Televisa Publishing + Digital ‘Power of the Hispanic Shopper’.

Televisa Publishing + Digital along with the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce joined forces to create “MAGIA”, a Hispanic component of the MAGIC Fashion industry trade show in Las Vegas.

This event was held for the first time on February 17th-19th at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The objective of this event was twofold: to promote Hispanic and Latin American designers by creating an exhibition area dedicated exclusively to them; and to educate and create awareness of the Hispanic apparel market and consumer amongst designers, buyers, and marketers, so they can recognize the potential and power of this segment.

As the leading media company and content provider in the Spanish-speaking Americas, Televisa Publishing + Digital together with its strategic research partner, BIGresearch, addressed the audience on a seminar titled, “Forces Affecting the Apparel Landscape for Hispanic Consumers” alongside Lorena Hidalgo, Hispanic Marketing Manager at Wrangler, and Veena Chattaraman, Assistant Professor of the Department of Consumer Affairs at Auburn University. Using BIGresearch’s SIMM 13 and January CIA data, the following were highlights from the study:

• Hispanic shoppers are younger than Non-Hispanic shoppers; the average age of the Hispanic shopper is 36 versus 45 for Non-Hispanic shoppers.
• Hispanic shoppers have more people in the household than Non-Hispanics (3.4 v. 2.8), drawing on the importance of family when shopping.
• Hispanics shop at Department Stores when it comes to purchasing women’s and men’s clothing.
• Hispanics are more likely than Non-Hispanics to consider trends and familiar labels important, over-indexing against Non-Hispanics on related opinions and attitudes.
• Hispanic women are influenced by different factors when it comes to apparel. When it comes to the most influential media in apparel/clothing purchases amongst Hispanic women, magazines ranked the highest for Hispanic women (37% v. 28% for Non-Hispanic women), while word of mouth ranked as the top influencer for Non-Hispanic women.
• Hispanic women are more confident about the economy, live more in the moment, and in turn are spending more across a variety of retail categories than Non-Hispanic women.
• Hispanic women are actively researching product information and have higher incidences of shopping and purchasing apparel items online than Non-Hispanic women.
• Hispanic women are impacted by promotional advertisements much more than Non-Hispanics, showing marketers and buyers that they are receptive to messages.

Addressing the economic situation, Televisa Publishing + Digital and BIGresearch discussed how Hispanics remain confident, and therefore are more likely to spend on big ticket items than Non-Hispanics.

For the 6 month period, August 2008-January 2009, Hispanic confidence in the economy has grown 43% compared to a 4.6% growth in the same period amongst Non-Hispanics. Their spending philosophy is reflected in their present shopping behavior as Hispanic women spend more money on average per month than Non-Hispanic women on women’s clothing, men’s clothing, shoes, and health and beauty.

On future spending, Hispanic women are more likely than Non-Hispanic women to spend more money in the next 90 days on beauty items, shoes and clothing items for men and women.

“More confidence in the economy means more willingness to spend, especially on big ticket items such as jewelry/watches, furniture, and vacation travel, and in a tough economy, you want to reach consumers that will spend,” said Mariana Toledo, Marketing and Research Manager of Televisa Publishing + Digital. “That speaks to the power of the Hispanic market .”