Research

Gone are the days of borrowing your roommate’s car. The annual 360 Youth College Explorer study, powered by Harris Interactive, revealed findings indicating that nearly three of every four college students (72%) aged 18 to 30 own or have access to a car for personal use. Over the past two years alone, students spent $30.9 billion* on automobiles, and one in every eight students (13%) is expected to buy a car in the next year, dispelling the image of the student in perpetual need of a ride. A significant force in the automotive market, college students are expected to buy one-and-a-half million cars this year, with projected spending totaling $14.8 billion*.

Nielsen Media Research, which is bracing for a new found of attacks against its local people meter rollout from an influential pressure group, Monday announced a step intended to dispel some concerns over the accuracy of its measurement of ethnic viewers. Nielsen said it has contracted one of the premiere independent Latino policy research organizations, University of Southern California’s Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, to review the findings of the National Hispanic Media Council’s Latino Television Study.

Advertisers spent an estimated $2.79 billion in 2003 to market their products to U.S. Hispanics, a 13-percent increase from last year. The explosive increase in the U.S. Hispanic population coupled with its increasing purchasing power has advertisers jockeying for a larger market share of this largely untapped market.

Scarborough Research released a study which finds that young, English-language dominant Hispanics are 29 percent more likely than all Hispanic consumers to live in households that have financial investments. Conversely, Hispanics ages 45+ who primarily speak Spanish are 18 percent less likely than all Hispanics to live in households that invested.

The U.S. Hispanic purchasing power growth rate was three times the overall national rate in the last decade. From 1994 to 2004, U.S. Hispanic purchasing power posted a compound annual growth rate of 7.7%—nearly three times the 2.8% total U.S. rate of disposable income. The Hispanic population is out-performing the general population by nearly every economic growth measurement. This is predicted to continue according to “U.S. Hispanic Purchasing Power: 1978-2010”, the HispanTelligence research report released.

Morning television news programs are growing more popular with viewers, possibly signaling the end to the dominance of early evening newscasts, says a new study from Ball State University.

The first Weber Hispanic GrillWatch Survey, a comprehensive study looking into the outdoor grilling habits of Hispanic Americans, reveals Hispanic Americans host a lot of barbecues. And when they do, it’s with family, grilling chicken and meat while listening to Nortenas music.

Marketers are parceling out more of their ad dollars to Hispanic publications and television stations, with percentage growth since 2000 quadrupling the pace of the general market. Despite this growth, a new study suggests that most companies are under-allocating resources to this market, with many ignoring Hispanic media entirely.