Tuesday, May 5, 2009

How Young Adults 18-29 Would Change Spending In A Recession

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A survey by the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson Company asked young adults 18-29 what things they would cut back spending on, downgrade or wouldn't give up no matter up.

by Inyoung Hwang

WASHINGTON – Companies have felt the need in this recession to ramp up innovative advertising tactics when targeting young adults, a demographic that has been elusive to marketers in recent years.

The weakened consumer confidence and spending in the U.S. have affected an age-group previously thought to be more recession-resilient.

A survey by the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson Company found 77 percent of young adults, people 18-29, feel nervous and anxious about the impact of the recession. Teen spending on fashion also declined 14 percent over the last year, according to a report by the investment bank Piper Jaffray.

The challenge becomes twofold for companies as they combat an economic downturn, while trying to capture a new kind of savvy customers made up of teenagers and twenty-somethings living in the internet age.

“They’re not passive consumers of anything,” said Carol Phillips, a marketing professor at University of Notre Dame. “You have to kind of market with them rather than to them.”

Phillips described how, as a consumer group, young adults can be a “moving target” because of the rapid changes in technology. An evolving relationship with technology leads to an entirely different relationship with marketing, she explained.....

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