Chapter Five

DEMOGRAPHIC DIMENSIONS OF GLOBAL CONSUMER MARKETS

 

TARGET MARKETERS FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMER

 

Need to ask three important questions:

bullet What are the relevant segmenting dimensions?
bullet How large is the segment?
bullet Where is the segment?

Demographic dimensions: Involve size, location, and characteristics of target markets.

   

PEOPLE WITH $$ MAKE MARKETS

US population is less than 5% of the world population

US population is becoming more concentrated as people move to industrial/urban areas

There is no market when there is no income

GNP is best measure -- see Exhibit 5-2, page 126

What do third world countries need? Healthy diets, etc. See page 135
 

POPULATION TRENDS IN THE US CONSUMER MARKET

bullet See exhibit 5-3, page 134
bullet Our population is growing at less than 1%/yr.
bullet Birth rate is declining
bullet Average age is rising. See exhibit 5-6
bullet Household composition is changing: 50% of all marriages end in divorce.
bullet Nonfamily households are increasing. 25% are single parent households
bullet 17% of Americans move each year
bullet MSA==area of 50,000+
bullet CMSA==area of 1,000,000+

   

INCOME DIMENSIONS OF THE US MARKET

Median family income is $51,407

Top 20% of families receive 48% of income

Top 5% of families receive 21% of income!

   

CONSUMER SPENDING PATTERNS ARE RELATED TO INCOME

Disposable income: What is left after taxes

Discretionary income: What is left of disposable income after paying for necessities
Spending varies over family life cycle (Exhibit 5-9)

bullet For example, singles and young couples try new products and are price conscious.
bullet Teens spend $170 billion/yr.!
bullet Empty nesters: Finally, you have money to spend when the kids leave. The question is, are you healthy enough to enjoy the benefits?
bullet Senior citizen make up 13% of the market and it is growing

See Exhibit 5-9, page 142 to see a visual of the impact of family life cycle on spending habits.

   

ETHNIC DIMENSIONS OF THE US MARKET

bullet More than 10% of US families speak language other than English
bullet Median age is lower and birthrate is higher
bullet By 2050, whites will become the minority consumer group

 

  Next Steps:  Please review the PowerPoint Overview slides (1-9) for this chapter.  Then proceed to the Lecture Notes for Chapter Six.

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