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Strategy Analytics: Unlikely Tech Consumers Poised to Leap Great Divide Segmentation Study Highlights High-Tech Wannabes (17/11/2006)

A new Strategy Analytics study of the habits of 5,000 US and European technology consumers, "Applied Consumer Analytics," highlights the impact of digital lifestyle factors on determining actionable market segments. One growing segment identified in the study is the "Challenged Consumers" category, whose digital appetites drive a higher level of spending than their incomes might suggest. Their demographics alone might cause this group to be overlooked, but closer inspection shows them to be in the middle of a "great divide" between traditional consumer technology product use and an emerging "Web-lifestyle," characterized by a high degree of interactivity. These consumers are spending more than average on ringtones, games and other online activities-which suggests a potential opportunity for carefully targeted interactive services. This should serve as a wake-up call to vendors of games, online media, cellphones and even automotive electronics-and others-to look beyond the obvious in their metrics.

"Relying only on such obvious demographic facts as household income and age distribution, digital media vendors might jump to the conclusion that this is not a technology sector," says Tom Elliott, Strategy Analytics Vice President and director of the Applied Consumer Analytics (ACA) study. He continues, "That could be a mistake, because surprisingly, in some areas, these particular consumers outspend other segments that appear to be better prospects demographically. They spend one and a half times the sample average on text messaging, and 28 percent more on mobile game downloads. Our research suggests that they are willing to pay a lot more for mobile music, as well."

This Applied Consumer Analytics study identifies new behaviors that represent critical success factors for digital services and products. "The segmentation approach in ACA is designed to navigate beyond the obvious in order to uncover market opportunities based on how consumers respond to advanced technology products and services," adds Harvey Cohen, President of Strategy Analytics.

A complementary copy of "Applied Consumer Analytics: A Segmentation Perspective on Consumers in the Digital World," an overview of the ACA program and its early findings, is available online.

www.strategyanalytics.com/DigitalWorld.html