(05/13/10) Douglas Simon, CEO & President of D S Simon Productions, spoke with Andrea Hoffman about marketing to diverse groups and the changing marketing landscape. Click to read more.

(05/06/2010) Blacks are discovering just how educational and empowering international travel can be. Click to read more.

(03/16/2010) New York Insider writes about our book launch party in an article titled, "The Wearing of the Green." Click here to read more.

(04/19/2010) "Recession Slashed Ethnic Marketing Efforts" - Mention of our new book, Black Is the New Green. Click here to read more.

We are Andrea Hoffman and Leonard E. Burnett, Jr. We have a combined total of over forty years catering to this market segment. For over twenty years, Andrea has been a marketing specialist and trend forecaster. She’s worked with BMW of North America, Mercedes-Benz, Alliance Capital Management, National Council of La Raza, Sony Electronics, and 20th Century Fox Television. Among her accomplishments for these companies are the engineering of high-profile marketing strategies and events with well known athletes and other celebrities. She was the key architect of the Mercedes-Benz USA’s (MBUSA) first formal and highly successful entertainment strategy that included several diversity tactics, and she also was part of a team that helped to evaluate MBUSA’s multimillion dollar Presence Marketing budget during a time when Mercedes was shifting its brand toward a younger demographic. She is a specialist in ...

Adapting to the new economic realities is compulsory for any business that wants to remain viable, but it doesn’t mean making a huge stretch. It does not mean a vast and expensive restructuring of marketing plans or product lines. Spending time and money to look far afield is neither efficient nor necessary when the answers are often right under your nose. Your organization may be small or it may be complex, but the solutions to your new marketing challenges can often be quite simple, a matter of analyzing what equities and assets you may already be invested in and finding out that they can be used to gain a whole new audience (what opportunities are already knocking on your door or waiting right outside of it) and leveraging them in new ways. The place to begin is ...

But, let’s face it, technology is going to continue to evolve and consumers will be driven by advances in both products and methods of communication. In fact, science and the development of new technologies are progressing at such a rapid pace that a young person who entered a four-year college program in 2009 can expect that what he or she learned about science in freshman year will be outdated by the time he or she is a junior.

Mark Dolliver recently wrote a 3 page article on reaching affluent African Americans for Adweek.com. The article is called, "How to Reach Affluent African Americans". Check it out - click here.

Andrew Bennet
CEO Euro RSCG

The rising affluent African American markmet has been mostly overlooked by luxury brands, but with an African American president in the White House, and a new global worldview, it is time for marketers to sit up and take notice. In “Black is the New Green”, authors Burnett and Hoffman tell you how to bring this expanding market to your brand, filled with examples of successful campaigns, detailed plans and thought provoking ideas—this book is a must for anyone who sells high end products.

Rudy Chavez
President Baume & Mercier

Black is the New Green" provides thorough insight into the growing, affluent African American community. It explores the vast opportunities that exist for brands which have not yet authentically communicated with this group. An enjoyable read, and with numerous anecdotes throughout, it is straightforward and to the point."

Noel Hankin
Sr. VP, Multicultural Relations Moet Hennessy USA

“Hoffman and Burnett put a spotlight on an enormous, yet under-appreciated opportunity. If you want to Increase sales of upscale goods and services, this book is a road map.”

Bob Shullman
President Ipsos Mendelsohn

“Understanding the dynamics of the affluent African American marketplace as well as its motivations and expectations are critical challenges for all marketers. "Black is the New Green" is a must-read for marketers who have a lot to gain from understanding this important segment of affluent America.”

Jim Clifton
CEO The Gallup Organization

“In Black is the New Green, Andrea Hoffman and Len Burnett offer astute insight into one very powerful demographic shift that is driving the trend toward niche marketing – and they provide compelling and cost-effective strategies for reaching this emerging New affluent niche. They make the case that target marketing is no longer simply “nice” to do, it is a “need” to do – and, using recent, successful case studies to illuminate each step, they show you how.”

Palgrave Macmillan global academic publisher, serving learning and scholarship in higher education and the professional world. publishes a wide range of books in the humanities and social sciences and presently has over 5,000 active titles. In subjects ranging from Political Science to History to Literature, the list contains original works by many of the foremost academic writers and editors in the world, including several Nobel laureates.

- Marketing Strategy/Research Exec (24+ yrs) - Luxury Marketing background - Founder of Diversity Affluence

- Urban Media pioneer (20+) years - Launched Vibe Magazine w/Quincy Jones - Co-Owner of Uptown Media Group

Certainly the market downturn that stunned us in 2008 is not the only force shaping the emerging new era. The art of marketing is itself in flux—or, if you prefer, on a learning curve—as advertisers, ad agencies, and even their media partners struggle to figure out how to fit the technologies profitably into the old mix of print, television, and radio formats and how they can create a new mix that will continue to deliver results for their clients.

The recessionary summer of 2009, when we were writing this book, is a long way from the heady days of the 1920s and the turbulent 1930s when Willie Sutton was active. For one thing, we are literally no longer so sure about where the money is. There is no longer any guarantee that it’s in the banks or the investment firms, or any of the other places we are used to finding it. To say that this time of financial realignments has left marketers scrambling to find out who still has the money—and ...

“Go where the money is.” This pithy way to navigate should be obvious to any marketer worth his or her salt. It’s known as “Sutton’s Law,” and it comes to us out of the Great Depression, by way of a colorful character known as “Slick Willie” Sutton. Sutton was a prolific bank robber known for his immaculate dress, quick wit, and gentle manners. Although the sheer number of heists he pulled off made ...