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                                                                                BUSINESS, Page 52

Buying Black


Mainstream companies are cashing in on African-American consumers

By JANICE C. SIMPSON -- With reporting by Sally B. Donnelly/Los
Angeles, Allan Holmes/Atlanta and Jane Van Tassel/New York


    Cosmetics companies usually promote their products as
miracle cures that will make users look younger or more
alluring. But Estee Lauder's Prescriptives had something else
in mind when it introduced All Skins, a line of 115 foundation
shades spanning the color spectrum from antelope to mahogany.
Its foundation, the company promised in a blatant appeal to
African Americans and other women of color, "matches your skin
tone exactly." The message hit home: All Skins now adds 4,000
new black customers a month, and overall foundation sales are
up 50%. This fall, rival Revlon will also offer a line of makeup
specifically for black women.

    The complexion of America is changing. And cosmetics
companies aren't the only ones that have noticed. According to
the 1990 census, the African-American population is growing at
a rate more than twice as fast as that of whites. Moreover,
during the past two decades, the aggregate annual income of
blacks has grown nearly sixfold, to an estimated $270 billion.
As a group, blacks are younger and tend to spend a higher
percentage of their money on consumer goods than their white
counterparts do. They also show a preference for top-of-the-line
merchandise and a willingness to try new products.

    Those are precisely the attributes that turn the heads of
corporate marketers, especially in these recessionary times when
so many people are pinching their pennies. Thus everyone with
something to sell, from book publishers to automakers, has begun
targeting the growing numbers of middle-class blacks with
specially designed products and marketing campaigns. "Marketing
to African Americans is a competitive imperative," says Ken
Smikle, president of the African American Marketing and Media
Association. "It's not a question of if firms should market to
blacks, it's how."

    Merchandisers have long welcomed black consumers, of
course, but in the past, most assumed that their mass-marketing
campaigns would reach them along with everyone else. Some
progressive-minded companies demonstrated their good intentions
toward the black market by integrating a few black models into
their ads. But that old one-size-fits-all approach won't wash
today. Instead there is a growing recognition that cultural
preferences and values influence what black consumers buy. A De
Paul University study found, for example, that African Americans
prefer products that acknowledge their ethnic heritage and
respond best to ads that reflect the full panorama of the black
community.

    None of that is news to the scores of small specialty
companies that traditionally catered to this market, but now
mainstream companies are catching on. Advertising dollars aimed
at black consumers have jumped 85%, to $757 million, just since
1984. Meanwhile, black marketing specialists and advertising
firms are being hired to help companies customize their products
-- and their pitch -- to black tastes.

    Some bids for the black market are largely a matter of
style. Even before Bill Clinton donned sunglasses and went on
The Arsenio Hall Show, Pillsbury put shades on the Doughboy and
recast him as homeboy. K Mart, meanwhile, hired a black
advertising firm that created an ad campaign around the slogan
``Looking Good." In one radio commercial, a woman tells her
friend about the store's new fashions. "Girl, I couldn't believe
my eyes," she says. "I went out and looked at the store name
again. It was K Mart all right."

    Other companies have made more substantive changes,
developing new products or modifying old ones. Hallmark now
markets a "Mahogany" line of greeting cards that features black
characters and say ings. And even though it enjoyed good sales
with a black version of its Barbie doll, Mattel introduced
Shani, whose broad facial features and slightly fuller hips more
accurately reflect the way that many African Americans look.

    J.C. Penney, which made its name as a mass marketer,
discovered the benefits of targeting when it set up 20
experimental boutiques stocked with caftans made from kente
cloth, brimless hats called kufis, carved wooden masks and other
items imported from West Africa. After selling out all the
merchandise in just three months, the retailer expanded the
concept to 100 more stores and will add American-made products
with Afrocentric designs. In the entertainment world, art is
imitating life: four of the five new comedies debuting on NBC
this fall will star black actors.

    Sometimes the medium is the message. When the National
Council of Negro Women held workshops for people organizing
family reunions -- increasingly popular events in the black
community -- companies like Reebok and Kellogg signed up to
exhibit their products. Other major-league merchandisers, like
Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola, distribute samples of their
products in gift bags that are handed out after Sunday service
to parishioners at black churches.

    But marketing campaigns alone aren't always enough to woo
black consumers. "Blacks want to see the company involved and
contributing," says public relations consultant Myra Bauman.
"The concept of a good corporate citizen is important to us."
That can mean hiring more black employees, making contributions
to black causes, placing ads in the black media, using black
suppliers or even naming blacks to the company's board of
directors.

    The response to all this attention has been largely
positive. "It's about time," says Pat Tobin, an L.A.-based
adwoman whose clients include Toyota and AT&T. "African
Americans helped build this country, and we've been shut out too
long." Nevertheless, some blacks are put off by the idea of
being treated as a monolithic entity instead of as individuals
with tastes as diverse as anyone else's. Indeed, companies that
actively pursue the black market run the risk of being
criticized for stereotyping black consumers or exploiting them.
"There's a fine line between trying to appeal to taste and
ethnic heritage and creating a stereotype," says David Stewart,
a marketing professor at the University of Southern California.

    G. Heilman Brewing Co. learned that the hard way when
protests from the black community caused the U.S. Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to revoke its approval of a potent
malt liquor whose primary consumers were expected to be black
males. Similar protests caused R.J. Reynolds to snuff out a new
cigarette specifically designed to attract black smokers. Those
companies are studies "on how not to market a product and how
to ignore the community concerned," says Doug Alligood, vice
president of special markets for BBDO New York. "Nobody bothered
to find out that the black community is really concerned about
health."

    But even such missteps are unlikely to slow down the move
toward more diversified marketing. After all, notes advertising
executive Caroline Jones, "come the year 2000, African
Americans, Hispanics, Asians and women will be the majority in
this country. Targeting will no longer be a luxury but a
requirement." In other words, don't be surprised when the
Pillsbury Doughboy pops up in a sombrero or a kimono.