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Generation Gap: Tracking Holiday Sales & Promotions

December 8, 2011 Pam Goodfellow 1 comment

In case you missed it, the National Retail Federation recently released inaugural data on how shoppers plan to track holiday sales and promotions this season; BIG collected this data as part of our November Consumer Intentions & Actions® survey. Among holiday shoppers in general, it’s traditional forms of media (print ads, TV, even email) that grab the most attention:

Top 5 Media for Tracking Retailers’ Holiday Ads & Promotions (Adults 18+)
1. Advertising Circulars (50.5%)
2. Emails from Retailers (32.3%)
3. TV Advertising (31.7%)
4. Retailers’ Websites (23.7%)
5. Coupon Websites (i.e. RetailMeNot.com, FatWallet.com, etc.) (23.1%)

This data becomes really interesting, though, when we break it out by generation:

Silent (born 1945 or earlier)
Boomers (born 1946 – 1964)
Gen X (born 1965 – 1982)
Gen Y (born 1983 – 1993)

Ad Circulars are relatively less important to Gen Y-ers. (click to enlarge)

Advertising Circulars are the top media among all generations, except for those Gen Y-ers. Among these youngsters, Coupon Websites (35.0%) are the most sought-out, followed by Ad Circulars (33.5%), TV Advertising (33.1%), Facebook (32.3%), and Emails from Retailers (31.4%).

As you may expect, Ad Circulars are the most popular among the Silent generation (56.8%) as well as Boomers (58.1%). These two generations also place Direct Mail in the their top five lists.

The importance of social media grows as generations decrease in age. As previously mentioned, Facebook (32.3%) is a top five ad source among Gen Y; additionally, about one in four (24.7%) Gen X-ers socially engage this site for holiday promotions. Far fewer Silents (3.4%) or Boomers (8.9%) are doing the same.

Gen X and Y are more likely to gravitate to Facebook than their older counterparts. (click to enlarge)

Among the younger generations, blogs are more popular as well. About one in ten of those in Gen X (10.6%) and Gen Y (12.1%) admits to scanning blogs for access to holiday deals, while this method is much less likely to be employed by Boomers or Silents.

It doesn’t appear that holiday shoppers are giving too much attention to Twitter this year. While many may be tweeting about the purchases they make or the deals that they scored, this was among the least popular venues for consumers to find holiday sales and promotions. Just 6.0% of Gen Y-ers rely on Twitter, and this percentage drops precipitously with age.

Blogs prove more popular with younger generations. (click to enlarge)

One of the media newcomers, Group Buying Websites (i.e. Groupon, LivingSocial), is gaining fans with the younger generations. Among both Gen X and Gen Y, about 15% are intrigued by the mega deals offered through these venues. About one in ten Boomers are buying in, while just 5.3% of the Silents are tempted.

Besides the fact that younger generations prove to be more receptive to newer forms of media, this data really tells us that retailers need to know who their customers are in order to reach them in the most effective manner this holiday season…BIGinsight consumer data, anyone?