Why does it matter how college students spend money?

One lesson about the media industry is that advertisers primarily target people between the ages of 18-34. While other age demographics are desired, this is the group that receives a lot of attention. A reason explaining this lies within the Alloy Media + Marketing’s 10th Annual College Explorer Study.

According to MediaPost, the study explains that the number of people enrolling in college has increased by 6% from 2009. In fact, a steady climb over the last few decades has occurred. College students are primarily made up of people ranging from 18-34 years old.

The rise of enrollment is important in that it lends validity to the claim that discretionary spending will increase within the undergraduate population. It’s reported that college students will increase overall spending by 13% which translates from $270 billion in 2009 to $306 billion in 2010. In conjunction, the discretionary spending is thought to rise 10% to $69 billion. These figures alone show marketers how important the demographic is to a successful campaign.

Results explain that the main categories for spending were technology, entertainment, automotive, and personal-care products. However, the cell phone/PDA tier of technology actually stayed stationary. Male students tended to spend money on technology and entertainment while female students gravitated towards clothing, shoes, cell phones, and cosmetics. An interesting note is the fact that men have somewhat passed females in purchasing personal-care products.

Research results such as these reaffirm that college students have a steady grip on discretionary spending, therefore, are a front runner in determining an advertiser’s target demographic audience.

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