African American Women: A Powerful Consumer

From Radio Sales Today:

Miriam Muley, CEO of The85%Niche, and previously Executive Director of Diversity Growth Markets at GM, has authored a recent paper describing opportunities to serve "a vital source of incremental business (that) has waned in recent years."Muley notes that the Black-women's market is one of the most visible, fastest growing, most influential segments in business today.

In fact, she says, "The very concept of 'ethnic target marketing'" was born as a result of the tremendous growth of African Americans. Based on estimates from Packaged Facts and the Selig Economic Center, the buying power of Black women exceeds that of Latinas and Asian women combined, at $450 billion, and is expected to grow to $600 billion in 2008.

The paper suggests that accumulated assets over the years by African-American women, whether home ownership or entrepreneurial ventures, speaks to the buying power in the African-American community, yielding black women as an economically vibrant consumer audience.

The report includes additional facts about this powerhouse consumer - African-American women:

* Account for 58 percent of all new car and truck sales made among African Americans, compared to 44 percent of women overall. Are also more likely to purchase prestige and luxury cars and trucks than women in general.

* Spent $57 billion on food-related items.

* Skew high on food-at-home expenditures ($36 billion).

* Spend 30 percent more than the general market on personal/beauty products, an industry estimated at $7.5 billion.

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