When "Empowerment" Goes Wrong With Older Consumers
We preach "empowerment marketing" here at Longevity Gains, but let's make sure we all understand what that really means.
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Empowerment.
It’s the kind of messaging that works in general with modern marketing and especially with older consumers. And with the latter it’s crucial that you understand that point, given that “inadequacy” messaging has been the historical norm when targeting older people.
And yet, some may still craft “empowering” marketing messages and visuals that are instead viewed as condescending and cringe-inducing. You’re not talking to your grandmother, and it’s likely even she only tolerated that patronizing tone.
If you view older consumers as doddering old fools who should be grateful you’re bothering with them at all, well… you’re in for a shock. This is why despite welcoming all marketers and entrepreneurs to the opportunities of the longevity economy, I still believe it’s older people who will most easily succeed, at least at first.
For example, let’s look at images. This is an arena where the judgment of a younger marketer might result in a serious misfire.
If you pay attention to content about retirement or other issues related to older people, you’ve probably seen those stock photos in articles. There’s the 70-something surfer, the shredded senior bodybuilder with the white ZZ Top beard, and the “nutty” grandma doing a daredevil stunt, like skydiving.
What could be more empowering than seeing older people doing exceptional, even extreme, activities? According to FrameWorks/AARP research, these images actually fail to convey empowerment and instead have the opposite effect.
In our survey experiment, the “super senior” category increased explicit agreement with negative stereotypes about older people’s ability to live a full life when compared to both the control condition and the active category. In addition, when compared to the active category, “super senior” images increased explicit agreement with negative stereotypes about older people’s social and community engagement.
Why the disconnect? It goes back to the “radical” proposition that older people are people too. And most people are not habitual surfers, ripped bodybuilders, or extreme sports practitioners. So portraying older adults engaging in these activities is neither relatable nor believable.
Worse, by recalling the stereotypical belief that older people are not generally capable of these activities, the images actually reinforce existing assumptions about older people’s limitations instead of expanding the idea of what’s possible. It makes sense once you think about it, but as with casual ageist language, we generally don’t think about it this way.
So what works instead of “super senior” images? What best counteracts stereotypes about frail and helpless older people?
The answer is portraying older people as capable, active people – exactly what most older people are. Remember, only 2.5% of Americans over 65 reside in a nursing home, and three-quarters of people 85+ live their lives without personal assistance. This is what your prospects need to understand and aspire to rather than outlier activities that most people had no interest in performing even as younger people.
You may find this a bit counterintuitive but easy enough to adapt to. And thankfully major stock photo providers have wised up to what effective images of older people look like.
What Real Empowerment Looks Like
Empowerment marketing is based on principles of positive psychology — a discipline focused on meaning and satisfaction instead of addressing weaknesses and abnormalities. In contrast, inadequacy marketing was the norm in the days when Freudian abnormal psychology held massive influence over marketers of the last century.
However, the limited amount of marketing and advertising that’s aimed at older people seems hopelessly mired in that 20th-century Freudian style. And the reason is simple – we've been culturally trained to view older people as inherently inadequate. From this perspective, getting older is not about living; it’s about a series of problems that must be solved or, more likely, simply managed until one mercifully departs this mortal coil.
Again, once the myths and stereotypes are dealt with, this view can be easily altered. Older people are not only allergic to inadequacy marketing just like other people of all ages, they are likely even more receptive to forms of empowerment marketing.
Around age 50, people come out of the trough of the U-Shaped Happiness Curve, essentially becoming happier and more satisfied with life. This corresponds with most older people jumping off the hedonic and status-seeking treadmill and generally seeking fulfillment from intrinsic motivators that provide meaning and purpose.
Translation: around age 50, people experience a shift in values and perspective that leads a move away from what they're supposed to achieve by societal standards and become more focused on who they really want to become.
That means they’ll choose to do business with brands that empower them to become their version of their best selves. In other words, real empowerment is entirely dependent on understanding your particular prospect.
How does empowerment marketing work? That’s a question with a highly involved answer, but we can boil it down to three primary aspects.
The first step is both simple and powerful, and that’s to tell the truth. As we’ve seen, simply refuting the stereotypes and misconceptions about older people changes ageist perceptions among the young, the old, and the middle-aged.
The second key characteristic of empowerment marketing emphasizes the power of the prospect. It puts them in the role of the hero, with the company or product as the guide or mentor assisting with a journey of transformation. If you’ve ever thought of Joseph Campbell’s mythical hero’s journey as a metaphor for the buying journey, you’re familiar with a core tenet of empowerment marketing.
The final aspect of empowerment marketing is perhaps the best of all, at least for businesses of all sizes that successfully put their customers in the central role. A values-driven, empowered customer base becomes a group of influential advocates for your company, product, or service in a way that shame-based inadequacy marketing can never hope to achieve.
What Makes the Difference?
We’ve been living in a marketing environment dominated by youth culture. Brands have worked really hard to understand young people over the last 60+ years, hoping to tap into the current version of “cool” and somehow build lifetime loyalty for all sorts of products and services.
The shift to a culture where older people are the most viable consumer group is not an easy one. And at this point, too many brands don’t seem to be making the same effort to understand older consumers, especially when the learning process begins with unlearning every incorrect assumption and ageist stereotype that too many take for granted.
Small businesses and startups are much hungrier and nimble. Powerful businesses will be created by simply following the money that comes from an irrefutable demographic shift. And it stands to reason that some legacy brands will be disrupted because they were unwilling or too slow to truly understand and connect with older consumers.
And that’s the difference. Truly understanding the evolving worldviews, values, and attitudes of people currently over the age of 50 will result in viable businesses and in some cases powerhouse companies.
Will you rise to the occasion?
Keep going-
The skydiving granny images remind me of the tampax adverts in the 80s and 90s (women on their periods are always rollerskating or playing tennis in full whites), marketing really struggles to get the balance right between reverting a stereotype and creating a caricature.
I never really thought about how the images of granny skydiving might not be "empowering". As you say, I had no desire to skydive when I was young, and still don't. I think some of the negativity older people feel comes not only from the "youth-centric" culture, but from their own perceptions of what they can do. Maybe not. Happy to be proven wrong. (I'm an oldie myself, so I can say that).