Living in Peru : your everyday companion

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DOING BUSINESS IN
AND WITH) PERU

In order to ensure that the U.S.- Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA) foster the growth of exports, we should first know better the profile of those more who would be buying our products in the northern country. In that sense, the “natural consumers” of Peruvian exports would be the latin inmigrants in the U.S. And now even more, given the fact that the latin consumption is getting more sophisticated with time. As a matter of fact, the latin segment already represents the 15% of the total population in the U.S, it has a total purchase power above the US$600,000 millions per year and now leads and manages nearly 2 million of the companies based in the U.S.

Also, latins are in direct contact with the marketing channels that are more used nowadays: 35% of them owns a computer, more than the one third has internet access at home and nearly 15% of them purchase online. According to CBS.MarketWatch, many American companies are doing intense publicity campaigns focused for this poblational segment. In fact, some fast food companies invest more in publicity in those channels with spanish language content than those only with english. It is believed that this tendency awaked the interest of NBC General Electric, which in octuber of 2005 bought Telemundo Communications Group- the second channel in spanish with more audience after Univision.

Another point of interest is to know how the geographic ubication of the latins affects its consumption. 75% of latins in the U.S., are concentrated in seven states: California, Texas, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Florida y Arizona. In the case of Peruvian residents, most of them are in New Jersey and New York, places where there usually is a greater demand for Peruvian products or those of “national flavor”. This is explained mainly because these cities are farther from Peru than those like Miami, from which Peruvians living there can travel more easily back to Peru and hence, not experiencing a strong desire for Peruvian products while being at Miami.

These kind of products are also known as “nostalgia products”. Its consumers are commonly inmigrants –generally ilegals- who have been away from home for many years, which explains its demand for these products as a desire of experiencing a feeling of belonging, familiarity and cultural bond with its roots. Thus, it must not be strange to know that the Commercial Counsel of Peru in New York has had already registered more than 70 restaurants of Peruvian food in that city as well as New Jersey.

All these characteristics make the latin consumers a “natural market” for our exportations. And hence they represent a springboard through which we can approach to other American consumers’ segments.

(Adapted from a column published in Correo newspaper, by Aldo Defilippi, AmCham’s Peru executive director)

tags : Peru business economy USA LatinAmerica immigration Free-Trade FTA PTPA consumer

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