Marketing via New Technologies
Consumer profiles and what works
LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Reunion are just a few of the social networking sites that are connecting friends, colleagues, and businesses using a wide variety of media. Consumer profiles and buying habits are changing and marketers must pay close attention just to keep up.
Here is an overview of typical consumers identified during a recent survey by The Center for Media Design at Ball State University and how you might target these groups.
TEENS
Profile:
- High school students
- Aged 15 – 17
- They are the most digitally connected group
Media Exposure:
- Heavy media users, however exposure is limited or controlled during the school day.
- Out of school, Teens heavily use the computer, television, magazines and music
Best Communication Mediums:
- Personal communication is focused on IM, text messaging and social networking
- Marketing communication preference is still snail mail direct mail but they are open to marketing through a variety of channels
- Use multiple communication channels and provide teens with a choice
COLLEGE STUDENTS
Profile:
- College students
- 18 – 24 years old
Media Exposure:
- Surprisingly media exposure is generally lower than commonly believed notably because of a relatively low exposure to television.
- College students are heavy Internet users and spend most of their time surfing the net, reading books, listening to music and watching movies.
- This group spends their days using media concurrently.
Best Communication Mediums:
- Personal communication is again predominantly telephone and email
- They are heavy social networking users
- SMS is the favourite method for personal communication among female college students
- This group is very spam-savvy and look only to receive SMS marketing messages when permission has been granted.
- The preferred channels of promotional marketing are again direct mail and email.
- Keep business and personal separate, email is the channel for promotional messages.
WIRED
Profile:
- Males
- Between 18 – 34 years old
- Without children
- Employed full time or self employed
- An annual household income of $35K +
- Have at least a college education
Media Exposure:
- Exposed to multiple media, primarily through computers
- Spend an average of 8 hours a day on computers
- Watch nearly 3 hours of television a day
- Spend an average of 40 minutes on land line telephones
- 20 minutes on cellular telephones
Best Communication Mediums:
- Although they are fluent in new media technologies they still turn to email and phone first when communicating for personal reasons
- Marketing communications via SMS is preferred for urgent customer service issues (i.e. travel delays, financial alerts)
- Email is heavily favoured for non-urgent marketing communications (i.e. promotions, surveys)
YOUNG HOMEMAKERS
Profile:
- Females
- Between 18 – 34 years old
- Consider themselves a “homemaker”
- An annual household income of $35K +
- There are two segments of Young Homemakers
- Heavy traditional media consumers
- Low traditional media consumers
Media Exposure:
- High traditional media consumers spend 6 hours watching television, 3 hours online and 40 minutes per day reading magazines and newspapers
- Low traditional media consumers spend 2 hours watching television, 1-2 hours online, and approximately 10 minutes per day reading magazines and newspapers
Best Communication Mediums:
- The telephone is still the preferred mode of communicating with friends and family
- Email is the favourite for written personal communication and text messaging and IM are also often used
- Marketing communications via direct mail and email are preferred by this group
- Opt-in emails and direct mail with relevant, helpful information and products
ESTABLISHED PROS
Profile:
- Men and women
- 35 years old +
- Professionals employed full-time
- An annual household income of $75K +
Media Exposure:
- Established Pros are moderate media consumers
- They watch an average of 3 hours of television per day
- More than 3 hours per day listening to the radio (in the car commuting to work)
- Are online multiple times throughout the day
- Spend the average amount of time reading newspapers and magazines
Best Communication Mediums:
- This group has a strong preference for using the telephone for all personal communications
- When it comes to written communication email is the number one choice.
- The use of IM, SMS and social networking is low compared to other groups.
- Female Established Pros are more likely to use new digital channels to communicate with friends and family
- Established Pros are online shoppers and are most influenced by direct marketing messages with email and direct mail equally influencing the purchase decision.
- Email and direct mail are the way to go, marketers should focus on relevance – this group has money to spend and does so frequently.
RETIRED
Profile:
- Retired men and women
- College degrees
Media Exposure:
- The Retired group spend on average 7 hours a day watching television
- They spend a significant amount of time reading a combination of newspapers and books, but less than 10 minutes a day reading magazines.
- Retired men spend more time listening to the radio than retired women.
Best Communication Mediums:
- A very small percentage of the Retired consumer use text messaging and IM as primary forms of personal communication with most opting for the telephone or writing postal mail.
- Of those that are online, the majority use email for personal communications. More retired men are likely to participate in social networks while retired women are more likely to use IM
- When it comes to marketing traditional direct channels are preferred. Attitudes towards unsolicited marketing messages are negative, even for direct mail – retired consumers only want to interact with companies they know.
- Keep it simple and focus on a combination of email and direct mail.
Source: “Walking a Day in Subscribers’ Shoes”, White paper by ExactTarget and The Center for Media Design at Ball State University (2008)
