New Study Builds Psychographics of Black Women

According to the Lattimer Communications study, "A Profile of Today's Black Woman," 86% of African-American women say that advertisers need to do a better job of talking to them. The study also revealed that the Automotive, Banking/Financial, Travel, Healthcare/ Pharmaceutical and Food industries could do a better job in marketing to African-American women. Advertisers need to re-evaluate their marketing campaigns targeting this important segment. The national study was developed and fielded in collaboration with The Bantam Group, a leading market research agency. The study is the first of its kind to examine attitudes and consumer behaviors for African-American women with the hopes of developing psychographic profiles.

"We felt that we needed to finally give a voice to African-American women who have so often been silenced and misrepresented due to stereotyping and deemed one-dimensional," said Sarah Lattimer, president, Lattimer Communications. "Inspired by First Lady Michelle Obama and the fact that there are so many other Black women like her whose stories often go untold, we wanted to provide research that would identify profiles of African-American women."

Through its study, Lattimer Communications was able to build six psychographic profiles of African-American women: Achievers, Fledglings, Tag-A-Longs, Self-Sufficients, Traditionals and Cynics. Through the use of these profiles, advertisers will be better able to target marketing campaigns to those specific Black women who may be interested in their product or service.

"These six profiles are proof that Black women are, in fact, multi-dimensional," said Lattimer. "Advertisers cannot target the African-American female without determining what profile she falls into in order to determine specific and engaging marketing strategies. Advertisers who think that they can target all Black women the same way are sorely mistaken. Historically, this is what's been done but through our research you can see that this is not effective."

Lattimer Communications is a full-service advertising and public relations agency specializing in developing marketing communications programs for multicultural consumer groups such as African-Americans, females and Latinos. Past and current clients include: Georgia Power Company, SunTrust Bank, The Coca-Cola Company and Mrs. Winner's Chicken & Biscuits.