Understanding characteristics of the Latino market — from household size to its youthfulness to its language preference — can help companies considering marketing their products and services to that group, speakers said Thursday at an event on marketing to Hispanics.

One of the first things to understand is the scope of the market — the U.S. Hispanic population is bigger than the overall population of Canada and in Utah packs the spending power of at least $2 billion, with at least one estimate as high as $4.1 billion.

"Don't wait any longer" to advertise to Hispanics, Duvan Botero, Utah marketing director for Telemundo, said during the Hablamos Espanol Conference, organized by the Latin-American Chamber of Commerce and managed by Hispanic Media Services Inc. "The market is growing, and if you don't do it today, somebody else will, and they're going to take the market. Do it now."

Citing census figures, Botero, an entrepreneur who has started nine companies, noted that the average Hispanic household is larger than that of non-Hispanics, in part because they have more children. "So when you invest in advertising — TV, radio, print — you're reaching more people per dollar," he said.

A Hispanic household often includes more than just the immediate family, he said. It often will have a cousin or uncle and their children or a single mom.

"So you actually have more than one family in a household," Botero said. "You have two or three families living under the same roof, and they're making money — everybody's working — and that means that that particular household has more funds to spend than the usual household in the state of Utah."

But not just any advertising will be effective. Botero said 91 percent of Hispanics speak Spanish at home, and surveys indicate they prefer products advertised to them in that language.

"This shows us a trend that instead of what everybody believed in the '60s and the '70s, there was a misconception that Hispanics were going to acculturate to the United States cul— ture, meaning we were going to become Americans. That's not true," he said.

"We're actually becoming more Latino, more Hispanic. We're becoming more proud of our culture and our roots. We want things in Spanish. . . . We want to buy from those advertisers who speak to us in Spanish. Hispanics get more information about a product when they advertise in Spanish, and Hispanics will be more inclined to purchase brands if they advertise in Spanish."

Potential advertisers also must consider the relative youth of the Hispanic population. The median age is 24 in Utah, and more than 50 percent of Hispanics in the state are between 18 and 34, he said. Youngsters flock to some of the events he organizes.