“Ageless” Marketing to Older Consumers
“Ageless” Marketing to Older Consumers
Who are you calling old?
The biggest irony of the longevity economy is that it’s happening due to a massive demographic shift powered by longer lives and dropping birth rates…
…and yet demographics are the least effective way to market to older consumers.
For one thing, older consumers don’t want to be told they need to want certain products and services because they’re old people.
Rather, they want to be acknowledged and served because they are people who have plentiful financial resources and unique needs, desires, and interests at their particular stage of life.
With that in mind, demographics have much less power than you would think given their prevalence in marketing circles. That’s because people who share mere demographic characteristics often don’t agree on much of anything.
This is best summed up by a statement I’ve run across repeatedly in anti-agism circles:
If you’ve met one 70-year-old, you’ve met one 70-year-old.
The data agrees. Analysis shows that no matter what demographic bucket you look at – Boomer or Gen X, rich or poor, male or female, college-educated or not – on average, the people in each cohort will agree on an issue 10.5% o/f the time.
That means they disagree 89.5% of the time. So what’s the answer?
Here are three ways to think beyond demographics for your longevity economy strategy:
1. Interests
Anyone who’s ever started a blog, podcast, YouTube channel, or email newsletter knows about interest-based targeting. It’s what we call choosing a niche, and if that’s all it took, everyone who tried would succeed.
Tying interest back to age is a longtime practice that’s usually tied to ageist assumptions. Using age-based demographic buckets dates back to the “Mad Men” golden age of advertising when it was thought that age was a way to identify interests:
Young people must like fizzy soda and fast cars; old people prefer iced tea and slow cars — sell them stuff accordingly. And if you want to help an old person feel young? Sell him a sports car, of course.
Nowadays we have the “perennial” approach that takes into account that people of all ages share the same interests, and therefore age is not a relevant factor. The concept has been around since 2016 when Gina Pell coined the term.
Sociologist, political economist, and author Mauro Guillé asserts this as a bona fide socio-economic trend. He sees a post-generational society of perennials emerging thanks to longer lifespans, improved health spans, and evolving technology.
So yes, topical interest is a crucial starting point. But again, that’s where everyone in the digital business space starts, so there has to be something more.
2. Stages
Stanford professor Susan Wilner Golden argues that “stage of life” is the best way to target older consumers in her book Stage (Not Age): How to Understand and Serve People Over 60—the Fastest Growing, Most Dynamic Market in the World.
To a certain degree, Golden is taking an aspect of the perennial concept – how people work, learn, and live – and adding age back to a limited degree. In other words, her work focuses on the various stages of life that encompass the broad stage we’ve traditionally called retirement.
My focus for the last five years with Further has been on midlife. This is a distinct stage of life that is vaguely defined by age, but is better characterized by a shift in perspective.
In a tiny percentage of people this involves a “midlife crisis,” but for most it’s a sense of discontent and a desire for change. The midlife transition is a real thing, and there’s no other way to talk about it other than as a stage of life.
Contrary to popular belief among younger people, midlife is not the literal midpoint until game over. And one way we escape speaking of middle-aged people as advancing in age is by embracing the way this stage of life is evolving. What used to be thought of as something that starts at 40 and ends at 65 is now considered to start at 50 and last until 75 or so, thanks to enhancements in healthspan for the most vibrant older consumers.
Then you can drill down to the interest level by exploring the ramifications of the evolving nature of this stage of life. The usual heightened interest in retirement planning may be turning into a different topic as midlife extends later and retirement is pushed back. Menopause is another important aspect of this stage of life, and dealing with its effects is a largely untapped market that is gaining more attention.
Okay, so now we have a way to frame certain topics for older consumers without focusing on age specifically. But do we leave it at that?
3. Values
Injecting values into your marketing is the best way to connect with prospects of any age. But given that the “midlife transition” that leads older people to become happier and more content than younger age groups is driven by a shift in values, it’s an especially relevant ingredient.
We’re neurologically hardwired to operate according to our values and the resulting worldview that emanates from them. That’s why our core values are the driving force behind every decision we make and action we take.
In other words, values determine what we choose and how we behave. They're the “why” behind our actions and those who we connect with at a strong level.
When people hear “values-based” marketing, they often think of socially conscious companies like Patagonia or Ben and Jerry’s. While these brands are driven by their values, they’re better categorized as “cause-based” marketing.
Values transcend ethics and social justice. Some of the biggest brands in the world are based on the values of their ideal prospects, like Nike, Apple, and Harley-Davidson.
Fitness brands like CrossFit and SoulCycle get accused of being “cult-like” because they inspire insane loyalty from customers due to a strong resonance at the level of core values. These companies understand that people buy things based on who they are and what they aspire to become.
I’ve practiced values-based marketing my entire entrepreneurial career, because when you’re a bootstrapped small business, you’ve got to resonate strongly with your ideal prospect as quickly as possible. Values provide a strong foundation that allows for connection and engagement with your chosen audience that goes beyond simple topical interest or even shared stage of life.
The Intersection of You and Your Prospect
Successful marketing comes down to a process of choosing your ideal audience and aligning your authentic purpose and values with their problems and desires. It’s no different with older consumers, and is likely even more crucial.
That’s what my Empowerment Marketing Framework is designed to help you achieve, step-by-step. It’s the exact framework we use when working with clients, and we’re developing a plug-and-play prompts and profiles version that helps you nail down “what to say and how to say it” in your longevity economy marketing. More on that soon.
Quick Links:
Why Marketers Neglect People 50 And Older For Gen Z—And How Ad Leaders Are Trying To Change That (AdAge) – A handful of agencies see promise in the 50-plus market as some brands expand reach beyond the 18-49 demo.
Bye, Bye, Babies (#NewRules Media) – The global birth rate is collapsing, causing some big industries to take a hit.
Retirees May Help Fill Talent Gaps This Year (HR Brew) – Some 12% of retirees are likely to rejoin the workforce in 2024.
Older Women See Themselves More Positively Than the Media Does (Psychology Today) – When it comes to narratives about aging, there appears to be a disconnect between the stories being told and the lived experiences of older women.
Boomers And Gen Xers Are Betting On A Retirement ‘Mega-Trend’ That Could Transform The Workforce—And When Employees Leave Their Jobs (Fortune) – Both employees and employers think it’s time to change how and when people retire.
That’s all for now. Have a great week!
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