How To Develop An Ageless Marketing Practice

How to Develop an Ageless Marketing Practice: Eight insights for creating product messages for 40+ markets Though we don't notice it happening -- any more than a child notices that she has grown an inch taller during the summer – changes take place across our full life span in how we process information. A 25-year-old will process the contents of an advertisement markedly different from the way a 50-year-old processes the same ad. With the majority of adults now in their mid-40s and older, marketers are being driven to learn more about how the minds of an age group that was largely ignored in the past work. It is not enough to change the ages of models in ads to effectively arouse the attention of middle age and older consumers. Language style, layout, word pictures and imagery often must be different than what is effective among younger consumers.

Compare the behaviors and reactions between these two market segments:  Younger mind tends to be more responsive to emotionally neutral, objectively framed propositions.  As midlife approaches the mind becomes increasingly responsive to emotional cues. It becomes less responsive to information that is emotionally neutral, at least in the early stages of reacting to an information-set.  The midlife and older mind is more adept at ferreting out deeper metaphorical and psychological meanings. In other words, the older mind gets more with less information than younger minds do.

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Younger minds are more literal, and generally respond better to a language style that is direct and detailed. Younger minds have less tolerance for ambiguity and subtlety, and thus prefer crisp black-and-white renderings of the world. The older people are, the more likely they will be repelled by the absolutism that marks thinking processes of younger minds. Absolutism is an affect of less mature and less autonomous minds. The young often appear to project autonomy in their strident expressions, but in reality they demonstrate considerable dependence by constantly scanning the social and cultural landscape for guidance. In contrast, older people generally depend less on others for guidance. In fact, they tend to resist efforts of others to press unbidden advice on them. And that is what much advertising is: unbidden advice. Older minds are generally more responsive to indirect approaches until such time that trust has been fully gained, at which time, they may actually welcome directness even more than a younger person might. However, until that trust is present, "hard sell" language styles offend their sense of autonomy. They don't want unbidden guidance. This paper identifies eight progressive changes in how middleaged and older minds process information together with tips for taking these changes into account in marketing communications. These eight insights are indeed the foundation for a company’s Ageless Marketing practice that pursues all audiences across generational divides.

Eight insights to understanding how the over 40+ market responds to advertising 1. Less reliance on reason to determine what is of interest, with more reliance on intuition (which is cued by emotional responses). Implications: identify and employ images that promote strong positive emotional responses; relationship building should precede presentation of company and product; relationship potentialities are primarily emotionally inferred ("gut feelings") rather than rationally deduced.

2. First impressions (which are always emotionally based) are more durable and more difficult to reverse than for younger adults. Implications: carefully evaluate message contents for any potential to stimulate negative first impressions. Research indicates that it is more difficult to change the first impressions of older consumers. A good in-house exercise is to set up two teams. The first team is charged with identifying positive images the message might generate, while the second team identifies negative images the message might create. Then, collectively, the two teams decide what should be kept and what should be changed. Keep in mind that the strongest source of negative impressions will most likely be images that conflict with a person's idealized image of self, especially with respect to autonomy and sense of personal validity.

3. After a matter qualifies for interest and further attention, older consumers often want more information than do younger consumers. Implications: create opportunities in product messages to get further information. Once an active selling process has begun, manage the information flow so that emotional cues are present when most advantageous (early in the process), then shift to "hard" or objective information when most advantageous.

4. Decreasing speed in rational processing of objective information. Implications: Deliver objective information (e.g., product benefits and features, technical information, etc.) at a slow to moderate pace. Avoid "jump cuts" and incomplete sentences. Keep in mind that older minds may be quicker in emotionally processing information into conclusive perceptions than younger minds, but they are slower in generating rationally derived perceptions.

5. More resistant to absolute propositions. Implications: present information on company and products in a qualified, even deferential manner. The more mature a person is the more they want to pull information toward them as opposed to having it pushed unbidden at them. A good example of this approach is seen in New Balance shoe ads, which have generally been designed for consumers in their mid-30s and older. The ads play off the brand name, New Balance, with images of consumers striving to put balance in their lives, an experiential aspiration that tends to be stronger in midlife and later than in earlier adulthood.

6. More sensitive to metaphorical meanings, nuances and subtleties. Implications: take advantage of the older mind's increased sensitivity to subtlety to expand the content of the message, especially in terms of core values. Core Values are values that transcend the generic (functional) value of the product. Core Values, which can include everything from company culture to the values of its workers, can expand a product's perceived attractiveness. Word pictures and nonverbal symbols are effective in accomplishing this. An excellent example of this approach is the original series of ads for Saturn created by Hal Riney in which the values of, first, its employees, then of its customers were used to project company values. We have identified 5 Core Values that underlies customer behavior: 1. Identity Values – involving self-preservation, selfawareness and self-image 2. Relationship Values – involving connections to others, institutions and beliefs 3. Purpose Values – involving meaning and validation of one’s life and actions 4. Adaptation Values – involving skills and knowledge necessary to negotiate life 5. Energy Values – involving health and well-being and functionality

7. They are more receptive to narrative-styled presentations of information, less responsive to information presented in expository style. Implications: Make greater use of story-telling techniques to get information across. Stories generally are quicker to arouse

emotions than straightforward propositions about a product's features and benefits. Think Hallmark. Hardly anyone surpasses Hallmark Cards in using storytelling to present its products.

8. Perceptions are more holistic. Implications: Project an interest in the "whole" person, not just the facet of a person's life that might reflect need for a particular product. Also, avoid depicting consumers using a product in flat, single dimension contexts (e.g., simply showing consumers using or talking about the product without reference to the larger context of their total life). Sales Overlays, Inc. is an innovative marketing firm with its roots in direct response. We have served Fortune 500 companies for over 27 years. Our goal is to enable clients to develop an Ageless Marketing practice that reaches consumers across all generational boundaries. Our partner David B. Wolfe is a leading researcher and consultant in the over-40 market. His new book, “Ageless Marketing – Strategies for Reaching the Hearts and Minds of The New Customer Majority,” will be published this fall by Dearborn Press.