Demographics is an important element in modern market research.
It is always changing in response to changes in population and
lifestyle changes.
Following is a Brief History of Demographics
1940s: The mass market reigns. TV and radio are
dominated by sponsored shows such as "Bob Hope's Texaco Star
Theater" with ads for big brands aimed at wide audiences.
1946: The "baby boom" begins. 77 million boomers will
be the first generation to grow up with TV. The field of modern
demographics develops around this explosion of births and
migration patterns following World War II.
1950s: Marketers use demographics and socioeconomics to
segment the market into smaller groups of consumers who might buy
their brands.
1960s: "Psychographics," which describes how attitudes
and interests can be used to produce more effective
advertisements, is on the rise.
1965: Forty-four million "baby busters," later known as
Gen Xers, start to be born. This generation isn't considered big
enough for marketers to bother with.
1971: Claritas is founded. Its products will allow
companies to segment consumers into smaller and smaller groups
based on psychographics and Census Bureau data. In 1978, Claritas
developed ways of classifying whole neighborhoods with catchy
names. New database "geo-demographic" systems let marketers apply
psychographics to small, geographic areas. The information helps
large retailers figure out where to build stores.
1978: Baby boomers start having kids. This 71-million
strong "echo boom" generation will drive the Britney
Spears-dominated youth market of the early 21st century.
1980s: Marketers realize transactional data can drive
marketing decisions. Bar code scanners are used in stores, and
retailers begin to collect consumers' behavioral data.
1995: Websites start helping companies data-mine
transactional data that's used to track customers' buying habits
and drive marketing decisions.
1998: Web analysis tools like HitBox Professional start
tracking web users using cookies, a precursor to today's annoying
pop-up ads and spyware. Words like synergy are used endlessly to
describe more sophisticated cross-promotions.
2000: Fledgling attempts at "neuromarketing," using
brain scans to study consumer mind-sets. Ethnography, applying
principals of anthropology to study consumers, is also emerging
as a marketing tool.
2002: More thirtysomething Gen Xers are starting
families. This yet-unnamed generation won't know a world without
the web or wireless technology.
2005: Marketers are studying individual demographics
and attitudes to create one-to-one marketing campaigns that can
be sent to individual cell phones and PDAs. Genergraphics begins
to be accepted.
2015: One-to-one marketing is the name of the game.
Marketers gather the demographics and behavioral patterns of
individual consumers to create individualized marketing messages.
Even TV product placements can be geared to each household.
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Related Demographics Articles:
The End of the Mass
Market
Demographics is in
Evolution into the Age of Genergraphics
Guide to Internet
Statistics and Demographics
