• by Mario Carrasco , Op-Ed Contributor, December 26, 2014

U.S. Hispanic consumers continue to grow in numbers. And as predicted, they aren’t shy about flexing their spending muscle. One group in particular, Affluent Hispanics, whose earnings top $100K+ per year, are really tipping the scale. While they currently only represent about 12.2% of Hispanic earners, they punch above their weight as compared to non-Hispanic Affluents when it comes to contributing to overall spending.

In an effort to better understand why that is, we conducted a nationwide study among U.S. Hispanics, zeroing in on four main categories of spending:

• Family activities
• Vacations
• Sporting events
• Brands

Though the study covered all income levels, the following findings are specifically about Hispanic consumers with a household income of more than $100,000. 

Family Activities
In this category, we looked at everything from camping and fishing to gambling and golfing. In many categories (including shopping, cooking, reading books and wine tasting), Affluent Hispanics and non-Hispanics measured out at about the same level of activity.

For a few of the activities, such as visiting museums and clipping coupons, non-Hispanics rated higher than Hispanics. 

But there were a certain activities where Hispanics outspent their non-Hispanic counterparts, in time and money, such as attending live music events and having gym memberships. Being that Hispanics earning $100K+ a year are on average seven years younger than non-Hispanics in that income bracket, perhaps youth plays a factor here.

Vacationing

Everyone likes to get away, but the study suggests that Affluent Hispanics rank vacationing high on the priority list.

In fact, 23% of affluent Hispanics take five or more vacation each year – compared to just 9% for non-Hispanics. And when it comes to really getting away, 44% of Hispanics travel internationally, 9% more than non-Hispanics. And it’s not just frequency. 

Affluent Hispanics tend to also spend more on vacations vs. non-Hispanics. On average, affluent Hispanics spend 29.7% more for a domestic vacation and 25% more for one out of the country. This increase in spending may also be a function of larger family sizes among Hispanics.

Sporting Events

In our study, we asked about attending live sporting events – everything ranging from the Big 3 (NFL, MLB and the NBA) to FIFA soccer and NASCAR. And in every single category, a higher percentage of affluent Hispanics have attended at least one event in the past two years. 

Brands

While the level of activity and dollars spent are certainly two measures of affluence, the specific brands that people buy are a different kind of psychographic measurement. In this respect, Hispanics are attracted to those brands with a reputation for being the top-of-the-line. When we asked, “Which of the following brands do you own?”, here’s what we uncovered…

With some of the more mass-market brands — like Nike, Whirlpool and Wrangler — affluent Hispanics and non-Hispanics measured out at nearly identical levels.

But for many of the luxury brands, wealthy Hispanics owned them at a much higher rate the non-Hispanics.

What You Need to Know

Whether you’re a decision maker at a large corporation or an ad agency tasked with creating the marketing for that corporation, you have to not only pay attention to this segment, but you need to really dig deep and try to understand them. 

Do Affluent Hispanics spend at levels higher than non-Hispanics because, unlike their parents, they are in a position to do so, so they go above and beyond? Or is spending money on things like vacations and sporting events another way to celebrate their culture, which thrives on family connections? 

If you can answer those questions, you can win them over.