| II. SOCIAL FORCES |
- The social forces of the environment include the demographic characteristics of the
population and its values.
- Changes in these forces can have a dramatic impact on marketing strategy.
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| A. Demographics |
| Describing the population according to selected characteristics such as
age, gender, ethnicity, income, and occupation is referred to as demographics. |
| Population Trend |
- "The graying of America. - The U.S. population shows a continued increase in the
number of people over age 65
- Greater marketing attention has been focused on the mature household, headed by people
over 50 years old.
- These households control 75 percent of the net worth of U.S. households
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| 2. Generations |
The Baby Boom |
- Born between 1946 and 1964.
- Account for 56-58% of the purchases in most consumer product and service categories.
- Individualism is very important
- Personalized economy product for boomers
- custom-designed for small target markets
- Immediacy of delivery
- value.
- This group focuses on
- family
- health
- convenience
- finances
- reading materials.
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| Generation X |
- 15 % of the U.S. population
- Born between 1965 and 1976 (the baby bust) (declining birth rate).
- 48 million consumers
- Marketers are now tracking this generation to identify the dominant consumption values
of the 21st century.
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These consumers are |
- self-reliant,
- entrepreneurial,
- supportive of racial and sexual diversity,
- better educated,
- Critical and suspicious
- not prone to extravagance,
- and likely to pursue lifestyles, products, and services that are very different from
baby boomers
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| Generation Y: Born to Shop |
- Born after 1976, (baby boomers began having children.
- Also described as the echo-boom and the baby boomlet
- Generation Y:
- About 58 million Americans under age 16
- Great impact on companies selling products from toys to Club Med family vacations.
- Environmental changes affecting Generation Y include:
- 60% of children aged < 6 have working mothers.
- 61% of children aged 3 - 5 attend preschool.
- 60% of households with children aged <=7 have computers.
- More than one-third of elementary school students nationwide are Black or Hispanic.
- About 15% of recent U.S. births were to foreign-born mothers.
- Nearly one in three births in the early 1990's was to an unmarried woman.
- One-quarter of children under age 6 are living in poverty.
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| 3. The American Family |
- More households with single parents and unrelated persons
- The majority of divorced people remarry,
- giving rise to the blended family,
- one formed by the merging into a single household of two previously separated units.
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| 4. Population Shifts |
- Continued major shift to western and sunbelt states in the 1990s.
- California, Texas, and Florida accounted for 33 percent of the net population change,
- These states gained more than 3 million persons each.
- Populations are also shifting within states.
- During the 1990s, the population shifted
- from suburbs to more remote suburbs called exurbs
- to smaller towns called penturbia.
- The Census Bureau collects data using a three-level classification system. From the
largest to the smallest, these three areas are
- the consolidated metropolitan statistical area (CMSA)
- the primary metropolitan statistical area (PMSA)
- the metropolitan statistical area (MSA).
- The average U.S. citizen moves every six years.
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| 5. Racial and Ethnic Diversity |
- Approximately one in four U.S. residents is African-American, American Indian, Asian,
Pacific Islander, or a representative of another racial or ethnic group.
- Hispanics, who may be from any race, currently make up 12% of the U.S. population.
- Racial and ethnic groups tend to be concentrated in geographic regions.
- 38% of children in the U.S., will be African-American, Hispanic, or Asian in 2010
- The long-term consequences of their buying patterns must be understood.
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| 6. Regional Marketing |
- Developing marketing plans to reflect specific area differences
- taste preferences,
- perceived needs,
- interests.
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| B. Culture |
- Culture is the set of
- of a homogeneous group of people
- that is transmitted from one generation to the next.
- Marketers monitor cultural trends to spot new opportunities.
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| 1. The Changing Attitudes and Roles of Women |
- In the 1990s marketing to women focused on their challenges of balancing family and
career.
- Many Generation Y women have
- had career mothers,
- participated in organized sports, and
- benefited from the Internet’s providing a marketspace that makes gender, race, and
ethnicity invisible.
- Now most manufacturers offer equal quality products designed specifically for each sex.
- The financial services, insurance, and health-care industries are also developing
programs for women’s individual interests and needs as consumers.
- Two-career families
- Greater household incomes
- Less available time for family activities.
- Purchase roles are changing
- Purchase patterns are changing
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| 2. Changing Values |
- Values vary with age but tend to be similar for men and women.
- All age groups rank "protecting the family" and "honesty" as the
most important values.
- Ranked as the "third" most important value
- "friendship" for consumers under 20
- "self-esteem" for consumers aged 20–29
- "health and fitness" for Consumers aged 30–39 .
- "Value consciousness"
- the concern for obtaining the best quality, features, and performance of a product or
service for a given price
- will drive consumption behavior for the foreseeable future
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| Marketing-oriented values of the late
1990s |
- Cultural Creative (24%)
- Interested in new products
- Scan information sources
- Grab topics of interest
- Explores the topic in depth.
- Heartlanders(29%) - Traditional Beliefs
- Modernists(47%) - Place high value on
- Personal Success
- Consumerism
- Materialism
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