Hispanic households in Los Angeles, home to the largest population of Hispanics in the United States, are much less likely to belong to a grocery store frequent shopper programme than non-Hispanics, according to new research from ACNielsen US.
The difference in frequent shopper programme participation is pronounced among Hispanic households, with only 52% belonging to a frequent shopper programme, compared with 90% of non-Hispanic households. But among the primarily English-speaking Hispanic households, participation rises to 75%.
Ken Greenberg, vice president of marketing for ACNielsen Homescan, said, "If grocery retailers are going to succeed with this important demographic group, they need to focus their efforts on attracting those households that don't speak so much English. Not only are they the largest segment of the Hispanic population but our research shows that they also have a tendency to concentrate their purchases in a smaller number of stores. Having them participate in a frequent shopper programme would further solidify their loyalty."
Cultural acclimatisation
An analysis of five popular consumer packaged goods categories across four channels (grocery, drug, mass, and warehouse club) demonstrated the tendency for Hispanics to shop in more stores as they become more culturally acclimatised (as they begin to become bilingual, or prefer English language). The table below shows the percentage of households within each demographic segment that spent all of their category dollars in one particular channel.