PEOPLE ARE NOT COMMITTING TO MARRIAGE AS EARLY! Is this important or not for you as a marketers and advertisers?

I was listening to a news item recently that stated that people are marrying much later, and every year the average age that people get married gets older. They chose to date and commit much later in life. This was given as a fact, with no comment.


It did however give me a slight “aha” moment, as it strikes me that beyond the usual reason that women are choosing to have a career and work longer than in the past before marrying or having children later, there may be something more significant underlying this and an important trend emerging.


People are avoiding committing. They are avoiding making a firm promise to stick with one through thick and thin. They are keeping their options open for longer.


This is all at a time when the digital world that has emerged and is growing around us has meant that we are used to getting immediate and instant outcomes. At any time of the day or night if we want to buy a song, watch a movie, find a hotel or flight or compare prices for an item we want to buy we can – and then immediately but it or often get it. In the past we were more constrained, we tended to have a smaller scope and ability to access many alternatives and tended to commit to a brand, a store, a supplier that we liked, trusted and felt was probably the best we could get based on everything. But that is no longer true, we have almost limitless ability to check out, try and access alternatives. Chop and change allegiances. Constantly look for something better, and then get instant gratification.




People growing up post the creation of the internet, are growing up with this as standard. It is said that attention spans are getting shorter, we focus on something for less time, can check out many alternatives and – importantly – can get fast, instant results.


I was listening to an interview with the creators of Google, who pointed out that even life of products (especially digital ones) is getting shorter and faster as news and trial can spread fast, and as soon as the next and better thing comes along then people jump allegiance to the next thing coming along.


This has huge implications to a marketer and advertiser. How can you ensure you get people to commit to a longer relationship with your brand/ product when this is something that is not a trend and habit that consumers seem to be living by as much? The ability to access information and options faster and broader is changing the nature of relationships and expectations.




Some thoughts on implications:



1: It seems to be one thing all have to do is ensure that we have to be more nimble, faster and constantly evolving and changing the service and product to keep interest up and avoid the ever faster boredom and impatience kicking it. Constant and more frequent updates and improvements, not only to keep up interest but ahead of competition as your consumers will know and be more informed.


2: News driven communication. To keep up interest and focus, better to focus

Thoughts, leave a comment on the blog, or email me gary@bembridge.co.uk


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