10
Reasons Why You Should Be
Marketing to Grandparents
If you're not already offering grandparent memberships as well
as promotions and programming tailored to grandparent/grandchild
participation, here are 10 reasons why you should consider it:
1. About one-third
of American adults are grandparents. There are currently 70 million
of them in the U.S. And with more and more baby boomers now approaching
grandparent age, this number is expected to swell to over 115
million by 2010. The average age of first-time grandparents,
by the way, is 47.
2. Fifty-nine percent
of grandparents have grandchildren in the 8-12 age group; 57
percent have grandkids ages 4-7.
3. Today's grandparents
have higher levels of education and income than their predecessors,
and they take a more aggressive role in their grandkids' education
and cultural enrichment. They also participate more in arts and
culture themselves. The numbers of grandparents attending at
least one music and dance performance a year, for example, have
increased 227 percent since 1988.
4. More than six
percent of all children under age 18 in the U.S. are growing
up in grandparent-headed households. That's an increase of 30
percent since 1990.
5. With parents
working longer hours and committing to overly busy schedules,
many grandparents now assume a greater role in the lives of their
grandchildren. But while spending time with grandma and grandpa
used to mean visiting them at home, today it's more likely to
mean taking an educational day trip or going to a sporting or
entertainment event together.
6. Because Americans
are living longer, healthier lives and often marrying more than
once, kids today have more grandparents than ever before. They
also have more great-grandparents. In the past 30 years, the
number of great-grandparents actively involved in their great-grandchildren's
lives has increased ten fold.
7. As a group,
grandparents now spend more than $30 billion a year on their
grandkids, a two-fold increase over what was spent a decade ago.
8. It's estimated
that grandparents account for almost 17 percent of toy sales
in the U.S., with the 55-64 age group spending more per capita
on toys than the 25-44 age group. Yet today's grandparents are
even more interested in spending money on structured activities
they can do with their grandchildren.
9. Grandparents
traveling with their grandkids accounted for one in every five
trips taken with children in the year 2000. Six million Americans
reported vacationing with their grandchildren in a typical month.
10. "Grandtravel,"
grandparents traveling with grandchildren, is becoming so popular
that tour operators, hotels, cruise lines and even Elderhostel
have developed programs and promotions tailored to this market.
Isn't it time that you did too?
Sources: AARP, American Demographics, NDP
Group, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Travel Industry Association
of America, Roper Organization.
For
links to more articles about marketing trends, demographics and
target marketing, visit the Target Marketing
section of the MuseumMarketingTips.com Links Library.
Copyright © 2002 Katherine Khalife
All rights reserved.
For reprint permission, please e-mail kkhalife@museummarketingtips.com
Katherine
Khalife is publisher of MuseumMarketingTips.com
and the Museum Marketing Tips e-newsletter, used every month
by thousands of cultural institutions seeking practical tips
to improve their marketing.
