address the Latin consumer

[jasonlulu_2000]

Forget Miami, Los Angeles and New York. The next big Latin music explosion is on its way in secondary markets across the United States, and the numbers are there to back it up. Among all genres,Latin music was the only one registering growth in 2005. From tiny Vero Beach in northern Florida to Des Moines, Iowa, in the heart of the Midwest, from Charlotte, N. C．to Salt Lake City, Latin music sales are skyrocketing. Wilson says there are two major reasons for the increase. One is simply the Hispanic population's increase in specific areas, which encourages stores to carry Latin product for the first time. Second, and perhaps more important, is the fact that major companies-whether dealing in music or not-are addressing the Latin consumer at a corporate level, creating Latin departments and hiring Latin ad agencies. One of Handleman's suburban Detroit stores, for example, has expanded its Latin section four times in the last two years. Cities like Milwaukee and Des Moines are now stocking Latin product.

What does the underlined sentence mean? Can you paraphrase it?


Thanks

 

[SoothingDave]

By "Latin" they mean Spanish-speaking, as in people who originated from "Latin America." Companies are creating special departments to focus on how to service this market, as its size grow in the US.

 

[jamiep]

It refers to the Spanish speaking population with origins in the Central and Southern Americas.

 

[TheParser]

or companies-whether dealing in music or not-are addressing the Latin consumer at a corporate level, [/U]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

(1) The "corporate level" is the key term. I believe that it refers to the top executives of a company who work at their

headquarters in big financial centers, such as New York City, etc. Those executives have now -- according to your

article -- "woken up" to the fact that their businesses depend on getting Hispanics/Latinos to become customers.

The American government has predicted that Hispanics/Latinos may be the largest group of people in the United States by the

end of this century. Until now, corporate America did not realize this earth-shattering change. Maybe corporate America

let their local stores deal with the situation. Maybe a local store's manager would stock some products that pleased his/her

Hispanic customers, but corporate America didn't concern itself with the changing situation. Now corporate America is spending

big money to attract Hispanic customers. (I have read that salsa now outsells catsup in the United States!) In other words, the

big companies are fighting one another in order to get Hispanic customers.