No matter how old you are, you’re bound to have had a moment where age wasn’t in your favor. A reference you didn’t recognize, a word you didn’t know- it happens. And when it happens with family or friends, it’s pretty easy to move on. But when age-based disconnects get between your brand and your audience, it’s a trickier beast. There’s much more at stake than improperly used slang: your brand risks irrelevance.
Age is much more than a number: It affects your mentality, knowledge and beliefs. So when you’re planning for a group outside your own age set, you need to really dig into that group’s thoughts and behaviors. Otherwise, you might develop products they don’t want (even if they need them), ads they don’t care about (even if they’re slickly produced) and promotions they don’t like (even if they involve big prizes). Here are a couple of examples to help you see just how much age matters:
Example 1: Behavior Let’s think about personal finance for a minute. Try to remember how you approached money when you were 16. Did you have the same beliefs and practices you do today? I’d guess that the answer is a resounding “no!” When you were 16, you probably had much less money, poor financial literacy and less of a motivation to save your dollars. Quiz time: Should a bank speak to 16 year-olds like it speaks to 40 year-olds? Absolutely not.
Example 2: Perspective This time, think about what you eat. Do you have the same eating habits as your grandpa? I doubt it. He grew up in a different era that had different conceptions of what was “healthy” and what was “normal.” Your own habits have been shaped by the place you were raised and whatever nutrition principles were floating around at the time. And now your quiz: Should a 50-something year-old executive plan snack products for 20-somethings without bothering to research her target? No way.
The problem of generational gaps isn’t unique to marketing, of course. Think about college professors: on a daily basis, they have to relate complex topics to an audience that is distanced in age and expertise. Back in 1998, some professors at Beloit College who felt out of touch created the The Mindset List, a yearly publication about the experiences and beliefs of incoming freshmen. The list’s entries don’t seem too monumental on their own; for example, an entry on this year’s list says that incoming freshmen don’t remember tan M&Ms. But as you scroll through the 75 entries, the sum of the list’s parts begins to resonate. You get a picture of the world these students were raised in and the sorts of experiences that have shaped their minds. Taken line by the line, the list provides a chuckle. But taken as a whole, the list helps you step out of your own frame of reference, and into the students’.
Which is exactly what we try to do when we talk to consumers: We want to get inside their heads. We want to understand what shapes their lives and how they see the world around them. We want to know what feeds into their beliefs and how that dictates their behaviors. We root our work in consumer insight because it’s just so darn important to know where your audience is coming from. After all: Who wants their brand’s main attribute to be “out of touch?”
Felicia Baskin, Strategist
So when it comes to imagery, communications, messaging, naming, etc. – brands may want to hinge on substance over flash. Personally, I think about how this plays out in the auto industry: a lot of mainstay luxury brands flash prestige. But Audi seems to take a slightly quieter path, focusing heavily on engineering and performance, positioning itself as the more demure luxury car. And it’s been working: 2011 and 2012 showed record sales growth for the auto brand.
