Home Improvement Industry Pursues Hispanic Market

Atlanta, GA, October 14--The U.S. home improvement industry is looking to build business with U.S. Hispanics in hopes of cashing in on a market that could be as big as $30 billion. Calling on ethnic marketing agencies and developing Spanish-language ads and television programs, companies are looking to win over the largest minority group in the United States. "It's a very underserved market," said Cindy McConkey, vice president of communications for Scripps Network, which owns Home and Garden Television and is studying plans for a Spanish-language channel. "We have measured Hispanic viewership and it is on the rise." While some industries have been reaching out to Hispanics for years, the new attention from the home improvement sector reflects their sharp increases in both population and home ownership. "Research confirms Hispanic customers are very family- and home-oriented," said Home Depot Inc., merchandising and marketing chief John Costello. The number of U.S. Hispanics rose 58 percent in the decade leading up to 2000, compared with 13 percent growth of the total U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The percentage of Hispanics who owned their own homes stood at 47 percent last year, up from 40 percent in 1993, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. Spending on home improvement by Hispanic Americans has increased about 80 percent over the last seven years, triple the growth rate for non-Hispanic households. Home Depot estimates the Hispanic home improvement market at $25 billion to $30 billion. To make inroads, home-goods retailers have brought on Spanish-speaking workers and developed advertising circulars and store signs written in Spanish. Home Depot, which this year hired the Vidal Partnership as its Hispanic ad agency of record, stepped up its multicultural marketing two years ago to appeal to minorities. The retailer now offers a Spanish-language version of its Web site and holds some how-to clinics in Spanish. Besides advertising in local and national Spanish media, the company sponsors cultural events such as Cinco de Mayo and the Calle Ocho festival in Miami. Reaching Hispanics can be tricky for U.S. companies because the market includes people of various nationalities and different customs. Some speak little or no English. "We have to be careful in translations," said Frank Rothing, corporate ad manager at Ace Hardware, which tapped Ethnic Marketing Group to handle its Spanish-language advertising. "There are different dialects, and we felt a Hispanic agency would help us through that." McConkey, the Scripps Network executive, said effective communication requires understanding Hispanic tastes and buying patterns, not just translating existing television shows into Spanish. That has slowed up the process, she said. For example, a program on Hispanic kitchen design will fail if it's a Spanish-language repeat of a U.S. show on Scripps' DIY Network, McConkey said. "A Hispanic kitchen, if it's true to the ethnicity and culture, is probably going to have a bit more color, maybe use different materials," she added. Natan Feldman, chief cultural specialist at consultant Bravo Bilingual Services in Charlotte, North Carolina, said many retailers are erring by focusing their outreach on stores in traditional Hispanic states like Texas. For example, he said, some home improvement stores he's seen in Charlotte have no Hispanic workers or Spanish signs, even though many Hispanics have migrated to the U.S. Southeast in recent years because of job opportunities in construction. "One of the challenges for corporations is how they identify where the growth markets are," Feldman said. "If they don't move ahead and try to foresee this internal migration of Hispanics, they are going to miss out."