Basic Marketing: A Global Managerial Approach

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e

5. Demographic
   Dimensions of Global
   Consumer Markets

Text © The McGraw−Hill

Companies, 2002

Demographic Dimensions of Global Consumer Markets 141

35 million U.S. teens—and along the way a new teen-oriented culture will reshape

society and markets. However, marketers who simultaneously try to appeal to aging

baby boomers and to teens may find themselves right in the middle of a real clash

of cultures.^12

Many people incorrectly think of the “typical” American household as a married

couple with two children—living in the suburbs. This never was true and is even

less true now. Less than 24 percent of households consist of a husband, wife, and

children under 18. Another 28 percent of households involve married couples, but

ones without children living at home.

Although almost all Americans marry, they are marrying later, delaying child

bearing, and having fewer children. And couples don’t stay together as long as they

used to. The U.S. has the highest divorce rate in the world—about 50 percent of

marriages end in divorce. That helps to explain why more than 12 percent of U.S.

households are now families headed by a single woman. Yet, divorce does not seem

to deter people from marrying again. Over 80 percent of divorced people remarry

in what is described as “the triumph of hope over experience.” Still, even with all

this shifting around, at any given time only about 60 percent of all adults are

married.

Many households are not families in the traditional sense. There are now about

5.5 million unmarried couples who live together. That’s a whopping 70 percent

increase during the last decade. Some of these arrangements are temporary—as in

college towns or in large cities where recent graduates go for their first “real” job.

But the majority are older couples who choose not to get married. The number of

these nontraditional households is still relatively small. But marketers pay special

attention to them because they are growing at a much higher rate than the tradi-

tional family households. And they have different needs and attitudes than the

stereotypical American family. To reach this market, some banks changed their poli-

cies about loans to unmarried couples for homes, cars, and other major purchases.

And some insurance companies designed coverage for unmarried couples.

Household

composition is

changing

Nonfamily households

are increasing

Age Group

65 +

45–64

25–44

18 –24

Size of Age Group (population in 000s)

5–17

Under 5

18,763

18,865 (0.5% growth from previous 10-year period)

20,099 (6.5%)

Year 1990

Year 2000

Year 2010

31,081

34,845 (12.1%)

39,715 (14.0%)

46,175

61,167 (32.5%)

79,590 (30.1%)

80,611

82,335 (2.1%)

78,294 (4.9%)

26,955

26,596 (1.3%)

30,163 (13.4%)

45,179

51,509 (14.0%)

52,002 (1.0%)

Exhibit 5-6

Population Distribution (and

Percent Growth Rate) by

Age Groups for Different

10-Year Periods