The Homescan Hispanic panel, covering most of the current Los Angeles market, uses language preference as a barometer of acculturation. This enables marketers to go beyond standard broad Hispanic/non-Hispanic comparisons in order to understand market differences.

In demographic terms, the panel consists of a representative number of Los Angeles Hispanic households in which English is the preferred language. It also includes those that are bilingual and those in which Spanish is the language of choice. This cross section of types is designed to allow the diverse Los Angeles Hispanic community to be segmented by language preference. Using in-home scanners, panellists record their shopping habits through all the UPC-coded products that they have purchased.

"Our expanded Hispanic panel will enable our clients to better understand additional nuances of this important consumer group," said Ken Greenberg, ACNielsen Homescan vice president. "Now, purchasing of lower-incidence items can be accurately reported from the panel. These insights demonstrate the strength of the panel. In the bottled water example, without the ability to view households by language preference, a marketer could easily make the mistake of treating the Hispanic market in the same way that it treats the non-Hispanic market. However, a closer look shows that differing approaches are needed for the different acculturation segments. Doubling the panel size will further strengthen the panel's ability to provide the best possible understanding of this crucial market."