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Customer LoginsAfrican American automotive share - big topic at Rainbow Push National Conference
On Monday, June 20, I had the honor of attending the Rainbow Push National Conference in Chicago, IL. While there, I spoke on a panel titled, "Does Market Share Translate Into Representation?" The panel included the following industry leaders who are recognized for excellence in each of their respective fields:
- Reverend Jesse Jackson - Founder, Rainbow Push and Internationally Recognized Leader
- Pepper Miller - Founder, The Hunter-Miller Group, Distinguished Researcher and Author
- Marilyn Stephens - Assistant Regional Census Manager, U.S. Census Bureau
- Carol H. Williams - Founder, The Carol H. Williams Agency
- Munson Steed - CEO of Steed Media Group, Inc.
- Danny Bakewell - Chairman, National Newspaper Publishing Assoc. (NNPA)
- Sherman Kizart - Founder, Kizart Media Partners
- Ken Smikle - Founder, Targetmarketnews.com
Pictured from left to right - Sherman Kizart, Marc Bland, Pepper Miller, Munson Steed, Marilyn Stephens, Rev. Jesse Jackson
The panel discussion began with facts about the African American share in multiple consumer markets including automotive. The automotive market share figures were compared to population statistics from the Census Bureau as follows: African American, Asian and Hispanic Americans represent 22% or 1 out of 5 new vehicle purchases year-to-date through March 2011 accordingly to Polk. According to Marilyn Stephens from the Census Bureau, 1 out of 3 Americans are from one of the diverse groups listed above. Based on these two data points, the auto industry should expect the current 22% share of new vehicle sales controlled by ethnic consumers to grow.
In summary, the panelist and the conference attendees verbalized their strong desire to see more parity between market share from a given community (African, Asian, Hispanic, etc.) and automotive advertising investment. For example, if an automotive brand has 7% share of the African American market, then why wouldn't the automaker allocate 7% of their advertising budget to this target market? If this approach was adopted by the industry then "Market share would translate into representation." Based on the strong attendees present, I fully expect more discussion and action around this topic.
This is my summary of the Rainbow Push National Conference and the key topic focused on automotive. I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments on this topic, the conference, attendees or the photo.
Posted by Marc Bland, Product Strategist & Multicultural Marketing Lead, Polk (07.06.2011)