Cheryl Pearson-McNeil, the senior vice president of public affairs and government relations at Nielsen ratings, the world’s leading market research entity, recently provide surprising, if not shocking statistics that prove incontrovertibly that women run the world.
Pearson-McNeil implored her listeners, particularly African Americans to, to absorb the following information into their spirits and leverage this information to bring about positive change as it relates to our consumer buying power.
Fifty-four percent of African American women attended college and obtained some sort of degree. (“That’s not something that we hear often, ladies,” Pearson-McNeil said).
Ninety-four percent of black women own a mobile phone.
Women are 10 percent more likely than men to use social networks.
We talk 22 percent more than men on the cellphone.
Women like to get their information about new products and services from the television.
Women spend 117 percent more time than men on grocery shopping.
Women spend 42 percent more time on religious activities. Women 275 more time than men on the household.
In the United States, women impact 80 percent of all buying decisions.
$12 trillion of $18 trillion of buying power worldwide.
“We collaborated with our African American advisory board and we put out the state of the African American consumer report,” Pearson-McNeil said. “We felt it was important for companies and consumers alike the purchasing power of African Americans. There are 42 million African Americans in the United States. So Wall Street cannot afford to ignore us. So let’s be clear. Blacks control $967 billion and will grow to $1.1 trillion in just a few short years. Based on spending power, we are the 16th richest nation in the world.”
“So look at the women to the left, right, behind and in front of you with newfound respect, because Beyonce has it right in her song when she says, ‘Girls Run the World,’ ” she said to raucous applause.
Pearson-McNeil admonished women, and men, to use the information disseminated to develop stratagem to their advantage.
“So as we spend time celebrating women, Fortune 500 companies cannot afford to not know just how powerful we are. So I take a quote from one of my favorite movies, Fatal Attraction: ‘We will not be ignored,’” Pearson-McNeil added. “Just sharing the information with your readers on a consistent, regular manner so that they understand the power in print so that they act upon it. That’s one of the easiest ways to do that. And then open up websites and start discussion boards so that they can interact with each other about the things they notice about the companies they are buying from.”
For more information, log on to Neilsen.com/africanamericans.
–terry shropshire
