Stoute: Black consumers are the world's best by buying unmarketed goods
Steve Stoute · The Marketing Genius of Steve Stoute · Jun 21, 2026 · at 18:15
Steve Stoute, marketing executive and founder of Translation, explains historical consumer behavior and how cultural connection allows brands to win market share.
0:00 / 0:05exact quote · 6.0s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“Black consumers are the best consumers in the world. Because they buy products that aren't marketed to them.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Steve Stoute
Stoute: Labels Avoided Spotify Fan Data Deals to Preserve Power
“The record companies, I believe, never negotiated that when they had that leverage, because they didn't even want to have to share that information with the artist.”
Stoute: Cultural taste, not ethnicity, drives consumer music purchases
“The music business taught me that The idea that people listen to certain records had nothing to do with their ethnicity. DMX was selling in Iowa. The radio station in Iowa didn't play DMX. Where Eminem was being played, was being purchased in Harlem. It had no…”
Stoute: A direct-to-fan creator data platform will emerge within three years
“The next evolution of this in the next three years, I have to be able to go direct, and I have to be able to collect that fan data. I want to send out the newsletter. I want to send out the fan, the sort of correspondence. Like, it's the platform you own. I no…”
Stoute: Independent music has outgrown major labels in frontline new release market share
“So I guess the good news out of all of this, since we started United Masses, is that the independent music space, and there's a lot of us, have outgrown on the front line The major labels. So if you talk about new releases, market share, the independents have …”
Stoute: Booming business models temporarily reward and financially applaud mediocrity
“That when an industry is booming, sometimes when it's booming because of the business model itself, mediocre gets rewarded. And like, and then over time it catches up. But in the beginning, mediocrity is applauded and financially awarded.”
Stoute: Nike missed lifestyle footwear by focusing strictly on performance
“What was clear was Nike wasn't doing lifestyle at that time. They just thought, like, Just Do It was all about athletes and performance, so what I was trying to do was tap into the truth, which was people were wearing sneakers, Not to perform at all. Just so i…”