As our friends at MultiCultClassics, HustleKnockin and Kiss My Black Ads will attest, cultural cluelessness is pervasive in advertising and marketing. So is there a way to get more educated on how to better market to minority audiences? That was one of the questions I asked when I got a copy of
Black Is the New Green: Marketing to Affluent African Americans by Leonard E. Burnett Jr. and Andrea Hoffman.
Burnett and Hoffman focus on the group they call “Affluent African-Americans” (AAAs) – a group with annual incomes over $150,000, and who represent part of a total group of nearly 1.3 million ethnic Americans who meet that income criteria. The authors do a very good job of outlining trends in this group, suggesting ways to reach the audience and build loyalty, and incorporating examples of how brands like Sony, Lexus, and even Harley-Davidson were able to successfully market to AAAs. In addition, the media, cultural and philanthropic habits of this audience are also examined, which make for some fascinating reading.
Black is the New Green is a well-researched window into a powerful niche market. I hope we’ll see more books like this that focus on audiences that deserve genuine and honest outreach efforts by marketers. Maybe then we’ll successfully reduce some of that cultural cluelessness.
Special thanks to Palgrave Macmillan who provided me a copy for review.
