Se habla español – Part 2
In answer to the question of which language is more effective in reaching Hispanics — English or Spanish — we pointed out in our previous post that most consumers make their decisions based on emotion and that for Hispanics, the language of emotion is Spanish.
Why is this important?
Because right now, 82% of U.S. Hispanics are either bilingual in Spanish and English, or Spanish-dominant.*
That’s a huge majority.
And what does the future hold?
The number of bilingual and Spanish-dominant Latinos is expected to shoot up by 45% over the next 20 years.
If that holds true, more than 40 million Spanish-speakers will live in the U.S. by 2025.
That would be 12.5 million more Spanish-speakers than we started the new century with.
A number equal to more than three times the current population of Puerto Rico.
And interestingly, continuing immigration does not appear to be the principal cause of this trend.
Unlike other immigrant groups, even Hispanics who have been in the U.S. for several generations continue to speak Spanish in large numbers.
On average, 35% of third-generation Hispanics speak Spanish.**
And those who speak no Spanish at all make up less than 12% of the total market.**
Not only that, 20 years from now 67% of Hispanics 5 years of age and older are expected to speak Spanish as a first language or to be native speakers of both English and Spanish.**
Next time we’ll continue to discuss the advantages of advertising to Hispanics in Spanish.
And what might be some of the language pitfalls to avoid.
Stay tuned.
*Source: “AMDS 2006 Executive Summary Report,” Geoscape International. **Source: Roslow Research Group.
