What Makes A Brand Appeal To One Group Over Another?

"With the U.S. population growing faster in the African-American segment than others, there's a significant opportunity for automotive manufacturers and dealers to begin to align marketing initiatives toward this specific audience," said Marc Bland, product strategist at Polk.  "Those companies that are ahead of the curve, like Toyota, are already reaping the rewards."

Brand Performance among African-Americans

The top five brands account for 60 percent of the African-American market, each with more than 10 percent share.  Ford and Chevrolet joined Toyota to round out the top three.  The complete top 10 is as follows:

African-American Market Growth Leaders

Buick, Hyundai, Kia, Cadillac, GMC and Infiniti are doing extremely well with the African-American market.  With the exception of Cadillac, all grew faster in 2010 within the African-American market than overall.  

Buick increased its registrations in the African-American market by 72.2 percent in 2010, and Hyundai was up 53.2 percent over 2009 with this audience.  

Acura, Land Rover, Mercedes and BMW are not growing their share of the African-American market as fast as the overall market.  These brands have significant opportunity to connect more with this audience and grow their share of the market by attracting more affluent African-Americans to their brands.

The U.S. Census Bureau projects that the African-American population will grow 12 percent by 2020 and nearly 25 percent from current levels in 2030.  If manufacturers do not establish themselves with these critical ethnic audiences now, significant growth opportunities with these influential and critical groups will be missed.

Polk works with manufacturers to help them analyze potential market opportunities and partners with dealers, advertising and digital agencies to create strategies for reaching the growing African-American consumer base.



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Agent009 - 4/26/2011 11:45:55 AM

-11 Boost

What are you talking about? This is a general consumption press release with a valid question.

ucsmotors - 4/26/2011 10:41:22 AM

-5 Boost

Unfortunately ethnic groups do tend to stick to the same things. Example, I have been selling cars, as a broker, in the Russian community for 6 years, I have NEVER sold an American Brand car, unless you count 1 hummer to an Italian from New Jersey.

dumpsty - 4/26/2011 11:36:05 AM

+1 Boost

Really, it's an interesting question!

My grandfathers worked for GM, Ford, and Chrysler --- they only owned cars made by the US Big3 --- as they didn't consider any car from any other brand quality...ever. Both my parents ended up having the same view about cars too --- everything they learned came from my grandfathers.

I have been fairly unbiased as I've seen the advances in technology & design indicated by foreign automakers; and the ignorance pushed out by the US Big3. What GM & Ford has done so far is impressive, but they can do more, and they can make vehicles to fully compete with their competition's flagships (S-classe, 7-series, Equus, LS, A8, etc).

I think the study had focused on African-Americans because many of today's most popular vehicles have been accepted by them as evidenced in music, videos, movies, TV, and magazines. The shear "street (cred) visibility" essentially equates to millions of dollars in free vehicle, corporate, and brand advertisements that go a lot further than traditional methods of "getting the word out".

If you're a corporate exec, you are deeply interested in who likes your product, how info about your product is shared, how other consumer groups feel about your product when they see another group has accepted it, and if more people are entering the showrooms & buying your product as a result of the first to reasons.

Joe_Limon - 4/26/2011 12:25:51 PM

+7 Boost

Agent 009, your first table is useless. You need to and a third column showing the industry average. Otherwise you have nothing to compare to.

Agent009 - 4/26/2011 12:33:40 PM

-8 Boost

Hey Joe, I wish they gave more info as well.

I am assuming in this case it is for the African-American market in total.

It interesting to note that some brands intentionally market to certain groups knowing there is an affinity there. No one wants to be classified and targeted, but in reality we all are everyday

It is interesting to note that the degree this can happen.

For instance down here two different households may have Time Warner internet and cable accounts. Both are watching the same channel at the same time but get different car commercials due to targeted marketing.

The above article shows they know just who buys what, and can target directly.

Need4Speed - 4/26/2011 12:27:59 PM

+2 Boost

I mapped my DNA and saw a marker for BMW...who would have thought!

0to60 - 4/26/2011 12:48:20 PM

+4 Boost

the entertainment industry...

internationalmanofmystery - 4/26/2011 1:04:55 PM

+1 Boost

"What GM & Ford has done so far is impressive, but they can do more, and they can make vehicles to fully compete with their competition's flagships (S-classe, 7-series, Equus, LS, A8, etc)"

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha ...................hahahahahahahahaha

erios999 - 4/26/2011 1:23:20 PM

0 Boost

"the non-ethnic market"

Why does white America only view everyone else has having an ethnicity?

Agent009 - 4/26/2011 2:13:49 PM

+1 Boost

Actually we are all ethnic. Caucasians can be different nationalities, religions, or global regions.

_43LE - 4/26/2011 4:10:28 PM

+8 Boost

Xenophobes always have an "us" vs "them" attitude.

_43LE - 4/27/2011 9:02:58 AM

+2 Boost

LOL, I knew you would post that again. Yes, in the "short run"...you're still a bad social scientist. So, what do you propose to do? How will you make this world a better place? I see you complain a lot, but no action.

AUDIMAN4 - 4/26/2011 2:18:43 PM

+5 Boost

This is total BS.

First, I question how this demographic information is obtained. To my knowledge, the only way manufactureres could have any indication as to the ethnic background of their customers is if dealers actually reported such data, which they don't.

I'm going to have to ask Boardwalk Audi if my purchase was only part of their +27% black increase, or if it also went toward the white increase as well.

This is so dumb.

Joe_Limon - 4/26/2011 4:54:06 PM

-4 Boost

There are statistical methods one could use to give those percentages to a high degree of confidence that doesn't incorporate using the sales data of every car by every manufacturer.

Steve - 4/26/2011 4:29:19 PM

+6 Boost

Another slow day at Autospies :-(

internationalmanofmystery - 4/27/2011 8:50:39 AM

0 Boost

Finished high school did ya???

0to60 - 4/26/2011 8:35:56 PM

+3 Boost

I thought the latino market was the fastest growing in the US.

internationalmanofmystery - 4/27/2011 8:52:06 AM

+2 Boost

"What Makes A Brand Appeal To One Group Over Another?"

A bit more tact, Agent! It has turned into a race war!!

carE10 - 4/28/2011 9:35:36 AM

+2 Boost

Audi is also the offical brand for Gays.