Targeting Hispanics by Language Spoken at Home – Is it Really that Simple?

by Denise Sharp

Language spoken, particularly at home, is often a simple way for marketers to segment U.S. Hispanics for marketing or media purposes. Hispanics are regularly classified as “Spanish dominant” (speak only Spanish or Spanish more than English at home), “fully bilingual” (speak both Spanish and English equally at home) or “English-dominant” (speak only English or English more than Spanish at home). Ipsos interviewed almost 2,000 Hispanic adults in the recently released 2012 U.S. Diversity Markets Report. Chart 1 below illustrates the percent of Hispanic adults and their language dominance at home.