The Young Urban Consumer: How Hip-Hop Culture Affects the Lifestyle and Buying Decisions of 12- to 34- Year Olds

Hip-hop culture continues to influence the lifestyle and buying decisions of Young Urban Consumers as young as 12 and as old as 34. Thirty seven million Young Urban Consumers live in all parts of the country and have an urban mindset, regardless of whether they live in a city, a suburb or a small town. Young Urban Consumers enjoy an aggregate income of $600 billion, and they love to shop and spend. These trendsetters and influencers who affiliate with hip-hop culture exercise a powerful impact on the direction of the fashion, media, entertainment and other key consumer-focused industries.

Hip-hop is a huge lifestyle segment that stretches from urban areas to suburban areas and involves an active lifestyle. More than half, or 57%, of Urban Youth, age 12 to 34, are white, although the proportion of African Americans and Hispanics who are Young Urban Consumers is greater within their own ethnic segments than is the case for non-Hispanic Whites.

Young Urban Consumers have a more favorable economic profile compared to other consumers their age. They are spenders, not savers -they prefer to enjoy their money now. Core Urban males in particular are consumers who prefer to discover the undiscovered. This group is important to the U.S. economy because the aggregate income of these 37 million young urbanites will grow from $594 billion in 2007 to $684 billion in 2012, much of which will be spent on luxury items. At the core of the trendsetting power of Young Urban Consumers is their ability to influence the consumer choices of their friends. This demographic is among the first to try new things and spend their income on favorite product brands.

Urban Youth shoppers put a high priority on brand loyalty, and brands achieving the greatest success have formed a connection with hip-hop artists. Significant sales can be attributed to products prominently featured in lyrics, spontaneously embraced by the hip-hop world and products that appear to be genuinely used by an artist prior to the relationship.

What Does Web Design Say About Your Small Business?

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

If you've ever been horrified by the design of a small or local business website, you're not alone. There are so many aesthetic travesties out there, and worse, many small businesses still don't even have a website. One recent study concluded that a paltry 54% of small businesses maintain a home on the web.
Your business doesn't need an elaborate multimedia site, but you do need an eye-pleasing and informative destination. After all, you wouldn't (purposefully) hang an ugly sign on your storefront or office. Why would you present an ugly website to your prospects?
With this in mind, we spoke to some professional web designers about their favorite small business websites. They explained why these sites make sense for each company and why the design is an asset to their business.

Make Business Personal at First Click

Jacob Gube, a web developer and the founder/chief editor of Six Revisions, looks at North Carolina real estate firm Go Realty's website as a way to personalize a sometimes impersonal industry.
"They put a great deal of emphasis towards humanizing the process of buying a home," said Gube. "To most real estate companies, you're customer record ID #67343, budget range $200,000 to $225,200, but to Go Realty, you're the Johnsons with a baby girl named Amy. They convey this personality through their site design."
Gube notes Go Realty's very welcoming website that puts people first and properties second.
"The home page has a beautiful image slider that flips through photos of the people they've dealt with, with short descriptions of their stories. They have a Fan Mail section that flips through messages from happy clients," said Gube. "When you see all that, as a prospective home buyer and client, you'd think, 'Wow, these guys will take care of me.' "
When it comes to something as personal as purchasing a home, this is a smart design choice. While it may be the inclination of many companies to put products front and center, a page of property listings can be less inviting than a satisfied customer.
"I think for a real estate company, they have a truly unique angle and they have a web design that manages to convey their core message," Gube noted.

Accentuate Your Products With Complementary Design

Shopping carts and product galleries have become staples of the e-commerce landscape, but that doesn't mean they have to look stale. If you sell attractive products, make sure they live on an attractive website.
Tim Van Damme, a freelance web developer based in Belgium who knows a thing or two about web aesthetics, cites online retailer Hardgraft as a case study in minimalism and product display.
"Their website is beautifully designed, featuring just a couple of products with large, beautiful photographs. They're clearly targeting the more fashion-aware web nerds this way," said Van Damme.
The site sells cases and sleeves for electronics, as well as handbags and wallets. The sleek modern products sit nicely on a clean, modern website. The presentation is complementary, and there's nothing to distract the eye from the merchandise. A site like this expresses organization and straightforwardness -- qualities your customers are always after.
"Their products are pretty expensive, yet every conference I go to I see multiple of them in the audience," Van Damme noted.

Sell to the Right Consumer, Visually

If you're targeting a certain customer demographic, good web design can help.
Kelli Shaver, a web app developer who specializes in user interfaces and experiences, points to Gazel, Inc., purveyors of unique, organic bath towels and robes. Its website evokes a sense of luxury that befits the customers who can afford these products.
"Clearly the site is targeting environmentally conscious consumers with expendable incomes and sophisticated tastes," said Shaver, noting Gazel is not your typical e-commerce website. "The focus seems more on educating customers about the products than simply selling those products. The combined effect of the colors, typography, textures, and photography just feels expensive and high-quality."
In essence, the site "feels" like the products it's selling, and that goes a long way toward user experience, according to Shaver.
"Nearly everything about the site is inviting. Rich, warm colors and earth tones give the visitor a feeling of calm," she said. "The slide show on the landing page, in addition to showcasing some of the company's product, also brings in a lot of texture."
The takeaway here should be that if your customers feel at home on your website, they're more likely to browse and buy. That may seem obvious, but think about who your customers really are as you develop your web presence. Your web designer won't know this, so be sure to communicate it effectively. The branding payoff can be big.

Informational Sites Don't Have to Be Boring

If you thought some small business websites were rough, visit a government agency online sometime. They can be notorious for bad design, poor navigation, and a general disinterest in Web 2.0 functionality.
Not so with the Southwest Florida Water Management District, says Chris Coyier, a web designer and blogger at CSS-Tricks.
"The home page is OK, but the site actually gets better and more interesting the deeper you go," said Coyier, noting the exceptional layout of the recreation page, and the pages for individual locations administered by the department.
"The most important part they got right was thinking about what the mindset of an actual user of the site is like -- in this case, me," said Coyier. "It's easy to browse by featured locations, type of activity, and specific regions, all of which were of interest to me, so it was fun to click around."
This site could so easily have gone with black and white bullet lists, but instead went the extra mile to draw the user in with design.
"The aesthetics are totally appropriate for an outdoors kind of site -- tans and greens and browns with flourishes of plant life," said Coyier. "The location-specific pages are amazing. Everything I would want to see: photos, maps, specifics on what you can do, rules, etc. The visuals are great, but the information architecture is the best feature."