Marketers: Don't Have a "Senior" Moment

Is your target audience okay with being called a senior? Are you sure?

As marketers and entrepreneurs, words are our tools of the trade.

When it comes to uniquely positioning yourself in the marketplace, the last thing you want to do is use the language of the status quo. If possible, you want to create a new accepted terminology to “own” your slice of the pie.

This has never been more crucial than in the longevity economy. That’s because our casually ageist culture leads to a form of language blindness where we don’t even realize we’re turning off older consumers.

For example, the term “elderly” is universally hated by older people, even as “elder” has become somewhat acceptable. And while some older adults consider “senior” to be okay, studies show that the most vibrant older consumers definitely do not like it and those at midlife don’t want to be called that in the future.

So right there you have a curveball. Is your target audience okay with being called a senior? Are you sure? Either way, it’s the language of the status quo, and that means you have an incentive to move away from it and toward something more empowering.

In the meantime, “older adults” works just fine. But it’s not exactly exciting, which is why you see various attempts at new terminology such as “re-imagineer” and “modern elder.”

And then there’s the “silver tsunami,” a term that immediately raises the hackles of any anti-ageism advocate. The term is about 20 years old at this point, and describes the aging population as a natural disaster that will wipe out government budgets and burden young people with excessive taxation.

So when I saw an article by marketer Shama Hyder titled Navigating the Silver Tsunami: Adapting Marketing and PR Strategies for Shifting Generations, I cringed. She’s using the term as a metaphor for the economic power of this growing group of older consumers, which is what we talk about here at Longevity Gains. But given she links the term to an article that opens by pointing out that silver tsunami is considered inappropriate and ageist, it seems more than a little tone deaf.

As a writer and marketer, I love a good metaphor. But co-opting someone else’s tired terminology is not the highest use of the form, especially when the term is acknowledged as problematic.

Forget Broad Demographic Labels

It’s not news that various groups of people are speaking up when they are negatively impacted by language. As I mentioned above, our unthinking acceptance of ageist language presents a situation where we need to intentionally question all of the accepted nomenclature to see if it makes sense in the new context of an older society. Are we empowering our prospects or reinforcing negative stereotypes about inadequacy and irrelevance?

More important than that is one of our central theses here at Longevity Gains – talking about people over the age of 50 as if they’re some uniform bucket of sameness is ridiculous. It’s less important what terminology you use to refer to older people as a whole, because you’ll never be speaking to all of them if you’re doing your job correctly.

Even when you shift from demographic thinking to stages of life, the language is changing. Common terms like "retirees" and "pensioners" are becoming less relevant unless you are specifically targeting people who have left the world of work, and even then that status quo language is insufficient when you’re competing with a behemoth like AARP.

The longevity economy is not only a huge opportunity due to longer healthier lives and falling birthrates leading to a shifting economic landscape. It’s a rare opportunity to reframe current ideas, conceptions, and language itself to better reflect a dramatic new paradigm.

The popular conception of reframing is “spin,” a manipulative practice perfected by the public relations industry. But this isn’t necessarily always the case. You can use reframing with honesty and integrity by articulating existing beliefs in new ways that inspire action.

In fact, reframing can be an exercise in empowerment. After all, changing the conversation about aging and older people is an act of reframing the misconceptions and stereotypes that inform our casually ageist society.

Let’s look at an example. You’re familiar with the term “unretirement” by now, which refers to Baby Boomers who’ve retired and then returned to work out of boredom and a lack of purpose.

At first glance, this appears to be a reframing of retirement, but it’s not. It uses the current context of retirement to explain the “novel” behavior of older people who find retirement unsatisfying. It’s still a behavior that’s operating within the context of the status quo.

On the other hand, I’ve started writing about unretirement with a new frame for Generation X — unretirement planning. In other words, given that my generation is way behind on retirement savings with many who likely can’t afford to retire at 67 anyway, I’m advocating that they start planning now to not retire any time soon, and instead design a more fulfilling way to make a living with a better lifestyle right now.

Will it work? Well, Generation X is characterized by values such as independence, resilience, self-sufficiency, educational attainment, technological proficiency, and entrepreneurism. These values comprise the core beliefs that inform many of our worldviews, so I’m presenting an attractive alternative to the status quo by taking a new term and further expanding the context.

The Positive Aging Frame for Older Consumers

Frames are the way we think about what we believe. Our broadest frame — worldview — contains a bundle of beliefs comprising values and attitudes that guide our behavior and its attendant consequences.

When it comes to getting older, certain beliefs are vital considerations that act as a baseline for who you choose to market to. Research shows a positive mindset about getting older literally adds years to your life and improves your health span.

In this study, a positive mindset toward aging — meaning, “I’m excited about the possibilities in the second half of my life, and I believe my best days are ahead of me” — translated into an extra eight years of healthy longevity.

When people have positive beliefs about getting older, they tend to take better care of themselves, extending their health spans well past the current average. These people are the crown jewels of the longevity economy — they’ll work longer, spend more, and live more active and vibrant lives.

But it’s important to understand that a positive attitude about aging comes from a worldview that supports that attitude. There are foundational values involved that lead one person to see their later life as their best life, and another to regard their remaining days with weary resignation. 

In other words, you need to understand your prospect’s full set of values that support a positive attitude about aging. That’s when you’ll confidently formulate unique words and phrases that define your brand as a source of empowerment for a segment of older consumers.

This underscores the importance of understanding your ideal prospect at the worldview level, not in terms of demographics. People “50 and over” are not anything resembling a cohesive group. And even people with other shared demographic characteristics don’t agree on much of anything, thanks to different worldviews and the supporting values that prop those worldviews up. 

So yes, the opportunity is in serving “older consumers” broadly, but as always, your success will be determined by how well you connect with your chosen subset of ideal prospects. And that means finding what to say and how to say it in a way that’s uniquely ideal for them.

Quick Links

When Does ‘Old Age’ Really Begin? Seniors Think 75 is the New 65 (StudyFinds) – If you pay attention to pundits in the longevity space, they’ll tell you the “new” midlife is 50 to 75 instead of 40 to 65, effectively pushing back the beginning of “old age.” But it’s validating to hear actual older people say the same thing. Consumer attitudes are everything, and these are important attitudes to make note of.

The Future is Silver: Why It's Time We Ushered in a Post-Ageism Era in Marketing (Campaign) – Familiar statistics and sentiments for long-time Longevity Gains readers, but as the number of these pieces increases, the smaller the window to gain a head start.

Edelman Launches ‘Longevity Lab’ in Partnership with National Innovation Centre for Ageing (Edelman) – Here’s a really big indicator that the “big boys” are finally tuned in to the longevity economy, as PR powerhouse Edelman takes a significant step toward better understanding and communicating with older consumers.

Some Advertisers Still Stereotype Older Consumers—The Smart Ones Celebrate Them (ROAR Forward) – A recent piece by Adweek’s former executive editor caught my eye, as this paragraph feels like it could come from the final section of my own Longevity Economy Fundamentals ebook:

While a good number of ads target older people, they rely on scare tactics, preying on their insecurities and anxieties about aging. By emphasizing health risks, financial insecurity, and social isolation, these campaigns instill a sense of fear and inadequacy, rather than empowering older individuals to embrace the opportunities and challenges that come with age.

We’re working on a powerful new toolkit based on our Empowerment Marketing Framework to help you discover exactly what to say and how to say it for your chosen longevity economy segment. More on that soon.

That’s all for now. Have a great week!

Keep going-

Brian