Newspaper Page Text
OCTOBER 1, 1998 AUGUSTA FOCUS
14A
Blacks with money are
targets ofinvestment houses
By Peter Rlan Harper
AP BUSINESS Writer
NEW YORX
Black is beautiful — especially
if you're black and have some
green (dollars).
Or if you're Korean, Latino or
part of a few other ethnic groups,
you're the target of major broker
ages, individual investment coun
selors and education programs.
They all want to help start or
continue individual wealth-build
ing portfolios among members of
these groups, and fatten their own
businesses.
“I definitely see a lot of interest
in companies wanting to know
how toreach black investors. They
are hiring people to do ethnic
marketing,” said Carol Davis,
president of the Coalition of Black
Investors, known as COBL
“They realize there are afflu
ent African-Americans, there are
affluent Hispanics, there are af
fluent Asians, there are affluent
women, a whole market they are
not reaching with their broad
based marketing.”
The nonprofit coalition, just a
year old, sponsored a financial
services seminar in Washington,
D.C., over this past weekend in
volving firms as big as American
Express, Merrill Lynch and Co.
and Prudential Securities.
Twenty-three firms signed on as
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The group also sponsored a
black investment week thisspring
thatincluded education programs
atchurches and brokerages alike.
COBI also asked blacks to
pledge to pay themselves —
through savings accounts or in
vestments — each week.
Davis said the commitments
total dlrs 3 million a month. “We
think it's a great start. And it
shows that a lot of people just
need a little nudge.” ,
The interest in ethnic markets,
particularly the black segment,
stems from studies of investment
and spending practices by the
groups.
Black households with annual
incomes of dlrs 50,000 invest far
less than their white counterparts,
according to a survey by Ariel
Mutual Funds, a black-owned in
vestment firm, and discount bro
kerage Charles Schwab and Co.
That means much less wealth and
retirement fund flexibility for
black households.
Other survey show that blacks,
Asians and Latinos have a com
bined annual spending power of
roughlydirs 1 trillion. Blacks gen
erate up to dirs 533 billion of that
amount.
“I will enjoy the abundance. I
will enjoy the abundance,” finan
cial advice author and television
host Kelvin Boston exhorted an
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audience at a New York confer
ence two weeks ago on marketing
to minorities.
There’s also been public pres
sure on Wall Street to pay more
attention to minorities.
InJanuary, the Rev. Jesse Jack
son brought President Clinton,
Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin
and Federal Reserve Chairman
Alan Greenspan to address Wall
Streeters about expanding their
base.
“Discrimination is patently im
moral, but it is now increasingly
being seen as unprofitable,”
Greenspan, to astanding ovation,
told the conference.
Since then, some of Wall Street’s
best-known financial houses have
increased their advertising in
Black Enterprise magazine, a
leading proponent of capitalism
among black Americans.
From the January to October
issues, the publication headed by
Earl G. Graves had an additional
22 advertising pages bringing in
dirs 425,000 above annual adver
tising revenues that already ex
ceeded dirs 2.3 million. Many of
the advertisers were new or re
turning financial services compa
nies such as Aetna Inc., Charles
Schwab and the Prudential In
surance Co. of America.
In addition to the latest confer
ence, which was tied to the Con
gressional Black Caucus week
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end, COBI also held a one-day
angrusioml seminar last Thurs
y.
There was a separate two-day
multicultural marketing confer
ence in New York two weeks ago,
and a series of separate financial
seminars.
“That’s the big thing in 1998, an
explosion of interest in black con
sumers,” said Tony Chappelle,
publisher of Securities Pro, a
newsletter that tracks the finan
cial activities of blacks on Wall
Street and Main Street.
But that comes with the under
standing that “they’re not doing
any goodwill stuff. It's about
money,” said Boston.
American Express is among the
companies that recently focused
on underserved markets.
“It's a huge market,” said Alfred
Osbourne, a senior financial ad
viser at American Express who
spoke at the marketing confer
ence. Among other things, Ameri
can Express is using Black
Enterprise’s mailing list to reach
black consumers with household
incomes of dirs 50,000.
American Express set up diver
sity labs 5 1/2 years ago to explore
how best to reach blacks, gays
and lesbians, and women, creat
ing networks of advisers and tar
geting markets.
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