Beautifully mature and ready to spend up
OPINION: The baby boomer generation is still exhibiting that boundary-busting approach to life that they had back when some of them were rebels in the 1960s and 1970s, and it looks like the world of marketing is catching on.
In what I call the ‘‘Marigold Hotel syndrome’’, suddenly being over 60 is trendy and fun.
And with their pensions, savings and capital gains on property, these boomers have got money and marketers are focusing on them in a style we’ve never seen before.
Last year, Karen Walker used older models in her ‘‘Beautiful Mature’’ marketing campaign, when she featured the hands of 93-year-old Phyllis Sues and 78-year-old Roberta Haze to promote her jewellery line.
Dame Kate Harcourt – the actress who turned 90 years old last week – looked stunning, dripping in dazzling blue tanzanite jewels for a Partridge Jewellers 150th anniversary advertisement.
Overseas, actress Lauren Hutton, 73, is modelling for Calvin Klein and 88-year-old Daphne Selfe, who started modelling in 1949, has reappeared recently in the fashion pages of The Guardian and British Vogue.
We’ve long been used to seeing older people in adverts for health and car insurance, retirement homes and funeral cover. Now we’re getting used to seeing older models gracing the front of magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar and becoming a regular feature at Paris catwalk shows.
Meanwhile, Netflix and Amazon are developing content specifically targeted at the baby boomer market.
A survey found that 80 per cent of boomer respondents said marketers were getting either the message or the offer wrong.
This group might be older, but they are refusing to melt into a grey and beige world. They have disposable income and a clear view on how they want to spend their money.
My granny lived to 103 and boy, did she have strong opinions. She also had a bit of money and she liked spending it; some of it was spent on us but also on things she enjoyed, including some rather strange gizmos she saw on telly.
Variously referred to as the ‘‘salt-and-pepper pound’’, ‘‘silver spenders’’ and the ‘‘third age economy’’, over-50s customers account for 47 per cent of consumer spending in the United Kingdom. The figure is much the same in the United States, where over-50s account for about half the country’s total spend on consumer packaged goods – things with a short shelf life like toiletries, overthe-counter drugs and food.
Travel and cars are also areas where these older consumers are happy to spend.
The proportion of New Zealand’s population aged 65-plus is projected to increase from 14 per cent in 2013 to 23 per cent in 2043.
That generation is digitally literate, which means they can be targeted online using demographic and psychographic information.
But while this growing market has money, marketers, it seems, are still struggling to hit the right notes in getting through to them.
A survey by marketing agency Influent50 found that 80 per cent of boomer respondents said marketers were getting either the message or the offer wrong. Maybe slapping a Rolling Stones song on an ad with a grey-haired model doesn’t cut the mustard?
That’s changing. Agencies are popping up specifically to cater for this age group. They’re probably made up of once-young marketers who are now repackaging themselves for niche experts.
There’s even one in Auckland, Senioragency, part of a global chain that calls boomers ‘‘the most influential generation ever’’.
I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next as marketers and magazines inch away from teenagers with sullen expressions into a much more diverse world.
Sue Allen has worked in journalism, communications, marketing and brand management for 15 years.