Consider this: With the U.S. Census Bureau reporting a U.S. Hispanic population totaling more than 40 million and New York-based Conference Board forecasting purchasing power among the under-45 age group alone growing from $295 billion to $397 billion by 2010, the Hispanic market is anything but a niche anymore.

Reaching this expanding demographic and getting Hispanic consumers to hit the buy button or pick up the phone is dependant on a marketer’s ability to leverage language, lifestyle and other cultural cues.

Miami-based AccentMarketing ties these cultural cues together under its trademarked Brand Fingerprinting, which defines brand perception within specific Hispanic market segments.

“As a whole, the market responds to lifestyle – how a brand will make consumers feel,” say Diego Naranjo, AccentMarketing account director for direct marketing.

Hispanic consumers, for example, have a strong sense of family and respond well to marketing that contains images of people and messages about products and services that serve the household.

Language is also important for clients seeking to achieve effective response in a market where fashion, food and music are also important. “If you distribute a piece in Spanish and have non-Spanish speaking reps taking customers calls, you’re not going to get very far,” Naranjo says. “If you solicit Hispanic consumers in Spanish, you have to deliver in Spanish,” he says.

Successful marketing, however, must tran-scend generalizations and cultural cliché. In fact, Naranjo advises some clients to create promotions that dispel internal and external misperceptions.

“There are a lot of myths about achieving the ‘American Dream’ in the Hispanic market,” he says. “We have been working with a financial lender and created a piece to demystify the home-buying process. We define and discuss the myth – in this case, the notion that it’s impossible to own your own home – and then educate the customer on how they can own a home and get a mortgage.”

The Hispanic market as a whole is undertargeted, he says. Until very recently, targeting and segmentation capabilities for this market have been poor, and the challenge of understanding the demographic and producing materials in Spanish has kept many marketers away. Hispanic households receive an average of 50 direct mail pieces per year, compared to 500 or more in the general population.

“Hispanic consumers aren’t as jaded as the general market and are much more likely to read and respond to direct mail,” Naranjo says. “Response to direct mail is far outpacing that of the broader consumer market. With sophisticated segmenting, and the longer messages that direct mail allows, we’ve found the medium to be extremely cost effective for reaching this market.”

An increasing number of companies are realizing the importance – and influence – of the market. “It’s already a huge part of the economy and is growing fast,” Naran-jo says. “If you’re not talking to the Hispanic consumer, you’re missing out on a tremendous opportunity.”