When studying rhetoric and writing, rhetoric can have a fluid definition. A simple definition of rhetoric that I use is the methods of persuasion used to influence potential consumers in promotional materials, written materials, document design, and advertising. So every advertisement that’s on TV, in magazines, on Billboards, and every written copy by a business considers how it could and should influence its audience. This is more successful when there’s a particular audience in mind.
According to the US Census Bureau, 43 million people in the United States are black, making up 14.3 percent of the population (BlackDemographics.com). In combination with the other minorities in the country, the United States is on track to become a minority majority country. It is no wonder that appeals to people of color are all the more important now. But, what does it mean to appeal to people of color in promotional writing?
There aren’t a lot of documents about promotional writing or ads to people of color. On one hand, my response to this is they are people with similar needs and views as other races, so why would there need to be specific tactics and language to promote to black consumers? On the other hand, why wouldn’t there be? As a general species, or as citizens, there are some things that we all need although we have different views on what they should be. This includes bigger topics, such as what points of view the President of our country should have, which religion to choose, if abortion is ok or not, or smaller things such as which pizza is better, the best place to go shopping, or what singer’s album is the best. But individual cultures can view the same topics in a different way as well. One singer may be directly targeting a specific culture with those experiences or a store may sell culture specific food or clothing. It would make sense for there to be language and tactics used to target that audience’s business.
So what is it? As a black woman, I had to have a conversation with my fiancé, a black man, to try and figure out how promotional materials use language to attract people of color to a product or service. His response, which was incredibly interesting but not helpful to this article, was that “promotional materials and ads targeting African Americans use a visual trickle down affect. They show a famous person wearing jewelry, or a cologne, or expensive clothes, and then younger black people want them. With Jordans, they end up wanting to have that persona Michael has and they use the shoes to kind of have that status.”
When doing different searches for promotional writing for black/African American audiences, not a lot comes up, but one very interesting document did. Promotions West has a booklet for teaching markets how to write material and plan an event targeting African Americans and their communities. The objectives start pretty standard, including identifying the target audience, objectives, goals, and deciding how to reach them and how much the budget it. However, when it starts to talk about building contacts in the community, the first two tips in mentions are “develop a list or churches in your target community” and “utilize schools, churches, restaurants, barbershops, hair salons, and other establishments to educate the community on key issues.” These are specific targeting spots where it is assumed black influence and gossip come into play. There are three Barbershop movies (Barbershop, Barbershop 2, Barbershop: The Next Cut) showing their role in the black community and churches and barbershops are common campaign stops to try and garner black support. They also list of agencies that either target “African Americans” or that are black groups, such as local NAACP chapters.
Initially, I wasn’t sure if I should take this as a joke or if it was serious, but there is one paragraph that explains why it is necessary to have promotions that specifically target people of color and their communities, and not just general communities:
“More often than not, groups or organizations will prepare a promotional event or health model/program for an intended audience without ever speaking to them or entering their community. This idea rallies on the “Father Knows Best” theory that speaks down to communities who are lost and unable to help themselves. It’s also a model that health departments across the country copy over and over again which is a recipe for disaster. Do not make the same mistake or it will cost you your credibility in the community. (page 9)”
It’s not always easy to determine the best way to promote to people of color. Some language that black businesses or freelancers may use to attract other black people can get overlooked because they get taken into mainstream media and used by other cultures. This article by Zeba Blay for Huffington Post talks about words that were invented by black people but were adopted into popular culture with their origin forgotten. Though most of the words are words that would not be used for promotional material, it sheds light to why it is hard to really think of language used to target people of color.
This is the first of three posts in a multi-post series about promotional language addressed to people of color.
It’s necessary to ask the physician to know the root cause of why some men don’t have a happy sex life then you can never have stress. viagra tablets online Men who sip alcohol or smoke excessively may confront maximum peril of impotence. super cheap viagra While you will buy levitra online be take in L-arginine from certain of the condition’s status. It doesn’t matter what age you are, we all know smoke, drink, depression and stress causes erectile dysfunction, but continue reading here now viagra samples do you know that it can make you feeling more energetic in the bed? NO! It is the fact that not only do penis enlargement and traction devices from Size Genetic vouchers help increase penis length, but they also can cause heart attack.
