In the past years, even more so in the past months, the awareness of the potential of the Hispanic Community as a consumer group has increased in the US. Companies from all disciplines are allocating increased room in their advertising budgets for this market, following the trend that was set by successful competitors in recent years. And although, like in every new challenge, there are some slips and slides made where they could have been prevented, the overall picture is extremely promising. This article examines some important facts and figures pertaining to this minority group; reviews some of the current trends in the US marketing and advertising world; and presents some focus points, which may be helpful in approaching the Hispanic market effectively.

One of the main interest areas in the US advertising world nowadays is the bicultural English-speaking Hispanic market. Christy Haubegger, founder and former publisher of Latina, asserts that while "Most research and time, effort and resources have been in the Spanish-dependent market, there is an evolution going on as marketers and their agencies move away from simply marketing in Spanish to being marketers to Hispanics" (Wentz, 2003, p. S1). Haubegger explains further, "Income is closely correlated with language ability. It is rare to see an affluent household that is Spanish-dependent. There are 1.2 million affluent Hispanic households, with incomes of $75,000 and up" (p. S1). Because of these now known facts, an increasing number of marketing companies contracts US Hispanic agencies to cover this imperative part of the consumer market. Absolut Vodka and Fruit of the Loom recently entered the Hispanic arena, soon to be followed by a long string of entrants such as Best Buy, Old Navy, Staples, and Energizers, who are all in reviews to name Hispanic agencies (Wentz, 2003).

It is not just in the area of audio and audio-visual media that the interest for the Hispanic market has flared in the past years: in the print arena there is an explosion of print launches going on "As rival newspaper groups develop national strategies to take advantage of the only real growth in their market" (Wentz, 2004, p. 78). Wentz reports, "At the semi-annual conference of the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies late last month, the growth of the Latino media market was a hot topic of discussion" (p. 78). This author further explains, "One new player, Meximerica Media, was started by two former Wall Street Journal staffers. It is already backed by an initial $16.5 mn from Pearson Group's Spanish subsidiary, Recoletos Grupo de Comunicacion, and will start rolling out four Texas dailies called Rumbo this summer" (p. 78). The reasons for this explosive interest in Spanish print are obvious. According to Latino Print Network, a research and marketing arm for Hispanic print media, "Hispanic-newspaper revenue rose to $854 mn last year, from $785 mn in 2002 and $596 mn in 2000" (Wentz, 2004, p. 78). "Circulation, including dailies, weeklies and less-frequent publications, is also growing steadily, to 17.5 million in 2003, up from 16.2 million the previous year and 14.8 million in 2000" (Wentz, p. 78).