The Billion-Dollar Oversight
It's no secret that ethnic markets are plump with untapped consumers and, consequently, untapped dollars. But who knew its overlooked resources where in the billions?
According to a Diversity Affluence report, the demographic of affluent ethnic consumers (dubbed "Royaltons" in the report) has amassed $110 billion dollars in purchasing power.
The breakdown of ethnic households with a $200,000+ income is as follows:
- 45% Asian ($52 billion);
- 30% Hispanic ($33 billion); and
- 22% African-American ?($24 billion).
Given this wealth of ... well, wealth, PR executives would be wise to approach their marketing counterparts with plans to bolster and shape integrated efforts around these
groups.
Market Research Reigns Supreme
Market research is king when it comes to driving business decisions to meet consumer needs, according to a report released by Best Practices, LLC. The benchmarking report,
"Developing the High Performance Market Research Function," addresses this consumer-centric culture and reiterates the importance of incorporating market researchers. Among the
findings are the following:
- 70% of benchmarked companies employ decentralized market-research structures;
- 64% of participants indicated that marketing research partners manage 20 or fewer projects per year; and
- More than 50% of respondents reported providing one to three weeks of annual training to their market research professionals.
This information is based on data from such powerhouse corporations as 3M, Dow Chemical, Eli Lilly, IBM, Novartis, Roche, TAP Pharma, Wyeth, DuPont, Hewlett-Packard, Bayer, Xerox
and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Based on the survey's findings, a best practice for tapping market researchers is to "develop processes and job descriptions to better integrate marketing, CI and market research
analysts together for efficiency and better insights."
Mom's Got Game. Who Knew?
Think you've wrapped your arms around the digerati demographics? Think the 13- to 34-year-old demographic controls the majority of media consumption and techonology know-how?
Think again.
A new Weber Shandwick survey timed around the release of its interactive "screengrab" media unit revealed that mothers, school-aged children, baby boomers and seniors (ages 65+)
are heavy users of technology. Among the findings:
- Four out of 10 surveyed mothers own and use a portable gaming device;
- 25% of these mothers spend up to five hours a week using the device;
- 25% of seniors expect to spend more time using computers and cell phones in the next five years;
- Baby boomers use cell phones, laptops and gaming consoles wherever they go; and
- 33% of mothers check a company Web site after seeing an advertisement on television.
"The screen, whether it is a mobile phone, MP3 player, laptop, gaming console, TV or traditional movie theater screen, is the window to every consumer in the rapidly shifting world
of technology and media," says B. Bonin Bough, executive vice president of screengrab. "Data suggest that those marketers and communicators who are focusing on one or two screens, or
creating siloed programs for individual screens, may be diluting their impact."
Spellcheck Doesn't Help The Media Enough
Spellcheck just doesn't cut it when it comes to catching errors in the mainstream media. According to a Factiva search on the top 10 most misspelled words in the U.S. media, there
are mistakes that are repeated over and over and over again. The top-10 list of commonly misspelled words:
1. Judgment
2. Lightning
3. Millennium
4. Calendar
5. Cemetery
6. Accommodate
7. Collectible
8. Receive or Receipt
9. Committed
10. Separate