Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reader Forum section. In an attempt to broaden our interaction with our readers we have created this forum for those with something meaningful to say to the wireless industry. We want to keep this as open as possible, but maintain some editorial control so as to keep it free of commercials or attacks. Please send along submissions for this section to our editors at:dmeyer@rcrwireless.comortford@rcrwireless.com.
Can you hear me now? Perhaps the decibels might be increased if one has the right navigator and analysis when it comes to smart phones, racial behavior and device sales. For those who may have missed it, the Nielsen Company recently issued a powerful announcement stating that the African-American market offers the smart phone industry its very best opportunity for growth. And this isn’t just intriguing information that should waft gently into the boardroom and vaporize out of the window just as quickly as it came. It’s major. In fact, the organization’s research showed that at the end of 2010, 31% of all mobile customers owned smart phones but that markets of color are actually own and are buying smart phones at a faster clip than clip than any other demographic in this country. Thus, it would seem that certain smart phone manufacturers would be focusing seriously on innovative methods of how to translate such behavior into market dominance. Yet most seem to be fumbling from either sheer lack of genuine cultural intelligence, creativity or a short sighted get-to-it-later-they’ll-buy-it anyway syndrome; and that could mean a frightening loss of market share that could happen in the blink of an eye if someone else gets there first.
To truly examine this phenomenon, one has to understand that one of most powerful take-aways from the Nielsen study is the fact that African-Americans have been changing their preference for a particular brand of smart phone slower than any other ethnic group. Currently, 31% are BlackBerry owners, 27% are Android owners and iPhone comes in last at only 15%. BlackBerry purchases have dropped the fastest among smart phone manufacturers, according to Nielsen, from 38% in October of 2009 to 20% in December 2010. Therefore this group represents the largest growth opportunity for iPhone and Android-based phones as the trend to switch phones continues. (It’s also a huge wake-up call for Research In Motion Ltd. should it want to retrieve numbers). These statistics become even more compelling when one adds them to the “Target Market News Report” on the buying power of black America since it documents that African-Americans spent a breath-taking $9.4 billion dollars in 2009 on mobile phones and service (an increase of 30% from the prior year).
This information coupled with the fact that the African-American market is growing in terms of sheer population while the Caucasian market is shrinking (source: U.S. Census Bureau), skews younger than that of the Caucasian market (source: Nielsen), is growing in terms of on-line usage while that of the mainstream begins to stagnate (source: eMarketer) and the fact that blacks access social media more frequently than the mainstream and even out-index in population percentage usage on Twitter (source: Arbitron); creates a perfect confluence of situation and branding tools to reach this demographic and drive brand messaging/sales. Mix and stir with the influence of edgy urban youth culture, and its game over.
Thus, we are in the midst of a major opportunity. It’s all about a call-to-action. In fact, now is the time to raise the volume on unique, relevant digital-meets-off-line marketing campaigns for smart phone companies that want truly competitive leverage, market dominance and stock holder appeal; and yes, it can easily be done without alienating the message to the mainstream if one knows what she’s doing. This goes well beyond some tired gospel music event approach or gratuitous, sporadic ads in small black newspapers or a quick banner on a black Web destination as perhaps advised by weary ad agencies, “urban” or mainstream ones.
It’s a brave new world out here and smart phone manufacturers – and smart agencies who want to hold on to them as clients – would do well to bring on stealth, new, hip thought-leaders who can bring in true culture-intelligence, strategy and relationships regarding this market. If permitted to freely collaborate, there is the opportunity to make exhilarating, unprecedented moves with this market to drive sales. We are living within a fragmented marketplace in which being a seamless part of the psychology driving this market’s behavior is vital. If not obtained, one can easily loose footing and become the Levi’s or Blockbuster of the mobile world; and it can happen in time it takes to send a text.
But it seems there is a way to prevent that: black is the new green. The only question is, which company will be savvy enough to actually make a move and take the right steps to grab the majority of it.