Changing Demographics

Ethnicity and Emerging Markets

Lauren Jensen-Akula

 Summary by Sara Black

Lauren spoke about ethnicity and emerging markets. The main focus of her speech were companies founded by African Americans. Russell Simons, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph  Lauren, and Donna Karan were mentioned, but FUBU was most talked about. FUBU ("for us by us") is devoted to fulfilling the fashion needs of African American men, and has  recently launched a women's line.  Because they did not have a huge advertising budget, FUBU gained recognition by asking famous sports stars and rappers to wear their clothing. LL Cool J appeared in their first ad. They have unconsciously gotten both good and bad role models to wear their clothing. They managed to achieve low budget marketing by getting the right people to wear their clothes. FUBU also has a web-site that is called Y2G and targets a hip audience.