Marketing Forecast from Ad-ology

U.S. sales of stereo headphones priced above $100 more than doubled in 2011, according to The NPD Group. While models under $100 make up the majority of headphone sales, models priced above $100 have doubled their unit share to 6%, and now account for more than $342 million in sales through November of 2011. Products emphasizing brand, sound quality, and celebrity endorsements have driven much of this growth.

According to new consumer research from Leichtman Research Group, 69% of households in the United States have at least one high definition television set, up from 17% in 2006. Over the past five years, 52% of US households adopted HDTV. In addition, 21% of all households purchased a new TV set in the past 12 months, and 19% of all households plan to purchase a new TV set in the next 12 month.

Marketers in one of the fastest-growing consumer product categories will be funding ad campaigns and promotions at a blistering pace as they fight for market share this year. Some market watchers predict that Apple and Google are dominating the smart phone market. But competitors aren’t likely to yield so quickly as many operators understand that winning market share now could generate healthy revenue streams for decades to come.

U.S. m-commerce sales are on a steep upward trajectory, thanks in part to ever-increasing adoption of smartphones and the mobile internet among the U.S. mobile population. eMarketer estimates mobile commerce sales will reach $6.7 billion in 2011 —a tiny fraction of overall retail sales, but a 91.4% increase over 2010. In 2012, sales will rise another 73.1%, to $11.6 billion.

Technology enterprises are feeling bullish about next year and plan to increase their marketing budgets. For the most part, digital media will benefit from the increased spending. But these enterprises are signaling their intent to return to event marketing next year as well.

Ad-ology Research recently updated their Industry Marketing Insights report for Cable and Other Subscription Programming Providers. The following are the predicted Top 3 Opportunities/Challenges from the report for this industry for the upcoming 12 months: