Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e- Demographic
Dimensions of Global
Consumer Markets
Text © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002152 Chapter 5
- Discuss how the worldwide trend toward urbanization
is affecting opportunities for international marketing. - Discuss how slower population growth will affect
businesses in your local community. - Discuss the impact of the new teen cycle on market-
ing strategy planning in the U.S. - Name three specific examples of firms that devel-
oped a marketing mix to appeal to senior citizens.
Name three examples of firms that developed a mar-
keting mix to appeal to teenagers. - Some demographic characteristics are more impor-
tant than others in determining market potential.
For each of the following characteristics, identify
two products for which this characteristic is most
important: (a)size of geographic area, (b)popula-
tion, (c)income, (d)stage of life cycle. - Name three specific examples (specific products or
brands—not just product categories) and explain
how demand in the U.S. will differ by geographic lo-
cation and urban–rural location.
9. Explain how the continuing mobility of U.S.
consumers—as well as the development of big met-
ropolitan areas—should affect marketing strategy
planning in the future. Be sure to consider the im-
pact on the four Ps. - Explain why the concept of the Metropolitan Sta-
tistical Area was developed. Is it the most useful
breakdown for retailers? - Explain why mobile consumers can be an attractive
market. - Explain how the redistribution of income in the
U.S. has affected marketing planning thus far—and
its likely impact in the future. - Why are marketing managers paying more attention
to ethnic dimensions of consumer markets in the
U.S.? - Name three categories of products marketed in the
U.S. that are influenced by Hispanic culture.
Suggested Cases- Sophia’s Ristorante
- O’Keefe’s Ice Arena
- Deluxe Foods, Ltd.
Computer-Aided Problem5.Demographic Analysis
Stylco, Inc., is a producer of specialty clothing. To dif-
ferentiate its designs and appeal to its African American
target market, Stylco uses authentic African prints.
Originally, it just focused on designs targeted at adults in
the 35–44 age range. However, in the late 1990s, when
sales to these middle-aged adults started to level off,
Stylco added a more conservative line of clothes for
older consumers. Most buyers of the conservative styles
are in the 45–59 age group.
Stylco has focused on distributing its products
through select fashion boutiques in metropolitan market
areas with the highest concentrations of African Amer-
ican consumers. This approach has reduced Stylco’s
personal selling expense; as a result, however, only a per-
centage of the total black population is served by current
Stylco retailers. For example, about half of the con-
sumers in the 35–44 age group are in the market areas
served by Stylco retailers.
Naomi Davis, Stylco’s marketing manager, recently
read an article about the “graying of America.” She is
wondering how shifts in the age distribution might affect
her market and sales.
To get a long-run view of these trends, she looked at
census data on black consumers by age group. She also
looked up estimates of the expected percent rate of
change in the size of each group through the year 2005.
By multiplying these rates by the size her target markets
were in 2000, she can estimate how large they are likely
to be in the year 2005. Further, from analysis of past sales
data, she knows that the number of units the firm sells is
directly proportional to the size of each age group.
Specifically, the ratio of units sold to target market size
has been about 5 units per 1,000 people (that is, a ratio
of .005). Finally, she determined the firm’s average unit
profit for each of the lines. To see how changes in popu-
lation are likely to affect Stylco units sold and future
profits from each line, Davis programmed all of these