It’s Not Hip to Be Square

Mindful of cultural blundering, marketers slowly target African-Americans.

African-Americans will control eight percent of the buying power in the U.S. in 2001, according to estimates from Selig Center for Economic Growth, Atlanta.

Yet U.S. marketers spend little more than one percent of their advertising budgets on campaigns targeting the group, according to industry estimates. “It’s not in their comfort zone,” says Carolyn Holmes, vp-executive director of Senior Research Group, Livonia, MI.

“The [African-American] population is increasing, and it makes up the majority in many markets,” says Lisa Skriloff, president of Multi-Cultural Marketing Resources, Inc., New York City. “[Marketers] are missing sales if they don’t address [it].” According to U.S. Census data, the African-American population has grown 17 percent since 1990, from 30.6 million to 35.8 million. By 2010, it is estimated to reach 37.5 million.

Yet many marketers hold back on ethnic marketing initiatives because they don’t know how to do it right. And brands that enter the territory unprepared risk offending the African-American community if they don’t understand the cultural and even language differences found within it, Holmes warned while speaking last November at Strategic Research Institute’s “Marketing to the Aging Adventurers” conference in Boston.

That’s a no-brainer for those who’ve been around the marketing block. “A smart marketer will always do that [before launching a campaign],” says Ron Acosta, marketing communications manager for Miller Brewing Co., Milwaukee. “Relevance is number one. It’s very important to make sure the message is relevant and important.”

It had better be. Nothing rings less true than a marketing message that thinks it understands its audience. “The traditional stereotype is that of the African-American male who just plays basketball all day. And you even see ads that start with the word `Yo!'” criticizes Holmes. “One of the worst mistakes a marketer can make is to disrespect the culture, or not take it seriously.”

And this is an audience that increasingly deserves respect. Since 1990, annual buying power among African-Americans has risen 86 percent, from $308 billion to $572 billion. That’s about 20 percentage points higher than growth among white consumers. Individually, African-Americans are reaching the $60,000 salary plateau faster than any other ethnicity.

“Companies at the forefront have started to market to African-Americans because it’s good business – and they have no choice,” says Greg Edwards, vp-general manager of ethnic-focused promotion agency PanaVista, an Atlanta subsidiary of Ryan Partnership, Westport, CT. “There is not a product in this country that you can sell that does not have to appeal to African-Americans at some point.”

Many brands have heeded the call. PanaVista helped put together a promotion for Heineken Beer – whose recent strategy has been heavily focused on ethnic targeting – that uses February’s status as Black History Month as a backdrop. The Music that Makes History campaign recognizes music as a major component of the African-American culture with a two-hour radio program in major markets examining the contributions of such African-Americans stars as Tupac Shakur and Whitney Houston. The show’s host, singer Kandi, will travel nationally to publicize the events. White Plains, NY-based Heineken expects the effort to reach 85 percent of African-Americans.

The brand is dedicating its Web site to the campaign, turning the content into an interactive exploration of music history. Visitors can order free T-shirts and CD compilations of African-American artists. P-O-P displays, radio spots, and magazine ads in Vibe and other targeted publications support.

“African-Americans are a significant part of our franchise, and this is a way to recognize the contributions they have made to society – and a lot of that has been through music,” says Heineken brand manager Scott Hunter Smith.

Chicago-based grocer Jewel-Osco joins the Black History Month celebration with a local program recognizing African-American businesses such as Luster Products, Magnolia Spice Teas, and Reggio’s by giving their products higher visibility – yes, without slotting charges – in Windy City stores with customer bases at least one-quarter African-American. Dubbed Jewel Salutes Chicago’s Black Entrepreneurs, the program will feature the products in prominent displays and sample at least one of them each week. FSIs, radio spots, and in-store signage supports. The chain plans to donate its profits from selling those products (or at least $5,000) to Chi-town’s DuSable Museum of African-American History. Local shop R.J. Dale Advertising and Public Relations handles.

CPGs Know Milwaukee-based Miller is currently running a cause-related promotion called Soulicious, The African-American Taste Experience, in which it dangles free T-shirts to anyone making a $15 contribution to the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, a nonprofit that helps send black students to college. The effort is being conducted primarily through print ads in such ethnic publications as Ebony and Honey. “African-Americans continue to be an important part of our business, and [are] the future of our economy,” says Miller’s Acosta. “It’s important to have programs and messages for this community.”

Miller recently added an African-American component called After Set to its five-year-old MGD Blind Date music program. One thousand winners are flown to a destination unknown to them until the day of the trip to be treated to a concert with an R&B act unidentified until the curtain goes up. Tickets are given away through radio call-in contests, remote broadcasts, and on-premise promotions. Launched last summer, the campaign treated winners to a show with artists Brian McKnight and Nas. GMR Marketing, New Berlin, WI, handled.

Late last year, Minneapolis-based General Mills’s Betty Crocker brand returned to a campaign that celebrates the African-American tradition of home cooking – a strategy also tapped heavily by rival Kraft Foods (September 2000 PROMO). Called Recipes from the Soul, the contest asks entrants to send in their favorite recipes, along with a description of how it celebrates the tradition. One winner earns $50,000. (Previous prizes have gone to Sweet Potato and Sausage Pie and Ma Mary’s Cheesecake.) This year, the campaign was conducted nationally for the first time; 10 finalists will be flown to Minneapolis for a bake-off at the Mall of America (and a tour of the Betty Crocker kitchens) on Feb. 17. “It fits well to celebrate cooking, because we are a food company,” says Julie Morgan, Betty Crocker ethnic marketing associate. “African-Americans are very important to us.”

Miami-based Burger King prides itself on having one of the biggest and longest-standing ethnic-marketing programs in the country. “African-Americans represent a very large percentage of our business, especially when you go to the Southeastern markets,” says Sandy Salinas, the chain’s director of ethnic marketing. “It’s absolutely imperative to our success that we market appropriately to meet what they want and expect.”

In some Southern markets, such as New Orleans, African-Americans make up about 50 percent of Burger King’s customer base, adds Salinas. “They have the power to make a product successful if they like it.”

For the last four years, Burger King has tied to Atlanta-based Universoul Big Top Circus, one of the largest touring events specifically targeted to African-Americans. The tour, which has grown from 13 to 30 cities since BK signed on as sponsor in 1997, gives the chain opportunities to distribute coupons and samples and introduce African-American children to its Kids Club.

Elsewhere, several brands last month attached themselves to a benefit to raise money for the United Negro College Fund, Fairfax, VA. DaimlerChrysler, AT&T, Chase, Prudential, American Airlines, and Kentucky Fried Chicken pooled their resources to sponsor a four-hour television broadcast featuring musical performances by African-American artists and guest appearances by other celebrities. UniWorld, New York City, handled.

The population is growing and the buying power increasing. Will marketing expenditures for campaigns targeting African-Americans finally follow suit?