With ethnicity rarely a factor in existing research, the Black Pound Report will give a unique insight into a £300 billion consumer market
The report, surveying 3,400 Black, Asian and Multi-Ethnic consumers in the UK, found respondents spend 21% more time reading content from national news brands than the general population and 59% agreed ‘advertising often helps me to make better purchase decisions’.
Those surveyed were also more likely to make ethical considerations when making purchase decisions (64% versus 47% of the general population) and to try to shop more locally when they can (64% versus 56% of the general population).
The study has been produced by BACKLIGHT, a cultural change agency promoting greater diversity in businesses so they can reach their full potential. The 2021 Black Pound Report is due to be released in full in January with an exclusive preview in The Times and The Sunday Times.
BACKLIGHT has also developed a media planning tool based on its core findings, with early access available to brands and agencies via News UK from later this month. The tool will give planners the ability to plan advertising based around real insight into the audience, historically underrepresented in market research.
Shelley Bishton, News UK’s head of creative diversity, said: “This is a unique and powerful piece of research that looks at this market in unprecedented depth. It was important for News UK that we better understand this market both for our own products and also to help our advertisers create campaigns that cater for it.
“The media planning tool will help brands and agencies to better build and target creative and planning strategies for the Black, Asian and Multi-Ethnic consumer – which make up 4.3 million of News UK’s audiences.
“Just because media research hasn’t historically looked at these important differences in consumer behaviour, it doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. This insight will help brands to better understand a large and important audience, leading to more effective and more representative advertising communications.”
Lydia Amoah, founder of BACKLIGHT, added: “From media consumption through to health and beauty product choices, Black, Asian and Multi-Ethnic consumers have distinct motivating factors when making purchasing and investment decisions. Until brands recognise and understand these differences then their communications can never be considered to be truly diverse and inclusive.
“News UK’s support on this second wave of the Black Pound Report has been instrumental in creating what will be a truly important piece of research. We’ve been able to massively expand our panel and areas of focus to create research that is rigorous and powerful. Combined with the media planning tool that we’ve developed we believe that this will usher in a revolution in advertising creative and planning for Black, Asian and Multi-Ethnic consumers.”
