Is stationery hip?
It’s 2008 and instantaneous, digital communication is the norm. Cellular phones, text messaging, personal data assistants, digital cameras, e-mail and a whole host of new media are making paper-based greetings and communications obsolete. Yet while the whole world is going digital, the most technically-advanced adult consumers are making buying and using luxury paper something that is hip and cool.
In a new study of the $37.4 billion stationery goods market, Stevens, Pa., research firm Unity Marketing found a strong generational shift in the market for paper goods from older to younger consumers. A survey among 1,200 recent stationery shoppers found that consumers aged 25 to 34 years were the biggest-spending age segment on all things stationery.
“The generational shift in the market for stationery is bringing dramatic changes in the marketplace,” said Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing. “Suddenly specialty retailers like Crane & Co. Paper Makers, Papyrus, Kate’s Paperie and Paperchase are destination shops for young people to pursue their paper passion.”
One segment in the stationery market that hasn’t enjoyed a new youth movement is traditional greeting cards. “While stationery products have got youth appeal, greeting cards remain stuck with an aging consumer market. Middle-aged consumers [45 years and older] are the mainstay of greeting card marketers, which will mean real disruption in the future for those companies that are not attuned to the needs and desires of younger consumers,“ Danziger said.
For example, greeting card marketers could make their products hip if they offered more special-feature greeting cards that appeal to young consumers, 44 years and younger. These special-feature cards include those made from recycled paper or ecologically-friendly inks, music chips, die-cuts/fold-outs and handmade/handlaid paper.
“Clearly the opportunity for greeting card producers is to leverage the passion that many young people express for specialty paper into new greeting card concepts that embrace a new, younger vibe,” Danziger said. “All one needs to do is watch college- and high school-aged youths today in their digitally-empowered lifestyles to realize that greeting cards designed for their grandmothers don’t have a place in these young people’s future. The traditional greeting card paradigm isn’t relevant to their lives anymore and greeting card marketers are well advised to look at the future with no blinders on.”
More men hear Avon calling
As reported by the Associated Press, New York-based beauty company Avon Products Inc. is attracting a growing number of male salespeople and offering more products for men as a part of a move to broaden its appeal. Sales to men and an increasing number of products for them have helped Avon’s bottom line, with sales growing from about $6.2 billion in 2002 to $8.7 billion in 2006.
U.S. sales of men’s skin care products totaled $68.9 million in 2006, up from $45.8 million in 2000. In comparison, women’s skin care sold about $2.1 billion in 2006 and $1.7 billion in 2000, according to Port Washington, N.Y., research company NPD Group Inc.
Avon salesman Bobby McKinney credited the boom in men’s business to the Baby Boomers who worry about wrinkles and are experimenting with anti-aging products, which are among the company’s top-sellers. Yankees star Derek Jeter’s cologne, Driven, is Avon’s best-selling men’s fragrance of all time and second-best-selling fragrance overall.
Avon recently produced its first men’s catalog, which features a skin care line, boxer shorts and power tools. New recruiting brochures picture both men and women.
Less than 13,000 of Avon’s 650,000 representatives in the U.S. are male, though that figure is approximate because applicants are not required to state their gender. Competitor Mary Kay Inc. says 5,738 of its 700,000 sales reps are men.
“Makeup of Avon Sellers Has Changed,” Associated Press, October 9, 2007
Girls love to blog
According to the report “Teens and Social Media,” based on a national phone survey of 935 youth ages 12 to 17 conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based Pew Internet & American Life Project, content creation by teenagers continues to grow, with 64 percent of online teenagers ages 12 to 17 engaging in at least one type of content creation, up from 57 percent of online teens in 2004.
Girls continue to dominate most elements of content creation. Some 35 percent of all teen girls blog, compared with 20 percent of online boys, and 54 percent of wired girls post photos online compared with 40 percent of online boys.
The report also highlights a new segment of “multichannel” teens who represent about 28 percent of the entire teen population and are more likely to be older girls. These teens are super-communicators who communicate at a level equal to or greater than other teens and have a host of technology options for dealing with family and friends.
When asked about the communication they have every day with their friends, the multichannel teens say 70 percent talk with friends on a cell phone, 60 percent send text messages, 54 percent instant-message, 47 percent send messages over social network sites, 46 percent talk to friends on a landline phone, 35 percent spend time with friends in person and 22 percent send e-mail to friends (e-mail is selected only as a last resort to stay in touch with friends).
The margin of error for the survey is 4 percentage points. For more information visit www.pewinternet.org.