Hyland’s launches Web site for Latina mothers

NEW YORK This is target marketing at its finest; not only are Hispanics more likely to embrace homeopathy, but baby care as a category resonates extremely well among Hispanics. And in it’s a format that will appeal to today’s new mothers — multi-cultural women who have embraced the Internet.

According to a Pew Hispanic Center report, 78% of Latinos who are English-dominant and 76% of bilingual Latinos use the Internet, compared with 32% of Spanish-dominant Hispanic adults.

And according to an Information Resources Inc. report published last year, that U.S. Hispanic market of more than 45 million consumers drove $34 billion in spending in 2008 and it’s a demographic that will spend an estimated $52 billion by 2015; and spending per household among Hispanic consumers significantly outpaces the national spending averages across nearly every channel.

Nearly one in four babies born in the United States are of Hispanic origin. And Hyland’s isn’t alone in recognizing this targeted-market-within-a-target-market opportunity. Johnson & Johnson’s parenting web site BabyCenter last year launched a Spanish-language version, Baby Center en Espanol. And Procter & Gamble, one of the larger advertisers in Spanish magazines allocated nearly $1 million of its ad-spend Pampers Swaddlers, specifically against Spanish  mothers in 2007, IRI reported.

In addition to being a particularly strong target market for baby care, other strong market opportunities include beauty care, laundry care and food and beverages that are youth-oriented, offer specific health benefits (eg. low sugar, high fiber) or are an ingredient or component of ethnic meals, the IRI research revealed.