ON THE SHELF: New books of note

American Demographics, May 1, 2003

Byline: SIMONA COVEL

Marketing to American Latinos: A Guide to the In-Culture Approach, Part 2

By M. Isabel Valdes Paramount Market Publishing, 2002

Census 2000 confirmed that Hispanics are one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups in the United States. In the past 40 years, this market has more than quadrupled in size, so it's important that companies figure out how to target this young, explosive demographic. Here to help is Isabel Valdes, who, in her 2000 book, Marketing to American Latinos, used census estimates to demonstrate the potential of this market. Her follow-up to that book starts out by slicing and dicing the actual numbers from Census 2000, segmenting the burgeoning Hispanic market by income and education, among other indicators. Valdes devotes significant space to a discussion of how age, geographic distribution and country of origin affect spending power and consumer viability. In Part 2, the author emphasizes what she has famously coined the "in-culture" approach - a philosophy that encourages marketers to thoroughly understand consumers' culture and origin before attempting to court them. Throughout the book, Valdes presents case studies of companies that have successfully put this philosophy to use.