A couple of weeks ago, Forrester Research released a study on the changing habits of today’s consumer and how tech savvy they had become. The conclusion of the study as noted by the New York Times was that nifty technological gadgetry which, in the past, was highly desired by a small segment of the (early adopters) population was now part of the mainstream.
Forrester CEO George Colony, went so far as to say that today’s customer is unrecognizable from 1999′s customer. And the NY times says that we’re all gadget geeks now.
I disagree…
Let’s delve into Forrester’s report a bit more.
They surveyed 53,668 households in the United States and Canada by mail and found the following:
1. Sixty-three percent of American households have a broadband Internet connection.
My take: Comcast and Verizon are all about push-marketing. They have aggressive advertising on TV, the radio, on print and on the Internet. So, after seeing a banner online telling you that broadband costs just the same as DSL, why wont you go for it? So, the fact that more households have a broadband connection is not because they opened up their hearts to new technology but because the price was right.
Also, the ISPs are close to achieving mass penetration as they provide the trifecta of services to household (Phone, Internet, Cable). Bundling is thus a common strategy. With Verizon’s FIOS, for less than $100 a month, you get your Internet, Cable and Phone, which consumer will resist this option?
2. Three-quarters of American households have cellphones and PCs.
My take: Almost every household with kids has a PC which has become as ubiquitous as the cellphone. Cellphones are an essential accessory for every teen today and thanks to family plans and free phones offered by all the cellphone companies, it’s so easy to own a cellphone. Plus, which teen doesn’t like to chat or text on the phone.
3. 88% of folks under the age of 40 are regular Internet users.
My take: Given the ubiquity of the Internet and how it can be accessed everywhere including the workplace and home. What’s so surprising? Were they planning to find a section of people in the Bible Belt that didn’t use the Interweb? It’s a known fact that new trends are absorbed or adapted to much more easily by the youth as opposed to older folks.
4. Half of all American adults play computer games.
My take: I’m skeptical about this fact. Sure, thanks to the Wii which is so easy to ply and has brought gaming out from the basement into the living room, families did adapt to it quickly. I do not think that the adaptability stayed for long. True, more people are playing little app-type games on social networks but it’s still not full-time gaming. I’m not buying this.
5. Families are also more likely to have gadgetry like MP3 players, digital cameras and digital camcorders.
My take: That’s the magic word: families… with kids. Here’s the connection. Families want to preserve memories and what better way to do this than with camcorders which are a bit pricey, but still available easily.
Digital cameras have become a medium of convenience and self-service kiosks have caught on like fire. Film was hard to manage : You couldn’t upload it to your PC or share pictures easily. Now, you use a digital camera, upload the pictures to your PC and send it to anyone you like. So, the medium was due for a change and digital cameras came t a time when the market was ready for the next wave of technology.
As for MP3 players, well, after the Walkman in the eighties and the CD players in the nineties and later, the new portable medium was mp3s. After a lean period with many players in the market, the iPod forged ahead in the marketplace and was the new Walkman of the 2000s. It doesn’t mean that people went looking for new technologies – it’s just that the demand generation by these brands was excellent.
6. Nearly 10 million American households, out of nearly 118 million, added an HDTV in the last year, a jump of 27 percent over 2007.
My take: Thanks to the DTV transition where you needed to have an analog-to-digital converter, plus the fact that the new plasma and LCD technologies had evolved to a point where these TV were affordable, its no wonder that HDTVs had a great year in 2008.
Some trends made sense :
- Half of all Americans research products online before buying them.
That’s excellent. It goes to show that consumer forums are taking ground and that it’s not very easy to put one over today’s consumer. An informed consumer is a good consumer and I agree with Mr. Colony’s suggestion that firms should partner with their customers to get product improvement and new product ideas. I guess that Madison Ave will have to figure out how to influence the other 150 million people in the US.
- Americans are spending 8 hours a week on average watching old media like TV and newspapers and 8 hours a week with the Internet.
I think that Mr. Colony’s suggestion that media buyers divide their spend equally between old media and new media makes sense.
This study tells me that today’s consumers have accepted technological change. It’s important to understand the real reasons for why these “trends” seem apparent. I think Forrester’s research is excellent. They have qualified analysts who provide tremendous insights. It’s just that this study was an exercise in numbers and it would behoove Forester to add more meat to their research by providing some qualitative aspects as to why a so-called trend might not be a trend, but merely strong penetration due to aggressive marketing by some of the best brands in America. I’ll agree with George Colony (I almost wrote Clooney) that today’s customer looks very different from a customer 10 years back. But, wouldn’t we say the same about a customer say in 1989 as opposed to 1979?
Something to ponder about…
