Changing Demographics Critical to Audio Marketing

Many OEMs and retailers have noted the sense that the audio community is aging. Audio has definitely become part of a larger group of hobbies over the last 50 years, and with more competition, audio has undoubtedly lost some market share. At the same time populations around the world have risen (U.S. population for example was 227M in 1980 and is now 332M, a 46% increase) and incomes have grown in real terms (U.S. GDP per capita has risen from $29k to $59k from 1980 to 2021, a 103% increase). So, in financial terms the total market is about 3X what it was.

While this is good news in some ways, a point that tends to get lost is the shifting composition of ages within these numbers. First, let’s get our facts down. Again, using U.S. statistics for comparability, we note that percentage of people over the age of 42 is 47%. The percentage of the population under the age of 42, but old enough to be interested in audio is 43%.

There are many possible takeaways from this for audio marketers:

• We must market to older people because the largest portion of people are older
• These statistics are even more pronounced in Europe and Asia
• Because birth rates are declining globally, the slight bias of population demographics toward older people will continue and expand
• There are a lot of younger (ages 12-42) people and they are of the ages where habits are formed, often for life
• Marketers ignore this younger group at their peril, but marketers must recognize that marketing efficiency is likely to be lower with this group unless highly targeted media are used

Nextscreen Networks offers two platforms to help audio marketers reach key audiences efficiently. Each platform is aimed at a specific audio-desirable demographic.

• The Absolute Sound is aimed primarily at 42-64 year old audiophiles globally
• hi-fi+ is aimed at younger audiophiles globally, primarily between the age range 28-48
• Each of these groups is at the top income level for their age ranges