NewsLine Column: Advertising To Single Britain
The number of single people in Britain is growing, the UK will have 16 million singles by 2010, a statistic that can be exploited by marketers. James Papworth, ad marketing manager at IPC Prospector, looks at the pros and cons of single life and advertising to perennial singletons…
‘Marriage is a wonderful institution … but who wants to live in an institution?’ asked Groucho Marx. Well in his day, the era of Love, Marriage, Horse and Carriage just about everyone did. These days, at least according to the Office of National Statistics, it’s not such a popular past time.
There are now 14 million single adults in the UK, double the number 30 years ago. That’s about 30% of all adults and with bachelors and spinsters increasingly shunning (re)married life, the next 5 years is expected to see an increase in growth rate taking the total to 16 million singles by 2010.
While the demise of loves’ young dream is to be lamented, the increase in single living is not necessarily bad news for marketers. Aside from divorce law, there’s plenty of money to be made in this growing market.
Just how big is this market? Well, being single is biased toward the young and the old so excluding students and pensioners it’s estimated that 25% of 25-64 yr olds, aka 7.8 million adults of working and spending age, are defined as unattached – that’s neither married nor living with a partner (Zurich Finance Survey 2004). Roughly speaking that’s a market already worth £120bn p.a., which is getting bigger.
Two can live as cheaply as one they say, but when a couple becomes two singles, the price goes up. A wide-screen TV for him. Clothes, haircut, makeover, shoes, bags and a holiday for her. Either way, consumer expenditure goes up.
29% of single people 35-45 spend large amounts of money on the spur of the moment while 42% spend cash without thinking about it.
Singles are more likely to regard an active social life as a priority and spend accordingly – bars, cinema, restaurants, video, buying (recklessly) on-line and short-breaks. They are more likely to spend on luxury goods and technology. Basically, all things dedicated to a hedonistic lifestyle.
Considerations for marketers include increasing demand for smaller housing units and for new household equipment. All the utilities benefit from an increase in the number of service charges.
Grocery manufacturers are also taking note, reducing emphasis on economy-pack sales in exchange for the higher margins afforded by ready-meals for one.
From an advertising point of view there are considerations too. As you might expect cinema, internet and consumer magazines rate highly for young, wealthy singles. But they listen to less commercial radio than you may have thought, watch little commercial TV and regularly skip TV adverts. NRS March 2004
So where have all these singles come from? Well, marriage has had some pretty bad PR over the last few years. There’s no longer any tax incentive to be married as opposed to living together, the average wedding is coming in at £15,000 while the average divorce costs … well, ask Ray Parlour’s lawyer (allegedly).
Changes in employment patterns have contributed significantly too. In many lines of work, particularly the service industries, which make up a growing proportion of job roles, people reach their top earning potential earlier – well before they are in a settled relationship.
All this has caused the Sun’s ‘Dear Deidre’ Sanders to express concern about the impact on long-term family values, “after years of spending on oneself, its hard to commit to saving and doing without to aim for marriage and a family”.
Then there’s the rise of the independent working-woman. Financially self-sufficient and able to change a plug. (All comments to MediaTel please)
Professor Geoff Beatie, who studied the Zurich findings, defines the new singles as the ‘me,me,me’ group. “Whatever reason for being single, these people embrace the fact they have time and money to spend on themselves”. Zurich were probably interested to note that pensions, savings and endowments are not priority purchases for the twenty-thirty-something single who regards “having holidays as equally important as having savings”.
In the old days being single was neither a socially acceptable nor financial feasible option. Single people simply did not have enough money to have fun.
Divorces running at 50% also recycle a significant number of singles. Dear Deidre again points out that many are likely to stay that way, “every man has a mate down the pub vowing ‘never again’ after losing a home and a chunk of income in a divorce settlement”.
In the light of the latest figures we must remind ourselves that romance, and all that goes with it, is still the option for the majority. 25% may not be attached but that leaves 75% who are.
And of those 7.8 million unattached, 30% are re-classified, logically enough I suppose as, semi-detached (in a steady but non-cohabiting relationship). The no-man’s land referred to by Rita Rudner as the period when a woman decides, “is this the man I want my children to spend their weekends with?
Enter another (Groucho) Marxism who, upon finding out that a certain Mrs Smith had had 13 children because she loved her husband, remarked “Lady, I love my cigar but I take it out of my mouth once in a while”.
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