This is a denim deal you’ll want to try on for size: Right now at HauteLook, a whole lot of ladies’ jeans from Levi’s are on sale, with many pairs available for less than $50. Stock up on a few styles for spring before this sale goes out of season.
10-time Grammy Award winning Icon Chaka Khan, known for a crown of curls as big as her voice, has announced a new wig collection, The Chaka by Indique.
After multiple reports surfaced claiming director John Singleton was in a coma, his daughter Cleopatra is speaking out against those claims.
The target market segmentation of your business is a crucial component to define within a business plan. When you envision the overall customer base for your business, it may incorporate people from a wide range of groups and walks of life. However, in target marketing, the goal is to break down that massive customer base and to define precisely who the most likely customer is for your brand so that you can target your marketing methods to reach that ideal customer more effectively.
In your business plan, lenders and potential investors who read it want to see your brand’s target market clearly defined to understand who you are marketing to and to understand the cost associated with your customer acquisition strategy. To better illustrate your target market segment, consider the following tips.
One representation of your target market is based on the geographical location of your customers. For example, if you are a small retailer, it may be likely that your market is within a small physical area around your business. This could merely be based on local addresses and expanded through innovation utilizing technology such as geofencing. A geofence is a virtual perimeter of a real-world geographic area that will allow your customers to receive promotions and notifications about your business as they approach a pre-determined physical location surrounding your business’s physical location.
Another way to define your target market is to determine the demographics of your customer base. Some of the most common demographics include gender and age. Income may also be a critical factor in determining who your most likely customers are as well. This can also be as narrow as a specific age group that’s most likely to interact with or visit your business. For example, if you’re launching an arcade business, statistically your targeted market is expected to be comprised of teenagers and young adults, principally males.
Further defining your target market is also essential in most industries. The psycho-graphic segment may include a specific type of consumer who is most likely to patronize your business. In the context of a childcare business, this would be parents.
It could also be someone more likely to live in an urban setting if you are marketing an urban apparel line. If you sell pet supplies, your target market is, of course, pet lovers. Sell motorcycle parts? Tour target market is motorcycle riders.
Understanding the lifestyle of your customers is a guaranteed strategy to ensure the success of your enterprise.
In some cases, your customer foundation may not be solely based on who is most likely to walk in the door, but instead who you wish to appeal to in your marketing campaigns. For example, if you are a home furnishing brand, you may want to appeal to those looking for high-end home remodeling, not merely consumers making simple home repairs.
To perfect your business plan further, look at examples of how well other companies do in your industry both locally and globally. For instance, feminine product sellers tend to market during the daytime hours on television when customers are most likely watching television talk shows. Alcohol brands tend to advertise their beverages during sporting events and late at night. More so, that same alcohol company may market itself as a high-end luxury beverage to women and men during more sophisticated programming and offer different ads with more of a low-key approach during reality television programming.
In advertising and marketing your brand, it’s essential to understanding who your potential customer is and where they spend most of their time. As a critical component of your business plan, understanding your target market segment is vital. Simply put, when defined correctly potential investors and future business partners have a strategic blueprint on who your brand will be marketing to and when.
The post Black Entrepreneurs: Here’s How to Define Your Target Market appeared first on Black Enterprise.
Three children, aged five, four and one years old, were taken to a Tulsa, Okla.-area hospital after a police officer fired at a robbery suspect in a pickup truck.
Discounted Pioneer Woman Instant Pots, an Intex above-ground pool Gold Box, and a Levi’s flash sale lead off Sunday’s best deals.
34-year-old Isaiah Joel Peoples plowed through a crowded street in Sunnyvale, Calif. on Tuesday, striking and injuring eight before crashing into a tree. Though no one was killed in the crash, the injured range in age from 9 to 52 years old.
Six months to the day an active shooter claimed 11 lives at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Penn., a man has been detained by police in Poway, Calif. after a shooting at a synagogue has left one dead and four injured according to USA Today and other outlets.
Ayanna Pressley ain’t here to play: “Don’t dare invoke one of the darkest days of terrorism in MY city to stoke fear and derail a meaningful conversation” she says.
If you’re not wearing an item of clothing that’s branded with your favorite team’s name or logo, are you even a fan? Show your team spirit with up to 65% off everything at Fanatics, happening today and tomorrow only. You could opt to support your favorite for the NBA or NHL playoffs, or hey, just start football season…
If the NRA were smart, it would turn its internal turmoil into a reality television show for its NRA TV platform. The upheaval at the top of the association is fit for a soap opera.
Esteemed actor and sexual chocolate sometimes DJ, Idris Elba, proposed to businesswoman/model Sabrina Dhowre’s last year; the couple exchanged vows yesterday, April 26, at the Ksar Char Bagh hotel in Marrakesh. Guests wore black tie.
On Tuesday, April 16, Stephanie Washington, 22, and Paul Witherspoon III, 21, were sitting in their car enjoying each other’s company, kissing and singing along to “Nothing In This World” by R&B Singers Avant and Keke Wyatt. Moments later, police opened fire on their vehicle without warning or provocation.
An Anker Soundcore Gold Box, an Original Penguin sale, and discounts on Delsey luggage lead off Saturday’s best deals.
It seems reality television star and former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault just can’t stay away.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lifetime has ordered a two-hour special, Surviving R. Kelly: The Impact to delve even deeper into effects of dream hampton’s groundbreaking reporting.
As many know, few venture dollars are distributed in the black community. Well, these three black millennials want to change that.
Odunayo Eweniyi and Jasmine Shells, both black female founders who’ve raised over $1 million in venture funding, teamed up with Philip Michael, CEO of NYEG, a real estate and investment firm, to create ME Ventures with the goal to invest in over 1,000 diverse founders’ businesses.
Shells is the founder and CEO of Five To Nine, an HR tech startup. Eweniyi, is the founder of PiggyBank, a startup that has raised $1.1M. She is also the co-founder of WealthLAB, a financial resource for people of color. Black Enterprise caught up with the team to find out why this initiative is so important to them and how they plan to execute the feat.
Black Enterprise: Why do you think it’s important to invest in millennials of color?
Eweniyi: Millennials represent two extremes of society. One is that some millennials stand to benefit from one of the largest generational transfers of wealth in history. The flip side of that is that millennials have been handed—possibly—the worst economic situation in recent history.
So more than any other generation, it is acutely important and urgent that millennials start to learn to turn things around—and that includes taking control of the investment process. It’s imperative for the millennial generation to understand that compounding interest can make a world of difference if you start investing in your 20s rather than late 30s or 40s.
Why do you have such a heavy focus on funding women-owned businesses?
Shells: Couple of reasons. It’s the right thing to do and it’s good business. We want to fund amazing companies and a lot of those companies are led by women. According to McKinsey, diverse teams are 33% more likely to turn a profit. Yet, diverse startups account for under 10% of venture capital.
Because we are a diverse VC and founders ourselves, we understand the value that comes from varying perspectives and mindsets. Our goal is to continue to create opportunity alongside others in the space who are looking to create a tech ecosystem that is reflective of our society today.
Perfect example, as of last year, only 26 black female founders had ever raised over $1 million for their startups. We have two on VentureLAB. And we want to help create more.
What do you feel is the best way to build generational wealth in the black community?
Michael: I’ll answer that one. Startups are riskier, which is why it has to come from the institutional level, such as from us. To me, real estate is by far the best, most secure and time-tested wealth-building vehicle.
It’s a tremendously overlooked asset class, especially among minorities. At the current pace, black and Latino wealth will drop to zero in the next 50 years. And real estate ownership—or the lack of real estate ownership—is the biggest driver behind that.
It’s not like the dollars aren’t there. There’s $1.2 trillion in spending power, yet only $11K in black wealth. It’s just a matter of re-allocating the cash versus spending it.
Why they feel “labels” are damaging and being a minority or woman is actually an advantage?
Eweniyi: We’re in the golden age of inclusivity! Social media is helping to shine a light on the injustices that minority groups have suffered for a long time. So I wouldn’t call it an advantage, but it is harder now to be dismissed or not taken seriously without cause as a woman (or a minority) in business.
There are programs targeted at getting more of us into spaces we previously couldn’t get into, and opportunities created specifically targeting our demographic. So again, I wouldn’t call them advantages, but it is nice to finally get recognized for doing great work.
NOTE: Philip Michael is a current Black Enterprise contributor.
The post A Mission To Invest In 1,000 Founders Of Color By 2020 appeared first on Black Enterprise.
If you don’t care to have LED lighting built into your bidet, or just don’t want to wait to make the long overdue switch from wiping poop off your butt with dry paper (sorry to be crass but that’s what we all do, it’s insane!!), Bio Bidet’s already-released Slim Edge bidet is on sale for just $26 today, with Prime…
“It’s taken me 45 trips around the sun, but for the first time in my life I know what it feels like to have a ‘band-aid’ in my own skin tone,” 45-year-old Apollon wrote last week about his Tru Colour bandage. “You can barely even spot it in the first image. For real I’m holding back tears.”
Here at The Glow Up, we are firm believers in taking downtime when and wherever we can get it. But this weekend has presented us an opportunity to turn up that we simply couldn’t miss, as Essence kicks off its inaugural Beauty Carnival tour in New York City on April 27th & 28th!