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The Notion of Social Class and the Minority Buyer

  • Conference paper
Minority Marketing: Issues and Prospects

Abstract

Hill (1987) suggested that income classifications as defined by the U.S. Bureau of Census, be used as the single indicator for determining Black social class. However, a major weakness of this approach is that income, by itself, does not provide an adequate means of developing marketing strategy aimed at reaching the Black market. Therefore, marketers interested in reaching the Black market must seek more "involved" measures for defining social class. There seems to be no justifiable reason why Blacks should not be classified into social classes employing the same measures used in classifying Whites. This holds true even if it is argued that there are wide differences or distinctions (values, behavior patterns, mores, possessions, income, education, etc.) within the various classes as a result of racial/ethnic backgrounds.

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Rogers, H.P., Peyton, R., Berl, R.L. (2015). The Notion of Social Class and the Minority Buyer. In: King, R. (eds) Minority Marketing: Issues and Prospects. Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17392-4_7

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