©Gary A. Johnson Associates & Company, LLC
The Secret of Selling the Negro is a 1950’s film that comes up with a marketing strategy on how to sell to black people in America.
It’s called The Secret of Selling the Negro. A 1954 film funded by Johnson Publishing Company, the media of Ebony magazine, to advance advertisers to foster their products and services in the African-American media. According to an article by The Medium, the moving compares greatly to the Willie Lynch letter, The Making of a Slave, as it explains how to sell to the Negro community. The film showed African-American professionals, housewives and students as participants in the American Consumer Society, and it emphasized the economic power of this demographic community. The film featured appearances by radio announcer Robert Trout. Robert Trout talked about the Negro as the number one success to the economic rate in America. Negroes at this time owned most of their houses along with having suitable paying jobs. This made African-Americans financially adaptable in society as they were now being viewed as a competitor for consumers to utilize. In order to be successful in selling to the Negro, there were three methods used to keep the attention of the African-American dollar.
©Urban Intellectuals
Robert Trout said, “Before you get to sell to customers, you have to get to know them. You must understand something about them. What do the Negro customers buy? Why do they buy? And how do you sell to them?” Psychologists in selling began to orchestrate research on how to effectively make African-Americans feel included by way of recognition. The need to feel important or appreciated was driven especially since African-Americans had been deprived of it. Most Negroes bought products by brand and name. Since most were sold second class merchandise, they would want to get their money’s worth. Another point successful business psychologists made is that Negroes needed good quality, not for the durability, but for the admiration and approval by the opinion of others. It was also made a point that when an African-American is specifically asking for something, do not switch up a different offer at the point of sale. It’s about the quality of inclusion not the price. They knew that African-Americans would buy and operate as a family unit, so in other words when they were selling to one they were selling to all. Advertisers seized this move, Negroes began reading more magazines while businessmen published more ads to draw attention to their merchandise. Their research had outstanding results, pushing their sales and papers into the double digits while African-Americans became the new bank for every salesman to take a dollar out of.
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