There are many exaggerated claims about the Latino community as a market. Often businesses blindly pursue these markets without taking consideration how it is that there is a demand for their goods of services. The reality is that even though there is a very large Latino population they are not commonly bonded by their language and they are actually fragmented. There are new immigrants, there are old immigrants, there are first generation, there are second generation, there are Latinos from Mexico, there are Latinos from Cuba, there are Latinos from Puerto Rico, and there are Latinos from many other Central America and South American countries.



Even though Latinos are broadly categorized as Latinos they are not all going to respond the same. Recent immigrants that have been in the country a couple of years are radically different from immigrants that have been around for 20 years. Generally speaking those that speak very little English or that prefer to deal in Spanish are at the lower end of the socio-economic ladder. First generation and often immigrants that came to this country as very young children speak little or no Spanish at all.

Television, newspaper, and radio reach primarily immigrants and often exaggerate the statistical data. It is true that there are huge Latino populations, but their reach is limited. As a rule only about 50% of Latino population can be reached with media directed to the Spanish speaking community. The other 50% can best be reached through different demographics. Contrary to popular belief the Latino population is actually assimilating just as quickly as other groups have.

The media directed to the Spanish speaking community can be effective for organizations trying to reach the Latino community when they are offering goods and services that are more of the nature of commodities such as food, cell phone service, low and medium priced attire, and to some extent specialty items such as cowboy attire, but these consumers are not prime consumers for higher end more or sophisticated products.

Some organizations seem not to understand that there is no one large Latino population and invest heavily in marketing efforts and are often disappointed by the results. What some business organizations also don???t take into consideration is that some efforts are actually counterproductive. Mass mailings for individuals with Spanish last names for example are not well received. It is offensive for well educated Latinos that speak the English language well to be targeted with Spanish language junk mail, telemarketing, and person to person solicitation.

Other problems that businesses seem to ignore is that you actually need Spanish speaking staff to deliver these goods and services. What is the cost to a business when Spanish speaking clients set foot at your business and there is no one to provide service? There are also laws pertaining to dealing with Spanish speaking clients. If you have the clients and the staff, you also need translated documents. If the documents are not translated and the negotiations are conducted in Spanish, you may end up with a lost sale and a $50,000 legal bill to boot.