Recently, a range of articles has accused marketers of neglecting the seniors demographic. A typical specimen reiterates the demographic realities of an aging population, counts up who has what money in the bank, observes the outrageous amount of money advertisers spent chasing the ‘elusive’ 18-to-24s, and chastens the marketer for ignoring a potentially lucrative population segment.
Eric Felten, a Washington-based jazz musician, closed his piece for the Wall Street Journal with a quote from Andrew Cracknell, (once the CD for Bates UK): ‘Big business’s capacity for making mistakes is enormous.’
A survey of 2,000 Canadians conducted in December by Decima Research on behalf of Strategy magazine, found that, when asked the question, ‘Would you say that today’s advertising is relevant to you as a consumer?’ 64% of 18-to-24s and 61% of 25-to-34s answered yes, while 54.5% of 45-to-54s and only 47.2% of people 55+ did the same.
Evidently older Canadians are not terribly moved by what they see on TV, but does that mean marketers would be better off targeting their communications specifically to seniors? The answer depends on the category.
Rick Padulo, CEO of Toronto-based Padulo Integrated and principal with its newest offspring, Boom Communications, which specializes in reaching the boomer generation, thinks there are a number of categories that can meet needs in the 65+ market. ‘The biggest issues for people in their early 60s are anti-aging, life-extension, fitness and the growth of the Internet as a way of second careers education. You’ll see big growth in online education. If I’m 65 and in good health I may be looking at another 30 years, so what am I gonna do, play cribbage in my rocking chair for 30 years?’
AOL Canada certainly plans to spend some marketing dollars pursuing older Canadians. Kate Pearce, Toronto-based VP marketing, says that 25% of online households fall into the 55+ group, and make up a ‘sizeable portion’ of AOL users. AOL’s strategy over the next two years is to target its customers with tailored messaging designed for each segment. Without revealing any details, Pearce says, ‘you can safely assume that this market will be one.’
And while many cosmetics companies rely on spillover into the older age groups, L’Oréal Canada follows a brand strategy that seeks to solve specific, physiological problems for specific target groups rather than focusing on lifestyle branding.
The Montreal-based company launched its Age Perfect line three years ago. ‘Until then, anti-wrinkle cream was basically the upper-end product,’ says VP marketing Ron Szekely. ‘We understood the differences between pre-menopausal and post-menopausal skin. If you talk about age spots, sagging, lack of radiance to a 55+ it becomes a lot more relevant.’ L’Oréal’s Excellence Hair Colour is another case in point. ‘It’s a caring product that understands the problems of aging hair and thinning hair.’
Creatively, the campaigns for these products vary only slightly from other L’Oréal ads, except that the spokeswoman is in her 50s. Daytime TV and specific magazines (including 50Plus) are the preferred media as opposed to the cinema, subway, billboard and events advertising that targets younger demographics.
Far from being concerned about alienating younger consumers by targeting older women, Szekely says that his research shows ‘an absolute acceptance and appreciation of understanding the differences among consumer age groups and needs and not mixing them up.’
In fact, Szekely says targeting products to older women reinforces the company’s credibility. ‘People think that ‘if they can make anti-wrinkle creams, then they can solve my acne problems too.”
An interesting success story is Waterloo, Ont.-based Crazy Plates. Crazy Plates are frozen, ready-to-assemble meals designed for just one or two people who want fresh, healthy food that they can prepare themselves from pre-cut ingredients. ‘It’s cooking from scratch, but we do the scratching,’ declares the logo.
Now sold in Loblaws stores across the province, the product initially wavered. Packages such as ‘Mission Impastable’ and ‘Stir Crazy’ (a one-dish chicken stir fry) weighed in at 1.8 kilograms and cost $14. Trimmed down to 1 kg and priced at $10, the stuff is flying off the shelves – largely because it meets the needs of the older adults cooking for one or two people.
‘Truthfully, we were more lucky than we were skilled,’ says David Chilton, author of bestseller The Wealthy Barber and president of Crazy Plates. ‘The products ended up being much better suited to that demographic than we imagined. They want to eat healthy food, they don’t want to cook, and they do not like to microwave dinner.’
Crazy Plates worked with Toronto’s Pirate Radio to produce humorous radio adds featuring product developers Janet and Greta Podleski and their mom. The ads played primarily on Toronto-based AM740, the fastest growing radio station in southern Ontario, now reaching some 535,000 listeners aged 50+.
‘Our commercials really resonated with that age group,’ says Chilton. ‘We went to grocery stores and the girls would have hundreds of people coming up to them asking, ‘which one of you is the loser?’ quoting the ads.’ Chilton anticipates a national launch sometime this year.
While some products can meet needs specific to seniors, not everyone has a good reason to be in this marketplace. Scotiabank, for instance, offers a package of banking services at a discount rate to those over 55, but the group isn’t a crucial advertising target. ‘We certainly research the over 65s, but other than this, we don’t target them as a specific consumer group,’ says Toronto-based VP of financial planning Bruce Armstrong. ‘We found that the main differentiator between 55 and 65 is whether they’ve retired or not.
‘Psychologically speaking, there’s really no difference: very few of them need lending products; credit cards are not a big issue, mortgages are probably paid out; most of them don’t get into debt. It’s really the investment side of our business.’
One straightforward ad campaign speaks to those between aged 65 and 69 about what they’re going to do with their RRSPs. Direct mail pieces go out with large type, but other than that, the communication is generic to Scotiabank’s marketing style. Armstrong calls this campaign ‘moderately successful,’ adding that, outside of that event, ‘it’s fairly difficult to do any acquisition at that age. They don’t change their habits very quickly or often, not like a younger person who may be moving or changing jobs.’
However, there are opportunities for companies to reach out to older consumers without changing their product offerings significantly. Maureen Maclachlan, president of Vancouver-based Age Matters Communications, specializes in marketing housing developments for seniors.
‘Across the board there are products that may be geared to a younger market or a middle-aged market but are going to do well in the older consumer market as well. Case in point: car designers have improved the design of cars for adults in terms of safety features, comfort and so on. It’s also working for the older market.
‘The shoe market – they are constantly bringing out more shoes that are comfortable. We think of them as being geared to kids but if you look at the number of adults who wear good runners, they’ve benefited as well. Nike a few years ago came out with one of the first watches that had a lens that would magnify the time. For seniors, they are really useful.’
Maclachlan uses the term ‘universal design’ and thinks that this could be a growth area for marketers. She also has advice for those targeting elder people directly.
‘If you talk to a 75-year-old, they want to enjoy life, they want to be active, they want to be hooked into community and family and be connected. Building relationships and maintaining relationships is a very high priority. Giving back to the community and their families is really important. Feeling that they are understood and that you as a manufacturer understand their needs and where they’re at is really important, and that’s no different than any other market segment.’
Then again, Maclachlan isn’t convinced that marketers – or their target audience – are going to drop the coveted youth market anytime soon, tracing society’s infatuation with youth back to the Roman era.
‘I think somewhere there’s a balance that needs to be achieved where ads have a variety of different age groups just like we put in a variety of ethnic groups.’
