Target Audience Articles

“Targeting Young Males” by T. Miller

The worry surrounding marketing to young men is that they tend to be glued to the TV only if they are playing a video game and then spending the rest of their time averting marketing tactics. A recent Neilsen Entertainment study returned that 18-34 have actually decreased their television watching habits, but 8-17 year olds have been unaffected by the video game craze. So why not stick to video game marketing? The example in the articles is that you can’t have a character in “Rome: Total War” sipping coke. Males will be insulted at the blatant product placement. However, the market does say that if the product fits the game they enjoy having it added.

In an effort to prove males aren’t unreachable, both Scion and Axe gave case study examples of how they successfully broke out and marketed to this hard to reach market. Scion tried to meet the men where they were and stationed themselves in front of music/game stores in male dominated cities. They gave out merchandise along with no obligation test drives. They combined this will traditional marketing in clubs, television, and with dj sponsors to return an 80% success rate. That is, 80% of people who bought the new scion were males whom did not previously own a Toyota. Similarly, AXE applied grassroots marketing through market research and succeeded in selling the first $100 million faster than any other retail product in history.

“Portrait of a New Media Consumer” by Peter Lauria

What is the new consumer? This article states that it isn’t the consumer that has changed, but only their rate of efficiency. Welcome the media saturated consumer. A study by Communications Industry Forecast from Veronis Suhler Stevenson showed that we now spend more time with media than any other daily activity. In fact, most people age 18-65 are so adjusted to it that they were unaware of their depth of exposure. This never-ending surge of new gadgets is attributed to business needs to mature and meet Wall Street earning demands. In turn, this intense competition births new media at a rate only the finest can keep up with.

As we all know advertising is taking a toll as a result of items such as Digital TV and downloaded programs. The consumer has taken control and can now create their own specialized media world that give only the messages they want, when they want them. However, research done by NBC does suggest one loophole for this media infestation. Although vast amounts of media are available the average person (75%) are overwhelmed by it. To apply this research they suggest that marketers strive to “lead” the consumer, not accost them when they get there. Examples would be the wild success youtube, myspace, and google in the media world.