Why do advertisers fail? Older consumers should understand

Borkowski Mark Borkowski, a PR expert, says advertisers often screw up when it comes to marketing for older consumers, and the cause of the failure lies in the culture of the advertising agency. "When we heard that they wanted to be creative with this group, the Shoreditch Shoreditch, the bearded creative people, collapsed. ”

Advertising and marketing agencies face a difficult problem. How can young people understand the old?

Mark Borkowski, a PR expert, says advertisers are often borkowski in marketing to older consumers, and the root of the failure lies in the culture of the advertising agency. "When we heard that they wanted to be creative with this group, the Shoreditch Shoreditch, the bearded creative people, collapsed. ”

Critics such as Borkowski say advertising and marketing agencies have become too concerned about young people. Advertisers who are brave enough to challenge and develop older consumers do not understand the complexities of older groups.

20PLUS30 is a consulting firm that specializes in elderly consumer marketing. Dick Stroud, the company's founder, Dick Straud that advertising has become increasingly discriminatory against older people. According to a 2013 report by the British Association of Advertising Practitioners (Cato of practitioners in advertising), the average age of advertising practitioners is slightly below 34 years. "David Ogilvy was 39 years old when he wrote his first ad, and for the next 25 years he was actively engaged in advertising," Stroud. "But now that the population is ageing, the age of advertisers who sell their products to the elderly is declining."

A good creative person should be able to put himself in the mind of anyone. For example, no one expects a 8-year-old girl to come up with a marketing plan for Lego Girls (Lego Friends). However, Stroud believes that the difference between creating ads for young people and for older consumers is "an inferential experience". He pointed out that although we all came from our youth, it was hard to imagine what it would be like to be old. "At least one old man will know what kind of experience he has for young people is now obsolete and will accept advice to keep his view of the times," he said. Most young marketers, he adds, often infer from the behavior of their parents or grandparents what the elderly are today.

In the past decade, a large number of small institutions have emerged, hoping to cater to the needs of older groups. To compete with them, JWT, the prudent planning director of the advertising agency, JWT, Mary Stafford Marie Stafford, suggests that large institutions should retain older employees or dismissals them as advisers.

She argues, however, that part of the reason for the improper marketing is that some clients take for granted that older people's behaviour has been cured. The elderly, she says, are "taking the initiative to wave 30-year-long habits based on the notion that mature consumers will not change their brands." This is a stakeholder group: Euromonitor (Euromonitor) figures show that the baby boomers ' global purchasing power is expected to reach $15 trillion trillion by 2020.

Steelcompany Magnolia is a strategic market research organization focused on the market for people over 50 years of age. Janet Kiddle, the agency's founder, Jeannette Kiddel that advertisers and marketers "fear getting older". Advertisers are familiar with all kinds of young people, but often forget to distinguish between different groups of older consumers: "Consumers over 55 years of age are an extremely complex group." She pointed out that they are not necessarily empty nest old people. They may be divorced, have young children, or want to continue working over the next few decades, instead of using retirement time to travel and play golf.

Yes Grum (Jez Groom), group chief strategist at Ogilvy & Mather Group UK, shares the view. "People's retirement lives are different now than they used to be. He said the financial crisis had shrunk many people's pensions, making advertisers aware of the new working life and lifestyle of the elderly market. But the advertising industry's view of the elderly market is often overly simplistic and sweeping. "You need to focus on your mindset, not just your age," he advises. "In addition, in the treatment of global products and services, the western Baby boomer generation will have a different cultural background with their Chinese peers."

Gillian Wardle, managing director of fuel, a PR firm, said that many people over the age of 50 believed that the way advertisements treated them could be summed up in two words: arrogance and typology. This is a complex group, she said. "Between 55 and 100 years old, the age span is too large." "In addition, people are healthier and live longer than ever before." As she put it, "the old people riding bikes are the equivalent of playing golf in the past." ”

Stroud says the problem is not just that. "I think the problem is not that [advertisers] are wrong about the old age group (although they do know the wrong thing), but that they don't think about the elderly in their creative or media plans. ”

It is important to differentiate advertising for certain age groups for products such as stair lifts, retirement plans or denture care fluids from advertisements for products purchased by all age groups, such as computers, refrigerators and automobiles. "These are all age-independent products," Stroud explains, "even if the main client is likely to be over 50 years old, the core focus of advertising creativity is still young people." So the biggest problem is that the advertising industry ignores the old age group. ”

There is no need for advertisements for the elderly to appear only in paper form. Older people are increasingly becoming important digital consumers.

Earlier this year, Bob Shennan, the BBC's music director, Bobb Shennan The results of the market Survey on Channel II (Radio 2). The radio found that the "young elderly" generation had emerged, and they were more adventurous than older people, and liked to travel and foreign food.

This group considers themselves younger than the actual age. The age limits of music are blurring, and the tastes of generations are more variable, so many artists and bands, such as Adele (Adele), Winehouse (Amy Winehouse) and Cay, have fans in every generation. Shennan recruited some hosts, such as Chris Evans, a 48-Year-old Evans, which made the audience feel young.

Advertisers face a similar situation. Dick Lumsden, managing director of OWL Marketing FX, said people like to see themselves 10 years younger than their actual age. If you're marketing to 1 60-year-olds, use the marketing model for people who are 50 years old, otherwise the marketing effect will backfire. "Older users have seen a lot of ads ... They are shrewd. What they need is information about the product itself. They don't want to see an ad designer posing like a high profile and don't want to see an abstract image. However, he added, the font size must not be too small.

"Advertising is important to a broad group of people," says Rita Clifton, a brand expert Lita Clifton. She mentioned the print and online ads for the autumn and winter series by apparel retailer Jaeger, three young British models and their mothers. "Older people do not want to see the advertising business eye-catching signs that they are specifically geared towards the elderly." They want the ads to be broadly ground to everyone. ”

There are some drawbacks to be avoided. Melanie Haslam, founder of the consulting firm Wise Branding, Melanie Haslam that for a large number of elderly single women, there is no greater annoyance than a pair of happy elderly couples in advertising. Kidder said it was an old-fashioned idea to avoid when the silver couple walked hand in hand on the beach, but much worse was to have a single woman appear alone in the picture. "She seems to be very lonely. ”

Let her appear with a group of people, she suggested. "After all, all advertising is inspiring. ”