Marketing to the Over-50s. Why we don't!

The following article was written by Melanie Haslam, planning partner of rhc advantage. It first appeared in Admap magazine in October 2002. However, as the points it makes are still valid, it seems like a good way to start this blog. More, more topical, news and views will follow.

Marketing to the Over-50s. Why we don't!

Despite the fact that the over 50s hold 80% of the nation’s wealth, have a higher disposable income than the under 50s, and comprise nearly 40% of adults aged over 15 (and rising), the marketing and advertising community is transfixed by the under 50s. 90% of marketing spend goes there. This spend is fighting for a highly competitive and thus expensive share of an increasingly less important market, leaving the other largely uncontested.

So why do we ignore the over 50s market?
It is a fundamental paradox in our society that despite growing numbers of older people and with increased life expectancy, the value placed on old age has actually diminished. The reasons are various and raise a number of fundamental issues about the way we regard ageing and being old. There is the social context to consider; the cultural, financial and political perspective. But also the personal context - that is to understand our own feelings about becoming and being old. They both colour our judgement. We highlight some of these….

The historical and social context
Mass old age is actually a new phenomenon. At the beginning of this century most of us would have been dead or worn out by the time we got to 40 or 50. Most of us would have died of disease or accident, not ‘natural causes’. There used to be a status in reaching a ripe old age, of having "defied the odds". However now the queen’s 100 year anniversary telegram no longer makes the news; instead the numbers of older people, now so much more visible, are regarded as an economic burden to society, and potentially a (guilty) personal burden to individuals.

The loss of this ‘scarcity value’ in part explains why older people have also lost their natural roles as leaders and teachers in society. In more traditional societies, especially those still based on an oral tradition, older people carry the history, knowledge and wisdom of their tribe, and are therefore the natural leaders and teachers. This is also a critical role they play within the extended family, caring for and guiding the grandchildren. Experience and knowledge were a basis of respect handed down through the generations.

In more religious societies, such as in the East, age is associated not only with secular but also with spiritual wisdom, of somehow being closer to God. Being older is seen as part of the rite of passage to the next stage of what will hopefully be a better life. The rise of secularism, our loss of belief in an after life, has radically impacted on our attitudes towards this life. Significantly, rather than being an integral part of life, part of a new beginning even, old age and death are now seen an end. In part out of our own fear, in part out of distaste, we therefore prefer to disassociate ourselves from both, to hide them away.

Whilst we find it difficult to admit, our avoidance of the over 50’s is also a reflection of our own ambivalence towards, and indeed fears about, our own ageing process. We unconsciously associate old age with decay. We fear the possible lack of control and the loss of independence. We fear too the idea of being ill, alone, of being poor. Ultimately we avoid accepting the reality of our old age.

The dominance of youth culture
Part of the response to these trends is to live in a society increasingly dominated by a focus on external appearance, and the mores and values of youth. The pressure to remain looking and feeling young is huge – hence the explosion of interest in Viagra and cosmetic surgery. We might hold Cher and Joan Collins up as icons of older people, but we essentially define their success in terms of how young they look. Those other older people we do admire, whether politicians, marketing moguls or pop stars, are generally taken as exceptions rather than the rule. We do not translate their example and success into a broader context.

Instead we have developed stereotypes of older people as being conservative, stuck in rut, traditional. Indeed so much so we see the attributes of style, discernment and fashion almost as the rights of youth alone, as almost distasteful in the older generation ("mutton dressed as lamb"?). Indeed not only do we chose to ignore older people but negative stereotyping is actually getting worse. It has been written into the language; "dirty old" and "boring old". It has also found physical form and reinforcement in the drama and entertainment we watch, from Alf Garnett through to Victor Meldrew.

A new perspective
At the macro level these trends are reflected by the failure of successive governments to get to grips with fundamental financial and social issues over pensions, health and long term care. While at a corporate and business level it reflects a strategic failure to plan ahead and reconsider the allocation of resources, and compounds the misplaced belief that all progress and innovation should be driven by the young.

So it is hardly surprising that our older members in society feel misunderstood, under-valued, ignored, misrepresented, stereotyped. The over 50’s live longer than ever, live more active lives than ever before, and are in fact mentally and physically 10 years ‘younger’ than they were 10 years ago. They have money to spend, more time to use, and needs as ‘single’ people without children again. They are undergoing fundamental change in terms of lifestage and lifestyle, in terms of inevitable physical, mental and emotional change, which provide opportunities for new products and services.

More importantly they are people, who are on line, who start new businesses, who buy new cars, who spend money on luxury personal products, on toiletries and cosmetics, who participate in sport regularly, who travel, and begin to learn new things. It is inevitable they will become more demanding and develop a stronger voice. The surprise is that it has been so long in coming.

However getting to grips with defining and marketing to the over 50’s is actually more complex than to their younger counterparts. The over 50’s are an economically diverse group with unequal disposable income. They are more individualistic, and less ‘tribally’ driven than younger consumers. Their innate disposition and attitude towards life becomes magnified as they get older. And most importantly, age per se is not defining. Rather it is the attitudes and feelings towards ageing - the actual process of ageing itself and people’s coping strategies – which varies and provides a means of differentiating between individuals.

Longer term the way forward is to ignore the calendar and consider chronological age as increasingly less important. It is also to question the notion of ageing; in society, within our corporate culture, and to question and confront our own personal feelings about the ageing process and what it might mean to us as individuals.

Finally, we should all take the over 50's market more seriously for no other reason than the simple fact that it makes commercial and political common sense. After all, who wants to be the brand manager who has to explain to the chairman why they are ignoring the most lucrative market in the UK, especially when the chances are he or she is one of them.

Melanie Haslam is Planning Partner of rhc advantage, the creative agency for older audiences (www.rhcadvantage.co.uk).

This article first appeared in Admap 432, October 2002.