Fashion’s Neglected Best Customers [INFOGRAPHIC]

By Sandra Diaz – Diaz & Co.

Every business leader knows that it is easier to grow sales by engaging existing customers than acquiring new ones. And yet, as apparel brands currently focus on driving Back-to-School and Fall Season sales in a highly competitive landscape, they keep missing opportunities to build deeper relationships with Hispanics, a large and growing fashion-focused segment.

Although Hispanics represent a $31 billion apparel market and Hispanic households spend $250 more per year than the average American household, apparel brands only invest 2% of their measured media dollars on Hispanics. Apparel retailers fare a little better, allocating 6% of their ad spending to Hispanic media. This is far below Hispanic contribution to the industry’s sales.

Here are 3 reasons why apparel brands and retailers should engage Hispanics to differentiate and grow their business:

•     Hispanics are apparel super-consumers. They spend more on apparel, primarily because they have larger families. In fact, Latinos spend 50% more-than-average on clothing for kids less than 15 years old. They also devote a 42% higher share of their income to apparel expenditures than the average American.
•     Hispanics differ in their attitudes toward apparel. Latinos are younger than the average American and more image-conscious since Latino culture is group-oriented. Thus, Hispanics are more likely to buy clothes every season to keep up with the latest fashions and are less concerned with apparel functionality and comfort. And they seek deals on those fashion-forward items – 70% of Latinas and 60% of Latinos say they buy clothing when it is on sale.
•     Hispanics are more involved with apparel marketing channels. They are more likely to use fashion magazines to determine what clothes to buy and are using mobile devices for local shopping in a 25-mile radius of their home at a higher rate than non-Hispanics.

Once an apparel company decides that Hispanics are a segment worth pursuing, they need to develop plans to engage Latinos both through mainstream tactics and with targeted initiatives. In my next post, I will discuss ideas for fashion brands and apparel retailers to consider.