NEW YORK—Aggregate spending by Latino consumer units on personal care products and services grew from $5.3 billion to $7.5 billion between 2000 and 2009, an increase of 41 percent, according to Packaged Fact's report "The Latino Health and Beauty Care Market." In contrast, spending by non-Latino consumer units on personal care products and services grew by only 15 percent.
Moreover, the Census Bureau projects by 2015 Latinos will account for 20 percent of 18- to 49-year-olds, an age group that is critically important to marketers and advertisers. Growth dynamics in the personal care market, therefore, will increasingly be shaped by the health and beauty care (HBC) usage patterns and product choices of Latino men and Latinas.
According to the report, Latinas are more likely than women on average to use eye liner and mascara, and less likely to use foundation makeup. Latino men are much more likely than men on average to use skin care products such as moisturizers and facial cleansing products. Both Latino men and Latinas are more likely to choose scented products in the deodorant category, and Latino men are more likely to choose scented shaving cream. Frequent tooth brushing and flossing, additionally, is a characteristic of both Latino men and Latinas.
One of the most distinctive features of the Latino consumer market, according to David Sprinkle, publisher of Packaged Facts, is it includes a substantial segment of high-volume users of HBC products. For example, Latinas are nearly twice as likely as women on average to have used shampoo 12 or more times in the last seven days, accounting for 26 percent of all women in this high-frequency usage category.
When looking for HBC products, moreover, Latinos are more likely than consumers on average to be attracted to products positioned as organic and natural, a pattern that holds for Latino men as well as Latinas.
