Description: The Hispanic Opinion Tracker (HOT) study is one of the largest national surveys ever comparing views of Hispanics and non-Hispanics.  The study shows that Hispanics continue to embrace their own families, heritage and identity as they become an increasing force in American life.

For more information contact: Christine Escribano, christine_escribano@peoplemag.com 

In 2007: Launch of three category deep dives: HOT Technology, HOT Shopping, and HOT Personal Care. They are as follows:

• The HOT data suggests that the majority of Hispanic adults in the US (56%) can be classified as Hispanic Dominant, while 19% can be classified as Bicultural and 23% as US Dominant.
• Applying these percentages to the 24.5 million Hispanic adults in the US, there are approximately 13.7 million Hispanic Dominant, 4.7 million Bicultural, and 5.6 million English Dominant Hispanic adults in the US.
• Given the current popularity of Latin music, celebrities, and Hispanic culture and the desire of parents to raise bilingual children, we project that the Bicultural segment will be the most interesting, if not fastest growing, in the near future.

Top factors when choosing a brand:

Leverage your Brand:  Emphasize attributes and benefits

• Provide information thats clear and easy-to-understand
• Offer products and services with Hispanics in mind
• Leverage Hispanics desire to keep up with the latest trends

Be Authentic:  Focus on culturally relevant themes and aspirations

• Leverage Hispanics desire to keep up with the latest trend  Visually and verbally reflect the market in all cases
• Understand cultural nuances and target key segments uniquely
• Build relationships by forming brand connections and engaging extended family
• Emphasize aspirations:  making a better life for future generations and achieving the American Dream

Know your customer:  Be sensitive to language and cultural differences within the Market

• Employ generic Spanish, avoid direct translations, slang, spanglish and stereotypes
• Carefully vet brand platform, imagery and copy nuances
• Dont make grammatical errors; accents, tildes, and other nuances are key parts of the language
• Use in-market experts and service suppliers.