Recently, I was joined by Dick Williams, VP of Automotive at GfK, to share our annual look at the state of the Hispanic auto opportunity and reveal findings from the latest wave of our proprietary Hispanic brand tracker and intention & shopping studies with GfK Automotive.
Here are a few highlights:
- Hispanics are driving U.S. population and automotive industry sales growth. In 2016, Hispanics purchased a record high 1.9 million new vehicles that represented 100% of industry sales growth vs. 2015.
- Over the past 6 years, both Hispanic total new vehicle sales and luxury brand sales have doubled.
- Among new vehicle intenders, high opinion of a brand often translates into first choice intent to purchase that brand. Hispanic opinions are most strongly influenced by their perception of a brand’s quality and driving performance.
- 45% of Hispanics intend to purchase a new vehicle within the next 5 years similar to 46% of non-Hispanics. However, Hispanics are much more likely to be buying within the next year (64% vs. 58%) and to be first time buyers (12% vs. 6%).
- Understanding the importance of Spanish is imperative for realizing your Hispanic opportunity. The majority (82%) of Hispanics speak Spanish, and 1 out of 4 (24%) speak only Spanish. Extending an invitation in their language of choice is the first step to introducing your brand to this segment.
- Leverage culturally relevant Hispanic passion points to build trust, consideration, opinion and intention with these younger, aspirational, and upwardly mobile consumers.