In the past wide spread poverty among blacks and white insensitivity to their needs, removed them from active consideration as a viable market. Today with increasing income and purchasing power, company market strategies are looking increasingly to targeting the black consumer.
Black consumers differ in their demographics, life-styles, and purchasing habits.
The black market can be divided into a variety of submarket segments, each with its own distinctive needs and tastes. Although blacks in the U.S. are extremely diverse, there is a strong feeling of ethnic unity. Black Americans are the largest minority group in the United States, making up 12.5 percent of the total population. Before the turn of the twentieth century most blacks resided in the South. Traditional southern black American foods included such things as bacon, black-eyed peas, chayote squash, corn, greens, ham hocks, hot sauce, okra, peanuts, watermelon, and yams.