Demographic Shifts

The  increasing  level  of  market  definition  and  refinement  (and  resulting  chance  for marketers) is possible through the economic, massive social, and technological changes of the past three decades. Some of the significant demographic shifts have been:

By increasing diversity of the population. The United States has constantly been an immigrant nation. Although, large numbers of immigrants from Asia and Latin America have increased proportion of minorities in country to one in three, up from one in five in year 1980. This diversity is even more visible in the younger market.

Changing family and living schedule. There has been a substantial increase in the cohabitation, divorce rate, non-marital births, and increased female participation in the labour force. Additionally, married couples having one earner make up only 15 % of all households. The dual-earner households have become much more general-the additional income is frequently necessary for family to pay their bills. Therefore, older have replaced stereotypical family of the year 1950s, working parents with much less time available.

Emergence of new children's market. Minorities are over-represented in younger age brackets due to the higher productiveness and the younger population formation of many recent immigrants. Result is that one in three children in the United States is black, Hispanic, or Asian. Additionally, nearly all of today's children grow up in world of working and divorce mothers. Many are doing the family shopping and have marvellous influence over household purchases. Additionally, they can simply know more than their elders about products involving new technology like computers.

Education and Income increases are two other significant demographic factors impacting marketing management arena. In general, income increases with age, as people are  promoted  and  attain  their  peak  earning  years,  and  the  level  of  education usually has increased over the last few decades. Family units today frequently have higher incomes because they can have two earners. Accordingly, there is an increased need for services and products because they likely have children and are homeowners.

In total, the need for market analysis and marketing decision-making, and managers to perform those tasks has never been superior. But, as the course will reveal, the complexities of, and analytical tools needed for, these activities have never been superior. Be prepared for challenging experience.