Black Consumers Spend Nine Times More In Hair & Beauty: Report

A new Nielsen report has confirmed what we have already known as Black consumers: there is power in the Black dollar. And, it is making more and more headlines. Published earlier this month, the “Black Dollars Matter: The Sales Impact Of Black Consumers” report is the company’s eighth report on Black spending. This report focuses on Black spending, our mainstream influence, and the impact of Black Twitter and other social media.

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While Blacks outspend on everything from water to cookware, our beauty buying habits continue to top the charts. We spend nearly nine times more than our non-Black counterparts on ethnic hair and beauty products. Add in $473 million in total hair care, $127 million in grooming aids, and $465 million in skin care preparations and we spend a whopping $1.1 billion on beauty annually (not including weaves, extensions, independent beauty supply stores, e-commerce, or styling tools and appliances).

With $1.2 trillion in total spending power, the research also shows that our buying habits also influence how our non-Black counterparts spend their money.

“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.

With a more socially conscious group, the report also highlights the need for brands to create and market products that speak to “diverse consumers.” As seen with several marketing misses, we have the power to affect bottom lines and change the direction of brand conversations. Need more proof? Take a look at Black Panther’s record-breaking box office.

When it comes to African-American consumer spend, there are millions, sometimes billions of dollars in revenue at stake,” said Andrew McCaskill, Senior Vice President, Global Communications and Multicultural Marketing, at Nielsen. “With 43% of the 75 million millennials in the U.S. identifying as African American, Hispanic, or Asian, if a brand does not have a multicultural strategy, it does not have a growth strategy. The business case for multicultural outreach is clear. African-American consumers, and all diverse consumers, want to see themselves authentically represented in marketing, and they want brands to recognize their value to the bottom line.”

Now that we have been celebrated once again in how we spend money, we challenge you to continue paying attention to who we spend money with. It is one thing to make brands listen to us; it’s another thing to support brands that have been listening to (and celebrating) us since day one.

The author’s article originally appeared on HypeHair.com