How To Target Hispanic Pet Owners

A recent report from Packaged Facts, Hispanic Pet Owners in the U.S.: 20 Million and Growing, really caught my attention – there are 20 million Hispanic pet owners in the U.S.!

This fact really put the magnitude of the Hispanic market opportunity into perspective for me. Look at it this way: there are a total of 23 million people in Australia and 20 million Hispanic pet owners in America.

The report does a great job of not only quantifying the Hispanic pet owner market today, but also into the future, stating, “Between 2016 and 2021 Latinos will account for around half (50%) of the growth in the number of pet owners in the United States.”

Given this data, the next logical question is how should brands  target Hispanic pet owners?

Hispanic Pet Owners Speak English y Español

The Packaged Facts report found that more acculturated Hispanics, who tend to prefer English, and younger Hispanics are more likely to be pet owners. Our research using Facebook Audience Insights found the same thing, but also interestingly found that Spanish preferring Hispanics love pets as well.

According to Facebook, there are a total of 12.5 million Hispanics who have an interest in pets, or 38% of all Hispanics on Facebook. Compare this to 49% of all Americans who have the same interest. At first glance, one might conclude that Hispanics just aren’t interested in pets, but digging deeper we find that in fact they are.

Using Facebook’s Hispanic Affinity audience, we are able to determine the interest Hispanics have in family pets by language preference. Here is what we found:

• English preferring Hispanics
  • 3.75 Million interested in Pets
  • 58% – Index to US 118
• Bilingual Hispanics
  • 3.25 Million interested in Pets
  • 38% – Index to US 79
• Spanish preferring Hispanics
  • 5.5 Million interested in Pets
  • 44% – Index to US 91

This analysis points to a clear opportunity for pet brands and affiliated products and services to target and win with both English and Spanish preferring Hispanics. Relative to the U.S. market, English preferring Hispanics are huge pet fans, but the Spanish segment is larger than the English segment by 1.75 million individuals.

Let’s dig deeper. In the U.S. 63% of those on Facebook with an interest in pets are women. This is consistent among English preferring Hispanics but among Spanish preferring Hispanics, men are more likely to have an interest in pet ownership.

Obviously this analysis could go even deeper, but the point should be clear.

The Hispanic pet owner market is huge – and will continue growing exponentially. The best way to target Hispanic pet owners is to intimately understand who they are, including language preferences, and develop marketing strategies to reach them in a meaningful way.