How has the continuing mobility of U.S. consumers affected marketing efforts?

[ilikesweaters]

I'm doing research for a business class and would like to know personal opinions about the following question: How has the continuing mobility of U.S. consumers affected marketing efforts?

[Ed Atun]

It has not had a big effect. Most marketing efforts today cross state borders. Websites like YouTube have no limits to the people it can reach. TV ads can also follow buyers wherever they move.

[Irene Z]

It has affected the way marketers put their message to consumers.That is, how advertising and promotion budgets are spent. In the past, when there's less mobility, newspapers and local TV, radio stations, posters were the only tools needed. For big brands, it will be national newspapers and TV stations.

Now advertisers need to engage in more 1-to-1 communication strategies. This includes use of more mobile media - eg. websites, facebook, SMS blasts. In a way, advertisers need to spend less but more fragmented in their spend habits. For eg, one-to-one direct mail that are personalised, in the past, they are just flyers in your letterbox, e-mail blasts and so on.

However, this poses a problem for businesses that is based only in one locale. So, if you are just a little dress shop in a little town, it is much harder now to reach people. That's why small businesses are suffering so much more. In towns where the populus had migrated to bigger cities for work, it is the most telling. Also, when people can't find jobs locally, they do move, and towns shrink even further. For big brands, they do migrate with the people. So in a previous small town, they would sponsor the local events, now they probably won't.

This is true for US and every other country.