Mobile: Black, White & Green
The Digital Divide, those ominous words that plague Black and Brown people on the internet and usually refers to the gap between us and our Caucasian counterparts in accessing information and communication technologies. We hear it everywhere. But really, what does it mean when it comes to mobile? Turns out, not so much. African-Americans and Latinos are the fastest growing groups using mobile for everything from shopping to product reviews. More than whites you may ask? Yes, more than whites.
Not only are we usingMobilemore, we’re adapting to new shopping technologies at a faster rate than, well, pretty much anyone else, too.
African Americans have, since 2009 been the most active users of the mobile internet and our use of it is growing the fastest. So, the digital divide, as we know it, diminishes when mobile is taken into account. What does this mean for businesses and marketers? It means that’s where your customers are. If you are doing business on the mobile web and are not participating in a multicultural campaign to reach and market to African Americans, you’re doing yourself and your brand a huge disservice.
We’re more interested in interacting with retailers and brands in mobile and while Caucasians prefer not to be contacted, African-Americans are more open to SMS marketing. As a point of entry, research shows that SMS is the desired method interaction of African Americans with women leading the men in these numbers.
By 2015 the buying power of African Americans is expected to reach $1.1 trillion and still not enough marketers are investing in multicultural mobile marketing campaigns. If African-Americans were a country, we’d be the 16th largest country in the world. 82% of us own a cell phone and we use a much wider range of features of our cell phone’s capabilities compared with white cell phone owners.
While we may not be early adopters, once we do adopt we also innovate. Remember the Wire and how the drug dealer’s used an ingenious code to baffle cops while using pagers? This wasn’t a creation of David Simon’s mind. This really happened.
Certainly, the lower cost of mobile devices compared to desktop computers lower the barriers to entry for mobile. But this means that the audience is ripe for the picking. An intelligent, well-executed multichannel campaign can effectively reach a large population that has no problem spending money online. So, why aren’t marketers and brands targeting this audience? Perhaps they don’t know how. It takes a lot more than putting a few black or brown faces in an ad. You need to speak our language without trying too hard or appearing to be fake or phony. Tall order for brands with agencies where there are no Black or Brown faces on the creative team.
