Table for One?

I don't mind eating alone. I do it a few times a week at lunchtime and bring something to read when I walk into a restaurant.

But there is a huge singles market out there that is spending money on... well everything, just about.

Look:

The Power of One

With Singles Spending More Than Ever, Why Do So Many Marketers Ignore Them?

When the cruise ship Norwegian Epic makes its maiden voyage in July, departing Miami for the Caribbean, it will welcome aboard travelers who don't always feel welcome on cruises: singles. Cruises tend to charge solo travelers as much as twice the cost of published prices, based on double occupancy. The Epic, however, will have 128 single-occupancy rooms, out of a total of 2,114, sold with no supplement fees.

It's the first time in the 43-year history of Norwegian Cruise Line that it has offered single-occupancy rooms, part of a trend that is seeing newer ships from other lines -- such as P&O Cruises' Azura and all four Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines ships -- including such rooms, too.

With Americans delaying marriage longer than ever -- the average age Americans marry has risen by two years since 1990, according to U.S. Census data -- and divorce rates, though decreasing in recent decades, remaining high, the singles demographic carries increasing weight. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, singles spent $2.2 trillion in 2008, which is 35 percent of all consumer spending and a 30 percent increase over 2003 (slightly above the average for all households).

While data on the far-ranging singles market is scarce, a 2007 study from Packaged Facts, a market research firm, points out the demographic's clout: most singles, it notes, are younger than 45 and "more receptive" to ad pitches, and spend more time on the Internet (11 percent of singles report spending less time sleeping because of Internet use, compared with 7 percent of married Web users).

The report also notes that while the demo skews young, with 57 percent under the age of 45 and 40 percent younger than 35, a quarter are estimated to be baby boomers, "a lucrative and receptive market for a variety of products."

It makes sense, then, that cruise lines would throw a rope to singles. The question is, why are so few marketers doing the same?

It's a question others are asking, as well. "There's an increasing market of young, affluent singles," says Catherine Heath, Boston-based Modernista's chief strategy officer. "These late-Gen X, early-Gen Y singles are getting married later, getting into more senior positions in business and earning larger salaries. They're...buying big-ticket items and there's a huge opportunity for brands to target them specifically, but I don't think anyone has pieced together that social context properly."

"As far as singles being targeted by anything other than dating services, I don't see it happening," says Rob Frankel, a branding expert and author of Revenge of the Brand. "Singles are underserved by various brands and I'm not that surprised because there's an incredible dearth of marketing intelligence out."

At Just Ask a Woman, a consultancy that works with advertisers like Kraft and GlaxoSmithKline, co-founder Jen Drexler says that while brands have hired the company to help target women at various life stages, and frequently to target moms specifically, "we never have had anyone wanting to understand single women as a whole."

Moms, of course, are the primary targets for products like household and packaged goods, as well as many luxury items. They're revered by marketers not only because they make so many household purchases, but for the influence they exert over their families and one another, especially with the growth in mom blogs that receive samples to review.

Sherri Langburt, who publishes SingleEdition.com, a two-year-old Web site fhat focuses on general lifetsyle issues for singles -- and which recently inked syndication deals with Web sites including FoxNews.com and AOL -- points to the campaign for Electrolux vacuums and appliances featuring Kelly Ripa as typical. In the ads, Ripa manages to vacuum her home while doing laundry and cooking for the kids. "Don't companies think that singles are going to need a vacuum?" Langburt asks. "You never see ads like these targeting a single man or a single woman." (According to a 2009 report by Mintel, while those married with children were the most likely to own vacuums, unmarrieds vacuum plenty, with 83 percent of the unmarried and childless owning vacuums and 81 percent of those who are unmarried with children.)

Audible.com, the audio book download service owned by Amazon.com, recently inked a paid-integration deal with Single Edition. Jonathan Kowit, vp of marketing at Audible, says the company is targeting singles for the first time.

"The strongest segment that we focus on is related to commuters, avid readers and the tech savvy," Kowit says. "What we found in looking at the singles market is that with singles you have a lot of thirtysomethings (who) fit the lifestyle sweet spot for us."

Bella DePaulo, a social psychologist, author and writer of a blog, Living Single, on Psychology Today's Web site, wrote a post, "Singles in Ads: Yearning, Pathetic, or Not Even There," in which she called advertising "matrimaniacal." Ads, she wrote, feature weddings and brides not just "for understandable products such as jewelry, catering, photography and tuxedos, but also for soft drinks, ice cream, cereal and eyedrops." She also faults as off-putting greeting cards that express "our" congratulations or condolences, or say "we've" moved, as if singles never sent cards.

"Why not appeal to all your potential markets instead of treating this segment like it doesn't exist?" asks DePaulo.

Ads that do feature single people often reinforce stereotypes, such as they're partiers (singles in ads for alcohol brands) or on the prowl (singles in ads for dating services, men's grooming products like Axe, or for gum and mints, which promise minty breath for romantic encounters).

While some marketers shy away from overtly using the word "singles" in their ads, they've replaced some family- and couple-centric advertising with broader marketing programs. Home Depot, for instance, offers "Do-It-Herself Workshops." And much of Lowe's marketing, according to representative Maureen Rich, "targets female shoppers" --though not exclusively single ones.

When it comes to registering for gifts, chains increasingly highlight non-wedding occasions. Retailers including Crate & Barrel, Target, Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn have registries for milestones like housewarmings, birthdays and graduations.

But Leah Guimond, a Target representative, wrote in an e-mail that while the TargetLists registries, launched in 2007, might be a boon to singles, "one of the main demographics (it targets) is moms."

The travel category, while traditionally couple-centric (excluding the plethora of singles vacations ballyhooed by resorts), is making inroads, if slowly, into the singles market. Ads still tend to feature "romantic getaways" with couples running in slow motion on the beach, family-friendly resorts with children wearing snorkels and group chick-lit specials (think: chocolate martinis and free massages). Solo travelers have not just been absent from ads, but are also saddled with those so-called single supplements on hotel stays.

But a recent report by the United States Tour Operators Association, which represents large tour and cruise companies, states that solo travelers today make up anywhere from 20 percent to 40 percent of a given tour departure. (This is the first time it conducted such a study.) To accommodate them, 25 percent of tour operators are now waiving single supplements, while 60 percent guarantee singles they will match them with someone else on the tour (of the same sex) to bunk with so they can be spared the single supplement.

NCL's new booking option hopes to accommodate singles without turning the ship into the Love Boat. "Just because people are traveling alone doesn't mean they're trying to find the love of their life," says Courtney Recht, a representative for NCL, who adds that they market the cabins to "solo travelers." "They're traveling because they want to see the world and a lot of single people have never gone on a cruise because it's so cost prohibitive," she says. "There's certainly a place for singles cruises, but that's not what we're trying to do here."

In a down economy, Recht adds, that's actually incremental growth for the cruise line, since they are removing a barrier from people who "have never cruised before."

Not that there's anything wrong with matchmaking. Last October, Air New Zealand became the first airline to offer a flight targeted to daters, organizing a trip in which 100 singles flew from Los Angeles to Auckland, with Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney of "The Bachelor" on board as matchmakers. Passengers upload profiles beforehand and mingled with single Kiwis at mixers in New Zealand.

The company has a knack for provocative marketing, some of which may appeal more to younger singles. In 2008, for example, it convinced about 100 men and women on both the West Coast and in New Zealand to shave the back of their heads and wear a henna tattoo with the message in the U.S. reading, "Need a Change? Head Down to New Zealand. www.airnewzealand.com." The participants received a free ticket on the airline for agreeing to be human billboards.

Melissa Braverman, an author and blogger (Single Gal in the City), says she has noticed a change in the travel industry's attitude. When she recently undertook an eight-week tour to blog about cities' dating scenes, she says, Marriott Hotels & Resorts provided accommodations and was acknowledged prominently on her blog.

"We sponsored Melissa's blog because it's an area we wanted to explore a little more," says Paula Butler, a representative at Marriott International. "In terms of advertising there's not a huge conscious effort to go after the singles market, but some of the advertising does reach out to women under 40 whether they're married or not."

The real estate market is especially hot on the trail of singles and for good reason: Home purchases by married couples dropped from 79 percent in 1987 to 60 percent in 2009, according to the National Association of Realtors, and single women accounted for 21 percent of home purchases, up from 10 percent. According to the association, men have remained consistent, at about 10 percent of homebuyers, over the last several decades.

This month, the national office of Coldwell Banker released the findings of a survey of single homeowners, who it called the "new wave of homebuyers."

Contrary to what some may assume is the typical profile of a single owner, an urbanite, the survey found that 52 percent of singles had purchased homes in the suburbs.

Jeanie Douthitt, a Coldwell Banker agent in Plano, Texas, who founded Smart Women Buy Homes in 2005 -- offering seminars for unattached women -- says a third of her business is conducted with singles, both men and women.

One of Century 21's primary targets, says CMO Bev Thorne, is single women from 25-35. "We're very cognizant of the growth of unmarried women owning homes and we think it's climbing to 18 million now from 14 million just 7 or 8 years ago," Thorne says. "We're thinking about 25 percent of our first-time homebuyers are single females."

Last year, the company shifted nearly all its advertising budget online to popular sites including Facebook, in part because "single women are very active online," Thorne says.

There are, of course, challenges in targeting singles, who represent a broad palette of consumers. Nicky Grist, exec director of the Alternatives to Marriage Project, an advocacy group for single people, says even if a company wanted to reach singles, there may not be a silver bullet to hit them.

"Unmarried people are not really an identity group or a voting bloc (in the way that communities like) African Americans or the LGBT community are," Grist says. "There's not a scorecard for issues and the experience of being unmarried can be very, very different depending on who you are. Some are happily never married, some are desperate to find a soulmate, some are divorced or widowed. There's not a single identity that's easy to speak to or send coded messages to the way there might be for other groups."

More research clearly is needed, and some agencies are jumping on board. Ann Mack, director of trendspotting at JWT, says that she has prepared reports about both male and female singles for clients in the past two years, but declined to name either the clients or the categories. But those marketing tech gadgets, travel and high-end cosmetics would be wise to target younger singles because they "can play around and don't need to be sacrificing," says Mack, who is single. "If I have a husband and family I'm most likely not putting myself first, and instead of splurging for high-price items I might just be going for 'good enough.'"

Heath at Modernista says the agency is also looking for more information. "We're planning a white paper project and we're going to do some ethnography around singles because I think it's a hugely untapped market," she says.

Adds Drexler at Just Ask a Woman: "Letting singles go unnoticed is just leaving money on the table."

(Source: Adweek, 04/19/10)