Marketing Forecast from Ad-ology

As new products come on the market, consumers develop opinions about what they believe are the necessities of life. A recent Pew Research Center report shows how attitudes have changed in the past year. Are the gadgets consumers call necessities somehow linked to economic conditions? Not so much, according to the research. Instead, consumer age may play the biggest role in attitudes about what’s hip.

The aging Baby Boomer population and other health conscious consumer cohorts favor supplements as an affordable way to stay healthy compared to costly prescription drugs and preventable medical procedures, according to “Nutritional Supplements in the U.S., 4th Edition” by market research publisher Packaged Facts. U.S. retail sales of nutritional supplements continue to grow, fueled by growing consumer awareness about health maintenance, in addition to pressure by the media and government to enforce product accountability. Packaged Facts forecasts annual sales growth in nutritional supplements will gradually improve over the new few years and sales will exceed $13 billion in 2014, yielding a compound annual growth rate of 7%.

Conventional wisdom has long held that marketers should aim their promotional messages to women between the ages of 25 and 54 with children living in the home. This pool of women, especially those who live in households that enjoy average incomes of at least $100,000 make for a target rich environment when it comes to selling products. A forthcoming report by Ipsos OTX, highlighted in a recent Center for Media Research post, casts some doubt on these beliefs.

Consumers may have recovered from the shock of paying nearly $4 for a gallon of gasoline back in 2008. But household finances don’t contain a great deal of slack. The new economic reality means people are looking to save money on recurring expenditures such as CPGs and gasoline. At the same time, more nontraditional retailers are trying to break into the gasoline market as a way to expand revenue. Todd Hale, senior vice president, Consumer & Shopper Insights, Nielsen, remarks that “even though gas prices are reasonable relative to recent years, consumers continue to employ money-saving strategies, such as using coupons and gas purchase incentives, as means to deal with gas costs given overall economic concerns.”

Ad-ology Research recently updated their Industry Marketing Insights report for Mattress, Blind and Shade Manufacturers. The following are the predicted Top 3 Opportunities/Challenges from the report for this industry for the upcoming 12 months:

The economic slowdown has not been kind to branded foods and consumer packaged goods (CPG)s. Popular brands have lost market share to less expensive private label offerings. To win back market share and retail shelf space, CPG vendors are increasingly outsourcing their sales and marketing needs to outside agencies.