Blacks Flex Buying Power : Advertising Studies Reveal Strength of African-American Consumers
Marketing research wizards are finally discovering that black is--surprise--beautiful.
For years, one of the great voids of marketing research has been the African-American consumer. While marketers have examined the lifestyles and buying habits of Latinos and Asian-Americans, black consumers have been virtually ignored.
Now, some of the biggest names in advertising research are suddenly undertaking multimillion-dollar studies to find out everything they can about African-Americans.
What happened? Research firms are reacting to the changing consumer market, the sputtering economy--and to client demands.
Companies from Procter & Gamble to Coors are relying on niche marketing to hang on to market share. They are demanding more information on African-Americans in particular, whom marketers increasingly view as trendsetters. Blacks now number 31 million Americans and have annual spending power of more than $223 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
“Finally the numbers are just so compelling that companies have to take a look,” said Chuck Morrison, chairman of the Los Angeles-based National Assn. of Market Developers and president of the Morrison Group, an Atlanta-based ethnic consulting firm. “Blacks and Hispanics are not white people who happen to have dark skin. They are consumers with different buying habits, different lifestyles and different priorities.”
That’s why marketing research giant Yankelovich Partners has linked up with the black-owned agency Burrell Communications to produce an exhaustive study on African-American lifestyles. Simmons Market Research is joining Essence magazine to assemble an ongoing study of black consumers. Even industry giant Nielsen Media Research last year began to break out demographic research of black consumers in its monthly reports.
While most big research firms point to the strong new interest in niche marketing as the reason for this, the founder of a tiny, minority-owned Los Angeles research firm has her own idea about what is at issue. “I think the (1992 Los Angeles) riots did more than anything else,” said Freda Spaulding, president of Inglewood-based Rainbow Research. “Marketers are all of a sudden saying, ‘We need to know more about what makes African-Americans tick.’ ”
There were all kinds of surprises in the Burrell/Yankelovich study, which found that blacks pay more attention to advertising than does the general market. But the report, which featured one-hour, in-home interviews with 1,000 African-Americans, also found that more than half of the African-Americans interviewed believe that most ads are designed “for white people only.”
“Until now, marketers have all been guessing--and shooting from the hip”--about African-Americans, said Charles H. Curry, president of Chicago-based Burrell. He said the new study is a “wake-up call” to companies that have been relying on mass-market approaches to target blacks.
Executives at Yankelovich--which had already done similar studies on Asians and Latinos--concede that they should have done the study earlier. “It isn’t right that we waited so long,” said Peter Rose, director of the study at Westport, Conn.-based Yankelovich.
Since releasing the study last month, Yankelovich and Burrell have been besieged with so many requests for the report--which sells for a hefty $20,000--that they have already agreed to jointly update the study at least every other year, Rose said.
The Essence/Simmons study--which industry sources say could cost the companies more than $1 million to produce--is still in the earliest stages. The study will amass the largest-ever national African-American data base, said Lewis C. Wilson, director of marketing research at New York-based Essence magazine.
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In a few years, the study will rely upon a panel of more than 10,000 African-American consumers who will regularly respond to research questions posed by the two firms, said Ellen Cohen, president of New York-based Simmons.
“Mass marketing was part of the ‘70s and ‘80s,” Cohen said. “In the ‘90s, ethnic marketing is part of a general trend that people are more interested in specific targets.”
After numerous requests from clients, Nielsen last year finally began to offer monthly reports on black TV viewers--the same reports it assembles on the general market. The information includes everything from what shows they prefer--typically different from white consumers--to what kinds of cars they drive, said Jack Loftus, vice president at Nielsen.
But you don’t have to be Nielsen to turn heads these days with minority research. Since tiny Market Segment Research, a little-known research firm in Coral Gables, Fla., released a study on African-American, Asian and Latino consumers last month, “A Portrait of the New America,” executives there have been shocked at the number of major marketers who have asked about it.
“The decision-makers in corporate America are finally becoming aware of these demographic shifts,” said Gary Berman, president of Market Segment. “The way they dealt with minorities in the past was from a public affairs mind-set, but they now realize that’s not enough to convert minorities into customers.”
Briefly . . .
The Los Angeles agency Sacks/Fuller Advertising has picked up a combined $4 million in new billings from two clients: Jiffy Lube of Los Angeles and Comfort Center Sleep Shops of Huntington Beach. . . . Lusion Creative Agency of Los Angeles has been selected by Los Angeles-based Neutrogena to develop a new print campaign. . . . The $3-million account for the Century City luxury cruise line Crystal Cruises, now held by Saatchi & Saatchi DFS/Pacific of Torrance, has been placed into review.
Deciding Where to Shop
What are the factors that most heavily influence where African-Americans do their shopping? A recent nationwide lifestyle survey of more than 1,000 African-American consumers over the age of 14 indicates that fair treatment is the most important factor of all.
What is most important in deciding where to shop?
African-American customers treated same as others: 61%
African-Americans on sales staff: 43%
Other African-Americans shop there: 31%
African-American ownership: 26%
Note: Those surveyed could select more than one factor.
Source: Burrell/Yankelovich African-American Monitor
