "united states of Americas":
Posted by John at 05:14 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBackWhen I tell Mexicans I think their country is dying (as a vision and economic reality separate from the United States), they take my remark as an affront. They tell me Mexico will always be different from the United States.
But a recent poll taken twice (over several months) by the Pew Hispanic Center found that more than 40 percent of Mexicans would emigrate to the United States if given the opportunity. Twenty percent would be willing to emigrate illegally.
In the initial survey, 41 percent indicated they would leave Mexico if they had the means and chance. Three months later, the percentage rose to 46 percent. Included were people of the middle class: Around 35 percent of college graduates would emigrate from Mexico; 13 percent would be willing to enter the United States illegally.
A nation that cannot feed its young with dreams but cuts its milk with memory and sand is going to starve the future; it is going to die. The only place where people will continue to hold on to Mexico will be in the United States.
Because of the illegal immigrant, we are all entering the hemisphere. There are now too many Mexicans in "America" and too many "Americans" in Mexico for any of us to avoid the New World: the united states of Americas.
May 26, 2006
Wachovia Now Has 30,000 Customers Receiving Spanish Language Statements
Wachovia announced that 30,000 of its customers have signed up to receive Spanish language statements and statement inserts.
Given what a relatively small footprint the bank has currently in two of the nation's most populous states, California and Texas, and how recently the bank started this initiative, this growth strikes me as something worth crowing about in a press release.
Posted by John at 04:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackMay 23, 2006
Hispanics Fill Over 42 Percent of Jobs Created Since April 2005
Posted by John at 04:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackOn an annual basis, employment of Hispanics has increased by 1,063,000 jobs, bringing the Hispanic unemployment rate down from 6.4 percent in April 2005 to the current 5.4 percent. Overall, the U.S. economy has added 2,492,000 jobs since April 2005. Hispanics have filled 42.7 percent of those positions, despite being only 13.6 percent of the total U.S. labor force.
May 18, 2006
Univision Taking on the English Language Competition for Ratings
It's upfront season, in which various networks unveil their new shows for the upcoming television season. Univision is making the case for being considered an equal to the large mainstream networks:
Claiming to be out-rating one of the Big Four networks among the 18-34 demographic every other night, Hispanic network Univision has today unveiled its own 2006/07 mini-upfront.
Univision, since December included in Nielsen's National Television Index (NTI), "is now competing in a new arena in which our ratings successes can be seen in the same playing field as that of the English-language networks," said Alina Falcon, executive VP and operating manager, Univision Television Network. . . .
Given their recent performance, and the underlying trend of their core demographic, such talk is not idle boastfulness, by any means.
Posted by John at 07:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackMay 14, 2006
Latinos Driving What Little Growth Exists in Supermarket Shopping
Latinos are driving what little growth there is in supermarket shopping, said Libbey Paul, a senior vice president of marketing at ACNielsen, the marketing information company.
A quote from this story on how food marketers are targeting the Latino market.
Posted by John at 09:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackMay 13, 2006
Mexico's Static Economy Produces a Large Quantity of Exports: People
If you want to understand why so many Mexicans are seeking to enter the United States--with its vibrant job market--you simply need to read Mary Anastasia O'Grady's latest Wall Street Journal column:
. . . World Bank economists estimate that developing countries need annual growth rates of 5% to 6% for at least a decade to begin to move people out of poverty. But Mexican GDP growth from 1997 to 2005 averaged just 3.5% a year -- and a good part of that was attributable to the post-devaluation bounce of the late 1990s. Mexico's modernizers have fair warning: Either produce better results or risk going the way of Bolivia.
The economy's anemic performance can be best observed in the export sector. Mexico's share of U.S. imports fell to 10.2% in 2005 from 11.5% in 2001 and that includes oil. Strip out oil, and the deterioration is even worse. Mexican bureaucrats like to blame this on "unfair" competition from China but the truth is that Mexico, sitting on the border of the world's largest economy, has been unable to exploit its own comparative advantages.
The reason is simple. A 21st-century economy is shackled by 20th-century monopolies, vestiges of the old Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), in some of the economy's most crucial sectors. Single or dominant players control pricing in telecommunications, cement, transportation, electricity and oil. Market data show that Mexicans are overpaying for all of it. This impacts living standards for consumers. But it also hurts Mexican output. Growth is damped and so are new opportunities. Capital is misallocated and excess labor persists. On the export front, producers have little choice but to pass their high costs on to their customers, which means they become less competitive in world markets.
If Mexico is to enter the global growth game it has to reduce its internal cost of production. This isn't rocket science. But it is rather inconvenient for the Mexican political class, which relies heavily on the monopolists as its clients. What is particularly discouraging is that it may have become cheaper than ever for domestic producers to buy political influence since the collapse of one-party rule under the PRI. With politicians weaker today than they used to be, they can be more dependent on special interests.
This could explain why leadership on the competition question has disappeared just at the time it is so badly needed. Three weeks ago, in a stunning rejection of economic reality, the Mexican Congress made it illegal to discount the sale of books. By legalizing price collusion among distributors, Congress has ensured that discounters can't move into the market.
For years Mexico has been running in place, failing to create jobs for its own citizens. Naturally, Mexicans wanting jobs leave, and gravitate toward the closest job producer: the United States. It's no coincidence that immigration into the United States ebbs and flows based on U.S. economic performance and associated job creation.
Ireland, for many years, had something in common with today's Mexico: it's largest export, seemingly, was young people. More recently, growth-oriented policies have turned Ireland into one of Europe's shining economic stars. Consequently and not surprisingly, Ireland's migration issue has changed from emigration to immigration.
What all this points to is that immigration is not a state issue, or even a national issue for the United States. It starts with the domestic economy of Mexico, which for this country means immigration must be addressed as a matter of foreign policy.
Posted by John at 10:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackMay 11, 2006
U.S.-Born Hispanics, Not Immigrants, Driving U.S. Population Growth
Posted by John at 12:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackHispanics remain the USA's fastest-growing minority group, but most of their population increase comes from births here rather than immigration, according to Census Bureau estimates released Tuesday.
As debate over immigration policy roils the nation, government numbers show that 60% of the 1.3 million new Hispanics in 2005 are citizens because they were born here.
"When all the attention is on immigration, natural increase is what's driving the population change," says Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center. . . .
In effect, the data show that even if immigration came to a standstill, the Hispanic population boom would not end for at least another generation. . . .
William Frey, demographer at the Brookings Institution, says one of every two new Americans every year is Hispanic.
"Hispanics are here, and they're part of our future, and they're a large part of our young population," he says. "They're a part of America because they're born in America."
May 03, 2006
Before Mexicans, It was the Irish, the Poles, the Jews, the Italians, the Chinese . . .
In a commentary I urge you to read in full, Bill Walker at LewRockwell.com observes that American fear of foreigners is an obsession older than the Republic itself:
Posted by John at 05:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackFrom the very beginning of the Republic, American politicians have made emotional political capital out of the fear of foreign devils. First, in the 1700s, it was those irresponsible Germans who would threaten our "essentially English" culture (presumably from their excessive punctuality and thrift). After the Germans had become our second-largest ethnicity, worry turned to the aforementioned lazy, drunken Irish. The Irish in turn having become so popular that more people claim to be Irish than really are, other groups replaced them as the menace o’ the day. The stupid Swedes, the mindless Poles, the un-Christian Jews, the too-Catholic Italians, even the obscure Croatians (who sent us such shiftless drifters as Tesla); all this teeming refuse and more deluged our shores. In 1910, 14.7 percent of US residents were foreign born, much higher than today’s 10 percent or so.
All this occurred without much real interference from politicians. Only the Orientals suffered from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, passed because of the well-known racial inferiority of the Chinese. It was obvious to the Americans of 1882 that no nation composed of Chinamen would ever be able to excel in the sciences…
In the 1920s, more brilliant Aryan master-race schemes were passed. One group restricted were the Japanese, thus ensuring that hundreds of thousands of smart, hard-working people were forced to stay in Hirohito’s Japan and work for Mitsubishi et. al.
Fortunately, not all the European Jews were kept from escaping to America before WWII. Though many thousands kept out by immigration restrictions went to unnecessary deaths in the Holocaust, at least most of the nuclear physicists managed to escape involuntary employment under Hitler. Jingoists should think really hard about an alternate WWII where Germany had not only the best jet aircraft, the most advanced cruise and ballistic missiles, but nuclear bombs as well.
When the best and brightest people can flee to the most peaceful and freest nations, the whole world is safer.
[emphasis mine]Libertarians should have learned by now to be a little suspicious when politicians offer to solve our problems with the use of minefields and secret police. Especially when it’s the same politicians who created the problems in the first place.
We laugh at the stupidity of our ancestors, who sincerely believed that Irish were all lazy drunks, Jews had low IQs, Chinese could not be doctors, etc. We now know that Irish are very productive drunks, Jews have inherently high IQs (the fact that their mothers make them study hard can’t have anything to do with it, of course), and only Chinese or Indians can be doctors or scientists (math courses are too much work for white students). However, as with any other area of life, these things are more accurately discovered by market processes rather than by a large secret police bureaucracy. . . .
April 30, 2006
Fear of Immigration Raids Shutting Down Construction Sites in South Florida
Thousands of construction workers stayed away from job sites this week in fear of immigration raids, crippling hundreds of projects underway in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
Feeling the strain: One of South Florida's key industries that is already short of workers in the middle of a building boom.
. . . since Tuesday, the [Associated General Contractors] estimates that as much as 75 percent of its local workforce hasn't shown up.
Posted by John at 08:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack"It's not better today than it was yesterday," said Len Mills, the CEO and executive vice president of Associated General Contractors' Florida East Coast Chapter.
Although he would not identify the companies involved, Mills gave examples of several Miami-Dade job sites: At one, there were 450 workers on the job before Tuesday -- on Thursday just 112; at another, there were 114, and now there are none. He said the problem was also widespread in Broward.
Moss & Associates' Bruce Moldow said the company was experiencing "severely reduced" staffing on its projects, especially those in early stages working with pouring concrete and laying rebar.
"It's more, I think, because of rumor than fact," said Moldow, an executive vice president with the Fort Lauderdale-based company.
"The scuttlebutt in the industry is that there have been one or two actual raids, but it has impacted every job in Miami." . . .
Several construction companies say they believe that many of the workers may be documented, but are still afraid of being caught up in immigration raids.
"When you talk to the employees, the vast majority are legal, but they're Hispanic and they're scared they're going to be get dragged into something," said Moldow. "Nobody wants to get caught without their papers and taken in." . . .
What Nashville's Hispanics Want the Rest of Us to Know
The Nashville Tennessean offers the "Top 10 things Hispanic Nashville wants the rest of us to know." The list includes "We are not all Mexican" and "We do not want to change the United States of America."
Posted by John at 06:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackApril 12, 2006
A Message of Respect and Responsibility
My partner Sam Zamarripa made a speech earlier this week at the Atlanta march for immigrants this past Monday. It's message is eloquently clear: respect and responsibility for both people and the law:
Posted by John at 11:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackI am here today to speak for dignity and respect for each of you and for your families.
I am here to speak for the dignity of your work and to speak of your contribution. I know you work with your hands every day to make our economy strong and powerful for the future. I know you work hard to support your families. I know you have a dream. I believe in your dreams. Thank you for your work. Thank you for working with your hands. Thank you for supporting your families and for your work for America.
I am also here to speak to hope. Hope for comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level and hope for new laws for this country and new laws for each of you.
I am here to speak for understanding; understanding for your dreams and for the dreams of all Americans. I believe there is a path of hope for each of you, and a path of hope for this country. This path will make all of us stronger together and an example for the world to see.
While I speak for dignity and respect for you---and while I speak for hope for you, your families and this great country--I also speak for responsibility. I want the business community to be responsible to the American public. American business depends on immigration to make our economy strong, competitive and growing. American business must send a message to Washington to support immigration reform. American business leaders must be responsible for our future and speak out on our long term need for immigrants. If you as immigrants can stand up for dignity and respect, American business leaders should stand up for the truth about our economy. If you can come out of the shadows, American business leaders should stand with you.
But there is more. I am here to ask more of you. I am here to ask each of you to understand more about this great country. We all must respect the laws. We all must understand American democracy. We all must respect American culture and values. I know this is not a part of dignity and respect for you today, but it is a part of the dignity and respect for the future of this country. This is important for our future together.
I ask you to understand that we are a country of laws. Our immigration laws and immigration system are very important to the future of the United States and to each of you. Today the immigration laws are broken. They must be reformed. When we have national reform, this will be a new opportunity for all of you and, most important a new level of responsibility for each of you. Like immigrants before you, our country is stronger because we are a country of immigrants. In the future these laws will protect you and the future of this country.
So, I am here to ask each of you to take more responsibility for the future of the United States. I am here to stand for dignity and respect for you and I am here to stand for the respect for the future of this country. I know this future includes each of you and this is why I ask for you to understand this message today.
Last, I am here thank you for your faith in the American dream. It is the most powerful dream in the world. Thank you for your hard work, for your courage and for your determination to make a better life. I pray for success with immigration reform. I pray for you and your families. I pray for understanding between all people and I pray for my country.
Make no mistake. I march with you today because I know who you are and I respect you more than you know. May God bless you and this great country. Thank you for being here. I am with you.
April 09, 2006
Wanted: An Hispanic Country Music Star
Posted by John at 08:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack"All we need is a hero, somebody the Hispanic community would relate to and who wants to play country music and get a song on country radio," said Mike Dungan, president and chief executive of EMI Group Plc's Capitol Nashville, home to stars like Kenny Rogers and Keith Urban. . . .
Dungan is looking for an artist of Hispanic heritage who can compete for space on contemporary country radio. "We know that there exist Hispanic fans of country music. We see them at our shows. I believe that a bona fide star that comes from this community could have a huge career," said Dungan, who also serves as president of the Country Music Association.
April 03, 2006
"Electric Motors" for Georgia: Hispanic-Owned Businesses
The Atlanta Business Chronicle just published an editorial of mine on the extraordinary growth of Hispanic-owned businesses in Georgia. In it I referred to these enterprises as an "electric motor" for Georgia. Read my piece in full to see why I used that reference:
In the 1830s, an English inventor named Michael Faraday constructed several devices that were crude predecessors of the electric motor. Several years later he demonstrated his contraptions to William Gladstone, who later became prime minister.
"What possible good is it?" asked Gladstone.
"Someday," Faraday replied, "you'll be able to tax it."
Posted by John at 03:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackThis story comes to mind after Kia Motors announced its intention to build an auto plant in Georgia and SBC announced its acquisition of BellSouth Corp., which will likely mean the loss of an estimated 10,000 jobs.
Additionally, the U.S. Census Bureau recently released a report on Hispanic-owned businesses. The Bureau revealed our state's Hispanic-owned businesses rose by 56 percent from 1997-2002, an increase which places Georgia second in the nation.
Moreover, Hispanic-owned business generated $4.2 billion in sales in 2002, 122 percent higher than in 1997.
Georgia places very high in new-business formation among African-Americans and Asian-Americans as well. Based on preliminary Census Bureau figures already released, the state will rank eighth in growth of new African-American-owned businesses. Moreover, Georgia will likely rank fourth in growth of new Asian-American-owned businesses when final figures are released in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, large companies like BellSouth have proved to be employment eliminators in recent years. Federal government statistics for 2001-2002 reveal that Georgia-based firms of 500 employees or more cut more than 81,000 jobs during this period. Such large companies were the primary cause for a loss of total state employment by more than 88,000 jobs from 2001 to 2002.
It's great to have big wins like Kia. Yet one of the key statistics in the Kia win is zero. That's the amount of state, county and city property taxes Kia will pay over the next 16 years.
Meanwhile, Georgia's tax-paying minority businesses keep growing in their influence on the state's economy and their contribution to the state's coffers.
For Gladstone, Faraday's invention was a "someday" proposition. For the coffers of the state of Georgia, however, Hispanic- owned businesses are a today's reality.
March 26, 2006
Demographics in the Americas and Their Effect on Migration and Prosperity
Andres Oppenheimer, the sage observer of the Americas who writes for the Miami Herald, takes a look at the demographic future of Latin America, with some interesting conclusions:
Posted by John at 10:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack. . . we may soon see a migration in the opposite direction: American baby boomers heading south of the border for their retirement years, seeking cheaper healthcare, more sun and more affordable living conditions.
There already are an estimated one million American retirees in Mexico, and hundreds of thousands more in Central and South America. While U.S. isolationists say undocumented migrants bloat hospital costs in the United States, their Latin American counterparts may soon say the same about U.S. retirees.
The reason for all of this is that Latin America's population is aging fast, and the region soon will have a much smaller pool of young people ready to work in the United States, Spain or other developed countries.
According to the United Nations Population Division, the number of Latin American and Caribbean people age 18 to 23 will drop from nearly 63 million nowadays to 59.6 million in 2050. Conversely, the number of people over 65 in the region will rise from 6.4 percent of the population nowadays to 18.4 percent in 2050.
"The United States always takes it for granted that people from all over the world want to move here. In 20 to 30 years, it may not be that easy to attract human capital to this country," says Phillip Longman, a demographer with the New American Foundation and author of The Empty Cradle: How falling birthrates threaten world prosperity.
In a telephone interview, Longman told me that countries like Spain, Germany and Japan will increasingly compete with the United States for new immigrants. "Immigrants will be a hot commodity," he said. . . .
Declining birth rates may allow most of Latin American countries -- with few exceptions, mostly in Central America -- to enjoy a few years of social peace before their populations grow old, and they have to take care of their elderly. In the short run, fewer children will mean the region will need to create relatively fewer jobs.
"In pure demographic terms, Latin America is poised to have a fairly prosperous period for about the next 30 years, which is another reason why fewer Latin Americans may need to migrate," said Longman. "You have this little sweet spot, where you have few children but not too many elders."
March 21, 2006
Georgia Tops in Growth of Hispanic-Owned Businesses
The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports:
Posted by John at 09:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackGeorgia tied with Rhode Island as the state with the second-fastest rate of growth for Hispanic-owned businesses between 1997 and 2002, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released March 21.
New York had the fastest rate of growth -- 57 percent -- for Hispanic-owned firms between 1997 and 2002. Rhode Island and Georgia came in second with 56 percent, while Nevada and South Carolina had 48 percent rates of growth. . . .
"Apparently Hispanic buying power is generating enough capital to generate this sort of business formation," said Jeffrey M. Humphreys, forecasting director of The University of Georgia's Selig Center for Economic Growth. "It's very consistent in that Georgia ranked third for Hispanic buying power in 2005. Georgia's Hispanics are upwardly mobile striving to climb the economic ladder, and not a static population. But this is particularly interesting given the youthful nature of our Hispanic population."
The Selig Center's most recent survey of minority buying power shows Georgia Hispanics' buying power grew from $6.3 billion in 2000 to $10.6 billion in 2005. And that buying power is projected to hit $17.3 billion in Georgia in 2010.
Humphreys noted Georgia's Hispanic population is focused around metro Atlanta, particularly Gwinnett County, and is more urban than in some states.
"I suspect that also plays a role in business formation, since Hispanics in urban areas are more likely to start new businesses than those in rural areas," he said. "Buying power is the building block for wealth."
Humphreys expects Georgia will remain a top state for growth in Hispanic population, buying power and business formation. . . .
How Mexican and U.S. Citizens View Each Other
Zogby International and CIDAC have released interesting results of a jointly conducted poll performed in the United States and in Mexico.
U.S. citizens have a different view of Mexican immigrants than what some voices, claiming to represent "groundswell opinion," would have us believe. Further, while Mexican citizens’ hold some views of the United States which are generally negative, they share some interesting opinions in common with their counterparts in the U.S.:
Posted by John at 08:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack. . . Only 36 percent of Mexicans polled said they had a positive view of their northern neighbors, while 62 percent of Mexicans said they thought the United States is a wealthier nation because it exploits others.
This differed from the responses on the U.S. side, where 84 percent said they had a favorable view of Mexicans. Positive attitudes were especially high in states in the Pacific and Mountain time zones - areas which generally have larger Mexican populations.
Seventy percent in the United States, meanwhile, said the economic success of their country was due to better opportunities to work, and only 12 percent said it was the result of exploiting others.
However, a strong majority of respondents from both countries - 80 percent of Mexicans and 68 percent of Americans polled - said that Mexican migrants have a positive impact on the U.S. economy.
Regarding the U.S.-Mexico relationship, a slim majority from both sides agreed the other country is important to the future of their own nation. Sixty-two percent in the United States said they thought a strong relationship with Mexico is important for the future, while 52 percent of Mexicans said that solid relations with the United States are essential.
However, respondents in both countries have little esteem for their neighboring governments: 27 percent in the United States said they have good feelings about the Mexican government, while an equal 27 percent of Mexicans said the same about the U.S. government.
Additionally, nearly half of those polled in the United States (49 percent) said that their country sees Mexico as a distant neighbor, while 30 percent said Mexico was perceived as a friend and 12 percent said as a partner. Thirty-six percent of Mexicans, meanwhile, said the United States sees Mexico as a distant neighbor. Only 20 percent said Mexico was perceived as a partner, and 18 percent said as an enemy.
But a majority in both nations - 69 percent in the United States and 90 percent in Mexico - disagree with a recent U.S. proposal of building a border wall. A majority on both sides also said it is important for their children to learn the other nation´s language. Seventy-nine percent of those polled in the United States chose Spanish as the most important from a list of languages, while 88 percent of Mexicans chose English from the same list. . . .
March 20, 2006
The Hispanic Contribution to Central Florida's Growth
Posted by John at 10:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackThe hundreds of thousands of Hispanics who have settled in Central Florida are contributing more to the area than just raw population growth.
The Hispanic population -- growing by four people every hour for the past five years to zoom past the half-million mark in 2005 -- now pumps more than $16 billion into the region.
And Hispanics' economic contribution, by supplying labor, creating businesses and spending money in the communities where they live, is expected to jump beyond $20 billion during the next two years. . . .
Hispanics in Central Florida grew by 49 percent since 2000, adding up to 549,563 by last year. Most Hispanics reside in Orange County, but Lake and Osceola showed the highest pace of growth at more than 70 percent.
Hispanics spent $8.2 billion in Central Florida last year. As of the current year, they have also created about 20,000 businesses that employ close to 200,000 people. Their yearly spending, which multiplies in impact as those dollars filter through other sectors of the economy, is expected to top $10 billion within two years. . . .
March 19, 2006
Selling Cars to Today’s Hispanics, While Working for a Future Generation
German Vidal is the top Honda salesman in the Washington, DC area, and one of the top ten in the country, reports the Washington Post. He’s a naturalized American originally from Bolivia.
Last year Vidal sold 348 cars at Ourisman Honda in well-to-do Bethesda, Maryland, where Latin American, as the Post notes, is "presumed to be a cuisine, not a market." About half of Vidal’s customers are Hispanic:
Posted by John at 11:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackThe Hispanic car salesman must also be savvy to differences. Hispanics are much more likely to take the advice of friends and relatives about what to buy and who to buy it from. They seek a guide in a land of dizzying choices and information overload.
If a car has a problem, a non-Hispanic buyer will report to the service department. Not Hispanics.
"They come and see the salesperson, even if the service person speaks Spanish," says Gus Casabe, used-car manager at Alexandria Toyota, one of a handful of Hispanic salesmen in the area as long-established as Vidal. "It's some kind of different relationship between the salesperson and the customer than American people have. . . . Once you get into a relationship with a Spanish customer, unless you do something crazy, it's almost forever."
Vidal says this customer loyalty is simply a cultural instinct of Latinos -- a triumph of the relational over the transactional. "That's what we are," is how Vidal explains it. "It's our culture back home." . . .
Over the years, the car biz has sometimes kept Vidal away from his family. He turned down chances to be promoted to manager, he says, because a salesman can control his hours, and Vidal can take time off for spontaneous family events. He is private about his earnings, but a salesman at his level can make $150,000 to $250,000 a year in commissions, more than a salaried manager.
He works so hard, he says, to keep his daughters, Alicia, 14, and Nicole, 12, in private Catholic school and give them the very best university education. That way, they may ascend into those mythic professional classes -- the realm of people who write checks for the entire cost of an Odyssey, or who brought Mercedes to his father's garage.
Whatever his girls do, he "will be very proud," he says. "That's the only thing I want." . . .
March 15, 2006
Gains in Spanish Language Media Expenditures Remain Sizzling
From Broadcasting & Cable:
Posted by John at 10:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackTotal advertising expenditures climbed 4.2% in 2005 over the previous year, with Internet, Spanish-language TV and cable leading the way. Network and spot TV, however, lagged behind.
The hottest ad category last year was online, jumping 23.3%, followed by Spanish-language TV (up 16.9%) and cable (11%), according to a new report from Nielsen Monitor-Plus . . .
March 10, 2006
Univision, the Horse and Buggy Company?
Univision’s sale is timely, not only for the reasons I’ve mentioned previously, but because the Latino audience is getting more complex and multi-hued. This complexity does not fit with Univision’s rather monochromatic approach to the market.
Today's front page New York Times article explains this issue quite well:
Any new owner would have to wrestle with the shifting dynamics of the company's audience. More Latinos are American-born and English-speaking, and their tastes in television are changing more quickly than Univision's shows.
That poses challenges not only for Univision but for other Spanish- and English-language networks. For the first time, networks on each side of the language divide could significantly expand their audiences by pursuing the same demographic group: second- and third-generation Latinos who are bilingual or speak mostly English and are as likely to watch "Fear Factor" on NBC as "El Gordo y la Flaca" ("The Scoop and the Skinny") on Univision, and who are largely underserved in either language.
"This audience wants to be validated," said Jeff Valdez, founder of SiTV, a two-year-old English-language cable network that caters to young Latinos and multicultural urban youth. "They want to see themselves on screen. They want to hear their stories." . . .
So far, Univision, whose officials declined to be interviewed, has captured Latino audiences of all ages both by keeping English out of its programs and commercials and by sticking to a prime-time lineup anchored in telenovelas from Mexico. There has been little reason to change — of the 100 most-watched Spanish-language shows in the United States, Nielsen Media Research figures show, 90 are on Univision.
But the ground is shifting under this powerhouse. Births are outpacing immigration as the main source of Latino growth, and these American-born Latinos — already 60 percent of all Latinos — are less likely to primarily speak Spanish and are better educated, higher earners and more prone to marry outside their ethnic group than the immigrant generations that preceded them. As television viewers, a recent study found, they prefer programming in English, though at least half also watch Spanish programs. . . .
"Imagine if this big giant allowed for some sort of hybrid programming," said David R. Morse, president and chief executive of New American Dimensions, which conducted the study of younger Latino viewers.
"I think of them as a horse-and-buggy company," he said of Univision. "In 1910, 1920, people are going to want to drive automobiles, and you should be getting into the automobile business." . . .
Calling Univision the horse-and-buggy company may be a bit far-fetched, as the company has considerable resources which will only be augmented if a group led by Televisa gets a deal done.
That said, consider Univision’s business model and approach to its viewers in the context of Jennifer Woodard Maderazo’s comment on her blog, Latin_KNOW: The Latino Marketing Report:
Until marketers realize that "Latino" is a term that we lazily use to define a community -- one that doesn't exist outside of the United States -- that is extremely diverse and comprised of people as different among themselves as they are from you, no one will truly conquer this market.
It’s just about impossible, in the media world, to be "extremely diverse" and maintain an 80% market share. The mainstream networks couldn’t do it, and there’s no reason to expect Univision to be any different.
Posted by John at 11:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackMarch 09, 2006
Marketers Miss the Mark on Young Latinos
Marketers at present are doing a poor job of reaching young Latinos, according to a newly released survey. The problem, in part, arises from a failure to grasp the subtle and complex ways Latino youth view themselves: both Latino and American, both English and Spanish speaking.
Posted by John at 04:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackNearly four-fifths (79%) of 14- to 34-year-old Hispanics cannot identify a brand that accurately targets young Latinos, according to a major new study released at a New York conference—Me2: Understanding the Young Latino in America—last week.
"It shows that this is a group that is not being well-served by existing media," says Sharon Lee, co-president and co-founder of the unusually named Look-Look, a marketing company that conducted the study on behalf of Telemundo’s youth-oriented network, Mun2. “There is a huge opportunity here for anyone who understands their needs and learns how to engage them.” . . .
The Look-Look study, which included a quantitative survey of 1,800 Hispanic youths and an in-depth qualitative look at their attitudes, took a different approach, focusing on attitudes and lifestyles as the best ways to define the group.
"Over and over, we heard young Latinos complaining that they didn’t want to be defined by looks—darker hair, eyes or skin—and that they were tired of being asked to prove they were Hispanic by speaking Spanish," says Look-Look’s Lee.
When asked how they defined themselves, young Hispanics in the Look-Look study identified themselves first as being part of a youth culture, then as Hispanics and third as Americans.
Their identity as Latinos was also extremely fluid, changing with the social context. Many said they acted more Latino at home or with their Hispanic friends but might act more American in school.
And, in many places, both identities were in play, with 59% of young Hispanics saying they were both American and Hispanic in public places and nearly half saying they express both identities in school or with non-Hispanic friends.
The study also found that young Hispanics had high aspirations for the future, and it outlined a series of attitudes—being family-oriented, proud of their heritage, hardworking, religious and success-oriented—that play key roles in defining the Latino identity.
While many expressed strong attachments to their country of origin and worried that they might lose their culture, a very large majority (77%) also saw themselves as being in control of their identities. That is a marked break from earlier immigrant populations, who faced significant pressures to assume a certain Americanized identity. . . .
Another significant break in the current Hispanic population from earlier immigrant groups, Lee believes, is that "they are very success-oriented but they want to stay connected to their family and heritage. In the past, to achieve the American dream, people felt you had to leave your community. [Young Hispanics today] don’t feel that need. They want to succeed, but they don’t want to abandon their community." . . .
March 08, 2006
Estimating the Undocumented Immigrant Population
The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that there are 11.5 to 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.
The organization has released a comprehensive study of the size and characteristics of undocumented immigrants. You can find the complete report here, but here’s a few key points:
Posted by John at 06:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack--Undocumented immigrants account for 30% of the foreign-born population.
--A little over half of undocumented immigrants are from Mexico.
--Undocumented workers make up 4.9% of the total labor force, or about 7.2 million out of a labor force of 148 million.
--About 19% of these workers are employed in construction and extractive occupations, 15% in production, installation, and repair, and 4% in farming.
--According to the study, approximately 24% of all workers in the farming industry are undocumented immigrants, 17% in cleaning, and 12% in food preparation.
March 07, 2006
Hardly Trivial: The Economic Impact of South Carolina's Mexicans
According to a study by the University of South Carolina’s Moore School of Business, Mexicans in the state spend about $3.5 billion per year and a total buying power of $4.4 billion annually.
"That’s not trivial," says Doug Woodward in a flourish of understatement. Woodward is the director of the business school’s research center.
This estimate of buying power, Woodward notes, is markedly higher than other research findings because it is not based on Census data but on surveys done in conjunction with the Mexican consulate.
Posted by John at 11:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackMarch 06, 2006
Savannah: Yesterday’s Irish, Today’s Mexicans
The New York Times takes a look at Savannah and its immigrants--the Irish laborers of a century and a half ago and Mexican laborers in the 21st century:
Posted by John at 11:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackThe Coke-bottle glasses of hindsight can leave even profound historical miseries all blurry with sentimentality. That's one way to explain the Savannah Irish Festival, a two-day celebration of the Great Famine's great contribution to this lovely Southern city — the migration of thousands of starving laborers who toted barges, lifted bales, dug ditches and cellars, and put down roots here in the mid-1800's.
It is hard to imagine a tubercular immigrant, knee deep in cellar muck, dreaming that his adopted city would one day commemorate his sacrifice with a party. Unskilled Irish immigrants were abused and despised back then, chained to a life of poverty and hard labor that bonded them — at least for a little while — with
The parallels with the present day are too obvious to ignore. Georgia is undergoing another demographic shift, as Mexican immigrants flock to its farms, mills, processing plants and cities. The Latino immigrant population has soared in the last 10 years and exploded in the last 5, to an estimated 650,000 in a state of nine million. Some experts say the real immigrant number is double that. At least half of the newcomers are illegal, unskilled laborers who, like their Irish predecessors, want "any job, but now."enslaved African-Americans. . . .
. . . while Georgia is not about to break out the "Kiss Me, I'm Mexican" buttons, the current political climate is far different from the one the Irish newcomers banged up against a century and a half ago. Much of the state is struggling to find a sensible and humane way to handle the rising tide of newcomers. Even Senator Rogers's most vocal opponents admit that on balance, things could be worse. Senator Sam Zamarripa, an Atlanta Democrat, was able to negotiate with Mr. Rogers to exempt those under 18 from S.B. 529 and to protect access to prenatal care and higher education.
And not everyone here is phobic about living in Georgiafornia. Savannah, for example, is home to people like Melody Ortiz, a recruiter at Armstrong Atlantic State University, who travels the state looking for Hispanic students to apply for scholarships financed by the Goizueta Foundation, founded by Roberto Goizueta, the former Coca-Cola chief executive. One of her goals is to get the children of illegal immigrants into higher education, something an earlier version of Senator Rogers's bill tried explicitly to deny.
Then there is John Newton, editor of La Voz Latina, a free monthly newspaper that circulates in Georgia and South Carolina, part shopper, part immigrant manifesto. Mr. Newton, who is not Hispanic, describes his job as something close to a missionary vocation. "How insane it is," he writes, "for a nation of aging baby-boomers to vilify a work force composed, for the most part, of members of the Christian faith, with strong family values, a willingness to work and a desire to succeed."
Savannah is approaching its biggest celebration of the year, St. Patrick's Day, when hordes descend on the sidewalks and historic squares, and the grits and fountains turn green. That celebration, like its New York counterpart, has become a beer-soaked blowout that has little to do with any specific immigrant group. But underneath the happy, vague ethnicity of it all is a rich and tear-soaked history. And anyone who cares to look around can see the telltale signs of that history repeating itself.
March 05, 2006
Immigrating to the United States is Bad for Your Health
The Miami Herald reports:
Posted by John at 08:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackImmigrants who recently arrived in the U.S. often are healthier than their American counterparts, despite being less likely to have health insurance or a regular doctor, says the study, by the 1998-2003 National Health Interview Survey of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But after five years, immigrants -- particularly Hispanics -- suffer sharply higher rates of obesity, diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease.
"Guess why? Eating habits," says Dr. Nilda Soto, who treats mostly immigrant patients at the Open Door Health Center, a free clinic in Homestead. "The American diet is the worst in the world."
March 04, 2006
Courting Mexican Shoppers in McAllen
Just in case you need some extra confirmation on the increasing health of the Mexican consumer, check out the front page article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal on McAllen, Texas, "one of the last, ripe frontiers for big retailers":
Posted by John at 05:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackHidalgo County, in the southernmost tip of Texas, is the poorest county of 250,000 or more people in the U.S., with nearly half its families living below the poverty line. Vendors hawk bootleg DVDs and homemade tacos out of the back of pickup trucks. Stray dogs roam the scrubland along highways.
Hidalgo is also home to one of America's highest-grossing shopping malls, the sprawling La Plaza Mall of McAllen, Texas. Owned by Simon Property Group Inc., the nation's No. 1 mall developer, La Plaza features valet parking, trendy clothing chains like Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and Banana Republic, and high-end jewelers Swarovski and Helzberg Diamonds. La Plaza generates monthly sales of well over $450 a square foot, compared with a national mall average of $392. Next year, Simon, of Indianapolis, plans to open the 600,000-square-foot Palms Crossing shopping center a half-mile away. In nearby Mercedes, Simon is opening the $68 million Rio Grande Valley Premium Outlets, a 400,000-square-foot, upscale outlet, in November.
The reason: Mexican shoppers, both rich and poor, are pouring into the area, making it the equivalent of Madison Avenue for northern Mexico's consumer class. Border agencies tally nearly 40 million legal visits a year by Mexicans coming to Texas for leisure activities. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas figures they spent $3 billion on merchandise in Texas border counties in 2004, the latest data available, up from around $1.6 billion a decade earlier. In the past 10 years, retail sales in McAllen have risen more than 75%, nearly double the nationwide pace of 40%. Per-capita sales here are twice the national average, according to the census.
The activity demonstrates an unexpected development in American retailing. While Mexican money has long flowed north, the current upsurge has turned South Texas' poor borderlands into the latest, and one of the last, ripe frontiers for big retailers. At a time when major retail chains are facing declining market share and tepid sales in America's affluent suburbs, they are finding unexpected hope in the Mexican consumer.
Forty of the nation's top 100 retailers have recently staked their claim here. When Guess Inc. launched its new clothing boutique, Marciano, in 2004, the company chose Los Angeles, Toronto and McAllen as its three test cities. Foley's, a chain of department stores in Texas owned by Federated Department Stores Inc., Cincinnati, says operations in McAllen and nearby Laredo are its fastest-growing locations. J.C. Penney Co., Plano, Texas, says about three quarters of customers at its McAllen store are from Mexico and last year the chain allowed Mexican shoppers to apply for its gift registry and credit card. The store offers bilingual gift cards and an in-store beauty salon popular with Mexican women.
"We've taken every step to try to make that emotional connection with the customer in their language," says Manny Fernandez, manager of multicultural marketing for Penney. He says Mexican customers are "very important to the future of the company." . . . [Emphasis mine]
March 03, 2006
Hispanic TV Advertising: Moving from Warmth to Entertainment
BusinessWeek notes a trend in Hispanic television advertising to edgier, more entertaining spots in lieu of "warm and fuzzy" ads appealing to traditions like family:
Posted by John at 04:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackThe four-year-old Grupo Gallegos has been a catalyst for advertisers rethinking the conventional Hallmark-card style. Two years ago the agency woke up Hispanic advertising with a TV spot for Fox Sports Net Inc., depicting a Hispanic housewife returning from shopping and detecting a bad smell in her house. Free of dialogue, the camera follows her around the house and finally into her living room, where she finds her husband so glued to a soccer game that he has been watching from the nearby toilet with the door open. "That was a great example of taking a slice of life from a husband and wife, no matter the culture, and pushing the ad into entertainment," says Hispanic marketing consultant Jennifer Woodard, who writes The Latino Marketing Report Web site and blog. Gallegos recalls his excitement when the ad took on much coveted viral status: He received a mass e-mail headlined "Why Women Hate Sports" with a link to the ad. The agency also put Latinos in Fruit of the Loom apple, grape, and banana suits. And last year, Gallegos won awards for an Energizer battery ad showing a Hispanic man, with an arm transplanted from a Japanese man, who couldn't stop taking pictures with his new hand.
February 20, 2006
Telemundo’s Don Browne on Hispanic Market Opportunities
Don Browne, President of Telemundo, offered his own perspective in a New York Times interview on Univision’s possible sale, but more important, a look at bigger opportunity in Hispanic media in general:
Q. Warner Brothers and CBS recently decided to focus their two broadcast networks, WB and UPN, on a younger, minority market. What does that mean for the general television landscape?
A. I think it's interesting. I think the business is consolidating. I think it reinforces, again, that we are involved with a very dynamic audience that is growing and evolving and is attractive to everyone. Everyone is trying to figure out how to get the Spanish-language audience. But it's not so much the Spanish language, it's much more about culture: How do we bring relevance into our product to attract this audience?
Q. But advertisers aren't yet paying a premium for this audience.
A. But I think that's the beauty of our business. Advertisers are — it's like a giant that's waking up. I think that advertisers are starting to realize the giant is the U.S. Hispanic population, which is growing dramatically. And I think as they begin to get a sense of the power of that consumer block, we're going to see an acceleration of that general market dollar coming very aggressively into the Spanish-language world.
Q. Isn't part of the problem that advertisers have tended to see the audience as a lower-end market?
A. I just think it's not necessarily lower end, but lack of awareness of how you market to them. Again, what happened four years ago, when G.E. and NBC bought Telemundo, I think it really sent a significant signal to the marketplace that this is a really important market. I think the fact that Univision is for sale and the buyers that are being mentioned are significant players, I think this is the type of news that will stimulate the general market advertiser to accelerate their dollars into our marketplace.
Browne is exactly right. While Hispanic media advertising is growing faster than the overall market, it is still being restrained both by an underestimation of Hispanic buying power and a lack of understanding of the Hispanic market.
Quite simply, Hispanic media advertising dollars are rising at an above-average rate, but they could be growing even faster.
Posted by John at 05:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackFebruary 19, 2006
Hispanics Value Education
For those that need a study to believe that Hispanics value education, here it is.
It explains why the education, level of job skills, and income levels of this demographic will continue to rise faster than "expected."
Posted by John at 11:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackFebruary 12, 2006
The World Devours Tortillas
A few signs that tortillas are now mainstream around the world, from the Washington Post:
Posted by John at 11:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack--U.S. tortilla sales hit an estimated $6 billion in 2004 and are expected to reach $7 billion this year.
--Says Roberto Quinones of the American Tortilla Industry Association: "It's mostly been a U.S. phenomenon, but even countries such as England and Malaysia are calling us, asking for ways to improve production."
--The largest producer in Britain churns out 300 million tortillas a year. Discovery Foods is building a third factory, in part, to fulfill growing export demand in Scandinavia.
--And the coup de grace: the American Tortilla Industry Association has moved its headquarters from Texas to Washington in order to "better flex its lobbying muscle."
Spanish-Language Radio Station and Listenership Continues to Grow
Spanish language-radio ratings and stations continue to rise. There are now 351 stations with Hispanic formats, up from 314 only a year ago. The average listening share increased to 8.9 from 8.2.
These findings come from Katz Media Group, which just finished a new study of radio formats and fall Arbitron ratings of over 4,400 stations in the top 294 markets in the U.S.
The most programmed format radio format is Country, with 544 stations and a 14.2 average audience share.
Posted by John at 05:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackFebruary 10, 2006
Southeastern Cities Lead in Hispanic Growth to 2011
Market intelligence firm Geospace International offers an interesting study Geospace International offers an interesting study (pdf, registration required) on the growth in multicultural demographics on a national, state, and DMA level.
Some of their more significant findings include:
Asians, African-Americans, and Hispanics will end up accounting for 70% of the population growth from 1990-2011. Hispanics alone will account for 50% of U.S. population gains from 2000-2011.
In five years, the population of the three largest ethic groups will exceed 107 million. Hispanics will represent nearly half that population.
From 2006 to 2011, the net new number of Hispanic Americans nationally will grow by almost 1.5 million per year.
DMAs such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco/Oakland, and Miami/Ft. Lauderdale will experience actual declines in non-Hispanic white populations from 1990-2011
The DMAs with the fastest growing Hispanic populations between 1990 and 2011 are all Southeastern cities:
Hispanic Growth, 1990-2011 DMA Name 2011 Population 2011 Hispanic Pop. % Hispanic Growth Charlotte 3.0 mil. 251,000 1721% Atlanta 6.9 mil. 771,000 1097% Nashville 2.6 mil. 149,000 871% Raleigh-Durham 2.9 mil. 273,000 855%
Posted by John at 10:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 09, 2006
A Possible Sale of Univision: It All Makes Sense
Is it any wonder Univision is "exploring strategic alternatives?" Not when you add up the following:
--What better time to reap the rewards of a business with an 85% share of the U.S. Hispanic television market and 69 radio stations in 16 of the top 25 Hispanic markets? Exceedingly few businesses (even fewer in media) maintain such market shares indefinitely.
--The Hispanic segment is one of the few in traditional media which could be described as "dynamic."
--Private equity money abounds.
--The caterpillars are munching.
Posted by John at 05:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 03, 2006
Rising Entrepreneurship Among Hispanic Women
Yankelovich, in their 2005 Multicultural Marketing Study, finds a strong current of entrepreneurship among Hispanic women:
--91 percent of Hispanic women, versus 83 percent of non-Hispanic white women, agree 'women have as much financial responsibility to support a family as men do.'
--68 percent of Hispanic women, versus 34 percent of non-Hispanic white women, say they really would like to start their own business.
--18 percent of Hispanic women, versus only 1 percent of Non-Hispanic White women, are actually saving to start a business.
(Source: Hispanic Business)
Posted by John at 06:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 02, 2006
Univision Officially the Fifth Largest Television Network
Now that Univision has joined Nielsen Media Research's national TV ratings service (NTI), it’s official: the network is a solid number five in the ratings, ahead of WB and UPN networks.
Univision had previously been including only in Nielsen Hispanic Television Index, a separate ratings service that measures only Hispanic audiences.
On various nights and time slots, Univision has entered the top four in viewers age 18-34, landing among CBS, ABC, Fox, and NBC.
Posted by John at 07:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 31, 2006
Hispanics Filled One-Third of All U.S. Jobs Created in 2005
Hispanics filled one-third of the jobs created in the United States in 2005, acccording to Hispanic Business. In raw numbers, that’s 847,000 jobs out of 2.6 million created in 2005. The unemployment rate for Hispanics is currently 6.0%, modestly higher than the 5.0% overall unemployment rate.
Posted by John at 07:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 22, 2006
Utah’s Emerging Hispanic Population
The buying power of Utah’s Hispanic population has grown almost sixfold in fifteen years and now stands at about $4 billion. This demographic is now a "vital part" of strategic plans for Utah’s business community, reports the Salt Lake Tribune.
Posted by John at 09:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 21, 2006
Hispanic Network TV to be tops in 2006 Ad Spending
Of the twenty different media tracked by TNS Media Intelligence, spending on Hispanic network television is expected to increase the most in 2006 (10.4%). Internet advertising (9%) is expected to be the second fastest growing, following by cable television (8.4%).
You can read the complete release from TNS Media Intelligence by following this link.
Posted by John at 11:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 27, 2005
Spanish Language Marketing Dollars Paltry Compared to Market Size
Darrel Rhea at the Cheskin Fresh Perspectives blog is amazed at how little some large, seemingly sophisticated companies spend on Spanish language marketing in the U.S. I share the surprise:
Capital One and Sony score a big zero. That’s right, in 2004, they reported spending virtually nothing on SLM! [Spanish language marketing] Wouldn’t you think that Capital One Financial, who appears to be aggressively going after just about everybody, would focus on one of the fastest rising economic segments in the U.S.? Ditto with Sony Corp.! Any major supplier of entertainment electronics should know better. Perhaps they use nontraditional techniques, such as viral marketing (Sony does sport an RSS feed on its website), but I still find it curious.
In the tech world, HP is spend