Week 2 EOC | Survey Research

The survey that I decided to learn more about is titled, “The U.S. Youth Market: How 15 – 24 Year-Old Consumers are Transforming the Market Place”; the survey analyzed the “lifestyles and attitudes of the 42 million young consumers in the 15- to 24-year-old age group, highlighting the key similarities and differences between those approaching their late teens (15- to 17-year-olds) and those entering adulthood (18- to 24-year-old)”. Because the millennial generation has grown up with technology and the Internet, experts claim that these group of people take the media revolution for granted, as this excerpt from the Executive Summary of the report states, “American youths are now driving a phenomenal increase in text messaging volume and other wireless data services, and they are leading the way in adopting new devices such as portable digital audio players. The fast pace of change in the lives of these young consumers continues to test the ingenuity of marketers and advertisers seeking to capture a share of this $485 billion market.” Because technology is undoubtedly a major part of the lives of today’s youth, people question the effectiveness of traditional marketing methods.

The report is then broken down further into different sections and explains the different stages of research that were conducted to execute this survey. The survey studied the income, employment patterns, living arrangements, expenditure patterns, shopping behavior, and consumer attitudes regarding food, fashion, and finances of the individuals that participated in this survey. In addition, the later sections of the report explain key market trends, projected growth rates, new marketing strategies, and advertising platforms. Overall, this survey goes through all the stages of research.

Exploratory research is “conducted to clarify ambiguous situations or discover ideas that may be potential business opportunities”; this survey was conducted to explore new marketing strategies that will be more effective toward the youth market. Descriptive research describes “characteristics of objects, people, groups, organizations, or environments”; the survey provides examples that paint pictures of given situations. Causal research seeks to “identify cause-and-effect relationships to show that one event actually makes another happen”; causal research is vital to this survey because experts are claiming that the event of rapid technological advancements and the social media boom has effected today’s youth and the theory was that it made them less receptive to traditional marketing methods; thus, marketers need to create new methods of marketing that is effective.