Commentary

Hey, Grocers And Household Brands, Don't Forget the 55+ Audience This Holiday Season

The holiday season, the most pivotal time of the year for marketers, is just around the corner. With consumer spending booming during this period (NRF reported $626.1 billion spent last year), understanding the mindset of consumers is vital.

While it’s a well-established fact that Millennials are influenced by social media, including during this time of year, what many brands and retailers do not recognize is there’s a huge growth opportunity marketers could be missing: consumers aged 55 and up. 

We recently surveyed over 2,000 US adult consumers to uncover their preferences and attitudes as they relate to social media and grocery shopping. Here are the key highlights marketers should be taking into account when trying to resonate with consumers this holiday season. 

Consumers aged 55+ recreate meals they find on social media during the holidays. 

advertisement

advertisement

With nearly a third of survey respondents aged 65+ answering this way, as well as respondents 55-64 years old, it’s important that marketers do not discount this older audience when promoting meals and ingredients on social media. These consumers are surfing social sites to discover the best recipes to serve their families during the busy holiday season. Think of deploying paid Facebook ads and promoted pins on Pinterest that specifically target these age groups. Your ads should link to seasonal recipes featuring your products that home cooks can easily recreate at home. Compelling social content is key in getting your brand name represented on the dinner table.  

Consumers are influenced by social content when writing their grocery lists. 

The survey revealed that nearly 28% of respondents are influenced by some sort of social content when writing their grocery lists. Today, social influencers are pros at creating and sharing shopping lists for in-store visits. Influencer-generated content can showcase trips to one specific grocery store as their “one-stop shop” for everything they need to create holiday meals and drinks. Make your shops the destination for consumers when making their grocery lists. By partnering with influencers, it could be your store they are talking about to their trusted followers on social media. 

Mobile phones are more relied upon than other digital channels (including laptop computers, desktop computers or tablets) to read and share grocery-related social content.

As our survey results reflect, the world is going mobile, particularly with grocery-related social content. Consumers are using their phones to read about food, share with their friends about food and inform their decisions come mealtime. This is your chance to create holiday-themed content for apps that mobile users love like YouTube and Pinterest. Mobile users can follow videos that break down how to create a festive family meal along right in the kitchen. 

All in all, social media is a key channel for how consumers, especially those 55+, are learning about and promoting ingredients and meals. Especially with the holiday season quickly approaching, brands must focus on key demographics and mobile social content to truly come out on top at the end of 2016.

Editor's note: This article originally appeared on Sept. 30, 2016, in Marketing:CPG.

Next story loading loading..