Ageless marketing
“Around the onset of midlife, people often amaze themselves by having the courage to make dramatic changes in their lives that earlier in life they couldn’t have imagined making. This is often seen in midlife marital breakups. “My God, she and George did what?...They Split?...Pat just walked out?...No she’d never do that.” But it is not newfound courage that let Pat do something in midlife that shocked her family and friends. It is more likely the weakening of peer influences and of urges to impress others that freed her to make life-changing decisions. Her persona—her social mask—is dissolving. People begin a search for the real self after years of catering to the needs of the social self.”
“Marketers create product messages promising young people a wide range of satisfying experiences spanning the gamut in youthful lifestyles. However, in marketing to retirees, too much focus is placed on ceaseless empty “fun,” carefree lifestyles, services that promote dependency, and on sundry soulless experiences that dull the mind or are only for the dull of mind. Life satisfaction does not come from self-indulging activities or from being waited on at every turn. It comes from living a life of purpose and meaning.”
“A major difference in marketing in the past and the present is that when the young dominated the marketplace, brand definition was a group exercise. Today, the more individuated New Customer Majority makes brand definition more personal and idiosyncratic.”
“They will resist entreaties to abandon a brand to which they are deeply attached. But they will abandon a brand in a New York minute when it fails their expectations of the customer experience and another brand seems likely to do better.”