The Shifting African-American Population

Chapter 4 "Report Shows A Shifting African-American population." Brandweek 1/11/2010. http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3i0bdeb9f8495547e186fb9f8d0316930f

There are now about 50 million Hispanics and 42 million African Americans in the U.S. Although there are fewer blacks, the population is changing in ways that make such consumers more attractive to marketers. For example, African-American households making $75,000 plus have increased 47 percent in the past five years. This article can be discussed in conjunction with Marketing 11e, pages 117-118 and pages 44-45 in MKTG4.


Questions:

1. By 2015, about half of the black population will live in the suburbs. Peter Franches, founder of American Demographics, says that cultural differences will disappear as African Americans migrate to the suburbs. Do you agree? does this mean that there should be a single marketing mix for everyone living in the suburbs?
2. Do you think that firms should alter their marketing mixes for each major ethnic group? Why?