Black Market Segmentation Based on Black as well as White Symbols

During the latter sixties and early seventies, there was a proliferation of data amassed on the black consumer. These studies either used homogeneous observations for white equivalent comparisons or the black consumer was segmented according to income and symbolic meanings. Although the black consumer was viewed as striving for symbols representative of the white middle-class, a dichotomized black symbol was never considered. Since that time, data has not been collected on the changes in black attitudes, values and interests which reflect the socioeconomic acquisitions of blacks during the sixties and seventies. Because black culture was accepted also as a subculture during this period, the author used both black and white product symbols to measure the attitudes of a stratified sample of black consumers. ANOVA results indicate that younger, better educated blacks are more responsive to black symbols than white symbols.