Black is the New Green: Marketing to Affluent African Americans Book Launch

On March 18, prominent buisness leader and philanthropist  Reginald Van Lee hosted an exclusive event celebrating the launch of the new book Black is the New Green: Marketing to Affluent African Americans at his Watergate home in Washington D.C.  According to authors Black is the new Green’s authors Leonard E. Burnett, Jr. and Andrea Hoffman, the general market for luxury goods has become stagnant, particulary given the new economic reality of the early 21st Century.  ”Up until now, the affluent African American market has been under-appreciated and overlooked. But with a sitting African American president—the time is now to tap into this market and to embrace a constituency that will have a lasting effect on your bottom line.” 

 Andrea Hoffman, Director Lee Daniels and Len Burnett

In Black is the New Green, authors Burnett and Hoffman aim to show readers how to follow in the footsteps laid down by brands such as Gucci, Sony Electronics, and Aston Martin, amongst others, to become successful in a segment corporations can’t afford to overlook if growth is the objective. “The total number of affluent ethnic households in the United States is now estimated at over 1.3 million, the buying power of affluent African Americans (AAA) is currently $87.3 billion. This massive buying power of African Americans is expected to reach more than $1.1 trillion by 2012—just three short years for a cumulative growth of 28.4 percent. It would be foolish in the extreme not to tap into this rich buying segment, yet that is exactly what the marketing arms of companies do all too frequently.”

Burnett asserts that this is because the executives in a particular marketing department are unaware of the potential that exists within this segment. “Sometimes it’s because they are baffled about how to reach out to this segment; and sometimes it’s because they think they lack the money or resources to make a credible effort at adding a whole new segment. While other times, unfortunately, it’s because they have reached out in the past but their efforts were unappealing to the AAA audience. Black is the New Green will show you how to attract this lucrative market and create brand loyalty and product bonding among affluent African Americans in an affordable and measurable way.”

C. Brian Williams, Reginald Van Lee and Troy White

Kevin Parker, Carla Sims, and C. Brian Williams

Leonard E. Burnett, Jr. is co-CEO and Group Publisher of Uptown Media Group and VIBE Lifestyle Network. UPTOWN Magazine is a bi-monthly publication focusing on the lifestyle and culture of affluent African Americans. Len is a pioneer in the urban media space, transforming marketer’s perceptions of the importance of reaching the underserved urban audience for twenty years. Andrea Hoffman is founder and CEO of Diversity Affluence, a research, marketing communications and business development consultancy that helps brand managers, marketers, agencies, entrepreneurs and business development and media executives to understand and market to affluent ethnic consumers.

Posted by The Cotillion Online on Apr 1 2010. Filed under New York. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry