Americans are again embracing the concept of multigenerational family living. Whether it’s the outcome of a failing economy or other economic and sociological factors, households that contain adults and children from multiple generations are a mega-trend.

The demographic developments are undeniable. An expanding elderly population has begun moving in with their adult children with greater frequency. At the same time, these adult children could be parents of young adults themselves who, for a variety of reasons, have decided to move back home. In both cases, younger children under age 18 also might be present in the home.

One example of this marketplace trend is the emergence of the segment called Sports Utility Families. Defining characteristics of this segment include the following:

• About 59% of Sports Utility Families have four or more persons living in the household.
• They are extremely family centered. Fully 80% of Sports Utility Families have childrenunder age 18. They have a high incidence of children across all age ranges and are 4.1 times more likely than U.S. householders overall to be caring for teenage children.
• Although they earn upscale incomes, they do not feel financially secure; they worry about the future and wish money were less important in their lives.
• They make a high percentage of online and catalog purchases in outdoor, home office, pets, toys, travel and home décor categories.

Marketing to Sports Utility Families and other types of multigenerational households can be complicated. In many cases, there is no single primary decision maker in the home. Purchase decisions are likely to be shared and influenced by multiple family members. Marketers need to carefully craft their communications when an elderly parent, a young adult or other minors are all sharing the same living space. For example, a household that might initially look like a traditional family with preschool children can easily be overlooked when targeting seniors with a healthcare-related offer. Knowing that this “traditional family” also contains an aged parent dramatically changes the picture.

For more on the New American Consumer pre-order the 2012 Digital Marketer report, set to release in April, and check our blog weekly for ongoing insights.

On average, advertisers will spend over $1 million for a 30-second spot aired during the men’s tournament championship game.

Because the event is stretched out over a three-week long period and reaches a relatively affluent consumer base, the tournament has broad appeal to advertisers. While perhaps not as impactful as a single sporting event with a much larger audience, such as the Super Bowl, advertisers can still benefit by delivering their message to a healthy-size audience with increased frequency. Based on an analysis of television viewership data tracked by Experian Simmons, the men’s tournament will reach nearly 20% of adults age 18 or over. That’s counting all games over the full length of the tournament.

Several national advertisers targeting men’s tourney viewers can expect to reach a large percentage of their brand users. In fact, the five advertisers with the greatest brand penetration among likely men’s tournament viewers include Coca-Cola (65%), AT&T (50%), Ford (24%), LG (21%) and Honda (15%).

But it isn’t necessarily the biggest brands that reap the greatest reward from advertising during an event with the staying power of March Madness and the NCAA basketball tournament. This is one conclusion from an analysis based on Experian’s Ad Relevancy Score. The score is an estimate of how closely a targeted audience that is exposed to an ad (in this case, the audience that is likely to be viewing the men’s tournament) matches up against the profile of a brand’s existing customer base. A high score indicates that the audience is a strong match and good fit for the brand. In other words, the ad should be particularly relevant to those who are viewing. A low score indicates that the ad could be less relevant because the targeted audience misses the mark relative to the characteristics of the brand’s most likely users. The average Experian Ad Relevancy Score for a brand is set at 100.

When ranking brands based on an analysis of the Experian Ad Relevancy Score for the men’s basketball tournament, we narrowed the advertiser field down to an Elite Eight. Five of the top eight scores are for automotive-related brands. The qualifying brands and their associated scores are as follows:

Blackbox Analytics – like IBM’s Watson from Jeopardy fame, knowing what to show when is based upon a complex algorithm of processing and relating massive volumes of data. Many of these approaches will be self tuning based upon data input and be obscured from the marketer.

Personalization – is driven by static, known attributes. Filling in the right name in a salutation (i.e., Dear Mr. Smith), organizing content around expressed preferences, etc.

Recommendations – focuses on displaying lists of products based on a predictive algorithm. Netflix and Amazon are the two best known examples. Display can be implicit, i.e., which items appear when on the home page, or explicit as when likely lists displayed with an item or promoted via an email.

Relevancy – spans into the content spectrum and covers both personalization and recommendations. Also, uses same algorithmic type approach used in recommendations and Blackbox Analytics.

Read the Experian Marketing Innovation Report 2012 for more insights on this topic and many others that are important to marketers over the coming year.

To provide those insights, we conducted a detailed market analysis using a wide variety of data sources including research information from Experian Simmons, Hitwise, and the Mosaic Consumer Lifestyle segmentation solution, which defines the predominant household types for each area (as featured in yesterday’s post: Cheeseheads vs. Terrible Towels). Today, we delve further into the hearts and houses of Green Bay and Pittsburgh area residents.

GREEN BAY FANS PACK THEM IN FOR TAILGATING
Green Bay area residents are more passionate about tailgating compared to their rivals in Pittsburgh. Among those who identify themselves as NFL football fans, Green Bay fans are 1.45 times more likely than Pittsburgh fans to have participated in a tailgate party within the past 12 months. They are also better equipped to tailgate due to a higher ownership rate for midsize SUVs, and both light duty and full size pickups (Road & Track magazine top-rated picks for tailgating), compared to Pittsburgh fans.

STELLA AND STEELERS GO TOGETHER

With every tailgate comes a beverage of choice, and in today’s analysis we’ve found that Bud Light and Budweiser are the light/low calorie and regular domestic brands of beer favored the most by both Green Bay and Pittsburgh fans. However, Pittsburgh fans are 1.56 times more likely than Green Bay fans to down a few of premium brand, Stella Artois. Notably, along with its best selling brands, Anheuser-Busch plans to devote a portion of its multi-million dollar ad spend to this Belgian import.    

FANTASIZING ABOUT FOOTBALL

While all that tailgating is going on, Green Bay fans might also be boasting about their latest fantasy sports selections. They are 1.34 times more likely to say that they participate in a fantasy sports league compared to Pittsburgh fans. That’s not to say that Pittsburgh fans don’t enjoy their fantasy sports, indexing above the national average for visiting fantasy sports and football websites.

PLAYING IN THE GREAT OUTDOORS

Packers and Steelers fans enjoy being out in the elements, so chances are you’ll probably never see a dome over either Lambeau or Heinz Field. The most popular Green Bay football fan activities, with a higher participation rate compared to Pittsburgh fans, are: golfing, camping, state fairs, hunting, power boating and motorcycling. In the Pittsburgh area, with its impressive network of recreational trails, residents are 1.23 times more likely to in-line/roller skate and are 1.36 times more likely to play hockey, compared to Green Bay. Off land analysis shows that despite Green Bay residents’ close proximity to Lake Michigan and a multitude of water sport opportunities, Pittsburgh fans are more likely to spend time on the water, namely: canoeing, kayaking, sailing, and fly fishing.

THROWING DEEP VERSUS HANDING OFF

Each year Super Bowl advertisers try to reach their audiences across broadly defined demographics with little ability to measure the direct impact of their super-sized investments. It’s the equivalent of throwing a “Hail Mary” and hoping the receiver will leap above the clutter of defenders and catch the ball. Direct marketers, however, are using the behavioral and attitudinal data we’ve shared here to deliver their messages to a precisely targeted sub-audience. For marketers who want to be relevant and target accurately, this capability is the playmaker that scores a game winning touchdown every time.  

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Blog post author: Bill Schneider, VP, Experian Marketing Services.

We’d love to hear your stories and how you’ve used lifestyle data. Please leave your comments or feedback below.

An enlightening glimpse into the lifestyles of Packers and Steelers’ supporters living in Green Bay and Pittsburgh, and surrounding communities, creates exciting targeting opportunities for marketers. Using Mosaic segments from Experian to dissect these two markets, marketers can identify the “Small-town Contentment” of Green Bay – these are middle-aged, upper-middle-class families living in small towns and surrounding satellite cities, versus the “Blue-collar Backbone” of Pittsburgh – these are budget-conscious, young and old blue-collar households living in older towns.

MEET THE PREDOMINATE HOUSEHOLD TYPES IN PACKERS AND STEELERS COUNTRY

In Green Bay you will find over twice the concentration of households from the Small-town Success and Family Convenience segments compared to Pittsburgh. Successful Suburbia (these are upscale, middle-age, married couples with children), the fifth most populated segment in Green Bay, is also the most over-represented segment with five times the concentration of households compared to the national average.

In Pittsburgh you will find a larger share of neighborhoods consisting of households from the Urban Commuter Families and Steadfast Conservative segments compared to Green Bay. Lower-income Essentials (these are lower income, empty-nesting couples and aging seniors) is the third most populated segment in Pittsburgh. With over eight times the concentration of households compared to the national average, this is also the most over-represented segment in Pittsburgh.

SUPER-SIZED MARKETING IS NOT FOR EVERYONE

Not all marketers can afford to spend millions of dollars placing Super Bowl ads to reach massive audiences. A more efficient approach is to target various market segments with relevant messages, using the power of segmentation solutions. A retailer developing a marketing campaign for its new line of children’s apparel should target growing families in the Small-town Success and Family Convenience segments, rather than including populations with older couples and seniors in households that are much less likely to contain children. Time and time again precision targeting based on consumer lifestyles delivers greater return on marketing spend.

While an examination of the differences in the predominate lifestyles and demographics of Green Bay and Pittsburgh may not lead us to a prediction concerning the outcome of the big game, we know one thing for certain - We’ll see lots of Cheeseheads wearing Packer gear trying to out-cheer their Terrible Towel twirling counter parts on Sunday.

What marketing are you doing in honor of Super Bowl Sunday? Does the research and segment information shared here surprise you?  Share your comments below.

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Blog post author: Bill Schneider, Vice President, Experian Marketing Services at bill.schneider@experian.com

NOTES:

Pittsburgh is the 29^th largest media market (based on DMA).  The Pittsburgh, PA CBSA includes the seven counties of Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland.

Green Bay is the 72^nd largest media market.  The Green Bay, WI CBSA includes the three counties of Brown, Kewaunee and Oconto.

If the student cannot find admissions information online, it’s unlikely that he or she will submit an application. With this in mind, colleges and universities need to ensure that all information is available and is easy to find. But the real challenge is to provide this relevant content while still encouraging prospective students to submit their contact details.

The following list highlights new recruitment tactics that university marketers can use to attract the right candidates for their institution:

Tip 1: Provide different content across different communication channels.
All core information should be available on the main website, however, additional campus life details can be provided through email, facebook, and mail follow up. To access these additional resources, prospective students should be required to submit their contact details.

Tip 2: Make sure that students interact (not just browse).
To ensure student interaction, include information that makes the prospect feel like a part of the school. Provide campus life updates, such as sporting event results, student competition video clips, or student club opportunities. These communications tend to be more fun than informative.

Overall, these updates should not require much work. But while the effort is low, the results are high. Prospective students are more likely to share their own contact details in exchange for these updates. So by sharing more about student life, recruitment teams can still access prospective student data for tracking purposes.

Tip 3: Verify email and physical mailing addresses.
With more information publically available, it’s important to make the most of the contact submissions that you still receive. Make sure that all email and physical mailing addresses are verified at the point of capture, whether via a web form or manual data entry. While small errors appear to be insignificant, the ramifications of simple data entry mistakes can be severe. It’s important for recruitment officers to communicate with all interested prospective students. An incorrect email or mailing address will prevent the student interactions described in Tip 2.

So if model effectiveness changes, what can be done about it? The answer is simple; review each model on an ongoing basis, including periodic checkups or more in-depth audits as needed. 

 Review each model on an ongoing basis, including periodic checkups or more in-depth audits as needed.

At minimum, the following 4 questions must be answered for each model:

1. How is the model holding up? 
2. Is the underlying data changing?
3. Is the objective / purpose of the model still a priority?
4. What other priorities are emerging?

These audits, checkups and general maintenance routines could be done in-house or by working with an external partner. Regardless of the approach chosen the effort requires focus, discipline and effort.

That addresses existing models, but what about creating new models so that they last longer? Building the right model is both a science and an art, and building for the long haul requires you to keep the long term view in mind. Doing so will extend the shelf life of the model and ensure freshness post-deployment.

Have questions about analytical models? Feel free to ask the author in the comments section below.

Implementing a differential marketing strategy is ideal in settings where there is a relatively large assortment of product categories with regular and frequent transaction volume.

Grocery and retail are excellent illustrations of this. Consider the behavior of shoppers in a grocery store where expenditures are spread over multiple product categories for a select set of product items. As time goes by, customers will establish some form of a purchase footprint. The footprint will reveal certain tendencies that are characteristic of a customer’s purchase activity. The trick is to determine whether the purchase footprint has changed significantly. When a customer begins to stray from their footprint this could be a precursor of negative consequences. Differential marketing in this context might call for some type of marketing intervention to mitigate the impact of undesirable behavior.

The footprint will reveal certain tendencies that are characteristic of a customer’s purchase activity. The trick is to determine whether the purchase footprint has changed significantly.

With differential marketing you can take a proactive stance when developing product offers and related marketing communications. The marketing action could be a BOGO offer to reengage a defecting customer or a promotional offer to stimulate trial in a new category. 

When thinking about your current customer retention strategy, where does the concept of differential marketing fit into the mix?

This is one of the more unusual findings in Experian CheetahMail’s latest report, The welcome email report: Benchmark data and analysis for engaging new subscribers through email marketing.

Clearly, real-time messaging gives you a huge competitive advantage. But what if for some reason real-time welcome messages are not an option for your business?

It should come as no surprise that real-time triggered emails outperform bulk welcome messages that operate on some sort of delay. In today’s instant-access consumer culture, those who reach out to you are looking for instant response. Clearly, real-time triggered welcome messages fulfill this need, earning over 10x higher transaction rates and 11x revenue per email than delayed bulk welcome messages.

Clearly, real-time messaging gives you a huge competitive advantage. But what if for some reason real-time welcome messages are not an option for your business? In this scenario, the common assumption would be that you should send out bulk welcome messages as soon as you can get to them. However, data from our report shows that this assumption is not necessarily true.

As it turns out, if you can’t get that first welcome message out the door on the same day as the initial registration, you might want to wait several weeks before sending out the first email. Surprisingly, the report shows that monthly welcome mailings actually outperform weekly welcomes when it comes to total clicks and revenue per email. In the area of total clicks, monthly mailings even outperform daily bulk mailings.

I would be interested to know more about what makes a welcome email following a one-week layoff less enticing than one following a four-week layoff. Are there any consumer psychologists out there who can hazard a guess?

To learn everything you’ve ever wanted to know about welcome emails, download The welcome email report: Benchmark data and analysis for engaging new subscribers through email marketing now.

We are working on identifying such records prior to the mailing as opposed to after the mailing, so these can be dropped and another record can be chosen prior to be mailed. Identifying these records prior to the mailing can make your ROI even higher by reaching more of the intended recipients on the first try and, thus reducing USPS UAA mail and ACS related charges (manual charges for ACS returns can be up to 50 cents per piece). Direct mailers should also not mark a temporary away (W) as a permanent do-not-mail.

Identifying these records prior to the mailing can make your ROI even higher by reaching more of the intended recipients on the first try and, thus reducing USPS UAA mail and ACS related charges.

Another strategy direct mailers need to understand is why an address is marked UTF (Unable to Forward) or UAA (Undeliverable as Addressed). A recent Experian Data Management Services test of a large catalog client’s UAA and UTF records that were addressed to a Delivery Point Verified address (a perfectly addressed and coded mail piece) found that:

• 50% of these records had a name never associated with that address used
• 48% had a name that was no longer associated with the address used
• 2% had that name and address still be reported as current (it was a USPS carrier error to return it)

Knowing this ahead of time can help improve your ROI and also help save costs on future mailings. For more tips or to learn more about these types of solutions contact Experian Marketing Services.