Page 102 - MYM 2015

Thus, we begin to see the impact of short-term analyses of various age groups. If one only looked at 18-34 year age group, one would assume that a focus on generating short term income was a trait of that group. And, while it seemingly is at that point in time, it is not necessarily a lifetime trait as some research has seemed to propose.
B. Giving and Seeking Advice
The rapid growth of the new social media forms has raised questions about whether or not consumer responses about giving and seeking advice have changed by generations or age cohorts based on the development of the new social media. Each of these is worth exploring as is done now.
There has been much speculation as to the impact and effect of social media on young people. Seeing multitudes of young adults, trailing white ear phones as they walk down the street or having their eyes glued to mobile devices as they cross intersections makes one feel that all of them are totally devoted
to the new media forms. That variable, the impact of social media, is easily tracked in the longitudinal data found in most big data sets. Since most recognized social media forms began to appear in roughly 2007, i.e., Facebook, twitter, You Tube, etc., all one has to do is look at data prior to 2007 and compare it with current data. While social media did exist prior to 2007, it was not considered a dominant media form prior to that time. To understand the actual impact and effect of social media on various generational groups, comparisons of MBI studies conducted in 2007 (the beginning of the social media explosion) and 2013 were developed. We were interested in two
It has been assumed, or at least reported by
many researchers and media professionals, that social media has greatly expanded consumer’s capability and involvement in giving or seeking advice. (Mangold and Faulds, 2009) Indeed,
many marketers list “starting a conversation
with customers” (Mangold and Faulds, 2009) or “developing brand advocates” as being some of their primary marketing and marketing communication goals with the Millennials. (Boone and Kurtz, 2013) Indeed, much research today suggests that social media, being a manifestation of electronic word-of- mouth, is having a major impact of what consumers buy or use. (Hennig-Thurau, et al, 2014) Commonly, snapshot research suggests that “I do, or want to do what my friends do” or “I use what my friends use” are two of the catch phrases often used today to explain the purchases and product usage of today’s younger generations. (Hennig-Thurau, et al, 2014)
In the chart below, the two marketing age groups,
i.e., 18-24, 25-34 likely make up what are called “Millennials”. The reported giving or getting of advice by gender is shown initially for the year 2007, the development year for social media. The same data points in the MBI studies were performed seven years later. This 7 year age grouping ts very well with standard research data. Thus, if a person was 18 years old in 2007, they would be 24 in 2013, still within
the Millennials category. The age brackets used in this analysis conform fairly well in terms of a person progressing through the cohort grouping.
We focus rst on the rst two age groups which reportedly have been most impacted by the development of social media in terms of “Seeking Advice” and “Giving Advice”. A glance at the chart shows that Seeking Advice is growing while Giving Advice is declining in both the 18-24 and the 25-34 age groups. The meaning of this is can likely be explained by those Seeking Advice having transferred their reliance from personal contact to searching or following social media. If this is done, the personal need/desire to give advice may no longer be required. That too, likely has been replaced by social media. Thus, while we might still refer to social media as electronic word-of-mouth, it seems like a much more complex concept than it has been in the past and not well explained or illustrated by current research.
One thing that quickly becomes apparent in this chart is that giving and getting advice is much more a female than a male trait. That is borne out in the individual age groupings and also in total.
Exhibit 10
Giving and Seeking Advice by Age and Gender 2007 vs. 2013
Age Gender
18-24 Male Female
Total
25-34 Male Female
Total 35-44 Male
Female
Total 45-54 Male
Female
Total 55-54 Male
Female
Total 65+ Male
Female
Total Total Male
Female Total
2007 2013 Change 2007
26.94 29.95 0.43 39.26 16.36 26.90 1.51 34.55 20.51 28.25 1.11 36.40 24.55 29.05 0.64 39.09 15.07 25.06 1.43 33.87 18.39 27.02 1.23 35.70 18.43 19.63 0.17 33.51 15.59 24.43 1.26 31.12 16.52 22.10 0.80 31.91 17.83 13.39 -0.63 27.77 14.89 21.00 0.87 27.39 15.87 17.52 0.24 27.51 15.41 11.03 -0.63 23.81 11.83 22.05 1.46 20.71 13.32 16.85 0.50 22.00 10.64 6.37 -0.61 15.89 11.41 7.50 -0.56 18.94 11.06 6.91 -0.59 17.56 18.36 18.80 0.06 28.96 14.34 22.04 1.10 27.80 15.85 20.50 0.66 28.23
2013
29.51 27.54 28.41 34.87 31.38 33.09 24.46 28.76 26.67 16.94 24.24 20.90 12.22 20.33 16.51 7.99 7.29 7.66 21.59 24.23 22.97
Regularly Seek Advice Yearly Regularly Give Advice
Yearly
Change
-1.39 -1.00 -1.14 -0.60 -0.36 -0.37 -1.29 -0.34 -0.75 -1.55 -0.45 -0.94 -1.66 -0.05 -0.78 -1.13 -1.66 -1.41 -1.05 -0.51 -0.75
factors. (a) has social media had a major impact on age groups getting or giving advice, and (b) has the advent of social media had an impact on the growth of online shopping in the U.S.? Those are shown as Exhibits 10 and 11 below.
102 I October 2015