The Marketing Facts of Life- Circa Summer 2011

This September, marketing students will not just study theories and case histories related to advertising and promotion, but ideally they will be intrigued and motivated by the many fascinating and rapidly changing statistics concerning this volatile discipline.

To that end, here are some of the impressive numbers and figures found in a review of an extremely comprehensive text:  Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective, 9th Edition by George and Michael Belch. It is this wealth of information that allows for some thoughts on how this data impacts us – now and in the near future.

It is expected that spending in the mobile advertising medium (“the third screen”) will reach nearly $2 billion by 2012. So while you estimate the time spent in front of a television or computer, realize that the next great ad arena for your eyeballs is your smart phone. Time spent here trumps all the screens that have come before it.

In the United States, women control over $5 trillion (that’s a “T”) in spending power, an estimated $55 billion (that’s a “B”) in technology products, $90 billion in consumer electronics and over 85% of household spending. There may be two contributing to household income but still just one who is decision making.  As David Ogilvy, the legendary ad man reminds us, “The consumer isn’t a moron, she is your wife.”

Depending upon the study, the typical consumer is exposed to anywhere from 1,500 – 4,000 ads per day, yet perceives very few of these messages. Readers miscomprehend nearly 20% of all print ads and even more when it comes to TV commercials.  Now you know you’re not dreaming -- you’ve REALLY seen that commercial five times in the last hour in the name of “media frequency.”

Some 90% of conversations about products and services take place face to face or by telephone. Right now, though you’d think a lot more, only 7% of word-of-mouth takes place online: email/instant messages, blogs and chat rooms. This is a double-edged sword for marketers who keep looking to social media to promote their brands (“You like me, you really like me” takes on a whole new dimension thanks to FaceBook) but ultimately have to touch each one of us with an entire brand experience so we can ultimately talk positively (they hope) in any kind of forum – public or private.

Nearly 40 percent of advertising agency staff is in their 30’s while only 20 percent  of the US adult population is this age. More than half of US wealth is in the hands of 50-year olds+ as they spend an estimated $2 trillion on products and services annually. What’s a generation to do? Think outside your own decade – after all even energy shot drinks have a growing interest among 60-somethings who refuse to slow down!

In 2009 the average household in the US received 25 direct mail pieces per week. There are over 38 billion names on lists; an estimated 13.5 billion catalogs mailed in 2009. A study estimates consumers receive over 3.900 junk e-mails per year. You have fed and clothed my family. Thank you.

And finally, McDonald’s has become the world’s largest toymaker on a unit basis. 750 million toys.  A lot of Happy Meals and product partnerships only to be thwarted by local government efforts in San Francisco where restaurants are forbidden from offering free toys with meals that contain more than certain levels of calories, sugar and fat.

In two-plus months  -- a relative lifetime in marketing communications -- Fall 2011 school classes will have begun. Ironically, while the topic is carefully studied and scrutinized, any and all of these facts can change in an instant.  And that’s the point. Marketing efforts change continuously in order to better reach out to and reflect consumers – that’s the only mainstay of this business we can rely on.