Organic Percentage and Incremental Rate Trends

There are all sorts of trends and developments regarding the organic percentage and incremental rate. Let's discuss them a bit.

There are boutique agencies who gush about how "Millennials" love print. There are A/B tests that are broken down by age ... those tests tell us something different.

A customer 65 years old and older loves print. Still does. It's not uncommon to see organic percentages around 65%, with incremental rates that are comparable.

A customer 45-64 years old is in a transition stage. Organic percentages might be 25% to 50%, with incremental rates comparable depending upon the vendor performing matchback analytics.

A customer < 45 years old has moved beyond print. Organic percentages range from 5% to 30%, with incremental rates usually < 20%.

In a retail environment, print is largely ineffective. Oh, the boutique agencies are going to come after me about this - they'll swear they are seeing "breakthrough results" via matchback analytics. Execute A/B tests and you will likely see organic percentages even among 65+ year old customers under 20% with very, very low incremental rates.

Over time, organic percentages continue to increase ... what used to be a 40% rate in 2008 became a 55% rate in 2015 and is now a 70% rate in 2022. Digital marketing will do this to the incumbent channel. It's the way the world works ... no different than the 124 page catalogs that ran 600 page "big books" out of business 30 years ago.

It would be a lot better for my career if these trends were not happening.

The trends are happening.

So we adjust and change in response, same as it always has been.