A few weeks ago, Ellen Wells, Editor-At-Large for Green Profit, asked the question: Are demographics dead?

She was asking due to multiple articles stating that in today’s modern world, demographics can be thrown out the window.

Marketing based on age, sex and race is too simple, especially with groups of unlikely friends coming together.

Marketers have been relying on this information for years to keep selling their products. They are seeing the same people purchasing over and over. 

But not so fast. Demographics aren't dead... yet

Read on to see what you should be focusing on to create better marketing strategies.

Let's break it down. No matter the situation, you want to sell. So, while age, race and sex might be simple, knowing who wants to buy your products is important.

Demographics do matter.

Wells lays out a few macro-trends learned from Unity Marketing that retailers and marketers need to keep in mind.

Here are the top 5 takeaways:

1. Multi-generational households are increasing. We have been seeing this shift in the past few years, especially with places like IKEA making products to make multi-generational homes easier. This makes for unpredictable buying patterns when people shop for their households.
2. Fewer young children, plenty of young adults. Millennials are staving off childbearing until 28 or later. There are more households with dogs than with children! We also have seen an increase in plant parents because of this.
3. Marriage rates are down. There are more single adults than married adults. This impacts how much households will have to spend.
4. Who’s working and who’s not. The number of women in the workforce has declined and will be lower than 1990 levels in the next two years. And Boomers are retiring at a rate of 10,000 per day. Yes, day! The shift in people retiring is a blessing and a curse as they have less disposable income, but more time for gardening.
5. More phones, fewer cars. Millennials are choosing to not purchase cars. Rather, they’re taking that money and spending it on digital equipment and smartphones. This means more online shopping, since getting to a store becomes more complicated. Garden centers that keep up with selling online will be gathering more sales than those who only sell in brick and mortar stores.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments what you think the next big marketing swing will be.

Check out more trends that will be popping up in 2019. Download our Garden Trends Report today!