Life-Stage Segmentation Profiles

Portrait of the Upper-Income Youth

Overview

Advertisers love them, and no wonder; the Upper-Income Youth (UIY) represent just five percent of the population, but they are key consumers: under 45 years old, no children in the house, and a household income over $75,000. Sixty-one percent of them are married, slightly less than the national average. Their money is their own.

Eighty-eight percent have attended college, significantly higher than the national average of 68 percent. Politically, 42 percent consider themselves moderate/very conservative, 35 percent consider themselves middle of the road, and 22 percent consider themselves moderate/very liberal.

Sixty-nine percent live in a single family home (vs. 72 percent nationally) and 75 percent own their own home. They are in their cars more than most: 44 percent drive 12,000 – 18,000 miles a year. While one-fifth of the general population considers itself multilingual, among this group that number is 30 percent.

Newspaper Readership & Newspaper Web site

The percentage of overall respondents who strongly agreed that they “need to get the news every day” is declining among all groups, but the largest loss is among this group.

The good news is that Upper-Income Young had the highest usage of newspaper Web sites in the past thirty days. When they come to the Web site they look for breaking news, national/international news, local/community news, politics, and local entertainment.

More good news is that more than half the UIY newspaper Web site users said they visit the newspaper Web site in addition to reading the print newspaper. There is a strong opportunity for cross-promotion, and interaction between the print and online product.

They also use the newspaper site for comparison shopping, to purchase products, to check pricing/availability and to shop for/book travel. Though only average users of newspaper sites for jobs, they are high users for ads for cars and real estate.

Sunday and daily readership took a hard hit from this group, though a slim majority still read the Sunday paper. When they buy the Sunday newspaper, more than half said that news/features were key drivers. When it comes to advertising as an incentive, less than a quarter of them categorized it as the most important factor in their purchasing decision.

The UIY who read the paper are predominantly subscribers, though single copy sales still account for more than a quarter of the purchases.

Overall, this group of people isn’t looking for advertising – either in preprints, coupons or local sales. When those who read the newspaper were asked if they had a favorite newspaper section, the response was 1) Sports 2) Local News 3) Main News 4) Comics and 5) Entertainment.

Eighty-five percent of UIY newspaper readers say “It is very important to me to be up to date on the news,” however only 68 percent of that group say “I feel better informed after reading my newspaper.” Since news is the key driver in purchasing the newspaper and in using the Web site, the challenge remains to fill this perceived need.

Internet & Technology Adoption

The UIY outpace the average in using the Internet. They are the highest adapters of Internet at home, spend more time on the Internet than others, are more likely to use broadband, and have more wireless/mobile access.

On a Sunday morning, they are nearly twice as likely as the population in general to be on the Internet, and on weekday mornings they are twice as likely to be on the Internet as they are to be found reading a newspaper.

Once on the Internet, higher percentages of Upper-Income Young use various features: maps and directions as well as information once associated with newspapers such as news, sports, business information and columnists. The same patterns hold true for their information about cars, homes and auctions.

When it comes to looking for news and information, they trust and turn to the newspaper Web site. In 2005, 70 percent used the newspaper site, 45 percent used Yahoo (though one hopes that with post-survey newspaper alliances that percentage has changed). Sixty-eight percent of this group turned to Google for local news and information.

This pattern does not hold when they are looking for entertainment information. While the majority of UIY use the Internet for local entertainment, they turned to Google first. The newspaper Web site came in about equal to Yahoo and online ticket services.

Their love of all things tech extend to equipment such as DVD players, digital cameras and video cameras, game systems, laptop computers, iPods/MP3 players, cell phones with extra capabilities and mobile devices such as a Blackberry. While not stated specifically, their role as early adopters of most things tech seems evident.

Shopping

The UIY are shoppers, higher than the general population. They are also very high in using the Internet for their shopping needs. They are more than three times more likely to be Internet shoppers than the average person.

Online their spending is high, and they are also people who research online before buying in a store. Their use of the Internet to check store information and customer reviews is high. They are likely to use Google for shopping and research and considerably less likely to use the newspaper Web site for their shopping research.

Their high overall use of the newspaper Web site leaves room for newspapers to develop strategies to provide research, organization, and other shopping resources.

Advertising

Newspapers were the dominant source for advertising for most people, but not among the Upper-Income Young.

Nearly half cite the Internet as the media used to check ads, verses one-third who cite the newspaper, which is similar to the pattern among Middle-Income Young and Upper-Income Families. Higher percentages of Upper-Income Young respondents describe Internet advertising as “most up-to-date” and “most convenient to use.”

When it comes to which advertising medium they spend the most time reading, the Internet far outstrips the newspaper, flipping the model found in most other groups. Fewer than one in five relies on the newspaper as the dominant ad medium. The group also comes in at twice the average in saying the Internet is an easy way to compare prices. The number that believes the newspaper is ‘trustworthy’ as an advertising vehicle is the smallest percentage of any of the lifestage groups.

Across every category measured – cell phones, computer, home appliances, etc. – the UIY looks to the Internet as much or more than your average consumer. This reliance is often is to the exclusion of newspaper and direct marketing: in a seven day period, a majority of the UIY used neither direct mail nor newspaper inserts. About one-third look at Sunday inserts the lowest of any group.

While the Upper-Income Young still use newspapers for some category shopping, especially those categories slow to migrate to the Internet, the trend toward the Internet is clear: to maintain an advertising relationship with the UIY newspapers will have to develop online shopping strategies.

When they do check the Sunday inserts, they beat out other groups in looking at inserts for home electronics, home furnishings, sporting goods and computer stores.

Recommendations

The study makes two key recommendations for reaching this key group of consumers:

1) Defend and grow the newspaper Web site

The group is already the highest user of the newspaper Web site, and they are also high users of the Internet both daily and Sunday. They are increasingly involved with the Internet for their news, shopping, and information.

2) Develop a multi-platform approach to shopping information, a strategy that also meets the needs of Upper-Income Families

The Internet is the source of advertising preferred by this group. They begin that advertising relationship by researching online, both product and store information. They shop online. They depend on the Internet for their needs. They use an array of tech devices – mobile, video, audio. A multi-platform approach is the best way to meet their shopping needs as well as to capture both the associated advertising revenue and the important “eyeball” traffic.

Return to Life-Stage Segment Profiles

Other Reports on this Topic:

Ethnic/Income Segmentation

Life-Stage Segmentation

For more information, contact Randy Bennett, NAA vice president, audience and new business development, at randy.bennett@naa.org.

© December 2007 NAA