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Black Buying Power Reached $1.2 Trillion In 2017
We spend a staggering nine times more on hair and beauty products, alone.
Photo Credit: RuslanDashinsky
Black buying power reached an all-time high of $1.2 trillion in 2017, according to a recent Nielsen report. Though we make up only 14% of the population we are outspending our non-Black counterparts on everything from beauty to men’s toiletries. The numbers are staggering, with Black dollars making up nearly 90% of all ethnic hair and beauty products.
Black dollars also account for a significant chunk of ALL hair and personal cares sales:
“[I]n terms of sheer dollars, African Americans spent considerably more money in the general beauty marketplace last year. Black shoppers spent $473 million in total hair care (a $4.2 billion industry) and made other significant investments in personal appearance products, such as grooming aids ($127 million out of $889 million) and skin care preparations ($465 million out of $3 billion).”
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This is of great importance when we start to focus on who is getting those dollars and challenge brands more than ever to be authentic and accountable to us. This couldn’t be more evident on how Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty made history not by just carrying 40 foundation shades but also marketing to Black women and celebrating all shades of beauty from the onset rather making us an afterthought.
“With 43% of the 75 million Millennials in the U.S. identifying as African American, Hispanic or Asian, if a brand doesn’t have a multicultural strategy, it doesn’t have a growth strategy,” said Andrew McCaskill, Senior Vice President, Global Communications and Multicultural Marketing, Nielsen.”
Courtesy: The Nielsen Company
More brands are starting to take note and even the report notes the need for brands to be more focused on inclusion now more than ever as our buying choices influence the general market.
“Our research shows that Black consumer choices have a ‘cool factor’ that has created a halo effect, influencing not just consumers of color but the mainstream as well,” said Cheryl Grace, Senior Vice President of U.S. Strategic Community Alliances and Consumer Engagement, Nielsen.
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The question is now that you (and they) know our buying power, where will you choose to spend your dollars?
