Thanks to the Internet, we can stalk our target demographic.
We can find out what they're looking at online, how long they're looking at it
for, what they want to buy and who they want to date. All in all, helpful
information, particularly for developing targeted marketing campaigns.
Anderson
Analytics' third fall brand survey of college students, ages 18-24, uncovered everything
we need to know about college students' likes and dislikes. So...get out your
pen and paper, and start taking notes--this stuff is priceless.
Broadly speaking, college students are a rather small demo--only 18 million, compared to the 80 million baby boomers. But, they're very
powerful consumers. They love shopping at Target, social networking and are crazy
about everything Apple--particularly the iPhone. However, an interesting gender
distinction arose in the social networking arena.
Facebook was ranked as the most used social networking site,
but twice as many women used the site as men. MySpace was number two for women,
but dropped out of the top five for men. Instead, young men are spending their
online time on sites such as Digg and Engadget. What this info means for
retailers using social networking sites in their marketing,
is that their campaigns need to be female-targeted, because that's exactly who's
there. So, if you have a MySpace or
Facebook promotion currently running, be sure it's geared towards college
females.
The number one brand for the college demographic was Apple;
while they expressed a love/hate relationship with the Geico caveman
commercials (who can blame them?!). But, they loved Axe Bodyspray, iPhone,
Burger King and Apple commercials. Even with the tremendous popularity of
YouTube, only 8 percent of college students upload videos on the site. Seventy-five
percent surf social networking sites, while only 14 percent write their own
blogs. This seems a little surprising. I just assumed that every college kid
was uploading hundreds of YouTube videos a la Chris Crocker's Britney rant.
Guess not...
The bottom line is--we know where the 18-24 demo is and now it's time to
target them specifically. It's great to have hard data that shows where women
are spending their time, as well as men. This type of insight will allow you to
better hone in on the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.
One final thought that I have to share from the survey--Tom
Anderson with Anderson Analytics states that everyone in America wants to be younger, therefore we look
to college students to see what they're doing and then, often copy them. Um, is
this true? Because I'm pretty sure you couldn't pay me to go back and be 21
again. But, hey, maybe that's just me.
What do you think-- do you want to be younger?
In any event, young or old alike--retail marketing is undergoing
a steady transformation with the advent of technology and social networking
sites like Facebook. Know a retailer doing a great job targeting the college
crowd? Fill us in!
--Heather Strang
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