Latina Consumers Control the Cash — $1.4 Trillion Worth

Latinas influence 80% of the money that comes into a household, according to a study from New American Dimensions. That’s $1.4 trillion by 2013 for those counting. ¡Ajúa, qué fuerte la mujer Latina!

From the story there are four distinct categories of Latina shoppers:

• Las Exploradoras (27%): Latinas who love to shop, and experiment with new products, use coupons and visit a variety of stores, both Hispanic and American. They tend to trust Spanish-language advertising.
• Las Pragmáticas (23%): Latinas who shop with a mission: to get the best value for their money. They claim to be unaffected by advertising and in-store marketing.
• Las Digitalistas (31%): Latinas who actively shop online, and prefer Internet to in-store shopping.
• Las Fre$itas (20%): Young affluent Latinas who feel they’ve “arrived,” and are impulse-buyers who are happy to spend.

I’m not sure that putting kitschy labels on these shoppers is necessary, but what is important is to see that there’s a whole lotta money going through Latina hands in this country. Jessica Alba and Salma Hayek could retire now and just hawk products for the rest of their lives if they wanted to.

It’s going to be interesting to see how marketers respond to these trends — will there be more brown women in commercials, magazine ads, even on packaging?  Will advertisers realize they have to do more than just translate their English ads into Spanish? What do we think?