Multicultural Marketing News

"Black Still Matters: Why Increasing Your Cultural IQ About Black America is Critical to the Survival of Your Brand" by Pepper Miller Boyd (Paramountbooks.com) sets the marketing outlook for 2012. Key decision makers in CPG or Pharma brand categories, financial services, chain or independent retailers, and federal agencies should know "Black Still Matters."  Effectively reach these consumers through proven grassroots cultural connections: churches, beauty salons, barbershops, neighborhood venues, community based retailers, (large and small chains) and black media, (traditional and social). Burrell Communications (burrell.com), notes that trends in multicultural marketing blurring color lines fail to engage African-Americans.  Eighty-seven percent of those surveyed are attached to African-American culture, and balance their cultural interests with their cultural identity. The buying power of 40 million plus African-Americans will reach $1.1 trillion by 2015, according to "The State of the African-American Consumer" (nielsen.com/africanamerican) report by Nielsen research company and the National Newspaper Publishers Association (nnpa.org). African-American households earning $75,000 or higher grew by 64%, almost 12% greater than the change in the overall population's earning power between 2000 and 2009.  Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau, (www.reachingblackconsumers.com) says  there are 15% more black than Hispanic households in the US; 70% of black high school students go to college; the medium income of married black working  couples is $91,578. By Lafayette Jones, CEO, SMSi-Urban Call Marketing; Publisher, Urban Call.