In Episode 1, I explained why black consumers matter to me, so now I’d like to talk about why black consumers should matter to you. I’ve often been given the advice that I should expand my company’s focus to multicultural consumer groups instead of focusing on black consumers. The problem with that is that by lumping all brown people together, there is no deep understanding of each individual culture. This is why I have decided to focus on black consumers with my own business.

Why should you think about black consumers?

1. Black people are often at the fringes and that is where innovation happens
2. Black people have power and influence above just their spending power. We make up 13% of the population, with about $1.57 trillion of spending power, and the power and influence reaches way above that.
3. The needs of black consumers are changing faster than companies approach us. Since 2020 there’s been a marked shift in black consumers and what they’re needing and wanting from brands.

If there’s something going on with black culture that is influencing your category above and beyond, why wouldn’t you want to leverage that?

Today’s Thought Starter: Have you been giving your black consumers enough credit in your business?

Connect with Dawn and her team at Mahogany Insights: https://www.panderless.com/

Music credit: Mavericks by Harrison Amer

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