MINI CASE STUDY 5

MINI CASE STUDY 5.2 Marketing: Smoking Out Images of Pipes And SlippersSkateboarding, bottom-pinching, crowd-surfing. Hardly activities that are associated with older people, at least in the minds of the advertising industry. More traditionally, the elderly have been depicted as kindly, slightly doddery souls.

But this image is increasingly off the mark. It not only misrepresents the current older generation, it positively alienates them. That can hit sales, which is bad news for business as this ever-increasing groupin the developed world, at leasthas unprecedented spending power. No wonder brand owners from Germany to Japan are so jumpy about getting it wrong.

Some brands have realized that they are missing a trick and are doing something about it. An example is Complans reinvention from a caring, sickbed meal replacement drink to a proactive brand with a sense of humour.

This is where the bottom-pinching comes in. The new packs are covered with cartoon- style illustrations depicting all sorts of lively activities.

Complan effectively gives you a helping hand. So we created a series of tongue-in. cheek vignettes of stereotypical old people doing stereotypical young peoples things such as skateboarding, bungee jumping, and bottom-pinching, explains Richard Murray of brand design agency Williams Murray Hamm.

We didnt want to compound a sense of Complan being for the ageing, the toothless, and the infirm, hence the overall cheery look.

It is too early to say whether the new look is successful as packs are only just starting to appear in stores. But, according to all the recent research into this age group, it seems to be speaking the right language.

From Age Concern in the UK, to Focalyst in the US, the message is that the pipe-and- slippers connotations may have been appropriate for the old folk of yesteryear, but things have changed.Traditionally, marketers have divided up their target markets by age, and marketing for the old has been serious and problem-related, pandering to their perceived fears and needs.Clearly, the classic Ive fallen down and cant get up! imagery just wont work any more, says Heather Stern, director of marketing and client development at Focalyst, a joint venture between AARP Services and research firm The Kantar Group, focusing on understanding baby boomers and 50-plus consumers.The difference is that in the 1950s, todays 50- and 60-year-olds were the first teenagers, and as such are no carbon copies of their own ageing parents.

In January, Focalyst will reveal research which identifies the segments or niches within this age group. These are not about age but about different life events, such as becoming a grandparent, finding new love, retirement, getting a new job, or coping with bereavement.

Research from international design consultancy Ideo into this age group backs these findings up. Targeting older people alienates older people, too. Talk to their interests and aspirations, not their age, says Gretchen Addi, human factors specialist at ldeo.

Age, she says, is increasingly an irrelevance. Many 50- and 60-year-old people that I have interviewed are healthier than some 30-year-olds, so again, age is not the card to play.

So advertising and marketing that instead highlights these life events is becoming more popular. Saetchi & Saatchi campaign for Ameriprise Financial in the US focuses on the idea that the baby boomer generation will approach retirement very differently to previous generations. Instead of using actors, Saatchi & Saatchi featured true stories of people from that generation, in an attempt to demonstrate their individuality.Using real people in advertising can also avoid bland stereotypes. This has worked for Unilevers Dove skincare brand, with its Real Beauty campaign by Ogilvy & Mather featuring some women with grey hair.Older celebrities, too, are not living up to the ageing stereotypes, and that makes them ideal spokespeople for this generation. US-based Fidelity Investments, for example, has appointed Paul McCartney as spokesperson. This may strike some consumers as a bizarre move for the ex-Beatle, but with his second wife and new baby, Mr. McCartney is seen as a realistic example of a 20th century man in his 60s.Complan has also gone for the older spokespeople. Three former members of the 1970s dance troupe Pans People, now in their 50s, have been signed up as the face of Complans funkier sub-brand, Complan Active.High-profile examples are few and far between, however. According to Age Concerns report, How Ageist is Britain, half of those surveyed thought that those responsible for advertising and sales literature took no notice of older people.

But not all the blame for older people being ignored and patronized can be laid at the feet of the advertising and marketing industries. They may have a lot of moneythey represent 50 per cent of total consumer spending in the USbut they are not always in a rush to spend it.

As Simon Silvester, executive planning director at Young & Rubicam Emea, says: When it comes to innovations, people over 35 are slower to get into them. It pays to put money into people when theyre young and reap the brand benefits through brand loyalty.

He sees this as a particular problem in Germany, where the emergence of an ageing population has happened very quickly and people over 35 have become very conservative. They want the same things for less money, he says, while in Japan, people over 35 dont get into new technology and their focus is about getting more for less.

But the biggest change for the ad industry to embrace is that the so-called grey market is no minority group. By 2041, more than 20 m people in the UK will be over 60or 37 per cent of the population.

It used to be that the grey market was the niche market, says Mr Silvester, but now its more mainstream, and the upshot is that youth has become the niche.