BET Study: "African Americans Revealed"

MediaPost recently reported that BET published the results of a study finding that African Americans posses major influence in tech, media and buying power.

The "African Americans Revealed" study of more than 80,000 African-American consumers on multi-media engagement and digital applications, shows African Americans are very tech savvy, with roughly 31% of African American discretionary spending dollars, or $39 billion, going toward the purchase of computers, cell phones and electronics - a proportionally higher percentage when compared to non-African Americans.

Some additional findings...

African Americans:

- Spend more weekly time online (18 hours) than watching television (15 hours)
- 93% go online traditionally via their PCs, while 76% access the web via their cell phones
- 60% have downloaded music, a TV show, movie or ringtone in the previous month
- 50% regularly update and access a social networking account

What I found most interesting about that study was the seven groups that African Americans were broken down into:

◦ The Strivers are mostly in their late 20's to early 40's and are adventurous, fashionable, social mavens and opinion leaders who have their eyes on climbing the executive ladder

◦ Conscious Sisters are selfless women that are spiritually connected and highly conscious of their culture

◦ Tech-Fluentials are digitally savvy and travel in globally conscious circles

◦ Bright Horizons are young adults in high school and college that are aware of all available technology and electronic gadgets

◦ Inner Circle Elites are working women rich in their cultural, ancestral and spiritual roots

◦ Urban Dreamers are young, urban adults who are social magnets and trend setters intent on and focused on living life to the fullest

◦ Survivors are a group of risk-taking teen and young adult males who are hustling to keep their existence in check

According to the article, Matthew Barnhill, Senior VP of Corporate Research at BET Networks, says "African Americans Revealed shows us that the black community should never be referred to as one homogeneous population... We hope this report will help organizations better connect with an audience and intimately recognize all of its complexities.

We couldn't agree more!