In down times, Hispanic market is booming

With more than 46 million people, Nuevo Hispania is the 27th-largest nation on Earth and the fourth largest in the Western Hemisphere. Its residents wield $1 trillion of buying power in the marketplace. Even as the rest of the economy contracts in the global recession, Nuevo Hispania remains a thriving, even booming, market that’s expected to grow by 48 percent in the next four years.

And it’s not even a real country.

The imaginary “Nuevo Hispania” is actually a substantial segment of the U.S. population. Hispanics now account for more than 15 percent of the U.S. populace as the nation’s largest minority group. And while other demographic sectors are growing only incrementally, the Hispanic population is exploding: The Census Bureau projects that 30 percent of Americans will be of Hispanic and Latino by 2050.

The Hispanic market’s growing clout comes even as the recession takes a harsh toll on Latino workers. The elimination of tens of thousands of construction jobs has hit the sector particularly hard, sending the national unemployment rate for Latino males to 11 percent.

For decades, businesses and cultural institutions could afford to ignore the Hispanic market.  Now, they are chasing it aggressively, because that’s where the money is.

That poses a big challenge. Underrepresented for decades in U.S. commerce and media, Hispanic Americans long ago developed their own commercial, cultural and media channels. And that means companies and institutions can’t just throw open the doors and expect Hispanics to come in.

Those companies and institutions must go to the customer.

“For companies to grow in the coming years, it is critical to understand how to reach and connect with these consumers,” said Reinaldo Padua, assistant vice president for Hispanic marketing for Coca-Cola North America.

‘I was actually scared, like most Hispanics’
More than a third of the Hispanic population is younger than 18. For the Boy Scouts of America, that’s “a huge opportunity,” said Robert J. Mazzuca, the organization’s chief Scout executive.

“There’s a lot at stake,” Mazzuca said. “We’re not fulfilling our mission as an organization if we don’t see this incredibly rapidly growing and dynamic part of our population and do everything we can to reach out to them.”

Video   U.S. job crisis means less for families abroad March 4: According to the Pew Hispanic Center, 73 percent of Hispanic workers nationwide say the tough economy is making it more difficult for them to send money to family in their home countries. NBC's Mark Potter reports. Nightly News

To penetrate the cultural divides that have kept Hispanics from joining their ranks, the Scouts reached out to Hispanic Communications Network, a media company based in Washington that specializes in engaging the Hispanic community.

Together with HCN, the Scouts are developing pilot programs in six cities to reach the Hispanic market. There will be radio and TV spots, bilingual and bicultural staff representatives, local community leaders advocating on their behalf — and soccer.

“One of our pilot programs over ... recent years has been Scouting in soccer, using the attraction of the soccer game to gather Hispanic families around,” Mazzuca said. The sport is a common interest that draws in families while addressing the issues of individual character development that are at the heart of the Boy Scout experience.

Video   Boy Scouts reach out March 3: Bob Mazzuca, chief scout executive of the Boy Scouts of America, discusses efforts to engage Latino families. Nightly News

Rosa Gonzalez of Irving, Texas, whose son, Jonathan, is in his first year with the Cub Scouts, said she was skeptical at first.

“I was not too convinced," she said. "I was actually scared, like most Hispanics. We tend to hold onto our kids even when they’re older.”

But after being reassured by the local Latino Cubmaster, Gonzalez decided to let Jonathan join.

“They teach them respect, responsibility and, you know, they’re more self-confident in their decisions,” she said. “I noticed that in my son, and I’m very happy.”

Mazzuca hopes to replicate that success across the organization.

“We have approximately 100,000 Latino scouts in our universal scouting,” he said. “We want to double that by the end of 2010.”

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