Trending Attitudes, Behaviors and Preferences Among Hispanic Contractors

In many ways, con­trac­tors across demo­graph­ics are expe­ri­enc­ing sim­i­lar oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges in the home improve­ment indus­try. They are sen­si­tive to the ris­ing costs of build­ing prod­ucts and mate­ri­als; they expe­ri­ence sim­i­lar mar­ket pres­sures; they have to con­tend with cus­tomer inde­ci­sion; and their jobs span every­thing from repairs and main­te­nance to high-val­ue upgrades.However, there are also some notable dif­fer­ences among His­pan­ic con­trac­tors and their non-His­pan­ic coun­ter­parts that are impor­tant to iden­ti­fy if your team is explor­ing ways to expand your brand’s reach into this mar­ket seg­ment and bet­ter con­nect with cus­tomers — old and new.From their con­fi­dence about the econ­o­my and job prospects to their com­mu­ni­ca­tion chal­lenges with man­u­fac­tur­ers and open­ness to new brands, prod­ucts, and inno­va­tions, our recent His­pan­ic Con­trac­tor Research report pro­vides insights on sim­i­lar­i­ties and con­trasts between His­pan­ic and non-His­pan­ic con­trac­tors to assist you with fos­ter­ing brand aware­ness and loy­al­ty and tai­lor­ing your mes­sag­ing for this spe­cif­ic audience.

What are Key Trends Among Hispanic Contractors?

When mar­ket­ing and adver­tis­ing your build­ing prod­ucts brand, you’re always look­ing for ways to dif­fer­en­ti­ate your strate­gies to align with spe­cif­ic mar­ket seg­ments. To help you bet­ter align with His­pan­ic con­trac­tors, here is a look at some of their behav­iors and atti­tudes about the home improve­ment indus­try, the econ­o­my, and build­ing prod­ucts brands:

1. Hispanic Contractors Report Higher Optimism Across the Board

Our data shows there is a stronger cur­rent of opti­mism among His­pan­ic con­trac­tors. They are more like­ly to expect growth in the upcom­ing year, both in the home improve­ment mar­ket and their busi­ness­es. They are less wor­ried about inter­est rates and the state of the econ­o­my, in gen­er­al, cit­ing these con­cerns less fre­quent­ly than the non-His­pan­ic seg­ment dur­ing the research peri­od. How­ev­er, we also see diver­gence in terms of what they’re focused on. About rough­ly one in four are con­cerned about access to financ­ing — com­pared to 17% of non-His­pan­ic con­trac­tors — and one in five are con­cerned about glob­al con­flicts. If you’re mar­ket­ing to the His­pan­ic seg­ment, try to share infor­ma­tion about any financ­ing options avail­able through your com­pa­ny or your indus­try partners.

2. More Specialty Work Leads to Narrower Range of Product Categories Purchased

His­pan­ic con­trac­tors tend to pur­chase from a nar­row­er range of prod­uct cat­e­gories, indi­cat­ing a high­er lev­el of spe­cial­iza­tion, although they are most­ly oper­at­ing in the same areas of the home as non-His­pan­ic con­trac­tors. That includes, bath­rooms, bed­rooms, and din­ing areas. A few areas where we observe diver­gence are kitchens — where non-His­pan­ic pros are more like­ly to be doing projects — and out­door liv­ing areas, pools, and hob­by and craft rooms — which are areas where His­pan­ic con­trac­tors are more like­ly to be doing projects. As a home improve­ment prod­uct brand, focus on empha­siz­ing prod­uct ease, qual­i­ty, and how var­i­ous prod­uct cat­e­gories are fit­ting for trade-spe­cif­ic needs. For exam­ple, demos and train­ing tai­lored to spe­cial­ties can boost trust and brand loy­al­ty in the long run.

3. Labor Quality and Material Costs are Main Challenges

Ris­ing costs for mate­ri­als are exert­ing pres­sure for a major­i­ty of con­trac­tors and indus­try pro­fes­sion­als, but the His­pan­ic seg­ment seems to be feel­ing it slight­ly more strong­ly. About 24% report a ​“sig­nif­i­cant increase” in prod­uct and mate­r­i­al costs in the past three months, and anoth­er 40% report a ​“slight increase.” About 22% say there’s been a ​“sig­nif­i­cant increase” to their aver­age project, as well. Oth­er pain points include the cost, avail­abil­i­ty, and qual­i­ty of labor, as well as increas­ing com­pe­ti­tion. For mar­ket­ing teams, this means clear­ly com­mu­ni­cat­ing the val­ue of your brand’s prod­ucts rel­a­tive to the cost to appeal to more price-sen­si­tive con­trac­tors. Addi­tion­al­ly, high­light how your prod­ucts can opti­mize effi­cien­cy on job sites to help com­pen­sate for strug­gles with labor.

4. Hispanic Contractors are More Open to Trying New Brands and Products

In gen­er­al, our research shows His­pan­ic con­trac­tors are more will­ing to try new brands and prod­ucts, with 54% report­ing that they tried a new prod­uct for the first time in the past three months. This means there is an oppor­tu­ni­ty for you to court their pur­chas­ing pow­er and con­vert them to cus­tomers, but your brand may also need to strive hard­er to retain their loy­al­ty. Addi­tion­al­ly, online order­ing is more com­mon in this group than among non-His­pan­ic con­trac­tors. About 46% make pur­chas­es online, although they’re equal­ly split between in-store pick-up and deliv­ery. As a mar­ket­ing team, it’s impor­tant to ensure con­sis­tent access to your inven­to­ry online and effi­cient, easy-to-use online order­ing process­es that will make your build­ing prod­ucts brand more appealing.

5. Miscommunication and Compatibility Stand Out as Struggles with Manufacturers

When it comes to work­ing with home­own­ers, His­pan­ic con­trac­tors cite the sim­i­lar chal­lenges to their non-His­pan­ic coun­ter­parts, such as home­own­er inde­ci­sion, time­ly pay­ments, and cost con­straints on projects. One area that’s a stronger pain point is design dis­putes. In terms of chal­lenges work­ing with man­u­fac­tur­ers, we also see some notable vari­ances. His­pan­ic con­trac­tors report sig­nif­i­cant­ly more com­mu­ni­ca­tion and com­pat­i­bil­i­ty issues when work­ing with man­u­fac­tur­ers. With sup­pli­ers, they’re also strug­gling more with war­ran­ty issues. Man­u­fac­tur­ers hop­ing to increase brand aware­ness and loy­al­ty with this seg­ment should focus on improv­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion pro­to­cols; offer­ing train­ing or onboard­ing around prod­uct use; and ensur­ing cus­tomer ser­vice sup­port for this demo­graph­ic to reduce friction. 

6. Hispanic Segment Demonstrates Openness to Innovation

His­pan­ic con­trac­tors are look­ing for tools and resources that boost effi­cien­cy and they demon­strate a strong open­ness to inno­va­tion and tech­nol­o­gy. About one-fourth see tech­nol­o­gy inte­gra­tion as the biggest oppor­tu­ni­ty for growth in the home improve­ment sec­tor, and they demon­strate com­fort with dig­i­tal tools, from arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) and design soft­ware to cus­tomer man­age­ment plat­forms. To con­nect with cur­rent prospec­tive cus­tomers from this seg­ment, your mar­ket­ing team can devel­op dig­i­tal resources and easy train­ing resources to meet their for­ward-look­ing approach.

7. Hispanic Contractors Value Eco-Friendly and Community-Oriented Practices

While there are many shared pri­or­i­ties among con­trac­tors look­ing to set them­selves apart from com­peti­tors in the home improve­ment indus­try — main­tain­ing com­pet­i­tive rates, deliv­er­ing supe­ri­or cus­tomer ser­vice, and build­ing a strong brand pres­ence, to name a few — the His­pan­ic seg­ment stands apart in two key areas: com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment and eco-friend­ly prac­tices. About a third are look­ing to set them­selves apart in these areas. Addi­tion­al­ly, they are more like­ly to see eco-friend­ly and health-con­scious mate­ri­als, as well as sus­tain­able and green ren­o­va­tion as oppor­tu­ni­ties for growth. To make your brand more appeal­ing to this demo­graph­ic, high­light how your home improve­ment prod­ucts can save mon­ey, help the envi­ron­ment, or sup­port local communities.

Enhancing Your Marketing Messaging with Customer Research

Research should inform every busi­ness strat­e­gy for home improve­ment brands, from prod­uct devel­op­ment and test­ing to choos­ing sup­pli­ers and mar­ket­ing your prod­uct lines. The Home Improve­ment Research Insti­tute (HIRI) offers mem­bers access to a wealth of data-rich research and insightsto help with your day-to-day under­stand­ing of the home improve­ment mar­ket, cus­tomers, prod­ucts, and project activ­i­ties. HIRI mem­bers use these insights to inform strate­gic plan­ning and long-term deci­sions while work­ing to gain share for their build­ing products.