New Study Offers Advertisers Effective Strategies For Reaching Black Consumers - Black Enterprise | About the ANA | ANA

New Study Offers Advertisers Effective Strategies For Reaching Black Consumers - Black Enterprise

Reaching the Black Market
New study to offer advertisers insight on connecting with the black community

Released Tuesday at the Association of National Advertisers conference, SMG says the Beyond Demographics study underscores its desire to provide clients with the best way to value and measure their investment in the black community.  

Billed as the most detailed information on the African American buyer available to advertisers, SMG hopes to have it embedded in the industry's metric system by the second quarter of 2008.

By Aisha Sylvester

November 7, 2007 — With the buying power of African Americans projected to reach $1.1 trillion by 2011, Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) and Dr. Nat Irvin II, University of Louisville professor and founder of Future Focus 2020, have conducted a study aimed at providing advertisers with a strategic approach to reaching black consumers.

Currently, less than 1 percent of U.S. advertising dollars are spent utilizing targeted black media to connect with the African American population. Instead, advertisers rely on the inclusion of black images in the general market, a move which Miriam Muley, founder and CEO of marketing firm The 85% Niche, claims is negatively impacting African American spending.

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"The exciting thing about this project is looking beyond the normal lens through which we see ourselves, then having others look beyond how they see us," says Irvin, who has been working on this concept since 1996. He hopes the information provided by the study will result in the portrayal of more positive and diverse African American characters in the media. Companies such as Coca-Cola and Kraft have already been briefed on the contents of the study and are enthusiastic about having such detailed information on one of the leading consumer groups in the country.