TV channels targeting Baby Boomers and seniors have a great future.

 

No doubt that many 50+ viewers are exhausted by the stupid “Real TV” programs that have envaded the world of television in every part of the world. Those programs made by young people for young people reflect the “youth obsession” we face in marketing and advertising.

In Danemark, the TV station CHARLIE launched end of 2004 is clearly targeting 50+ consumers. Belonging to the TV2 group, CHARLIE transmits from 1PM to 1AM on cable and satellite. The programs and news are presented by mature speakers. (have a look : http://charlie.tv2.dk/ ).

Mature audiences are looking for different programs than young people : they do not have the same references, do not like the same musics, do not respet the same “generational heroes”, do not have the same bodies, do not have the same cultural references, do not have the same values, etc. So it is “evident” that they need another kind of television programs…

BUT, there is a BIG problem…TV producers are obsessed by young audiences, they know that advertisers and their ad agencies and media agencies are ready to spend fortunes to reach young targets present on TV… and not a single peanut to reach “OLD PEOPLE”. Because for TV channels one becomes old as soon as the age of 50 is reached!

Thus, the example of CHARLIE TV is very interesting, because it is RARE!

LIFE BEFORE 50 IS NOTHING BUT A WARM UP!!!!!

I love this slogan, I found it in an advertising made a few years ago by AARP; I think it’s brilliant…specially now that I am 51 !

Traps to avoid if you want to seduce baby boomers and seniors!

As we have seen many times, marketing to mature consumers is still in its early stages. It is still prey to countless prejudices, and the vast majority of advertisers and agencies know next to nothing about the target group. As a result, while
“The Old Continent” is in the midst of a so-called ‘grandpa boom’, the all too rare advertising campaigns aimed at seniors are generally inappropriate, if not appalling. And yet with just a little common sense, even without being an expert, it is possible to come up with a worthwhile campaign. Here are six traps to be avoided at all costs if we want to get through to ageing baby boomers and seniors: 

Confusing marketing to seniors with depiction of seniors

When asked about marketing to seniors during an interview for a popular TV program, the head of a large Parisian advertising agency brushed the subject aside, claiming that ‘showing seniors in an advertisement only works for a small number of products.’ This is a good example of a typical blind spot!

Who ever said that marketing to seniors means ‘showing seniors’?

But many advertisers believe that it’s enough to show a few old people in good health and to use larger typeface in order to sell successfully to the over-50s. Needless to say, most of the time this approach leads to disappointment.  Being a senior means, first of all, having experience. Any 60-year old member of society has 60 years of consumption behind him. It’s easy for him to see through the creative platforms behind the advertising campaigns that target older people. In these circumstances, how can we possibly imagine that showing his peers will be enough to win him over? Without a soundly argued case for the real added value of the product, any campaign will be doomed to failure. It could even damage the brand, to the extent that it will often be perceived as sheer opportunism. One comment that often comes up in our qualitative research is: ‘Now that they’ve finished fleecing the young, it’s our turn …’.  Having said that, we should be careful not to go to the opposite extreme. If it is based on a proper strategy, the use of seniors in advertising can make a real contribution to the success of a targeted campaign, particularly one aimed at the very old, who can both recognize themselves and instantly understand that the message is addressed to them. In this context, endorsement by a personality popular with their generation is particularly relevant, as it adds a real measure of credibility. Let it be clear that on no account is this a panacea, but rather another avenue worth exploring. 

Ignoring the consequences of ageing 

It’s a well-known fact that art directors are terrorists. Especially when it comes to the copywriters, who work away furiously at polishing texts destined to become unreadable, inaudible and invisible. Yet if there’s one rule of marketing to seniors that’s clear to everyone, it’s the following. We all grow old – no matter what generation we belong to, or what age we are. Vision, hearing, touch, mobility … all our bodily functions reach their peak around the age of 20, and steadily deteriorate till we die. Given that fact, why do so many advertising executives expend their efforts on making their ideas inaccessible? Do they overestimate the importance of their profession? They must know that advertising is never more than a kind of unavoidable ‘pollution’, at best a distraction between the news and the weather forecast. Seniors aren’t keen on our profession. They have been promised too many things that have never come off. And as nobody is very interested in them these days, they have switched off. If no effort is made to meet them halfway, there is no point in expecting the slightest interest on their behalf.  Even when a campaign is strategically sound, it won’t stand a chance of influencing them unless it goes back to first principles. Here’s a fun activity to do: get yourself a magazine for seniors and analyze it. You’ll be surprised at how many ads are in very small print, have coupons that are too small to fill in, or use pink text on a pale blue background. Do the same in front of your TV set. In most commercials, the voice-over is drowned out by music, the sequence is too fast, the telephone number is impossible to get down, etc. Do advertisers really have to put up with such mistakes? 

Making a laughing stock of them 

Older people are known to be a popular butt for jokes. Portraying them as embittered, ridiculous, or overtaken by events is far from new. It probably comes down to settling scores with age. Advertising, in particular, with its obsession for the cult of youth takes every opportunity to have a go at the elderly. In most cases, of course, advertising does not resort to this kind of behavior to target seniors. That would be the last straw! But this doesn’t mean that seniors are blind or impervious for all that. So many commercials, posters, advertisements are put across from this negative viewpoint that enough is enough. No, really, they don’t find it funny any more. The older ones feel totally rejected. As for the younger ones, these fifty-year olds in their prime, at best they don’t feel concerned, and at worst they feel their parents are being got at.   

Touching a raw nerve  At the age of 50, the effects of ageing are beginning to be felt. Menopause, far-sightedness, cholesterol, death of parents, retirement looming … we need go no further. But here is another game at which advertising executives excel – that of making us feel guilty for being old. Whether it is done to poke fun or not, we are shown worn-out bodies, declining performance, minds that are slowing down, etc. Sometimes, it’s just to make us aware of a problem. But what’s the point of taking a negative approach? Seniors are not dangerous drivers who need to be reminded that people get killed on the roads. Every day they combat ageing with all their energies. Pointing out that that particular battle is a lost cause may not be the best way to win seniors over to the brand in question. All the more so when, as is fortunately the case, they have a positive outlook on life.  Getting the generation wrong 

When seniors are lumped together in a homogenous group called ‘the old’, the mistake is relatively easy to identify. For example, it’s a well-known fact that even though legibility is important to the over-50s, the youngest among them have absolutely no need for things to be written in Size 18 typeface. Similarly, it’s obvious that showing a grandfather climbing the stairs with ease has no relevance to a 55-year old. An error that is harder to deal with, in that it requires ongoing knowledge of the senior population, is the failure to apply the principles of generational marketing. This can sometimes be subtle, but it can make all the difference to a message being appropriate. An example would be thinking that a ‘Master’ (50-59 year old) would be affected by an Edith Piaf song when in fact he or she is a Beatles fan. Conversely, it’s also the hope of bringing all the age brackets together round the values of the baby boomers. The ‘Liberation’ generation of today were not part of the May 68 student movement. And thirty years on, they do not – nor will they ever – have the slightest nostalgia for the Hippy era. The emergence of a new generation of seniors will, of course, break down many barriers. But even so, the effects of age and life cycles and the cultural differences in relation to younger age brackets are not going to disappear. We are currently witnessing the advent of a new kind of conflict between thirty-year olds and their parents, despite the fact that the latter are supposed to be a very open, understanding generation.

Two years ago, the magazine Technikart put it this way: ‘The fifty-year olds who wanted to forbid the forbidden can no longer tolerate the idea that we can revolt. They have become as reactionary and smug as their fathers.’  (Patrick Williams, aged 30).    

Having a good grasp of all the generational variables, dealing with the points each group has in common and knowing where they diverge, and anticipating how consumers will evolve at each stage in their lives – these will probably underpin seniors marketing in the futuret. But given the ground that still needs to be made up on even the most basic questions, it is likely to take a good many years yet. 

(have a look at : www.senioragency.com ) 

Senior or not Senior ? That is the question…

What ‘senior’ means in marketing 

Originally, the word ‘senior’ referred to the most experienced soldiers in the Roman legions. Over time, the term evolved differently in different countries. It became simply ‘Mr’ in Spanish and Italian, but ‘seigneur’ (lord) in French. As for English, it undoubtedly remained the most faithful to the original Latin, maintaining the idea of ‘maturity’ and ‘expertise’. And in the fashionable professions these days, the word ‘senior’ is one of the essential buzzwords: Senior Account Executive, Senior Brand Manager … Senior Vice President! What wonderful connotations…  Today, the word “senior” is mainly used to refer to the over-50s. Why so young? It would be so reassuring to tie it in with the notion of retirement. Or better still, to old people’s homes (often renamed seigneuries in French). But we could also ask ‘Why so old?’ After all, great sportsmen often retire at 30. 

There are a number of objective reasons for this: 

First of all, for marketing people, 50 marks the death of the consumer. When we’re talking about the general public, don’t we always refer to the ‘under-50 housewife’? A horrible male chauvinist expression, to which our Anglo-Saxon neighbours prefer the highly technical label ‘principal person responsible for purchasing, aged 18 to 49’.  

Then, for the various population experts, there is a succession of important events that occur around the age of 50 and which plainly change people’s lives. At 49, on average, women become grandmothers for the first time. Three years later, in general, they’re in the throes of the menopause and are telling their husbands it’s high time to stop smoking and to watch their diet. At fifty, the main mortgage is paid off, and at 52 their youngest children leave the nest. A few years later, their own parents will die. This sad news will often result in a sizeable inheritance (at 57, on average).  Over and above the strange terms used in marketing, then, everything clearly leads us to see 50 as a turning point – one that it is convenient to take as a starting point for a so-called ‘seniors marketing’ strategy. 

What a ‘senior’ is not  Senioragency (www.senioragency.com ) has had the opportunity to run hundreds of in-company seminars. Never have we presented seniors as a single group. On the contrary, we have systematically stressed the need to establish coherent segmentation criteria in relation to the company’s characteristics.

There are various options: first of all, we need to understand that the ‘senior’ population as such does not exist. Over-50s form too large and varied a group to be summed up in a stereotype. Without going as far as marketing’s distant ideal, the ‘one-to-one’, there must at least be segmentation.

One of the options is the generational approach, which has the advantage of being dynamic and taking the sociocultural context into account. We could thus refer nowadays to the May 68 generation (born between 1945 and 1955); the Algeria generation (born between 1935 and 1945); the Liberation (referring to the Liberation of France in 1945) generation (born between 1925 and 1935); the Wall Street Crash generation (born between 1915 and 1925); the Roaring Twenties generation (born between 1905 and 1915) and the Verdun generation (born between 1895 and 1905).

In fact, this is a view of things that we in our agency are tending more and more to share, particularly as a way of accounting for differences in behavior between ‘new seniors’ and their elders.  But there are many other ways of segmenting this group, each of which has its merits: age, health, occupation, time available, social class, etc. None of these is perfect, of course, but each can be used to enrich the others. For our part, we generally opt for age as the basis for segmentation.

Despite being an artificial approach to things, it has numerous advantages: 

– Simplicity. Everyone understands the principle and the content, which is quite something when it comes to a subject as little-known as seniors. Many a more accurate and original segmentation method has not met with the success it deserved because it was poorly understood.

– Applicability.
Age is a concept that can be found at the heart of nearly all market research and all planning tools. It is therefore compatible with media tools, for example – something that is fundamental.

– Universality.
Age as a variable has a similar, comparatively objective impact whatever the sector or country concerned. It is a determining factor for life cycles and even for generations. It is an approximative segmentation method, but one that is more comprehensive and often more objective than most of the alternatives.

– Durability. The concept of generation is an appealing and dynamic one. But since the generations are constantly in motion, they are obviously impossible to handle consistently over time. A 50-year old nowadays is quite different from the generational viewpoint from a person of the same age 20 years ago.  

– Effectiveness. Segmentation by age has long been applied in many marketing programs. We’ve seen other methods come and go, and be challenged, but age has continued to dominate almost everywhere.  

Do we really need to reinvent the wheel?  For Senioragency (www.senioragency.com ) we have established and given a name to four age segments. These have been put to good use over the last five years and are likely to remain unchanged for a good few years to come. The four segments are: 

– the ‘Happy Boomers’ group (50 to 59-year olds)

– the ‘Liberation’ group (60 to 74-year olds)

– the ‘Peaceful’ group (75 to 84-year olds)

– the ‘Very Elderly’ group (85-year olds and over)    One thing is sure: seniors as they are depicted in most advertising do not exist! Yes, there are over-50s who are systematically disregarded in the vast majority of companies’ marketing policies. Yes, there is an experienced population out there that is more demanding, better-off overall, and often has more free time. But there is no single large group of ‘old people’ that nod off in a recliner, sipping seltzer water

Even today, products targeted at seniors are called ‘niche products’. It’s a funny kind of niche that contains no less than a third of the population of all the big industrialized nations. Everyone knows that there are more over-50s than under-20s. Our society is undergoing enormous changes, and the number of older people is going to increase in the years ahead. By 2040, seniors will make up half of the population of
Europe. We will really live up to the ‘old continent’ epithet then. 

	1962	2000	2010	2020
-20 yrs old	32%	25.6%	23.8%	22.5%
+60 yrs old	17%	20.6%	23.1%	27.3%

 (source: National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED), based on INSEE data), with a fertility rate of 1.8) Three well-known phenomena account for this change: the increase in life expectancy, fall of the birth rate, and large number of baby-boomers reaching the age of 50.  The combination of these three factors has led to a spectacular rise in the number of seniors. We could even call it a real tidal wave, unprecedented in the history of mankind. It really is unprecedented, since, in the past, life expectancy didn’t even reach 50 (45 on average in 1900). This is probably one of the main reasons for unfamiliarity with the target group: we don’t have any experience of it. In fact, we don’t even know exactly what ageing is. Seniors themselves are the first to be surprised when they each 60 in good shape. Even the medical profession isn’t ready! And of all specializations, geriatrics is the least popular by far. Here’s a very telling story: an article in a very serious publication expressed concern about the increasing number of cases of breast cancer in women. Was this due to the hole in the ozone layer? Pollution? GM crops? Of all the hypotheses, the most obvious and most likely was overlooked. There are more cases of breast cancer nowadays because there are more women of an age likely to contract the disease. In such a context of ignorance, it is not surprising that marketing and advertising professionals have their own blind spot. 

‘It’s where the money is’  

The myth of the little old lady of slender means who ekes out her widow’s pension is an enduring one. And, unfortunately, there is still some truth in it. Among the oldest strata of the population, rare were the households where both husband and wife had a job and the wherewithal to make proper financial provision for their retirement. Fortunately, in the post-war period, changes in people’s attitudes brought about rapid changes in society: supplementary insurance schemes, women in the workforce, access to higher education, etc.   Thanks to all these changes, retired people are, for the most part, among the most comfortably-off nowadays. Is this surprising? After all, they worked for over 40 years, tightened their belts to be able to pay off their mortgages (70% are home owners!) and give their children an education. They also paid taxes, Social Security contributions, etc. If all these efforts over the years did not lead to an improvement in retirees’ material situation. our model of society would be called into question … 

         Percentage rate of personal assets 

AGE	Savings accounts	Savings products	Mortgages	Bonds or investment funds	Mutual funds	Shares
– 50	51.2%	84.2%	45.5%	2.7%	6.6%	10.3%
50-59	15.9%	82.0%	47.6%	5.6%	12.6%	16.7%
60-69	13.4%	81.7%	38.4%	7.2%	14.6%	16.4%
70+	19.5%	85.2%	26.3%	9.6%	16.4%	14.4%
Total: 50+	48.8%	82.9%	37.4%	7.5%	14.5%	15.8%

(Source: Le Marketing Book Seniors – Secodip 2000)

They are very dynamic consumers Affluence is, of course, no guarantee of consumption. Many advertisers still think that the over-50s keep all their money in bank accounts when it’s not under their mattresses. The most commonly held belief is that while outgoings decrease with age, so does expenditure. The typical senior, then, is first and foremost provident. Except where health is concerned, he will descend irremediably into miserliness, but will leave his descendants a sizeable inheritance. An elderly consumer will accordingly have few needs or desires, and will be content always to buy the same product, preferably the cheapest one. Needless to say, the reality is quite different. Affluence often results in the desire to treat oneself, whatever the age of the consumer. With the rise in importance of the post-war generations, who did not live through the same period of hardships as their predecessors, seniors have become the top customers for many products and brands. They are the leading purchasers of private cars, mineral water, dairy produce, cosmetics, luxury travel, electrical appliances, designer clothes, etc. The tables below clearly indicate that seniors are positive, dynamic consumers. 

Purchase made:	Total	+ 65
out of need	33%	34%
for pleasure	9%	15%

Price sensitivity	1993	1994	1995	1996
18-24	79%	81.5%	85.3%	84.5%
65+	74.8%	73%	76.7%	65.3%
Price sensitivity in the young	+ 5.2 pts	+ 8.5 pts	+ 9.4 pts	+ 19.2 pts

As for the notion of over-cautious buying, it is refuted by all the figures and market research. Obviously, by the age of 50, many major items will already have been bought. Obviously, as the years go by, tastes have been formed and become harder to modify. Common sense indicates that whatever their financial situation, seniors will behave more rationally than their younger counterparts. But in no way does that stop them from consuming, in a more demanding and discerning way. 

50+ consumers also buy for others 

Without going into too much detail on the principles of intergenerational marketing, we should remember, all the same, that young seniors are at the heart of the family. More than 80% of them are parents and grandparents, and nearly 70% still have parents alive. Just when they are at last comfortably off, they find themselves once again in the position of having to provide the generations around them with concrete assistance (an obligation that is usually accepted with good grace). No wonder they are often known as the ‘sandwich generation’!  Grandparents are particularly sensitive to the education and well-being of their grandchildren, spending up to one month’s income per year (more than 3 billion euros) on various presents, savings plans, school items, etc. For example, seniors account for more than 30% of the purchases of children’s toys in all sectors. Through all the help they give to both the younger and the older generations, young seniors are the most important group when it comes to consumption. 

Communicating to mature consumers, a few golden rules.

During my trips around our network I meet many journalists or marketing managers and very often, they ask me to give them a few “Golden Rules” to communicate efficiently to 50+ consumers. The aim of this text is to draw up a list of the recipes and rules that are effective with the over 50s.  It is not a “science”, but, I hope those golden rules will be of some help!

First golden rule: be positive! 

To make yourself understood, be positive! Any message addressed to the over 50s should not remind them about their problems. They are well aware of them. Focus rather on other things. They like life, want to enjoy it and are interested in everything; your product or service can be part of it. If, at the same time as it makes them laugh, your advertisement also pleases them, then it is a success. Your advertisement should show them achieving something new and exciting, taking on an ambitious project or helping others. Never forget that situations where their own sense of humour is shown to be triumphant are especially effective.

Second golden rule: Select a means of expression that sits halfway between advertising and information – the ‘TV infomercial’ 

The over 50s consumer is a somewhat prickly person who is much more wary of advertisers arguments that than the younger consumer. He is only moderately impressed by the vast majority of the advertisements he sees. He sees them as favouring style over content and being basically aimed at a young public (‘commercials made by the young for the young’). Several surveys have revealed this division between the over 50s and the majority of TV commercials. There is a solution to winning over and reassuring the over 50s; this is the ‘TV infomercial’, an American neologism from ‘information’ and ‘commercial’. Senioragency has specialised in these throughout our network. We shall examine why it is that the new type of advertising constitutes one of the most effective means of communicating with the over 50s.

·        The over 50s consumer, being prudent, suspicious even, needs much more information before deciding to buy.  The TV infomercial is able to deliver a large number of facts and arguments about the product.

·        Through its scenario, the TV infomercial can tackle the obstacles to purchase (for example, through dialogue) and reply point by point to any objections.

·        By showing during part or the whole of the spot a freephone number, it facilitates direct interactive contact to provide further information or to place an order.

·        By far the most persuasive factor for the over 50s is that, for many of them, the TV infomercial is not really advertising. In fact, the simplicity of the technical presentation, the matter-of-fact style and the focusing of the discussion on the product are totally different from other advertising spots. The over 50s viewer appreciates the absence of superfluous decoration and devours the infomercial like a marketing videocassette or like an advertising press report on TV.

·           Finally, in order to be effective and economically viable, this type of advertising spot is screened during the daytime, that is between 6.00 and 17.00-18.00 during the week. Utilising these off-peak periods has the great advantage of allowing the advertisers to enjoy extremely attractive rates (only a few hundred euros for the most economical). In this way brands can be presented for long periods for budgets that cost 5 to 6 times less than those required for blanket screenings and repeats aimed at those under 50.

Third golden rule : surround them with people of other generations.

Grandparents like to show kindness to their grandchildren and to teach them about life. In the best of situations, there is even total complicity between the two generations. The other advantage is that the child become adolescent will share personal secrets and worries with grandparents in preference to parents. It is therefore a great stage for people over 50; they have children, but none of the disadvantages of having children! Who has not seen their father radically changed when becoming a grandfather? New patience, tolerance, greater availability – one has never known him like that! For the over 50s, the family has become the centre of happiness. Contact with young children and adolescents is a kind of rejuvenating bath that brings infinite pleasure. Some successful commercials have played upon this emotional theme. We can mention Werther’s Original sweets whose advertisement shows a typical grandfather and his grandson, or the very original poster and press ads for the Chrome de Azzaro perfume range that had the idea of showing three male generations, a less conventional way of pointing up the relationship between generations. In the field of charity, some advertisers have learnt how to exploit this sentiment (remember that the over 50s are the main donors).

Fourth golden rule : portray them as they see themselves, lively and attractive

Since they are fit, we should show them as active, lively and the driving force in situations that show the value of their punch and dynamism. A talented American commercial for the Nike brand showed a baseball team whose average age was 76; the star of the spot was aged 100. This commercial is powerful and credible because it is based on an authentic case, making everyone want to be like this man at his age. The finale of the film was spectacularly successful. The star sayd ‘It must have been the shoes!’. The spot ended with the brand’s marvellous slogan ‘Just do it!’, a perfect message to bridge the generations.

The Unilever Group screened in Europe a very effective and amusing commercial for its Olivio spread brand depicting some over 60s men playing football and at the same time gently flirting with their spectator wives. Another very successful commercial was launched world-wide in the autumn of 2000 by Estée Lauder, the giant American beauty products corporation, to promote its face cream for the more mature woman. For Resilience Lift, the brand had the idea of once again featuring its star model of the 1970s, Karen Graham, who was aged 23 when she had first appeared for them. Now, 30 years later, she was asked to perform again. Better still, since Karen Graham had always been keen on fly-fishing (sic!) and had, at the end of her modelling career, opened a fishing school in Montana, the advertiser had the excellent idea of having her adopt the same pose as thirty years previously, dressed in a fishing outfit.

Fifth golden rule: tell them about the product, they are only interested in that For them, the star is the product, the tangible reality, argued and verifiable. Commercials or spots that give the impression of favouring appearance and aesthetics over content rarely move them. They want the concrete; they want to have it explained to them why this product should be tried, and perhaps chosen, from the rest. They are not inclined swing suddenly towards some new offer without a reason. An effective way of communicating with them is to use the magazine press, direct marketing and now : the WEB !. We should not forget that they belong to the generation of the written word, which is the only medium for developing an argument in detail.  

Sixth golden rule : use advertising celebrities belonging to their generations

Celebrity Marketing is specially efficient with mature audiences. The more you age, the more you like “authorities” to speak to you. Each generation grows with what I call “generation heroes” (sportsmen, actors, writers …). These ‘icons” are loved, respected and famous among the members of the generations. If you have to speak to a 70 years old consumer, it is much more efficient to use a 70 years old famous spokesperson than a 70 years old unknown model. In the first case, everybody will recognise with pleasure the “hero” and forget about its age, in the second case, the risk is high that the consumers will see an “old man or an old woman”. Thus, using celebrities is the most efficient way to say to people “hello this message is for you folks”, without having to raise the age issue. Using celebrities will also contribute to the prestige of the brand!

Why advertisers should stop ignoring the potential of 50+ market ?

 

If there is one statistical domain that is easy to project into the future it is demography. Here there is no need for futurologist, magicians or card readers to tell us about tomorrow. We just have to follow the curves and within a few per cent anyone can show us what the demographic structure of a country will be in 10, 15 or 20 years. The information is known, available and fully annotated in every report from the national and international demographic institutions that relates to the latest census. What is more, this information is free.In an economic world in which every year billions of dollars and euros are spent on consumer studies, panels, test-marketing, pre-tests and post-tests, in order to better understand the attitudes and behaviour of consumers faced with products and services from different competing companies, studies that are jealously scrutinised and decorticated by cohorts of eminent directors (research, marketing, strategy, communication, media, etc), how can it be that the most important demographic phenomenon of the beginning of this new century has passed by virtually unnoticed?

The planet is ageing. Our continent more than ever now deserves its name Old Europe. The USA and Japan are struck by the same phenomenon and almost no one seems to see it, or draw the obvious marketing and communication conclusions from it. Even today, nearly 95% of the media plans drawn up by advertisers and agencies are aimed at the sacrosanct under 50s buyers because, as everyone knows, after 50 one no longer consumes or spends, perhaps because one is dead? A perfect illustration of one-idea marketing!

The study of the mass media (such as TV or the Press) is interesting because they are the mirror of our society and they reflect the dominant culture of a given period. In 1998, six European
public service broadcast organisations joined forces in the Gender Portrayal Network: YLE (Finland), NOS (the Netherlands), SVT (Sweden), NRK (Norway) and ZDF (Germany). The basic database for this study comprises 371 hours of prime time TV and 10497 speaking individuals. Regarding age, it can be concluded that people over 65 hardly figure in prime time TV; only 2% of the people seen in prime time were aged 65+. In this age group, twice as many men, compared to women, were presented. There were scarcely any differences between the six countries. A total of 7423 minutes of speaking time was analysed, showing that people over 65 accounted for 239 minutes (3%) in total! In prime time TV, only 2% of the leading actors were over 65 and they were all male (from the study, ‘Who speaks in television’, November 1998).

We will quote from another research study, ‘Older people on television’, conducted by the BBC and Age Concern in the UK. Researchers watched 356 programmes lasting 168 hours on the following British channels: BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, UK Gold and Sky One. Despite the fact that people aged 60+ represent 20% of the UK population and watch an average of 35 hours of TV per week (more than any other group), the research showed that only 10% of presenters, reporters, interviewees, contestants and fictional characters were over 60. Compared with younger people, older people had less prominent roles on television. 96% of older people were interviewees, compared with only 76% of younger people. 3% of older people were major presenters compared with 9% of younger people. 1% of older people were minor presenters compared with 15% of younger people.

To conclude this research overview established by the Dutch media researcher, Huub Evers, working for NPOE (the Netherlands Platform for Older People and Europe), we will consider the Dutch study (van Selm, Westerhof and Thissen) made in 1996 on images of older people (50+) in commercials; this involved a content analysis of some 1000 commercials. Older adults were shown in only 3% of these (i.e. 28 commercials). ‘Elderly persons, and especially older women, appeared to be highly underrepresented. Above all, older people appear in commercials in which food, especially sweets, is recommended. Also, a high proportion of the commercials deal with financial issues, such as pensions and insurance. Generally, older people play a characteristic role and they are not the target group. Only a few commercials (e.g. those concerning health support products, such as reading-glasses and incontinence towels) are aimed at older adults as a target group. A considerable number of commercials (60%) were humorous. The authors interpret the results as characteristic of a predominantly negative portrayal of older people.’

How are we to explain why so many experts in marketing and communication, whose talent and professionalism cannot be doubted, uniformly neglect millions of moneyed and available consumers who have only to be wooed?

The keys to this mystery may be found in the following seven points.

A panicky fear of death 

We have a fear of dying and everything that reminds us of this event makes us profoundly uneasy. In the West our relationship with death is considerably affected by the strength of the dominant religions. In India, for example, the attitude towards death is infinitely less tense and dramatic, since it is seen as a necessary step towards reincarnation. Any tourist visiting the Indian subcontinent is amazed at the nonchalance of the thousands of pedestrians squatting at the roadside who remain where they are even when they are brushed by lorries passing at full speed. Culturally, death is not perceived as an end, but as a new departure. In the West, the reaction is different; we are tortured by the prospect of death and we therefore blot out this unattractive image (the ‘ostrich’ policy). Old age is perceived as the antechamber of death. When we see old people (and as we know the concept of ‘old’ is always relative: a man of 25 will be very old for a child of 10, and an adult of 50 will appear an old buffer for a young graduate fresh from college), we immediately ascribe to them all the attributes of old age: illness, peevish character, infirmities, dependency, and so on. Preconceived ideas about the over 50s are countless and their importance in the minds of the public is, as we shall see, considerable.

The loss of status of the elderly 

In the history of the majority of civilisations, the elders have played, and in many continents continue to play, the role of wise men and women who are consulted when decisions about the community have to be taken. This is a natural and uncontested role, since nothing can replace experience when it comes to decision-making. On the professional front, there can be little doubt that it takes tens of years of practice, with success and failure, in order to perfect one’s trade or skill. In the Middle Ages, the apprenticeship among the cathedral builders bears witness to this requirement. In Japan, where the cult of the elder has for long been one of the essential pillars of society, these people are called ‘living treasures’. The whole population venerates them because they are trustees of an ancestral knowledge in the highly esteemed domains of Japanese culture and art; lacquer work, engraving, indigo dyeing and metalwork. In the world of art, writing and music, the art never ceases to develop and expand with the passing of time. However, in our western societies the role of the elder has continued to diminish for tens of years to the point where he has lost his natural authority. Within the family cell, the grandparents no longer live with their children and grandchildren (accommodation too inadequate, professional migration, desire for independence, etc). Within the company, the combined pressures of economic crisis and rising unemployment drive the directors to push thousands of experienced staff into early retirement because in their eyes they have two major defects: they are older and more expensive to employ that younger staff.

Our society dreams of a world where the young hold power at a time when all the statistics show the futility of such a dream.

The dictatorship of youth, beauty and activity 

The myth of youth is a collective obsession that dominates our cultural, economic and political life. Look young is the guiding order of the day. This obsession sometimes borders on the ridiculous when some political figures, in order to appeal to the younger electorate, take to using what they believe to be the language of adolescents. Such behaviour, which is so widespread to be anecdotal, has led the psychiatrist Yves Pélicier to come up with the following analysis: ‘In some primitive societies, eating a young animal, drinking the blood of a young creature or having sex with a very young person was said to have rejuvenating qualities. Today, we are witnessing a modern version of this sacred cannibalism. The youth culture is like a magic cult.’ Is growing old a shameful thing? Yes, if we are to believe the leaders of mass communication. This is why the men and women in the posters, on magazine covers and in the TV sitcoms are so handsome and attractive.They have been there since the 1960s and don’t have a wrinkle! Still slim, sun-tanned and sexy, increasingly unclothed, with exotic or seductive expressions. They are all different but all share a common facet; they are bursting with youth. (And do they not say that the career of a model is over when she is 25?) This idealised view of the body and beauty allows for few exceptions. Advertisers have interiorised this ideal of women and men to such a point that it is very rare for them to use and older model. When one is used, it is generally in an exaggerated context. We are therefore now in a century where more than 33% of the population of developed countries is 50 or older and where the vast majority of advertising campaigns continue to portray male and female consumers as though there had been no demographic evolution. To quote Nick Long of Market Behaviour Ltd: ‘Advertising executives, mostly under 30, were profoundly uninterested in understanding the over 50s and their views and associations were largely with stereotypes of decrepitude, imbecility and physical repugnance.’ One of the primordial functions of an advertising campaign is to trigger identification of the projected model. Can we really hope that millions of consumers will recognise themselves in the young people who might just as well be their children, or their grandchildren?

Mistaken identity 

The test is striking. Ask people point-blank: ‘Describe a retired person to me.’ You will then be given in large measure a portrait worthy of the nineteenth century. ‘He is not very rich, not very healthy, holds reactionary political views, lives buried in his small suburban house, from where he only ventures in his cloth cap to collect his pension and his daily paper. Back home he might listen to some Glenn Miller or Ella Fitzgerald before blissfully settling down in front of his TV where he will swallow all the rubbish before falling asleep in his chair like every evening.’ Faced with this question, the natural tendency for most people is to describe the popular view of society portrayed in films and novels since the end of the Second World War. It is also an unconscious portrayal of the lifestyle of our grandparents. This generation were the disadvantaged of the twentieth century. Born before the First World War, they subsequently experienced all kinds of fear and privation that marked them for life. They emerged with their health often weakened and a morbid fear of failing. With such images in our heads, we often forget that a retired person, or even an early retired person, may well only be 57 or 58, enjoy good physical health, be cultivated and interested in everything, possess more than adequate available income and enjoy rock music as he has done all his life (one has only to recall audience shots at concerts by the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd or Phil Collins).

Advertising and marketing: the youth tribe 

How powerful is the microcosm. In Paris, New York, London and Tokyo, some thousands of individuals look after on the one hand the marketing (the advertisers), and on the other the communication (the agencies). They rule over thousands of brands which every year spend 10 of billions of dollars and euros on advertising campaigns. This is the tribe of marketing and advertising executives. Like all tribes, they have the same origins, the same thought patterns, the same benchmarks, the same haunts. They have graduated from a large commercial college or university. They admire the rigour of Procter & Gamble, Danone and Colgate, and the creativity of L’Oréal. They would never fail to read the latest issue of their professional press (Advertising Age, Campaign, Stratégies, etc) while at the same time pretending to take a very detached view of such publications. They frequent the same fashionable restaurants, the same film previews and subscribe to the same sports clubs. They never fail to attend the ‘high mass’ of their profession, namely the Cannes Festival of Advertising Film. Above all, they share one special characteristic: they are overwhelmingly young. With an average age of 28 to 35, marketing directors and group heads of marketing communicate easily with agency executives and creative staff, where it is a well-known fact that, after 45, if one has not become the chairman one is no longer working in advertising. For example, in the UK, the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising revealed that out of the 12800 people working in its member agencies in 2000, only 776 were aged over 50. In the USA, it has been shown that 82% of people working in advertising agencies were under 40, while 39% of the marketing directors were under 35 and only 10% over 50%. Should we regret this youth? Certainly not, since it is partly what enables advertisers and agencies to come up constantly with the new products and new ideas that constitute the dynamic of this industry. Nonetheless, it also one of the basic reasons that explain this unbelievable ‘marketing genocide’ of millions of over 50-year-olds. Living in this half enclosed world, the advertiser and his agent naturally find it difficult to establish contact with a consumer who is two or three times their age. It is much more convenient to communicate with people of one’s own generation whose reactions and expectations are more easily anticipated and understood. In conclusion, we should recognise that the baby boom (1946-1964) and the socio-economic context created a euphoric economy that has facilitated the sale of goods and services of all kinds. The younger generations did not hesitate to buy the latest products, taking full advantage of the credit facilities offered by every store department. These cohorts of avid consumers created the good times for advertisers during this amazing development of the consumer society. Today’s scene is quite different and the over 50s could well be the lifebuoy for many markets.

The age of the captains 

We should not apportion all blame for the marketing blindness to the advertising and agency executives. There is another factor that plays its part: the age of the company directors. How many times have I observed at the end of countless promotional seminars presented to company boards the half joking, half serious response of the chairman and directors, all generally in their fifties. They had just become aware that they belonged to this age group and for those of them who were particularly concerned about their projected image, this came as a shock. It is well known that 50-year-olds are especially shy about their age (except when they can benefit from a special service or tariff). People do not like to see themselves growing old and, consciously or unconsciously, that markedly affects their attitude towards the strategic choices in their business. At heart, the dream of many directors is to be like Richard Branson, the emblematic head of Virgin, experienced businessman, in his fifties, but a perpetual instigator and innovator who shows himself to be younger than many who are actually younger than him. It is somewhat the myth of the boss who is forever up-to-date with the trends that is involved when one shows that the over 50s have specific needs and values that require dedicated generation marketing.

The fear of giving an ‘oldie’ image to one’s business 

‘For years, I have done everything to promote my brand with the best – a young image, a young target group, a young advertising style, and you want me to take the risk of tarnishing it by appealing to the over 50s?’ That is the near instinctive reaction of advertisers when the 50+ market comes up for discussion. But, on American market, for several years brands popular with teenagers, such a Levi’s. McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Nike, Kellogg’s or Pepsi, have shown that these approaches are not irreconcilable. Nevertheless, it is clear that for a very large number of companies this argument is a strong brake on the emergence of marketing strategies that include the 50+ group. This reticence comes from a tendency to caricature the strategies employed to include the over 50s in the marketing approach. But things are not simply black or white. There is no de facto reason why the integration of the over 50s into the design of products or into the communication strategy should cause the loss of the younger market. We can even claim that, in many cases, the values produced, such as ease of use, or the communication values, such as greater rapprochement between generations, are able to bring spectacular success in both the younger and older groups. A French study, carried out by IED (the Youth Institute), involving 400 young people aged 18-25, corroborates this claim. In response to the question: ‘More and more companies are offering products and services and advertising campaigns aimed at people aged from 50 to 70. What do you think of this?’, some 36% replied: ‘I think it is quite normal for the brands to be interested in the over 50s.’ 27% replied: ‘I think that these brands become more attractive by taking an interest in all generations.’ 32% said: ‘It makes no difference to me; it’s not important.’ Only 2% stated: ‘I find it makes the brands look old.’On the other hand, portraying over 50s in an unfavourable or confrontational light in order to appeal to the young runs the serious risk of displeasing everyone. For a number of years advertisers have been in the habit of using laughable 50+ people to show younger generations that their brands ran no risk of being consumed by such grotesque beings. Every year, throughout the world, there are new campaigns for products aimed at the young that use over 50s as a contrast foil. This provokes much amusement among a few hundred advertising executives who take the opportunity of awarding themselves prizes for such work, but the commercial outcome is generally disastrous. This is because it is persistently forgotten that the over 50s are also buyers and within the family group there is little conflict between the generations; the grandchildren love their grandparents and do not see at all in the way that the advertisers depict them. What interest do companies have in making enemies of millions of consumers, shocked and even offended by the negative representation of their generation? Humour is fine, but why this type? As Hege Christensen and Kristin Undheim, authors of the Bengal Trend Report on Scandinavian Seniors, write: ‘Seniors are the mass media’s most faithful customers, but neither advertisers nor TV companies are particularly interested by them. They don’t think that they will able to make any money on seniors, and anyway, they don’t even know if they like them.’ This is perhaps why brands such as Fila in the UK have no hesitation in running campaigns in which the voiceover to a picture of an old man and woman asks ‘Any last request?’, as though before dying the only intelligent thing they could do would be to buy a pair of Fila sport shoes. Would they have dared to do the same by making fun of gays or minority ethnic groups?

One thing is certain, tackling the over 50s market requires great tact and extreme prudence, because the 50+ consumer is experienced and demanding, this is why Senioragency skills and know how is so useful form advertisers all over the world!

Brands must adapt rapidly themselves to mature consumers : “Senior Design” is the solution!

“Design for the young and you exclude the old. Design for the old and you include everybody.” 

It is not easy to put oneself in someone else’s shoes, especially if this person is older than you are. The individual alone experiences such internal changes. Furthermore, the changes are slow and are spread out over decades. Identifying them helps to understand their implications for marketing to the over 50s.

It is difficult to determine precisely at what age the different phenomena of deterioration come to be more pronounced; it depends on the individual. As David Lebreton has written: ‘Ageing is a slow and imperceptive process. A person moves gently from one day to the next, from one week to the next, from one year to the next; the events of daily life punctuate the flow of the day, not the awareness of time…wear builds up on the face, enters the tissues, weakens the muscles, reduces energy, but without trauma, without sudden rupture…the ageing process advances at walking pace.’ Nonetheless, one can claim that the age of fifty is a significant marker throughout the world.

Let me just describe what occurs with one of our senses :

Sight 

Eyesight declines from one’s youngest years. It reaches its maximum capacity before the age of 10. From then on it declines. After 40, the crystalline lens tends to yellow and harden while the pupil contracts; opening and closing becomes slower. This contraction requires more external light (two to three times more than that required by adolescents). From the age of 50, it is said that nearly 90% of people require spectacles (long-sightedness or presbyopia). The more one ages, the more subsequent problems become more serious.Difficulty in distinguishing certain colours:

Colours, such as blue, green, pink and violet, become difficult to identify. All pastel shades merge into a uniform halo. Mixtures of dark colours and pale colours are scarcely perceptible.

Implications in marketing to mature consumers:

To overcome these problems, contrast must be used in visual items of communication destined for the over 50s. This ranges from the choice of colours and materials for an architectural interior to the colour codes for packaging.

In TV advertising spots, advertising posters and direct marketing mailings, foregrounds and backgrounds must be sufficiently contrasted and the use of red against blue avoided in order to prevent a monochrome effect on the part of the viewer. On packaging, reflective and shiny surfaces should be avoided.

Difficulty in adapting to sudden changes is also a big issue. Moving suddenly from darkness to light, and vice versa, or from one colour to another destabilises the vision. It then takes some time for the eye to readjust to seeing clearly again. Changing images incessantly runs the risk of causing visual chaos.

Practical implications for marketing

Reject completely in TV commercials the MTV clip video style of 15 shots in 5 seconds.

Go for longer shots, a more linear approach and long formats (such as for example ‘TV infomercials’ lasting 1 minute screened during day-time schedules). It will be hard to adopt these common sense principles because the designers and producers of advertising films are strongly influenced by style of the big film-makers and the video clip culture. They find it hard to resist the ultra rapid style of a Goude or a de Mondino.

Loss in close up vision

It becomes more and more difficult for the eye to see things that are close. An adolescent sees an object at 10 cm; a person of 70 sees it at 1 metre. It is estimated that only 15% of people over 75 have 10 by 10 vision. After 50, the accommodation is insufficient to read fine print at less than 30-35 cm from the eye.

Presbyopia arises from the change in the accommodation faculty of the crystalline lens. The eye refuses to focus its lens on close letters or objects. Spectacles become essential, then they too become insufficient. One then turns to the magnifying glass that one sees beside the telephone book or the TV guide in old people’s houses.

Practical implications for marketing

Use a type body size larger than normal. 10 point is the minimum, with something between 12 and 14 point the ideal.

In addition, some typographic fonts are more difficult to read than others. Try to avoid fonts that are too complex or unusual and choose styles such as Times, Garamond or Century, with good inter-linear spacing for legibility.