An Example Of Channel / Demographic Issues

I realize this article is more than six months old - but you're sitting at work, waiting for your omnichannel integration meeting ("all hands on deck, all channels matter"), so give it a quick read (click here).

Most important? The average age of the person watching cable news is usually > 60 years old, and is, in the case of Fox News, frequently older than 70 years old.

Think about the demographic disconnect between the cable news audience and the general population. You're not likely to get the average view to tweet a lot, are you? And how likely is this 70 year old person to pull out the iPhone and engage with mobile information?

You end up with a nasty problem, don't you?

• If you abandon your core audience, you don't have an audience, and your business suffers greatly.
• If you stay with your core audience, nothing "new" works, and your business is destined to fail in the future. You cannot do any of the new stuff, because it won't resonate with younger folks, and it will be ignored by the core audience.

What would you do if you were Fox News? Discuss the strategies you'd employ to protect the long-term future of your business. Or do you even care?

These issues map perfectly to catalog marketing, as we all know. And these issues are going to eat up the customer base at traditional retail businesses. Demographics, Channels, and Merchandise all interact with each other. And when your business gets pinned into a demographic corner, it is terribly, terribly hard to get out.