Rapidly growing Hispanic market demands attention

For far too long, only interested demographers and savvy marketers fully appreciated the looming potential of the Hispanic sector as a consumer category. But the sleeping giant finally has awakened, and every marketer must now come to terms with a buying power that can no longer be ignored.

The numbers attest to a juggernaut in the making:
Hispanic-Americans now comprise 13.5 percent of the U.S. population, numbering approximately 39 million in 2002 and projected to grow to around 50 million by 2007. The Hispanic sector is expected to grow at an astonishing 29 percent rate during the next five years, eclipsing African-American (7.9 percent) and Asian-American (23 percent) growth rates. Hispanic-American buying power, currently $580 billion, is expected to reach almost $1 trillion in five years, the result of an unstoppable 59.5 percent rate of growth.