Telecoms Target The Hispanic Market

Telecom providers will drastically increase their focus on the Hispanic market this year, according to a new report released by In-Stat.

The firms will target Hispanics because the Hispanics make up the largest minority ethnic group in the US, with over 43 million people. Among the telecom marketing initiatives are Sprint's recently launched "Movada Communications" and Qwest's low-cost long distance calling plan to Mexico.

The report, "Culture Shock: Trends in Ethnic Marketing," found that in the future there will be a decrease in revenue from all ethnic subscribers, but Hispanics and Pacific Islanders will experience the smallest decrease because of their steady population growth. African Americans are expected to be the largest ethnic group of dial-up subscribers this year with nearly 6 million individuals, but the number is expected to fall to 4.9 million by 2009. The report also predicted that although 40.4 million whites will subscribe to broadband by 2009, the growth rate of Hispanics and Pacific Islander subscribers will be much greater..

"In-Stat has also found that some ethnic groups react better to specific types of advertising and marketing and are influenced by different sources," Amy Cravens, In-Stat analyst said in a statement. "In better understanding these differences, providers may be able to more fully realize the potential subscribership of what may be under-subscribing ethnic groups."