Eagle Marketing Services   Creating Loyal Connections

The average American is dead. I read a story in Deliver Magazine (Feb. 2011) discussing how there is no longer an “Average American”. The 2010 US Census data will show this more clearly than ever.  In several cities and states, no race or ethnicity is a majority of the population anymore. Twenty-five years ago, two-thirds of all households were married couples. Now, married couples will be a minority in the US. And married couples with children will be fewer than 21% of households—only 1 in 5.

What does this mean to you? It means you can no longer define your target audience as “average”. It is diverse, in both age, ethnicity, income, household composition and more.  It means your best marketing strategy is to understand, clearly, the diversity of your audience.  Analysis, research, surveys, segmentation and targeting will be more important than ever for successful marketing campaigns. Direct mail allows you to use this information combined with new technology like variable data printing to customize your marketing—even down to the household level. One targeted home may receive a message based on a high income level while another may receive a separate message or offer based on their lower income. Other marketing avenues don’t give you the same ability to target and customize like this.

Demographer Peter Francese shared this observation, “If you have a product or service that you think would be valuable to single people, I can’t think of a better way to reach them than through the mail. If they live alone there’s obviously nobody else who’s going to open the mail except for the, so you reach them directly.” This kind of thinking can make your marketing more powerful to the “Not-So-Average American”.