The shifting demographics and usage trends of the Internet call for brands to rethink their online marketing strategies, ultimately providing relevant information for distinct crowds.
The latest study by TNS, supported by Yahoo! Indonesia, points out that Internet usage is no longer dominated by young people aged between 15 and 19 years, urban city dwellers and the affluent crowd.
Although penetration remains the highest in those groups, the study shows that older people, those living in less-urban cities and people with lower incomes, are quickly adopting and engaging with the Internet.
Over the last two years, Internet penetration grew 63 percent among the middle-aged crowd. Internet penetration among people living in second tier cities show significant signs of growth, such as Palembang where penetration increased by 45 percent. Hence, penetration among the lower income segment also increased by 33 percent.
Jhoni Tuerah, an analyst at TNS, said that this expanding user base meant that the Internet was catering to more interests and preferences, which brands have to realign their campaigns.
The study shows that mature Internet users, unlike youth who gravitated toward music and games, devoured a wider range of Internet content as they visit not only music sites but also sites that provide world news and traffic
updates.
Maturity not only affects content being searched for online but also behavior on social networks, which are wildly popular among Indonesians. After all, Indonesians are within the top five Facebook and Twitter users.
As people and their experiences on social networks matured, their choice of whom they accepted into their online social network circles would narrow down, the study showed.
As many as 94 percent of friends a person has on a social network site fell under the category of regular friends, followed by 88 percent of friends whom the person had lost contact with.
Only 22 percent of friends were people a person had met twice, and 20 percent of friends are the person’s co-workers, the study showed.
According to Jhoni, as people became more picky of the people they allowed into their online social networks, they also became more resistant toward brands trying to promote themselves through these sites.
“People do not want their social networks littered by brands hawking their goods,” he said.
Thus, the changes creeping up on the Internet meant that brands toying with the Internet to market their wares by promoting themselves through banner advertisements and creating Facebook pages to blow their own horn would have to do more.
According to Jhoni, advertisers should not only come up with campaigns that are relevant to a wider demographic group, but start providing information customers need about the product or service on the online channels, such as online networking sites.
“People want to be able to click on brands [advertisement] and obtain information on the brands, instead of just sales promotions,” he said.
Nanda Ivens, who runs a digital agency, said that more than just coming up with strategies to address the certain demographics, brands must target online user behavior, given that different demographics could share the
same behaviors.
However, he pointed out that younger people were more likely to engage with brands online compared to older people.
“The older generation are more passive collectors of information,” he said.
He added that with a wider variety of people and behavior online, brands should go beyond putting up commonplace banner advertisements.
“With this shift, the market is now bigger so brands must look at the market through more than one angle. Banners and having accounts in social networking sites won’t do anymore,” he said.
The latest study by TNS, supported by Yahoo! Indonesia, points out that Internet usage is no longer dominated by young people aged between 15 and 19 years, urban city dwellers and the affluent crowd.
Although penetration remains the highest in those groups, the study shows that older people, those living in less-urban cities and people with lower incomes, are quickly adopting and engaging with the Internet.
Over the last two years, Internet penetration grew 63 percent among the middle-aged crowd. Internet penetration among people living in second tier cities show significant signs of growth, such as Palembang where penetration increased by 45 percent. Hence, penetration among the lower income segment also increased by 33 percent.
Jhoni Tuerah, an analyst at TNS, said that this expanding user base meant that the Internet was catering to more interests and preferences, which brands have to realign their campaigns.
The study shows that mature Internet users, unlike youth who gravitated toward music and games, devoured a wider range of Internet content as they visit not only music sites but also sites that provide world news and traffic
updates.
Maturity not only affects content being searched for online but also behavior on social networks, which are wildly popular among Indonesians. After all, Indonesians are within the top five Facebook and Twitter users.
As people and their experiences on social networks matured, their choice of whom they accepted into their online social network circles would narrow down, the study showed.
As many as 94 percent of friends a person has on a social network site fell under the category of regular friends, followed by 88 percent of friends whom the person had lost contact with.
Only 22 percent of friends were people a person had met twice, and 20 percent of friends are the person’s co-workers, the study showed.
According to Jhoni, as people became more picky of the people they allowed into their online social networks, they also became more resistant toward brands trying to promote themselves through these sites.
“People do not want their social networks littered by brands hawking their goods,” he said.
Thus, the changes creeping up on the Internet meant that brands toying with the Internet to market their wares by promoting themselves through banner advertisements and creating Facebook pages to blow their own horn would have to do more.
According to Jhoni, advertisers should not only come up with campaigns that are relevant to a wider demographic group, but start providing information customers need about the product or service on the online channels, such as online networking sites.
“People want to be able to click on brands [advertisement] and obtain information on the brands, instead of just sales promotions,” he said.
Nanda Ivens, who runs a digital agency, said that more than just coming up with strategies to address the certain demographics, brands must target online user behavior, given that different demographics could share the
same behaviors.
However, he pointed out that younger people were more likely to engage with brands online compared to older people.
“The older generation are more passive collectors of information,” he said.
He added that with a wider variety of people and behavior online, brands should go beyond putting up commonplace banner advertisements.
“With this shift, the market is now bigger so brands must look at the market through more than one angle. Banners and having accounts in social networking sites won’t do anymore,” he said.
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Thanks Mohamed hassan