Time for Aging Tributes?
In 1984, I opened a company call Phoenix Systems, Inc. in Sioux Falls. It was one of the first marketing consultancies in the country focusing on the potential of an aging market place. Shortly after opening the company, Rick Lingberg became my business partner. For the next 15 years, we served many business and organizations throughout the U.S. as well as the greater Sioux Empire. We share this history to provide some context.
While having many satisfied clients, I sometimes feel that what we proved was that there is very little money in being ahead of you time. One of the projects that demonstrated this was a joint venture with Sioux Valley Hospital, now a part of the Sanford Healthcare. The materials received numerous awards, and were licensed by multiple organizations for use as either a public service announcement or part of a marketing campaign. We also created supporting materials such as print ads, calendars, etc. While rewarding, the overall acceptance of the campaign was disappointing.
The joint venture involved the creation of a series of public service announcement focusing on Positive Aging. We called the series “Tributes to Aging®” and profiled icons who had considerable success well into their 80’s and beyond.
These spots featuring Grandma Moses and Michaelangelo provide a sample of this upbeat campaign that was licensed by multiple organizations throughout the country that added their own tag line and logo to the ads. Sadly, too many organizations, then and now, do not fully understand the potential an aging market place offers; nor do they understand how to communicate with them.
While we are now entering two decades where old consumers outnumber those under 18 for the first time in history, the media, ad agencies, marketing strategists, and businesses continue to ignore the aging market. Instead, there is a myopic focus on aging “Boomers” as if they were mutants with totally unique needs, wants and desires. Sure they shared some unique events and life challenges, as did every previous generation. The sheer size is what made baby boomers seem unique as this “pig in the python” demographic impacted each life stage as they aged.
When Landon James coined the term Baby Boomer in his book, Great Expectations: America and Baby Boom in 1980, he was referring to a demographic phenomenon and how it would impact the country. I doubt he intended his use of the term baby boomer to be a label for 76 million people born over 18 years. Others such as Yankelovich Inc. in the 1960’s and author Sylvia Porter in 1951 used the term. The term was picked up by the media and a few authors and consultants and popularized over the past three decades. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand that they will not all become older consumers at the same time or in the same way. Few were at Woodstock, lived in communes and protested the Viet Nam war. No doubt a like number listened to country music, went to church every Sunday and served in the military.
Just as the vast majority of advertising agencies never learned to successfully market to older adults; they are likely to fail with aging Boomers as well if they make the mistake to focusing on Boomer myths and legends rather that shared lifestage values. Wouldn’t it make sense to focus on the shared values of an aging population rather than one segment? Learn to adapt marketing approaches to appeal across generations? These are just a few of the questions we will address in future articles.
For now, we invite you to join us in paying tribute to your current and growing number of aging consumers by viewing later life for all its potential rather decline and loss. Media images and general misconceptions have resulted in negative aging stereotypes and a culture of ageism that generally goes unchallenged. The winners in the coming decades will be those embracing the power of ageless marketing and advertising principles. Of course, if you are interested in learning more about the Tributes to Aging series for your business or organization, we would love to hear from you. Maybe the time is now right.
