The Tech Savvy Consumer of Today and Tomorrow
A new study of tech-savvy consumers around the world provides a candid global portrait of digital living and draws insightful implications for marketing to the "Netizens" of tomorrow. The study, "Wired & Wireless: High-Tech Capitals Now and Next," was conducted by Euro RSCG Worldwide, one of the world's leading advertising and communications networks. The study queried consumers in 19 cities around the world with heavy penetrations of wired Internet usage and/or mobile, wireless devices, as well as in emerging markets with rapidly rising technology usage rates.
One of the most sobering conclusions drawn from the study results is that advertising and point-of-sale promotion fall flat when it comes to disseminating information and stirring consumer desire for technology. Just 13% of the total sample said they get most of their information about technology products from advertising, and a mere 1% said they get it from stores. The Internet seems to be doing a better job of getting the word out: 20% of respondents overall said they get tech information from Web sites. However, the most relied-upon source of high-tech product information is word of mouth: 20% of respondents turn to colleagues at work, 11% call upon their friends, and 3% rely on family members.
The survey identifies also a paradox between Home Tech and Work Tech. On one hand, the gap is narrowing between home, workplace, and the social arena. According to respondents, technology is on the brink of creating an all-in-one digital lifestyle, blurring the lines between work, entertainment, and family life.
Alternatively, the findings suggest that the respondents are making a conscious effort to maintain some separation between work and home. Even though 91% of respondents have a computer at home, 60% do not have a space they define as a home office. Actually economic and cultural reason play into this variable: Tokyo respondents were least likely to have a home office, probably owing both to space limitations and to their culture's rigid concept of work as something to be done at the office;San Francisco respondents were most likely to have one, thanks to their early adoption of the 24/7 tech lifestyle and high levels of entre-preneurship and freelance/contract work.
Finally, just 15% of the total sample agreed completely that technology is a threat to personal privacy, while another 31% agreed somewhat, and 25% disagreed completely or somewhat. The respondents seemed to have made their peace with this side effect of progress. This seems to indicate that marketers needn't take extraordinary measures to gain consumers' trust. They must simply be straightforward. Users want to know what information is being gathered and how it will be utilized.
Continue reading here: Managing distributors of hightech products
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