Madonna, Mum and Dad

I was enjoying a meeting yesterday when the subject of the ‘grey’ pound came up. “Good idea – get the over 50’s in our target audience matrix” came the cry!

I sensed we had a problem.

Stats from Age Concern show that as much as 40% (£260bn) of total UK annual consumer spending can be attributed to the UK over 50s. In 2003 one in three people in the UK were aged 50+ and by 2031 this is predicted to rise to two-fifths. There are already more people aged 60+ than are aged 0-14. People aged 50-65 spend twice as much on leisure and entertainment as under-30s The over 50s buy 80% of all top of the range cars, 50% of skincare products and 80% of leisure cruises. Go mum and dad! And Madonna!

There is no doubt it is a very valuable segment, but also a very large and diverse segment. This is not an audience that can be seen as a homogenous group. To generalize is to surely miss out.
Do marketers understand this? Of course many do but that doesn’t seem to stop advertising often falling short. I spotted some research from The Leadership Factor research panel that showed how the 0ver 50s believe marketers treat them. The findings showed room for improvement (!):

• 55% said ‘patronising


• 29% said ‘old fashioned / technophobes
  
• Only 16% said intelligent / discerning

The same research also looked into the different product categories that are pushed towards this age group. As the chart shows they would rather hear about cars and travel than life assurance or dentures!

So it looks like the message is clear -- more thought needs to go into segmenting and targeting Madonna and her 50+ peers!! How? That's up to you - it's time for the pub now …..