Nielsen Provides Insight to Hispanics' Shopping Behaviors

Nielsen Company sent out a BusinessWire release recently for retailers and marketers to better understand the factors driving Hispanics' shopping behaviors.

What they found, was that:

-- As Hispanics become more acculturated, there is less evidence of brand loyalty in many categories. Thus, they recommend, the need to engage Hispanics early and continue to maintain connected to Hispanics as the acculturate.

-- There is a preference among Hispanics to shop at stores that resonate with the sights, sounds, smells and sensibilities of their homeland. This sense of nostalgia helps create an important connection with the Hispanic consumer. Thus the need for retailers to "create a familiar sense of community and comfort zone for consumers through product assortment, importing specialty lines and stocking items with bilingual packaging, hiring bilingual employees, posting bilingual signage and distributing bilingual coupons."

-- Shopping is a family affair, we shop as a family. Thus the need for retailers to create a family-friendly atmosphere and providing rest areas for seniors and extra service.

-- Many Hispanics make a concerted effort to keep in touch with those living in their homelands. According to Scarborough Research, Hispanics of all language preference are heavy users of phone service, 95 percent more likely than the average consumer to have spent $100 on long distance, and 18 percent more likely to have rung up a cell phone bill of $150 or more during the last month.

-- Hispanic consumers are more likely to plan on switching cellular providers during the next year, and 11 percent more likely to use a prepaid cellular plan.

-- Scarborough Research finds that roughly 25 percent of Hispanic Internet users purchased airline tickets, books and clothing/accessories online in the past year, with six percent spending more than $2,500 online during that time.

While not all "Earth-shattering" findings here, they do verify and supplement much of what's known of the Hispanic market. We do focus on family and want to shop for what's familiar. We bring many brand loyalties from home (i.e. Colgate) but as other companies become more savvy in their outreach to us, we will listen to their messages, especially if they are culturally-relevant. So, there is a need to continue to engage us as we become more acculturated.