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By Marsha Calloway Campbell
Based on many in-depth conversations with this segment, both personally and professionally, I find that one main objective of modern day African-American professional women is wealth building. As a means to this end, African-American professional women are becoming savvy about financial products and investments. Often they are looking for companies to do business with. They want to make educated decisions about investing their hard-earned money in order to ensure a sound, solid financial future for themselves and their families.
Many times this passion is motivated by personal situations. In some instances, these women are single mothers and sole decision makers in the household. There is often a need to financially care for their children, and sometimes their grandchildren and other extended family members. They realize that each financial decision directly impacts the others, so it's important to create a plan and revisit it regularly. In other situations, these women are part of up-and-coming, two-parent households, with both parents professionals who are carefully planning their financial future.
African-American professional women are creating impressive portfolios. They are investing in stocks, bonds, certificates of deposit, and mutual funds, and are using other retirement savings instruments. These women are proud to say, "My portfolio is not my mother's portfolio is not my mother's portfolio:'
Fueled in part by passion about their success, AfricanAmerican professional women are taking a proactive role in learning more about financial products. Many are taking the lead in establishing and participating in investment clubs. Several of my personal friends have started these clubs. They primarily tend to be professionals, with children, who have already enjoyed success in their varied careers. These women have vision, are goal-oriented, and welcome new challenges and new knowledge.
One such club was featured last year in a Miami newspaper. This "investment ministry" originated in an AfricanAmerican church and was started by several female members. This club also created a teens' investing club to teach their youth about investment matters, prepare them for success, and empower them with this knowledge at an early age. They consistently hold training classes to educate their members about investing. These leaders have learned by researching and reading; they have been self-taught. This creates a major opportunity for a company to sponsor training classes and informational seminars and workshops for African-American investment clubs. This would create a captured audience for a financial services company to market its programs and build relationships with this segment of the population.
With this financial independence, African-American professional women represent a growing revenue stream that has been virtually ignored. This market could prove to be lucrative. Strategically, competitive companies will have to figure out how to attract and keep these consumers. The company that speaks to this segment the best, the one that "adopts" African-American professional women, will win in the long run, thus creating a major opportunity. Companies are either forgetting about this opportunity or are ignoring it. One must question whether companies are underestimating the purchasing power of African-American professional women.
One recommended approach to reach this group is to position products and services as "news" - something unique that will satisfy their unmet needs. However, before these unmet needs can be satisfied, they must be identified. Niche marketing initiatives and ethnic market research can be used to understand this target.
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