Purchasing Power of African-Americans is $821 Billion!

Kingsley you have a point there. But we have to look for what they like! What are the thinks they like?

Go and do some google search and check out informations what the African-Americans love to spend on. I'm sure you will find the informations you need. Go and ask a yahoo question and you might find some answers.

Hope this helps.

That is very correct.

My sentiments exactly... and that doesn't make this racey

Kingsley


.

This is actually Marketing 101 - find a group of willing buyers, learn what they want to buy, and sell it to them.

In this case, though, you may be stretching things to say that there is one "African American community". Like many other racial groups, there are many different communities within the group of people sharing African descent.

Now when you isolate a group that does share an affinity for particular foods, hair styles, etc., and you figure out how to reach that group effectively? Now, my friend, you have a niche opportunity.

Thats a nice big number...

Compare it to spending power of EVERYONE regardless of Race, Creed or Color...

Lookin a lil smaller now?

Way back over ten years ago when I got started in Internet marketing I posted on the Warrior Forum for 'regular folks who are making money online' to be interviewed for a book I was writing.

One lady who responded was making some good money from a book on how to style nappy hair.

At the time I had never heard the term (it isn't used here in the UK) and so it has always stuck in my mind as a great example of finding a niche and creating a unique product for it.

There was, and I'm sure still is, a demand for information and her personal expertise allowed her to provide it.

In general though, I don't think it is a good plan to target racial groups, or any kind of groups of people for that matter, purely on the basis that they have a certain spending power. It is far better to identify a demand for a product or for specific information and target the people who need it.

If the majority of them turn out to be African American, Irish Women, or Left-Handed College Students so be it.

Martin

I'm sure I'm not alone in looking at your photo and saying "HUH?":confused:

Thanks, I'm all over that. If Ron Douglas doesn't beat me to it.

BTW, I also found parts of this thread offensive but since "We're strictly about what sells." I guess anything goes.

I don't look at it as treating race as a niche, it's all about service. How can you serve a specific markets needs. To say most minorities don't have a lot of money is insulting and stereotype. Especially when we spend over $900 billion dollars a year on consumer goods in the U.S alone, even more globally. (Target Market News)

Example, every commercial you see on T.V that has an African American celebrity is usually targeting Black consumers. Because most of the time they're the only ones who know who the celebrity is especially their history, background or influence.

Ford, Honda, Toyota, Verizon, Mc Donalds, Gatorade, Nike, Apple, and a host of other Fortune 500 corporations target Black consumers for a reason.

I'm not offended by it in general, as long as it's a fair exchange of value.
Considering we've been overlooked as consumers for so many decades (or centuries) this is something new. Which means opportunity to serve for the alert minded entrepreneur.

Read post #22, the one just above yours.

definitely agree with you

I cringe whenever I hear the term "African-Americans!" I've never been to Africa, and many TRUE African-Americans are somewhat distant socially, spiritually, financially, etc from Black-Americans.

That being said....

Black-Americans generally purchase more/less the same goods/services as other nationalities--in my experience.

Funny you should say that about the cowboy boots! Sitting here in Houston, the first real-live cowboy I saw in life was black! (Real-life as opposed to an actor, in case you are wondering.)

Sometimes I end up watching television that someone else in the house wants to see more than I do, and one of the things that often stands out is the difference in the commercials in between shows created by Tyler Perry such as "Meet The Browns" or "House of Payne" from the commercials in between such shows as "NCIS" or "NCIS: Los Angeles". General Motors has especially made a specific effort to sound "hip" or "cool" while making sure they appeal to the middle to upper income African American community, more so than most of the other auto makers.

Speaking of demographics, just yesterday I turned on the TV for a short break away from the computer and the TV was on a channel that was playing an infomercial. It was kind of interesting. My first reaction was, "What's wrong with these guys? They don't even have a website I can go to? What's the website, so I can go there and get the price of this thing?"

But they really knew their main demographic (and apparently I wasn't it! ), because they didn't even have a website listed in their infomercial. The product, a nutritional supplement that was created to increase memory and create faster brain function and alertness, seemed to be geared mostly to people above the age of 50. The whole time the show was on, they never once mentioned a web site. But also during the whole time the show was on, there it was in big bold white at the bottom of the screen . . . a toll free PHONE NUMBER to call to place your order!

My point? Even though there are a lot of seniors getting on the web, there are often times when they are frustrated with the current world's constantly directing them to a website. One complaint I sometimes hear right in my own household is, "Don't these people realize not everybody has easy access to the internet all the time?" Yet try calling any company on the phone. In their pre-recorded phone script there is almost always a message about how you can get information from their web site. Matter of fact, I remember calling Comcast one day some years ago, and the line said to go onto their web site and look up how to do what I was calling to ask questions about. Funny about that. If I had internet, I wouldn't have been calling them . . . I was calling because their internet wasn't working!

What is interesting for me about the purchasing power of the African American community is what happened once it was "discovered" years ago. There was a certain point in time during the 70s to early 80s where, if you wanted to find make-up or hair care products in the drug stores, you had to work with what was typically designed and created by white people for white people. As a person of color, it was possible to make that work, but more often than not it didn't quite do a good job. And at one point earlier in US history it was that way on purpose, as one more form of discrimination.

And then a company came along that was started by African Americans and designed hair care products specifically for African Americans to fill the void. Because of the strength and success of that one company, the other companies in the industry took a look at the market with fresh eyes and discovered that the African American community at the time was spending more per capita than any other community on such products.

MAN did that open the flood gates!

Prior to that event it was unheard of for an African American model to model for a make-up brand such as Maybelline or Revlon or L'Oreal. Now, Queen Latifa appears to be one of if not the main spokesperson for Cover Girl, and they have a separate line of colors that are slightly different and created specifically for women of color.

And then there are people such as Iman, who now has her own line of cosmetics with her name on them instead of a company name such as Maybelline or Cover Girl.

And all of this is in the realm of make-up, cosmetics, and hair care.

While it isn't all one great big so-called "market", the African American community is a set of many different marketing groups that respond differently to things than other groups. For instance, in some cases the "as seen on TV" products have been shown to do better among African American markets than the same product without having been advertised on television first. And the thing is, this particular study stated that the fact it was advertised on TV didn't mean the community was likely to buy it from the TV ad, just that as the product showed up in stores later that it would do better if it had been seen on TV first. I don't know why that is, but I remember reading about it in a study a company did. This study was many years ago, though, and like everything else, it is highly likely to have changed.

I agree with your assessment, although the 'brothas' and 'sistas' dig Springsteen too!

Oh Ron, there you go trying to turn Springsteen into a Springstein. Didn't Adam Sandler already clear up that confusion in one of the versions of the Chanukah Song?

Interesting points. Ethnic consumers do tend to set trends. Fashion, clothing, catch-phrases, even slogans .. and more. It's odd how business people continue to overlook, ignore or neglect where many of today's trends come from and learn how to market ahead of the curve.

Good points. The income spending ratio would be interesting to compare it to other niches I know some of us are targeting such as asian/hispanic.

you got an affiliate link for this? hahaha