On the day after announcing the departure of its CEO, Univision Communications gathered about 150 people, between agency executives and marketers, at Manhattan's Bryant Park Grill Tuesday morning to discuss a relatively small business, but one with huge potential: The Latino grooming business, a category where Hispanic media has been making strides of late, and where Latinos overindex against non-Latinos. “We are talking about a market that will win you the loyalty -and wallets- of Latino males,” said Ruth Gaviria, Univision’s svp of corporate marketing as a way of introduction before welcoming a colorful panel that included Univision Nuestra Belleza Latina host Giselle Blondet; Chilean actor Cristián de la Fuente; David Salazar, multicultural marketing manager for Target Guest Insights, Maybelline Garnier’s Daniel Villarroel and celebrity stylist Samy.
As is the case with most of the category drivers, recently released U.S. Census figures tell a good part of the story: Hispanic men account for nearly 20 percent of all men ages 18-34 in the U.S. and one in every 5 men between the ages of 18 and 49 is Hispanic. What’s more, Gaviria reminded a mostly baby-boom generation, in the year 2050 one out of every 3 men will be a Latino.
Panelists took time to discuss the findings of Why Latinos Look so Good, a study commissioned and released by Univision, showing among other things that marketers have to shed the misperception of Hispanic men as machos and start to look at them as vanidosos (conceited) who take care of their appearance, not only to look good but also to feel good. “Think about it, in Latin America we still submit resumes with our pictures attached on them,” said Target’s David Salazar.
The study also found that Latino males not only groom themselves more often than non-Hispanics but they also overspend in personal care, including nail care, lotions and neat trimming: The survey showed Hispanic men spent $32.31 in personal care products in the last 30 days, versus $25.25 spent by non-Hispanics. For marketers, addressing this demographic is a no-brainer: “In Target, the Hispanic male is the lowest hanging fruit,” added Salazar, a native of Colombia who recently joined the retailer to boost its Hispanic and multicultural efforts out of Minneapolis.
Both Univision and its clients declined to answer a question by Portada regarding the percentage of business the network makes out of the Latino grooming market. But citing Nielsen’s 2010 Adview figures, Univision’s vp client development/beauty personal care category lead, Marsha Sanor said an estimated $350 million total were spent on male grooming products and services in television in 2010, out of which an estimated $38 million (or 11%) went to Spanish-language television.
