February 25, 2011 by Jessica Zorawski
These days, there are numerous studies being conducted regarding our population’s technological usage. The vast number of studies regarding this topic is an indication in of itself of the popularity of technology in today’s world for communication.
The most recent study by Pew Research Center entitled “Generations and Their Gadgets” offers new, ever- growing insight into the gadgets that people use. Now 85 percent of American adults own cell phones, while 90 percent of them live in households where someone owns a mobile phone. In general, cell phone usage amounts depend on a person’s age. Ninety-two percent of 18-34 year olds own cell phones, and this number goes steadily down until you look at the 75+ age group, where 48 percent own cell phones. This number is astonishing- almost half of all grandmothers and grandfathers have cell phones. Five years ago this would have been a joke, but today it’s a reality; one that keeps evolving.
In terms of cell phone functionality, the younger generation uses its phones for a variety of functions that go far beyond just calling and texting. However, across the board, calling and texting are the two functions for which all age groups said they used their phones.
Comparing the cell phone to other gadgets, the technological tool that came closest to the 85 percent ownership of the cell phone was the MP3 device, which 74 percent of the American public own. At 70 percent, the laptop computer is in third place as a chosen tool for the general population.
The cell phone is the single most used and widespread device in the hands of the American public. It’s definitely worth a shot to deliver your important marketing message to it.
February 5, 2011 by Jessica Zorawski
New findings from a Nielsen & Yahoo study find a previously undiscovered, strong connection between the mobile phone and eating out. The facts are quite interesting and important, particularly for popular restaurant chains, and they also shed light on the amount of distance that people will travel for a good deal on a meal.
The demographic used within this study was 34 million Americans who seek information about restaurant deals on their mobile phones. This population is skewed with a majority falling within the ages of 13-34. A surprising 58 percent of these people live in the suburbs, highlighting an opportunity for restaurants outside the city limits. Incomes for this population were on average $87K USD, and the majority is classified as married. Forty-one percent have one or more children in their house. (Mediapost)
The positive finding within this study is that 34 percent of respondents saw a dining ad or coupon on their phone, and 77 percent of these people sometimes or always looked at it.
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January 26, 2011 by Jessica Zorawski
You’ve probably heard that over 90 percent of text messages are opened. This is a statistic that is proven over and over again by numerous studies and is pretty much a matter of fact these days. For marketers and business owners new to SMS marketing, this fact is comforting and encouraging.
What will comfort newbie’s to the world of SMS even more is a recent finding in a SinglePoint research study. This study found that 90 percent of text messages are read within 3 minutes of delivery! That’s truly amazing when you think about the possibilities this brings to your marketing campaign. If you own a restaurant and have a surplus supply of salad that needs to go by the end of the night, you have the comfort of knowing that if you send out a text message at 6:13pm, the moment that you realize the surplus exists, you could potentially have customers opening your doors at 7pm, showing their “free side salad with entrée” text message coupon you sent less than an hour before.
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January 15, 2011 by Jessica Zorawski
Of all of the market research companies available in the world, Nielsen is one of the most respectable and credible. It is Nelsen’s job to stay on top of market trends, and it’s no surprise that they have created a factsheet called the “U.S. Media Universe” that focuses on reporting the key trends in U.S. consumers’ relationships with their favorite media tools. Read on for some facts that will help you understand U.S. consumers and predict their media-related behavior for 2011.
As of January 2011, there are 228 million mobile phone users in the U.S. Of those, 83.2 million have access and use the web on their phones. That’s about 36 percent of total mobile phone users. Sixty six percent of mobile phone users send text messages, according to their study. Nielsen has broken down the amount of texters by age group. The highest amount of texts comes from 13-17 year olds, an age group that sends 3,705 text messages a month! That’s over 44 thousand text messages a year. The remaining age groups usage goes down steadily. Eighteen to 24 year olds send 1,707 a month, 25 to 34 year olds send 758, 35 to 44 year olds send 583, 45-54 year olds send 349, 55 to 64 years olds send 124, and all 65 plus year olds send on average 41 messages a month. The key thing to note is that there is not a single age group that is NOT texting, they all are.
When it comes to gender, women tend to send more texts and talk more on the phone than males. On average, a woman will send 716 texts a month compared to a man’s 555.
How can this information help you? Well, if you are a marketer or business owner, knowing that the total U.S. population is 310 million and that 228 million of them are texting, it’s safe to say that if your target market is between the ages of 13-64, you can reach them by text. Also, if you are targeting various age groups, you can use this information to help allocate your advertising budget based on your understanding of how that group communicates. Obviously, if 13-17 year olds are within your target market, the unparelleled communication tool to get their attention is a text. The same goes for allocating budgets for targeting women versus men.
With consumer spending set to increase in 2011, now is a good time to get your marketing message into the hands of your target consumers via text.
January 11, 2011 by Jessica Zorawski
If you were a marketer 50 years ago, you were probably called a “sales person” and not a “marketer” and in actuality, you were most likely a telemarketer. If you were a marketer 25 years ago, you were doubtlessly fascinated by the idea of the Internet and spent your time creating large marketing promotions for TV and radio. If you are a marketer in this day and age, you have a lot more to keep track of. There’s the Internet, TV and video, and yes, the mobile phone.
Some interesting statistics were recently released by eMarketer regarding consumer time with media. The findings are not necessarily shocking, but they do appropriately support the fact that consumer attention is shifting away from not only newspapers, but also away from TV and on to the latest star gadget- the mobile phone.
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