Abel Delgado
Marketing Director
AMI
As a multitude of studies have shown, values influence consumer purchase decisions. In this sense, “values” can be personal, core beliefs—or they can be qualities that consumers value in a brand. This applies to consumers around the world, including Americans and Latin Americans.
However, different studies mention different values, so obtaining a clear picture that marketers and brand managers can apply in their campaigns can be challenging. That’s why we created this piece, based on an extensive review of available new data. Hopefully it will offer some ideas for messaging, branding or approaches.
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LatAm Consumers Value Life’s Essentials
One obvious way to understand what consumers value is looking at what they actually buy, and a 2024 study from McKinsey indicates that Latin American consumers are favoring food and beverages over other types of consumer goods. An analysis of consumer goods spending between 2019 and 2023 revealed that spending on nonperishable packaged food by Latin American consumers grew by 10.6%, with strong growth also posted in spending on beverages (8.2%) and dairy (8.1%). These food categories all grew more than spending on personal care (3.5%), and home care products (7.8%) during that same four-year period.
Of course, it stands to reason that consumers would prioritize products essential for life over other types of products, especially since purchasing power for consumer goods in Latin America has declined by 25% since 2020.
This could well be driving a related trend: Latin Americans increased spending on private label consumer products (i.e., store brands, as opposed to well-known mainstream brands) by 0.5% between 2022 and 2023, versus the drop of 1.1% in spending on mainstream products.
But that’s not just a blip over one year. In 2024, Nielsen IQ reported that private labels posted 14.2% sales growth in Latin America over the previous 12-month period.
The Opportunity: Retailers can develop a wider range of store brands to drive sales of more types of grocery products—and explore the possibility of testing more private label personal care and home care products.
Brand marketers would need to counteract the appeal of store brands by emphasizing the qualities that make their brands worth the extra money, maybe by stressing the quality, taste or some other key element that will elevate their brand over the store brands in the eyes of the consumer.
LatAm Consumers Value their national pride—and products
It’s not news that Latin Americans are often fiercely patriotic, but recent events have connected patriotism to consumer values. A survey of 8,500 grocery shoppers in 6 countries — conducted in April 2025 by Dunnhumby — suggests that Latin Americans plan on buying fewer grocery products from the US.
A lot of this can be traced to the Trump administration announcing tariffs on Mexico and other countries. Despite some of these tariffs being rolled back by April 2025, according to Dunnhumby’s Consumer Trends Tracker survey:
- 43% of Mexican consumers report they will buy fewer grocery products from the US in 2025
- 60% of Brazilians, 59% of Colombians, 54% of Mexicans and 44% of Chileans say they intend to buy more from their own countries
- Significant majorities of consumers in different countries—79% of Brazilians, 78% of Chileans and 76% of Colombians—cited the tariffs imposed by the US as the key factor in them purchasing fewer grocery products from the US
- Nearly 25% of Latin Americans say that buying fewer US products will become permanent behavior for them in the future
Now, as of the writing of this story in July 2025, the Trump administration announced 50% tariffs on goods from Brazil starting on August 1 and 30% tariffs on goods from Mexico, also starting on August 1. While these tariffs may not come to fruition (based on previous announcements and suspensions of tariffs on products from different countries by Trump), the threats may well result in Latin Americans avoiding American products in the short term and in the future, just out of solidarity with their countries and national pride.
The Opportunity: Local companies in Latin America can stress their origins (“100% colombiano”) in their packaging and messaging for food products. However, this could also apply to other types of products, similar to the “Made in America” labels found on certain clothing, tools, furniture, and home goods.
LatAm Consumers Value Eating Better
According to a recent survey of 1,200 LatAm consumers by Kerry, improving eating habits (72%) and medical recommendations (50%) influence the purchase decisions of Latin American consumers when it comes to healthy food products. Upon evaluating products, these consumers prioritize nutritious value (51%) the most, followed by overall well-being support (47%) and proven health benefits (46%).
The ingredients that LatAm consumers value the most in food products include:
- Vitamins (73%)
- Protein (53%)
- Fiber (55%)
The Opportunity: Adjust labeling on food products to promote the specific ingredients. Companies selling food products rich in protein (like tuna or chicken) can highlight the protein content. In addition, companies like Quest—which produces chips, bars, cookies and other high-protein foods—could find strong opportunities in expanding into more Latin American markets. However, researching export markets for Latin America can be tricky: we offer some advice on this here and here.
And even though influencers have lost some influence in Latin America, perhaps micro-influencers could talk about products that boast high amounts of these choice nutrients in TikTok or other platforms.
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LatAm Consumers Value personal touch
This seems glaringly obvious—yet companies in the region are investing heavily in AI chatbots to handle customer service. According to results from the 2025 ServiceNow Consumer Voice Report, this embrace of AI-driven customer service runs counter to what Latin American consumers value. Here’s a quick breakdown:
- 85% of Latin American consumers would rather speak to a human over the phone than talk to a machine
- 94% of LatAm consumers are wary of using chatbots—and 93% are cautious about voice assistants
Favoring the human touch over the tech touch isn’t necessarily about mistrusting technology. The study authors say the caution about AI stems from it lacking emotional intelligence. And in a customer service situation, consumers want validation of their concerns—and want to feel confident that their problems will be solved. This is why fewer than 30% of Brazilians in the survey indicated that they trust AI to manage emotionally charged issues, like disputing a bank charge.
According to consumers, other shortcomings of AI include its difficulties to grasp context (55%), its misinterpretation of slang (49%) and the fact that it often sounds robotic (67%).
On the positive side, there are several activities that consumers trust AI chatbots with:
- Tracking a lost or delayed package (22%)
- Requesting support or a refund for a faulty product (19%)
- Scheduling a car service (17%)
- Troubleshooting a home internet connectivity issue (17%)
The Opportunity: If a company has not fully embraced AI for customer service and has real people offering support in a call center, that could be an important unique selling proposition to play up in an ad campaign across media. Or the messaging could emphasize that the company uses AI for routine tasks to free up its people to help customers with more complicated problems.
Next Steps
Contact us to explore in greater detail what Latin American consumers value, particularly in relation to your brand. These and other insights may illuminate new approaches your company can take to engage these consumers more effectively. At AMI we’ve produced more than 600 consumer market research studies for all of Latin America, focused on behavior, brand awareness, market share, competitor strengths/weaknesses, market assessment for retail expansion, demand forecasting and much more.
In a Nutshell
- LatAm Consumers Prioritize Life’s Essentials. Latin American consumers are increasing their spending on food and beverages, especially nonperishable food, reflecting their focus on essential needs amidst declining purchasing power.
- Opportunity for Private Label Expansion in LatAm. With rising private label sales, brands can develop store brands and highlight product origins or quality to compete with mainstream brands in Latin America.
- Patriotism Affects Buying Patterns in Latin America. Latin Americans’ national pride influences their buying habits, leading to reduced US product purchases due to tariffs and emphasizing sourcing local or national brands.
- Consumers Value Human Touch in Customer Service. Despite AI advancements, most Latin American consumers prefer human interaction over chatbots, especially for emotionally charged issues, valuing empathy and emotional intelligence.
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