Hottest market around: US Hispanics

Barack Obama is chasing them.

Mitt Romney is chasing them.

Hollywood is chasing them.

They are probably one of the hottest market segments around. I’m talking of course about US Hispanics.

As many of you know, the FirefoxOS phone is launching in LatAm next year with our partners Telefonica. Because of this, I’ve been spending a ton of time in region getting great apps and content for the phone.

So I’ve been talking to developers, content owners, and creative types about FirefoxOS and our LatAm plans.

But they’ve been talking to me about are their plans to head north and sell to the massive, and undeserved, US Hispanic populations. Sure, they think it is great that we’re bringing a new phone into the LatAm market. But if you REALLY want to get LatAm developers excited, tell them about how they can pitch their content Stateside.

And it isn’t just app developers. Some of the largest media companies you can think of are now re-purposing existing content, and even developing brand new content, specifically to appeal to the US Hispanic market. It feels like all of a sudden everyone want to sell to this segment.

Why?

A phrase I hear over and over again is that US Hispanics “over-index on aspirational goods’. Seriously, I’ve heard that exact phrase dozens of times. Basically what it means is that this market segment really wants cool stuff, and they’re willing and able to pay for it.

But appealing to US Hispanics doesn’t just mean translating regular US content in Spanish or importing content from LatAm. The key part of this segment are second and third generation Hispanics, who may not even speak Spanish or have any particular ties to one country or another.

The trick is to provide products, services and content that is specifically targeted at this segment… content that isn’t American, isn’t Latin American, but is a unique merger of the two.

If you can figure that out, you’ve got a massive, undeserved market waiting for you.

For example, the movie industry is thinking this way:

Earlier this year, MPAA chairman and CEO Chris Dodd sternly instructed the film industry to better serve Hispanic moviegoers, who more and more are becoming a Hollywood lifeline.

The Secret to a Smash Movie: Lure Latinos – The Hollywood Reporter.