While this story doesn’t have anything specifically to do retailing, it does illustrate how businesses are tailoring their offerings -- or even creating new products -- to appeal to a younger demographic.
This week, the Chicago Tribune will launch RedEye, a daily, 25-cent tabloid newspaper with content tailored to 18-24 year old residents of the Windy City. If it works, the Tribune Co. will expand the concept to 11 other cities where it has traditional newspapers.
The Tribune is making the move to compete more effectively with the ,i>Chicago Sun-Times, which has a younger audience and yet is getting ready to bring out its own entry in the war for younger readers.
The goal is to attract young people who don’t read newspapers, but who may find appeal in a newspaper geared to their interests and speaking directly to their mindset.
This week, the Chicago Tribune will launch RedEye, a daily, 25-cent tabloid newspaper with content tailored to 18-24 year old residents of the Windy City. If it works, the Tribune Co. will expand the concept to 11 other cities where it has traditional newspapers.
The Tribune is making the move to compete more effectively with the ,i>Chicago Sun-Times, which has a younger audience and yet is getting ready to bring out its own entry in the war for younger readers.
The goal is to attract young people who don’t read newspapers, but who may find appeal in a newspaper geared to their interests and speaking directly to their mindset.
- KC's View:
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We bring this up because we think that especially in food retailing, the notion of creating stores that appeal to different age demographics is a largely untested strategy, Certainly, it is more expensive to build a store for young people than it is to put out a tabloid newspaper for them…but still, we believe that this is an opportunity that needs to be tested.
Think about how many young people for whom the average supermarket must be completely irrelevant or, at the very least, an anachronism. There are exceptions, of course, but most retailers don’t seem to take that demographic group very seriously.
