For most of our automotive clients, our target demographic is adults ages 25-54. At a first glance, this age range seems to be quite narrow. Members of the demographic share a number of commonalities: most are presumably employed, have some sort of income, and are moving forward in their careers and personal lives.
However, I would argue that this age range – of 29 years to be exact – is almost too broad when purchasing media. There is no doubt that a 25-year-old woman and a 54 year old woman have different media habits (actually…I know we have different media habits, as I’m a twenty-something and my mother is in her late forties. To say we are different in our media consumption would be an understatement.)
The Philadelphia media market is one of the largest in the country and is home to over 4 million media-hungry individuals ages 12+. But of these people – these consumers – there is quite a range of ages. Baby boomers comprise most of them. Information from the Census data below indicates that the baby boomers were up 39.2% in 2010 than in 1970, and that the 25-34 age group was down 4.3%.
This poses a particular question in my mind when we are placing media. How much influence do the baby boomers have on the media market in Philadelphia, and are we leaving out the younger part of that 25-54 age range to some degree? Let’s take a look at some radio rankers. If we were buying radio for women 25-54, the rankers indicate that we may want to take a look at WDAS or WOGL.
However, if we narrow the age range down to women 25-34, it may make a bit more sense to look at WUSL or WRFF, as the rankers have fluctuated to account for a 20 year age difference. The 25-54 age demo is skewed, as the older generation comprises much of the listenership. The numbers are not necessarily reflective of the younger generation and their habits since the younger generation is simply smaller in size.
It is important to be cognizant of the type of consumer you are really targeting with your advertising campaigns, whether it be the 25-year-old young professional or the 44-year-old mother of three. Both could be in the market for a new vehicle, but the avenues that we take to reach each of these individuals should be different. As a media buyer, it is also imperative to utilize all of the market research that we have at our fingertips in order to get to know the consumer (rather than presuming that we know who they are and the things that they like.) The 25-54 age group is nothing but that – a group of individuals who all have different interests and objectives. The more information we have regarding the type of consumer, the better we can effectively target them.