José Villa, fundador y presidente de Sensis
Jose Villa, Founder and President at Sensis wrote an article in MediaPost entitled: Is the U.S. Hispanic market a growth market? where he looks through the trends of this demographic in the U.S. and explains that these changes mean that the old way of Hispanic marketing is becoming irrelevant. “A new way forward is required to address this new vibrant market. A new Hispanic market requires a new approach to Hispanic marketing.” Villa explained that according to Pew Research, over the last 30 years, the Hispanic market has exploded, growing from 14.8 million in 1980 to 55 million in 2014, but 55% of that growth was driven by immigration in the 1980s and ’90s that exceeded U.S. births. However, around 2004, immigration into the U.S. by Hispanics started a steady decline. In 2016, only 28% of the roughly 1 million annual immigrants into the U.S. were Hispanic. Starting in 2010, Asian immigration started to outpace Hispanic immigration. Overall, the U.S. Hispanic population is forecast to grow, but that growth will come primarily from U.S. births. For Villa this leads to a critical question: Is this U.S.-born Hispanic market a separate and distinct market from the foreign-born immigrant Hispanic market? “This question goes to the heart of the future of Hispanic marketing. I would argue that this U.S.-born, acculturated Hispanic is separate and distinct and the strategies and tactics that worked for marketing to immigrant Hispanics the last 30 years will not work for native Hispanics.” Villa concluded that these numbers paint a very clear picture: “there are two Hispanic markets, one that is stagnant and aging and one that is growing and getting younger.”
