NEW YORK-Nearly 80 percent of city residents ages 12 to 34 own a cell phone and they spend at least $50 on average per month for wireless services, according to a new survey conducted by Blue Flame Marketing and Advertising, whose chief executive officer is rap music artist Sean “P. Diddy” Combs.
The Blue Mindset marketing division of Blue Flame, headquartered in New York, tallied telephone and Internet responses from 748 urban Americans during the first week of September before releasing the results September 11. Of these, 78.4 percent own a cellular phone, 13.2 percent a Palm Operating System device, 10.8 percent a two-way pager, 7.6 percent a one-way pager and 2.6 percent a wireless e-mail device. The average respondent spends $51.29 per month on cellular and other wireless services.
Of the survey participants, 13.9 percent said they strongly agree they are satisfied with their wireless carrier, while 36.1 percent agreed they are satisfied and another 30 percent said they neither agree nor disagree they are satisfied.
The urban market defined by Blue Mindset comprises 45.3 million consumers, 60 percent of whom are not members of minority groups. Collectively, these teenagers and young adults possess an estimated $890 billion in annual purchasing power.
Blue Flame specializes in building consumer brands that lead to widespread consumer adoption of the latest product, service or cultural trend.
“Today’s generation is regularly on the move. This survey shows mass penetration of various wireless devices among urban consumers (and) . how important this market is to wireless companies,” said Jameel Spencer, president and partner of Blue Flame.
“Wireless companies should take close note of the attitudes of the urban markets toward their products, for a few trendsetters being dissatisfied with a particular company can create thousands of others who desert the company in question.”
