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Niche
Marketing
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Article
5: Niche Market Watch--Age
To expand your business, consider
targeting a niche market defined by age. If you
can sell your product or service to an
age-defined niche market that’s growing, your
business will expand along with the expanding
age group.
Niche markets determined by age make easy
targets. Demographic information on age groups
is readily available, making your research
easier. Marketing avenues, such as print and
broadcasting, are specifically aimed at
different age groups, giving you a variety of
methods for reaching the market.
One of the biggest age-defined niche markets is
the group known as baby boomers. There are 76
million baby boomers—defined as Americans born
between the years 1946 and 1964. The most
important fact about this huge bulge in the U.S.
population is that baby boomers are aging and
becoming seniors.
In each of the next 15 years, 3 million baby
boomers will turn 50. In 2016, approximately 88
million seniors will live among our ranks.
Nearly one-quarter of America’s citizens will be
age 65 or older by the year 2030. In short,
seniors are going to be an increasingly
important niche market.
In addition to the enormous market numbers,
seniors control 77 percent of all financial
assets in the United States and spend $800
billion per year according to the University of
Central Arkansas. The sheer market numbers and
the financial clout make seniors one of the
hottest markets around.
For businesses, that means the opportunity to
cash in on a lucrative, well-defined market that
promises to expand in the coming years. And many
small enterprises are doing just that. For
example, there’s been an explosion in selling
services to grandparents. There are now 69
million grandparents in the United States who
spend about $30 billion a year. Summer camps,
seminars and travel services geared toward
grandparents and the grandkids have boomed in
recent years.
It’s important to keep your eyes open when
you’re investigating niches, even niche markets
as well defined as age group markets. Teenage
Research Unlimited reports that in the year
2000, U.S. teens spent $155 billion. That’s a
huge number, and it’s on the increase. But
America’s 31 million teens are an especially
hard niche market to reach. Teens are especially
fickle. Today’s hot teen product could very well
end up as tomorrow’s excess inventory.
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