|
|
African-Americans and Consumer Behaviorby Sally RaineyIntroduction
Explanation of the TopicTo explain why the African-American subculture is so important to marketing and consumer behavior, we will discuss several different topics throughout this tutorial. Demographics, Consumer Groups, Media Usage, and Examples in Business Practice of the African-American subculture will hopefully leave you with a better understanding of African-Americans and how to market to them. DemographicsAfrican-Americans make up approximately 12-13% of the population, and have from $320 to $500 billion dollars in spending power (Brown 174). They make up a small amount of the American population but in terms of dollars you cannot afford to ignore this market. African-Americans, in general, tend to be younger than most Americans, have lower household incomes, and be in single parent families (Hawkins, Best, and Coney 151). This is a generalization though, and 13% or more of African-Americans have incomes of $50,000 (McLaughlin 101). This percentage is steadily rising, as the mean income for African-Americans is raised by several different factors, the most important being educational level. The majority of African-Americans still live and spend in the south and in urban areas, but studies show that the African-American population is growing quickly in the West and Midwest (Gallop-Goodman 14). States such as Nevada, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona have all seen more than 100% increases in African-American buying power, and rapidly increasing consumer markets (Gallop-Goodman 14). The southern states will be increasing but the numbers are more impressive than the percentages. According to Roderick Harrison, director of DataBank at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington D.C., "Blacks are moving to metro areas of some southwestern states, which are the fastest growing areas in the country" (Gallop-Goodman 16). The basic numbers are as such: North Carolina and Maryland, 120,000 in the next five years, Georgia, Florida, and Texas, 250,000 in the next three.
|
 | $21.2 billion on Apparel, Products, and Services, |
| $43.2 billion on New and Used Cars and Trucks, |
| $47.3 billion on Entertainment and Leisure, |
| $942 million on Sports and Recreational Equipment, and |
| $5.1 billion on Transportation, Travel, and Lodging (Target Market News). |
As a consumer group, respect is key to African-Americans. 58% of black people said a pleasant store attitude is what they look for when they shop (Fisher 55). Unlike most other racial or ethnic groups, blacks are identified by skin color, and the business that keeps this in mind will be highly successful. African-Americans are also very brand-loyal. "Almost two-thirds of blacks say they are willing to pay more to get 'the best'" if that is their preferred product (Fisher 55)
Finding out where the dollars are among African-Americans is important, but once you do how do you reach out to them? Mass media seems to be the most important venue. African-Americans watch more TV than the general population. According to Nielson Media Research in March 1994, African-American households watched 73 hours and 30 minutes of television each week (Fisher 58). That is a large number, but in 1998 the top 5 shows of black and white audiences were not the same, and didn't seem to come close in viewership (Hawkins, Best, and Coney 152). The top show with blacks was Steve Harvey (which ranked 118th with whites). The biggest difference with whites was their #4 show, Jesse, which came in 106th with blacks. To reach this market you would have to advertise where they are watching.
Radio and print ads are also a good way to reach this market. Seventy percent of the African-American population reads community-based publications (McLaughlin 101). Direct mail is also a good way to reach them. African-American consumers actually respond better than average to offers by mail (McLaughlin 100). The Internet is also growing as a way to reach African-American consumers. Between 1998 and 2000 Internet access increased from 11.2% to 23.5% (Ebenkamp 16). Minority-focused media is continually overlooked, but African-Americans generally stick with their own when it comes to media.
Now that you know all of this wonderful information, what can you do with it? Other companies have utilized it, and some have ignored it. In actual business practices, some of the most successful businesses in the African-American community are African-American businesses.
OURSTelecom's slogan is "Building our community…one telephone call at a time." They promote themselves as THE phone service for the African-American community. They offer standard benefits such as high quality service at a discounted price. They also reach out to the community by donating a large amount of their sales dollars back to the community.
FUBU, or For Us By Us, is one of the more popular brands of urban wear today. They sell shoes, clothes, outerwear, and accessories at a premium price, and the community responds to them. Where other popular brand such as Tommy Hilfiger and Polo are truly marketed to white America, but made popular by black Americans, FUBU always goes back to their slogan to remind black consumers who their dollars support.
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Fashion Fair cosmetics is "The World leader is the field of cosmetics for all women of color." (Fashion Fair) Their ads use beautiful women of all skin tones and sizes, and they promote their quality product well to cater to African-American women. Other cosmetics companies have come out with successful lines of cosmetics for African-American women, but Fashion Fair has always been a standout in the African-American Community.
Many non-African-American businesses have successfully reached out to African-American consumers. StoveTop Stuffing realized the importance of language; they started using the word dressing as opposed to stuffing when targeting blacks in advertising and sales improved (Morris 45). Pepsi admits to "aggressively" marketing to African-American consumers. Their focus is on the youth of this country, who they realize are heavily influenced by the ethnic consumer (Advertising Age 14).
In 1999, General Motors' Oldsmobile division joined with Radio personality Tom Joyner of the nationally syndicated Tom Joyner Morning show to reach out to African American consumers (Gray 1999). They planned to donate $1000 each month to the Tom Joyner Foundation (support for students attending historically black colleges and universities) and co-sponsor two segments of his show as part of their Start Something Initiative. The Start Something Initiative's purpose was to target potential African-American car buyers through every possible medium (Gray 1999).
In 1992, J.C. Penney opened boutiques that sold authentic African clothing,
housewares, and art. Sales came in at more than the expected numbers, and there
were difficulties keeping items in stock as virtually all of the boutiques
(Larson 12).
In 2000, General Motors created their first "multicultural online
alliance" with BlackVoices.com in a
three-year deal worth up to $15 million (Halliday 50). GM sponsored areas on the
site such as the Spotlight on Excellence, Sports Channel, and Centerpiece. They
also exclusively sponsored Auto Corner, which relates to car buying and
maintenance, and they posted job openings in the Career Center of the site.
Since respect is key to African-American consumers, if they feel they are being disrespected as a community they will take action. The NAACP has initiated many things to show the power of the African-American consumer. In the early 1980's the NAACP had an ongoing initiative called "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" (Smith 235). They list economic reciprocity as one of the main ideas of the economic empowerment agenda (Smith 235). The Rainbow/Push Coalition recently blasted Toyota for running an ad in Jet that was offensive to the readers. Their ad for the 1999 Corolla had the tag line "Unlike your last boyfriend it goes to work in the morning" (Jackson 1999). They felt that this ad was a prime example of mistakes made when marketing to African-Americans. The demographics that they were attempting to reach were young women around 25. This figure was way of for Jet, whose median age is 38 (Jackson 1999). Toyota felt the references to males being unemployed was humorous, but African-American males are stereotyped as being lazy and not providing for their families (Jackson 1999).
Alcohol advertising is also a sensitive area for African-Americans. While they are high among alcohol consumers, the effects is has on the community raise ethical questions about how heavily companies market to the African-American consumer. Consumers are striking back against being so heavily targeted. In 1997 the U.S. Senate voted to prohibit placing "any sign, poster, placard, graphic display or any other form of alcoholic beverage advertising in publicly visible locations" in the District of Columbia, which is heavily populated with African-Americans (the globe.com).
African-American business websites
Popular websites targeting African-Americans
1. In 1999, how much earned income did African-American households have?
A. 500 Billion
B. 320 Million
C. 491 Billion
D. 375 Billion
E. None of the above
F. All of the above
2. Where do the majority of African-Americans live?
A. in the south
B. in urban areas
C. in New York
D. All of the above
E. A & B
F. None of the above
3. What one thing is key to African-Americans as a consumer group?
A. cute clothes
B. nice hair products
C. pleasant salespeople
D. respect
E. All of the above
F. None of the above
4. What media type is the best to reach African-Americans?
A. television
B. radio
C. magazines
D. billboards
E. None of the above
F. All of the above
5. What is the name of the program that Oldsmobile launched to target
African-Americans?
A. Project Black
B. Start up Stuff
C. Start Something Initiative
D. Get the black people
E. All of the above
F. None of the above
scroll down for answers...
keep scrolling...
Quiz answers: 1 (C) 2 (E) 3 (D) 4 (A) 5 (C)
"Black Buying Power Tables and Text". Selig Center for Economic Growth 1999. 28 Mar 2001. http://www.selig.uga.edu
Brown, Ann. "Staying in the black." Black Enterprise Oct 2000: 174
Ebenkamp, Becky. "Divide and Culture." Brandweek 29 Jan 2001: 16-18
Fisher, Christy. "Black, hip, and primed (to shop)." American Demographics 18 (Sept 1996): 52-59
Gallop-Goodman, Gerda. "The moving Dollar." American Demographics 23 (Jan 2001): 14-18
Gray, Madison J. "Oldsmobile targets blacks to bridge gap." The Detroit News 16 Mar 1999. 28 Mar 2001. http://www.detnews.com/1999/detroit/9903/16/03160132.htm
Halliday, Jean. "General Motors links with BlackVoices.com: Tribune unit's $15 mil alliance called 'richest' African-American Web deal." Advertising Age 71 (9 Oct 2000): 50
Hawkins, Del I., Roger J. Best, and Kenneth A. Coney. Consumer Behavior: Building Marketing Strategy New York: Irwin/McGraw Hill, 2001.
Jackson, Jesse L. "Jackson Cites Lessons from and offensive ad." Advertising Age 1 Mar 1999. 28 Mar 2001. www.rainbowpush.org/commentary
Larson, Jan. "J.C. Penney Finds Profit in Africa." American Demographics 14 (Nov 1992): 12
McLaughlin, Rachel. "African Americans" Target Marketing Mar 1999: 100-101
Morris, Eugene. "The difference in black and white." American Demographics 15 (Jan 1993): 44-50
"Neighborhood protests against alcohol and tobacco billboards - getting results in the USA." The globe.com Nov 1997. 28 Mar 2001. http://www.ias.org.uk/theglobe/nov97/usaresults/htm
Smith, Eric L. "Money talks." Black Enterprise June 1999: 232-238
"The Buying Power of Black America-1999." Target Market News 1999. 28 Mar 2001. http://www.targetmarketnews.com
"Urban Legend in the making; Soft drinks one-on-one: Pepsi learns valuable lessons from efforts that take to the city streets." Advertising Age 71 (19 Oct 2000): 14
In
marketing, it is important for us to realize the differences in our consumers.
We try to categorize them in many different ways, one of which is a subculture.
" A subculture is a segment of a larger culture whose members share
distinguishing patters of behavior." (Hawkins, Best, and Coney 146) There
are several possible characteristics by which to define a specific subculture
(religion, age, geographic area) but ethnic groups are the most common. An
ethnic subculture is one where "the members" unique shared behaviors
are based on a common racial, language, or nationality background"
(Hawkins, Best, and Coney 149). Based on this definition, we can conclude that
an African-American (or black) subculture is one where the members are all of
the African-American race, and they share certain behaviors unique to their
race.
