frican Americans instead of hiring African American owned ad agencies or hiring people who specialize in African American marketing. Past study shows that one of the major challenges facing marketers in the 1990’s is the ability to successfully reach members of diverse ethnic groups (Green, 1995). Mainstream ad agencies are not including African American owned radio stations, newspapers, or magazines when targeting African American consumers. As the African-American market has become more diverse, media placement has become an important issue for media planners involved in effort to target African Americans (Askey, 1995). The problem of advertising through Black media is very important when targeting Black consumers. Ken Smikle, president of the African American marketing and Media Association, stated “It’s not a question of if firms should market to Blacks, it’s how” (Simpson, 1992). Smikle goes on to say, “Merchandise have long welcomed black consumers of course, but in the past, most assumed that their mass-marketing campaigns, would reach them along with everyone else” (Simpson, 1992). When marketing to minorities, selecting the right media is an important as developing the right creative image (Reese, 1997). The study conducted by Reese, (1997) stated that most African Americans listen to Black-owned radio stations, and read Black published magazines like Jet, Essence, Black Enterprise, and Ebony. In the study of Boone & Kurtz, 1992; Hawkins, Best & Coney, 1992; Johnson, 1995; and Shimp, 1997, stated that Blacks’ noteworthy media habits (particularly Black females) consisted of (a) watch more television than that of the general population, and the shows they watch are more apt to be those about Black people; (b) listen to the radio approximately 3.5 hours daily, which is about 30 minutes longer than Whites do; (c) prefer Black-owned radio stations and listen to AM stat...
