Marketing Matters
Marketers Must React as American Households Morph
The size and complexion of the American household are changing at a pace never before experienced. Marketers must recognize this – and react accordingly.
Three huge trends stand out: The age of who heads the household, how many moms are bringing home the paycheck and minorities as the majority.
+ Through 2009, fertility rates have fallen 44 percent since the baby boom’s peak after World War II. Demographers predict the rate will fall another 12 percent over the next several decades.
The result: Someone over age 65 will head more than one-third of U.S. households by 2037.
+ According to a Census Bureau report in January, the number of working moms who are the sole breadwinners in their households reached an all-time high. For the third year in a row, the number of moms as the only working spouse grew.
Of couples with children under 18 at home, almost one million moms were the only parent in the work force. The percentage of households with the dad as the sole breadwinner dropped to 28.2 percent, the lowest since 2001.
The prolonged current recession is causing cultural as well as economic changes.
“The economic crisis is heavily affecting families, and what the latest data show is that gender roles are flexible and are going in the direction of egalitarian roles,“ said Pamela Smock, a University of Michigan sociology professor.
+ By 2025, the majority of families with children in the U.S. will be multi-cultural, Hispanic, black, Asian or other minority.
These three trends will insure that marketers change the way they approach the American family. Consumer marketing will be more multi-cultural, consumption patterns – especially for consumer packed goods – will change dramatically and growth will be difficult in the coming decade.
Amid these huge changes, today’s households are more connected than ever. A recent Nielsen 2010 Media Industry Fact Sheet detailed American media use and delivered this points for marketers to process:
• 114.9 million homes have at least one television, and almost 30 percent have four or more.
• 103.6 million homes have cable or satellite television.
• 36.7 million homes are equipped with a DVR (digital video recorder).
• The average American watches 31.5 hours of television per week – up 20 percent in10 years.
• 223 million Americans ages 13 and older have mobile phones.
• 21 percent of American households have cut their landlines and use cell phones only.
• 195 million Americans are active Internet users, and more than 93 percent have broadband access.
• 56 percent of Internet users are active on Facebook – average use of Facebook is six hours per month.
• Americans average viewing 11.2 billion video streams per month. That’s more than 200 minutes per month per viewer.
• 73 percent of U.S. households own a device specifically used for gaming, and 45 percent of active gamers are female.
The paradox of all this is that marketers have many new ways to reach Americans – even though it may be harder to find them. The challenge for marketers is developing communication plans that understand the changed American society and know the right tools to use.
It’s a challenge that will keep marketers on their toes, as well as keep them up at night.
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