Whether you run a business or manage a non-profit organization with an African American audience, you should have a razor-sharp focus on launching campaigns that resonate with your audience, not alienate them.
Market research is a powerful tool for all ethnic audiences, especially African American consumers. As you gather critical insights about audience preferences, experiences, buying habits, and expectations, you’ll determine the right way to create content and market your business/organization to your African American audience.
In this blog, we’ll offer a closer look at three effective African American market research techniques that will help you reorient your business. Let’s begin.
1. Plan Face-to-Face Interviews
Many companies make the mistake of planning superficial surveys for their African American audience. Don’t get us wrong, surveys are a critical research tool. They help researchers collect essential insights.
However, surveys lack depth. There’s only so much insight you can obtain by asking a short series of questions, even if they’re open-ended in nature.
One-on-one, face-to-face interviews are a better research technique for African American consumers. Your audience has had varying experiences. Conducting interviews enables you to understand their experiences, perspectives, opinions, and emotions.
You can also ask follow-up questions, which will help steer the conversation in new directions. The research data will be more comprehensive, nuanced, and helpful.
Recommended Read: Socially Conscious Campaigns Done Right: What You Need to Know
2. Perform Competitive Analysis
Competitive analysis is one of the most powerful multicultural market research techniques used today.
As a business, you want to understand how your efforts stack up against your competitors’ strategies. Analyzing your local industry’s top competitors lets you develop a better understanding of where you stand in comparison.
Use this information to tweak your products, services, brand, marketing strategies, advertising techniques, and so on. While understanding your African American audience is important, seeing what other businesses are bringing to the table is equally imperative.
Competitive analysis will help you identify branding gaps and bridge them with African American representation.
Recommended Read: How Disproportionately Targeting Consumers of Color Can Work Against Your Brand Image
3. Always Ask for Consent
Informed consent is imperative no matter what, especially when your research audience comprises an underrepresented, oppressed minority group.
As a business, you may feel that certain research methods can only be adequately utilized when the research audience doesn’t know that they’re under observation. However, this approach will end up doing a lot more harm than good.
Keep your ethical and moral obligations in mind. Consumer consent, privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity are important research considerations that must be honored.
According to research, African Americans are often forced to participate in clinical trials without their consent. This has resulted in a high level of mistrust.
Hold research participants in high regard and avoid endangering informed consent. Consumer trust is pivotal. Without obtaining it, you cannot achieve accurate market research data.
As a trusted multicultural market research agency, we perform qualitative and quantitative research to reveal rich insights about ethnic consumers.
Whether you’re creating a marketing campaign for African American consumers or launching a Hispanic advertising strategy, our team will help you develop a better understanding of your audience with the power of ethnic research and data.
Contact our multicultural market research experts today. For more insight, explore our story. If you have further questions about African American market research, our team is more than happy to help.
Thank you for trusting us with your campaign.
