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Page 4 AC Phoenix, June/July 1994 Many minority business fail to realize or capitalize on the golden opportunity that their own news media represent. Your Black Media Are Your Primaiy Advertising Tools. They let prospective customers and clients know who you are, what your products and services are, where you're located, and how and when you can be contacted. Neglecting to advertise your business within the black community is to fail to capture your share of the $300 billion in black income, only 9 percent or $15 billion of which is spent within the black communities in this country. Yes, it is an added expense, however the news media are businesses, too, and they cannot operate on "freebies." Every successful business includes in its business plan an advertising budget, no matter the size. Some businesses go after the audience that supports the larger, majority establishment media, calculating that therein lies the biggest return on their investment. They completely exclude the media that supports their own communities, a very lucrative source. There are myriad* reasons given including, as Shirley Chisholm put it, the "lie" blacks have bought about each other: they cannot run efficient, cost-effective businesses. In some instances this perception becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy further justifying the need to attract non black business and supporting the rationale to ignore the black media as an advertising avenue and the black community as a revenue source. One pause for thought: except for "set-aside" and other quota-type considerations, why should non-blacks buy from blacks if their own won't or aren't allowed the opportunity? Still other businesses don't advertise at all. A true operating maxim is: "You have to spend money to make money." Among the many causes of small business failures is the refusal to market their services. "A business with no sign (advertising ) is a sign of no business." Your Black News Media Publicize Your Business Activities. This is not to be confused with advertising in which the input (your ad) is media revenue and the output (new customers) is your revenue. Some of us have forgotten the time when the only real news media was white- oriented and did not report news about blacks or black businesses and their activities, unless it was of an extraordinary, and usually negative, nature. There were a few "forward thinking," more liberal media that accommodated "hlack news," hut in the case of newspapers, it was relegated to a column or two or (if we got lucky) an entire page which covered our social and athletic events. obituaries, and miscellaneous business news. The few black community papers and "word of mouth" took care of the rest. Publicity opportunities have not significantly improved for black businesses since the dawn of "integrated news reporting" in the mass media. The separate and unequal black news column/page faded away, and every since news about black businesses fights for space with the rest of the news in the major media. Through it all, the black news media have existed for years to cover the opening of your new business, the "umpteenth" anniversary of successful operation, or other relevant news. If the white media do not publicize your business activities and the less widely circulated black media are not available or informed, your business coverage is zero. Not utilizing the black media also denies them the opportunity to grow and effectively vie with their larger competitors. Your Black News Media Are Powerful Avenues Of Communications. News about local, state, national and international events that impact your business and your community needs to be communicated on a regular basis. Factual and analytical reporting enable you to keep in touch with what is happening in your area of interest, with your competitors' activities, and other information that you need to make effective business decisions. Teaming up with the news media to publicize and communicate a specific event or activity concerning your business is also an effective way to enhance your regular advertisements. But to achieve the maximum benefit both you and the media have responsibilities on the two-way communications' street. Every discussion these days about black businesses ends up with a need to address black economic development in a country whose bottom line is $$$. Those discussions should include the link between the black media and all other black businesses. Working in tandem is part of an economic development strategy whereby blacks help each other survive and thrive just as other ethnic and religious minorities have done and continue to do. This strategy goes beyond purely business needs. Black businesses have an obligation to stop sending "mixed signals" to black youth and to communicate clearly the message that "we have our own businesses, our own means of economic development so that working together, and learning from and leaning on each other we can all achieve and sustain our own economic freedom." We must support black/owned media if we intend to maintain black/white clientele. For More Information Contact Dorrel (910)784-4250 Dorrel Productions ~Live Entertainment -Sound Reinforcement -Multi-track Recording -Disc Jockeys For All Occasions! You can leave a niessage for Dorrel on the AC Phoenix Voice Mail (910)631-6411
The AC Phoenix News (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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June 1, 1994, edition 1
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