Effect of Age on Consumers' Channel Preferences in Mobile Apps
A Commpro News Update
A consumer study was recently done by MarketingSherpa, asking over 2,000 consumers, "How often to you disengage with marketing by doing the following?"
Of the six possible answers, the biggest generational differences were seen in the "doesn't apply to me" response by satisfied customers to the option — "delete their app from your smartphone or tablet."
In addition, 42% of the Silent Generation and 31% of baby boomers said that mobile apps don't apply to them, and even 15% of millennials and Gen Xers said the channel didn't apply to them.
Daniel Burstein, Senior Director of Editorial Content, MarketingSherpa, shared all of the data in the MarketingSherpa article, "Mobile Marketing Chart: How likely millennials, baby boomers and Gen Xers are to delete your app."
"If the above data gives you pause before developing an app (especially if your ideal customers are in an older demographic), there are a few ways you can decide whether pursuing an app is a wise investment for your company," Burstein said.
The suggestions he listed are:
- Take a close look at the traffic to your website to see how much is coming from mobile devices
- Test mobile advertising to gauge how responsive your customers are on mobile
- Make sure your mobile app has a unique value proposition compared to your mobile website
- Make sure your mobile app has a unique value proposition against other apps (after all, there are 140 billion apps in the Apple App Store alone, according to Statista)
- Talk to some of those customers to see if they use apps, want one from your company, and what features they would value
The data is from the MarketingSherpa Customer Satisfaction Research study of 2,400 consumers, sampled to reflect a close match to the U.S. population's demographics, and conducted in September and October 2016 during the planning of MarketingSherpa Summit 2017's content. Half of the respondents (1,200) were asked to reflect on their experiences with a brand with which they are highly satisfied, and the other half (1,200) were questioned about a brand with which they are not satisfied. Consumers were also asked about companies they were satisfied and unsatisfied with in general, and about general marketing topics like online ad blocking. The responses of these two groups were then compared and contrasted against each other. The respondents from each age group, the Silent Generation (71-93); baby boomers (52-70); Generation Xers (34-51); and millennials (18-35); were nearly evenly split between the paired surveys.
View the entire study at MarketingSherpa.com/ConsumerStudy. For questions regarding the survey or its methodology, please contact Erin Donker at erin.donker@meclabs.com.
