Marketing Forecast from Ad-ology

According to new research by The NPD Group, morning and evening commutes are a peak time for super heavy users of convenience stores to visit, while moderate and light users tend to visit more during the evening commute. NPD’s Convenience Store Monitor identifies super heavy users as those who visit c-stores an average of 22.0 times a month, heavy users visiting 9.6 times a month, moderate shoppers visiting 5.0 times a month and light users with 1.9 times a month. “The amount of traffic and dollars attributed to higher frequency groups continues to distinguish their importance to the industry as a whole,” says David Portalatin, convenience store analyst at NPD. “However, opportunities exist to convert light and moderate to more visits and food and snack purchases.”

National craft beer sales rose 12% by dollars and 11% by volume in 2010, according to the Brewers Association. Craft breweries are defined as those that produce less than 6 million barrels of beer annually, do at least 50% of their business in all-malt beers, and are less than 25% owned by an alcohol industry member that is not a craft brewery. Craft beers represented 7.6% of the U.S. beer industry in terms of retail sales by dollars in 2010 and 4.9% in terms of sales by volume, the Brewers Association reported. Sales jumped from $7 billion in 2009 to $7.6 billion in 2010 for craft breweries, the national industry association said. The number of barrels sold by the industry rose from 8.9 million in 2009 to nearly 10 million in 2010.

Automotive leasing in the U.S. in 2010 represented nearly 19% of overall vehicle transactions, according to Polk. This represents a 5.8 percentage point increase over 2009 leasing penetration rates of just 13.1% during the economic crisis. Consumers have gained confidence in the market and are beginning to lease vehicles again, say industry analysts. Although leasing increased in all parts of the country in 2010, the growth was not uniformly distributed among regions. The Great Lakes region recorded the highest growth year-over-year among all regions at +9.2 points. For 2010, the segments recording the highest increase in lease penetration were minivans, which recovered from their pre-crisis levels.

Realtors and other professionals that cater to the property market are preparing to enter the typically busy season for home sales. Several economic indicators point to a slower than average market this year. Continued high levels of unemployment and difficulties in obtaining financing are 2 problems that may crimp housing sales. But this year’s report by The Cotton Solution shows that the vacation home market may be recovering.

The e-commerce channel, which established itself in 2010 as a viable channel for U.S. retail office and school supplies, had a strong second half of the year due in part to back-to-school and holiday sales, according to new research by The NPD Group. During the recession in 2009, many consumers and small businesses shifted out of the office super store and e-commerce channels and into mass/drug to save money. However, as the economy rebounded in 2010, sales shifted back to office super stores and e-commerce, according to Perry James, president of NPD’s office supplies and non-games software group. “Retailers, who sell both through brick and mortar and online, need to determine how they manage and differentiate both of these channels in order to maximize profits.”

Turning age 65 used to mean retirement for most U.S. consumers. But that long-held notion is changing. For one thing, the federal government has changed the age at which consumers can begin to draw full Social Security benefits and it is gradually increasing, based on birth year, to age 67. In addition, more consumers are finding that they are not interested in a long retirement, or at the very least, plan to work at least part-time long after they turn 65. This new trend means that marketers are rethinking the way they target older consumers.