The Negro Market

On the financial pages of U.S. newspapers last week appeared a brief personnel item announcing the appointment of Harvey C. Russell, 43, as vice president in charge of special markets for the Pepsi-Cola Co. Harvey Russell, for twelve years Pepsi's Negro sales specialist, is the company's first Negro vice president.

Consumer-goods companies are becoming increasingly, if belatedly, conscious of the Negro market as a distinct entity within the U.S. economy. In the past dozen years, the personal income of U.S. Negroes has doubled to $27 billion, and now constitutes 7% of the U.S. total--a buying force about equal to that of the whole population of Canada. The U.S. Negro population, which now stands at about 19 million (11% of the U.S. total), is increasing 57% faster than the rest of the nation.

From Camel to Dodge, many big U.S. advertisers now substitute Negro models in their ads for Ebony (circ. 700,000), the nation's leading Negro magazine. Last year Ebony carried ads from 57 of the nation's top 100 advertisers; since 1955 its advertising revenues have soared 106% to $3,300,000. Another barometer: 20 years ago, only three U.S. radio stations offered programs tailored to Negroes. Now more than 600 do.

Please Buy. Experts dispute how best to approach the Negro market. Professor Henry Allen Bullock of Texas Southern University argues that Negroes resent as condescending the use of Negro models and specially adapted radio programs. He advocates a broad appeal that sells to both whites and Negroes, such as Revlon's use of Negro Singer Harry Belafonte on TV.

But Harlem's D. Parke Gibson, an independent marketing adviser, argues that "the Negro does not look at special marketing as a form of segregation, but rather as recognition." Operating on the same theory, Harvey Russell has encouraged Pepsi to use Negro models in ads and placards, employs 16 Negro field representatives--including Cleveland Brown Football Hero Jimmy Brown--in the company's regional offices. "The Negro has been excluded for so long," says Russell, "that he needs a special invitation to buy or he won't believe you want him."

Negro buying habits differ demonstrably from those of whites. Because they are barred from eating out in many places, notes Ebony Publisher John H. Johnson, Negroes spend more per capita for eating and drinking at home than whites do. Many Negroes have the income to rent or buy better housing than they now occupy, but discriminatory practices, overt or otherwise, often close off this avenue for spending. In search of ways to achieve status, Negroes are very conscious of quality and brand names, drive a Cadillac or Imperial if possible, and pay more than whites on the same income level for their shoes and clothing. (Pepsi's Russell says that he once bought a $100 coat simply because a clerk implied that it was too expensive for him.) One Negro market specialist in Philadelphia insists that his people have shifted away from other automobiles to the Ford Motor Co. line because they associate Ford with Ford Foundation philanthropies that have benefited Negroes.

"One of the major fears of companies today," says Market Adviser Gibson, "is that if they go after the Negro market they will lose white customers." Gibson thinks that this is silly. "Even in the South there is evidence that white people do not care what companies do to cultivate Negro business as long as it doesn't interfere with their way of life. Marketing a toothpaste is not the same as encouraging a Negro to come to a fashionable hotel."

The Death Knell. The sophistication of appeals to the Negro market is increasing, but still leaves much to be desired. Says Frank Seymour, general manager of Detroit's Negro radio station WCHB: "Too many advertisers have failed to grasp a simple point: ask the Negro for his business with courtesy and respect. Don't talk down to him and cut out the Amos 'n' Andy bit." Like many Negro marketing experts, however, Seymour believes that the progress that U.S. Negroes are making toward economic and social equality will eventually make special appeals unnecessary. He predicts that within 15 years Negro radio stations will die out. "I guess," says he wryly, "we're going to fall victims to progress."

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