Chareidi buying power is growing by 7 percent annually, yet
advertisers are not increasing their budgets targeted at the
chareidi community at the same rate. The chareidi population
doubles every 20 years and currently represents 10 percent of
the total population, but the major advertisers prefer to
keep to their home court, expecting the chareidi sector to
make do with a few crumbs from the cake. Some have yet to
recognize the enormous potential the sector has to offer as
the leader in the consumption of various products. Others
find it hard to step out of the marketing rut and start
saving the fat slices of the cake for the right places. Many
don't even realize what they stand to gain.
Based on figures provided by the Planning Department at
Afikim Advertising, only the chareidi sector posts constant
population growth. Every year it has 7 percent in nominal
growth, compared to just 1.4 percent in the general
population. Growth related to aliyoh or
teshuvoh further increases its mass. According to
estimates, of the seven million people living in Israel,
700,000 are chareidi. You don't have to be a statistician or
a seasoned researcher to realize the enormous buying power
lying here. And certainly El Al could share with us some of
its recent impressions of chareidi consumer power.
Various consumerism assessments provide a glimpse of the
public's buying or boycotting power, which is becoming a more
and more dominant force in the local marketplace. With 50
percent under the age of 14, the chareidi sector is the
youngest in the State of Israel. According to population
forecasts, less than 20 years from now one in every four
children in Israel will be chareidi and according to all of
the studies, 2025 will be the year of the chareidi consumer,
when no advertiser will be able to ignore them any longer.
"It's really bad," says Benny Gal, CEO of Gal Advertising,
adding that the chareidi sector accounts for approximately 15
percent of the market in terms of economic value of goods
consumed. Thus the share of targeted advertising should have
been 10 percent, and sometimes even 17 percent —
depending on the advertisers' aim — whereas in practice
they barely reach half this rate.
The year 2006 clearly illustrated the gaps. The advertising
budget in the chareidi sector ranged from $40 million to $50
million of the billion dollars spent on advertising each year
— i.e. just 4-5 percent.
The large advertisers place most ads in the general sector.
According to Ifat Advertising Monitoring, in 2005 the ten
leading advertisers spent $123 million in the general sector
compared to just $3.8 million in the religious-chareidi
sector.
