Black History Month 2011

South Hackensack, NJ
January 21, 2011
E-Tech Black History Month Newsletter

New Achievements in Black History

With the celebration of Martin Luther King’s 82nd birthday on Monday January 17th and the coming to the end of the second year of office for our first black president E-Tech would like to honor all those who contributed to African American History achievements. The 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama as president of the United States marked a defining moment in both American and World history. This historic event was another step toward Martin Luther King’s dream of a more equitable society. Throughout Black History Month we remember how Black American leaders of all kinds helped to bring our Nation together.

A History of Black History
In February, the nation joins Black Americans in celebrating their rich culture, heritage, and contributions to the American lifestyle during Black History Month. Black History Month began as “Negro History Week” in 1926 which was established by Carter G. Woodson and was expanded to a month long celebration in 1976. Woodson is said to have chosen the second week in February for the celebration to honor the birthdays of Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist and editor, and Abraham Lincoln.

The scope to which Blacks have contributed to American life can be witnessed at even the most fundamental levels: Garrett Morgan invented the first Traffic Signal (1923); Lewis Latimer invented the Carbon Filament used in Light Bulbs (1882); Richard Spikes invented the Automatic Gear Shift (1932) and Lydia O. Newman invented the Hair Brush (1898). Today, Black Americans are still achieving firsts in politics, education and business: Condoleezza Rice was the first Black Woman to serve as US Secretary of State; President Barack Obama was the first Black President of the Harvard Law Review and was the first Black to run for the Democratic Party's Presidential Candidacy; and Robert Johnson, owner of Black Entertainment Television, became the first Black Billionaire in 2001.

The Black Consumer Market
There are 40 million black Americans and comprise 12.3 percent of the U.S. population down from 14.8 percent of the population in 2000. African Americans became the nation’s second-largest minority group in the first decade of the 21st century.

The Black population is younger than the rest of the U.S population. In 2010 the median age of the Black population was 41 compared to the general U.S. population at nearly 45. In addition, females represent a greater percentage of the Black population in the United States. While the Black American median household income is lower than the U.S. average, the percentage of Black American households with an income of $50,000.00 or more grew 13.5% between 2003 and 2010, compared with 8.4% for the total U.S. households.

According to the University of Georgia’s Selig Center for Economic Growth, the buying power of Black Americans was $895 Billion in 2010 and estimates the buying power in 2012 to reach $1.1 trillion. In that same year, the US Census Bureau estimated the number of Black residents at 40.7 million, comprising 13.5% of the total US population. The number of Black-owned businesses was 1.8 million in 2009, a 58% increase since 1997 and Black businesses generated revenues of $92.7 Billion that year. Black Americans are also gaining ground in education. In 2009, 18% of Black Americans held Bachelor Degrees and 1.7 million held advanced degrees (Master’s, J.D., M.D. PhD).

As this group becomes more educated and their median household income increases, they will have greater control of the consumer marketplace. Black Americans are attracted to companies that represent their lifestyle with targeted messages and images. It is the responsibility of marketers to attract and maintain a relationship with the Black consumer.

“Black folk are not just dark-skinned white people. Marketers who consciously establish a relationship with this lucrative yet underserved market, by better understanding the African-American culture, mindset, attitude, behavior and lifestyle, will reap significant long-term rewards from a loyal, influential, increasingly affluent customer base.”
-Herbert Kemp, Founder & CEO of What is Black about IT? LLC

TIDBITS

LOCATION
More than half of black Americans live in the South.

New York had the largest black population of any state as of July 1, 2010 (3.6 million); Georgia had the largest numeric increase since July 1, 2007 (67,500). The District of Columbia had the highest percentage of blacks (56 percent), followed by Mississippi (38 percent).

Cook County, III. (Chicago’s county) had the largest black population of any county (1.4 million), and Orleans Parish, La. (New Orleans’ county) had the largest numeric increase since July 1, 2007 (16,000). Claiborne County, Miss.—on the Louisiana border—had the highest percentage of blacks in the nation (84 percent).

Seventy-seven counties were majority-black or African-American; all were in the South.

More than half of black American (53 percent) rent their homes—that’s the largest percentage of renters among the races in the U.S.

GENDER
There are more women than men.

Households: Nearly one out of every three black households (29 percent) are headed by a single woman, the highest percentage of female-headed households in the U.S.

MARRIAGE
Nearly half have never married, the highest percentage for all racial groups. Only 30 percent of blacks are now married.

MONEY
The annual median income of black households in 2009 was is $34,218, a decline of 2.8 percent (in 2009 constant dollars) from 2008. It’s the lowest in the United States.

Black median family income was just over $41,000 in 2009, the lowest in the United States of any racial group. A single black woman with children earned a median annual income of $25,958.

No surprise then that one out of five black families lives in poverty. More than 40 percent of black families headed by a single mom are poor.

IMMIGRANTS
Only 3 million African Americans are immigrants. Of that number, nearly two-thirds were born in Latin America, the other one-third of the immigrants were born in Africa.

Only 7 percent of us speak a language other than English.

MILITARY
Number of black military veterans in the United States in 2009: 2.3 million. More military veterans are black than any other minority group

Census: U.S Population grows by 9.7 per cent.

Census: U.S Population grows by 9.7 per cent.

Dec. 22, 2010

The resident population represented an increase of 9.7 percent over the 2000 U.S. resident population of 281,421,906. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Acting Commerce Deputy Secretary Rebecca Blank and Census Bureau Director Robert Groves unveiled the official counts at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. resident population represents the total number of people in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The most populous state was California (37,253,956); the least populous, Wyoming (563,626). The state that gained the most numerically since the 2000 Census was Texas (up 4,293,741 to 25,145,561) and the state that gained the most as a percentage of its 2000 Census count was Nevada (up 35.1% to 2,700,551).

Regionally, the South and the West picked up the bulk of the population increase, 14,318,924 and 8,747,621, respectively. But the Northeast and the Midwest also grew: 1,722,862 and 2,534,225.

States where Hispanics have settled in large numbers saw some of the highest percent changes in population growth and gained congressional seats, according to the first set of Census 2010 results.

Many states in the South and West that have been magnets for Latinos saw double-digit percentage growths. The growth in those areas far outpaced the nation’s, which saw a population increase of 9.7 percent over the 2000 Census count of 281 million residents.

This first release of Census results did not include data on race or ethnicity -- reports with those details will be released early next year. But many demographic experts have been expecting the 2010 Census to show that some of the largest growth in population would occur in states that are home to Hispanics, who have a higher birthrate than most other groups and include millions of immigrants.

Additionally, Puerto Rico's resident population was 3,725,789, a 2.2 percent decrease over the number counted a decade earlier.

"The results from the U.S. Census confirm that the states with a heavy Hispanic population are the 'winners' in terms of the number of house seats gained," said Joe Kutchera, an expert on demographic trends and author of "Latino Link: Building Brands Online with Hispanic Communities and Content." "The growth in the U.S. is centered in the South and Southwest, regions that are heavily Hispanic."

Beginning in February and wrapping up by March 31, 2011, the Census Bureau will release demographic data to the states on a rolling basis so state governments can start the redistricting process.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Fox News

Hispanics Still Spending and Achieving the American Dream

Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated nationwide and begins on September 15, 2010, the anniversary of independence for five Latin American countries – Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Mexico achieved independence on September 16^th and Chile on September 18th

*Hispanics Still Spending and Achieving the American Dream*


The U.S. Hispanic market is booming, their increased growth is no longer fueled by the traditional immigration flow from the past but by new births. The US is now the 2nd largest Hispanic population in the world, their projected totals by 2050 will be over

131 million. According to this number, Hispanics will constitute 30% of the nation's population by then.

Hispanic households across the United States will sharply increase their economic clout over the next ten years and beyond. The demographic explosion has continued since 1990 and there is no let up. Go to Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Sears, K-Mart, to name a few stores, and you will see many Hispanic families loaded with consumer goods. The fact is, Hispanics love to buy and almost always buy in cash. This is not a debt-ridden community. For years they learned the hard way that to have something, one has to earn it and save. Credit card companies solicit many Hispanic households.

"Our clients come into our office and want to know what to do. We try to explain how the system works and after we are finished, they take the solicitation and throw it in the trash. Being in debt is not honorable, and no one wants to have a bad name. To establish credit history we had to dissuade an individual from paying off immediately his credit card. Keep it for six months or more and pay little, very punctually and you will establish credit. He did and that person now obtained a credit history that allowed him to purchase his own home. Another individual saved up money for three years and went to the bank to pay off the loan. The loan officer's eyes widened considerably when he saw a check for $30,000. Hard earned savings of a family to purchase a home." (Wells Fargo Bank)

Hispanics send money to the families they left behind in their country of origin. And it is true that these remittances are billions of dollars. But according to the National Immigration Forum, in addition to consumer spending, "immigrants and their businesses contribute $162 billion dollars in tax revenue to federal, state and local governments." They work in key sectors, start their own businesses and in general contribute to a thriving economy.

So in order to capture the loyalty of this market segment, marketers have to target this population differently from the "general market." First, companies have to understand that the U.S. Hispanic market is not homogeneous. It is a market "comprised of subcultures from over 20 countries in Central and South America, the Caribbean and Spain, with the majority (63 percent) of Mexican heritage." Each group has its own set of values, traditions, beliefs, foods, festivals, and consumer patterns. The U.S. Hispanics are not identical. There are many differences in their countries' geographies, their indigenous ancestries and their colonial histories. So a marketer has to be creative and know that the unifying factor in this market segment is the Spanish language.

In advertising, Hispanic market research has discovered that of the Hispanics surveyed, they prefer ads to be in Spanish over English, even though the younger group is more comfortable in English. Research also shows that Hispanics like any type of media, but prefer television and radio. It is no wonder that Univision (the top Spanish language networks) ranks 5th in the U.S., behind ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox, and Univision won the #1 Network rating in the country in overall prime time viewer share on three nights of the week among all adults ages 18-34.

Having said this, radio is not far behind. Actually, radio is a very effective medium to reach Hispanics because it has been found that they tend to listen all day.

That leaves print, with a couple minority newspapers that cover news targeting directly to the community. The news covered specifically addresses to the needs and concerns of the Hispanic community. Marketers place ads in these newspapers selling anything from real estate to translation and interpreting services.

Direct response marketing has historically obtained little interest from the Hispanic population. Most have received the mail and trashed it. However, the recent immigrants welcome the mail if for no other reason than to become informed. If most of this direct mail is in English and reaches a large percentage of households that speak and read only Spanish a great opportunity is missed.
Unlike its U.S. counterpart, the Hispanic household is younger, with the head of household anywhere between 25 and 44 years old. Once again, the Conference Board's Research Center states that the under 44 Hispanic market is going to grow from a purchasing power of $295 billion in 2008 to $397 billion by 2011.

So to marketers everywhere, all the signs are there. The opportunity is growing, now is the time to start reaching out to Hispanic consumers with messages targeted to their lifestyles and buying habits.

*Ethnic Technologies, LLC - Hispanic Insight*
Ethnic Technologies, LLC is the platinum standard in multicultural marketing. The result of over 40 years of continuous ethnic, religious and language preference research, E-Tech allows clients to segment their database by ethnicity, religion, language preference and Hispanic country of origin more accurately and comprehensively than any other approach. The EthniCenter® offers an Assimilation Index, which distinguishes Hispanic individuals based on their ability to speak their Native Language or understand the language of their prevailing culture. E-Tech incorporates a unique approach for the different Hispanic Countries of Origin. After identifying their specific names, E-Tech does a neighborhood analysis using multi-sourced information compiled from our research team. From that data, E-Tech is able to accurately identify the Hispanic individuals' Country of Origin. The incorporation of Enhanced Neighborhood Analytics (ENA) technology in E-Tech Version 7.3 establishes a new and unprecedented level of granularity and completeness in the ethnic marketing industry. Clients also benefit from and acquire ethnic mailing, telemarketing and email lists for both the United States and Canada. The analytics department at E-TECH offers ethnic data appending services and mapping to provide businesses with an overview of new and existing markets.

*Contact Candace M. Kennedy, Sales and Marketing Director at 866-333-8324 ext. 106 or **candace@ethnictechnologies.com* *. Visit **www.ethnictechnologies.com* *.*