Ignoring the Truth - Jerry Shereshewsky - MediaBizBloggers

Welcome Jerry Shereshewsky our newest MediaBizBlogger

It is amazing to me that otherwise smart advertising and marketing people can simply decide to ignore the truth, even when it is staring them in the face.

The February 8, 2010 Advertising Age quotes Burger King CEO John Chidsey describing the company's "Superfans" during an earnings call with investors last week: "It's not just 18-to-34-year-old males … interestingly, over 29% are 50 years of age or older."

What Burger King now knows about its customers is also true about virtually every category imaginable. But Burger King and most other major marketers are simply ignoring this data and focusing ever larger shares of their efforts against the (smaller) Millennial cohort.

But a legitimate question can be asked: Why are marketers ignoring at least one-third of their market? McKinsey points out the 50+ market generates 41 percent of disposable income. They buy 60 percent of all packaged goods and more than half of all new cars. They spend 75 percent more on vacations than younger audiences. And a majority of them feel that advertising and marketing either portrays them negatively, or ignores them altogether. But why? Why would the advertising and marketing community willfully ignore all this opportunity? It has been said that if horses and oxen had hands and could draw pictures, their gods would look remarkably like horses and oxen. Agency and client executives, Baby Boomers all, imagine the world looking like they did, and the twenty-something and thirty-something writers, art directors, media planners, and brand managers imagine the world looking like they do. And all of them are ignoring the truth.

There is a belief that older consumers are tech laggards. Hah! When CDs were introduced and the players cost $700 and the discs more than $20, the very first customers were 50+ males. Same with personal computers, cell phones, PDAs, etc., etc. (I'll bet dinner that a disproportionate share of iPad buyers will be Boomers. This was certainly true for Amazon's game-changing Kindle.) Only when the price comes way, way down (along with the margins) do the younger segments buy in. This "older" audience simply had the money and the interest to try something new. And, in terms of online behavior, the 49 to 64 group is virtually indistinguishable from any of the younger cohorts in terms of percent online, hours spent, etc.

Of course, I have a vested interest in changing this. As the CEO of Grandparents.com, I labor daily to convince folks that their self-interest and financial success lie in devoting a portion of their marketing efforts to the largest, wealthiest, and smartest consumers out there. And category by category, really smart marketers are beginning to do this.

But even if I wasn't so biased, I know this to be true: Gaining one share point among Boomers is worth the same as gaining 1.3 share points among Millennials. The cohort is that much bigger. And did I also say richer? So ignoring the truth has, as your mother no doubt told you, some very real costs.

Jerry Shereshewsky is CEO of grandparents.com; a lifestage website for the baby boomer grandparents of today and tomorrow. Jerry can be reached at jhs@grandparents.com