Later Life’s Cresta Run

I went to see a Bill Bailey show recently and he noted, sardonically, that he had recently received a survey where he had to tick the dreaded 60+ box. Why, he mused, is there plenty of distinction in age bands pre 60 but none beyond 60? Boom. No relevant info to impart after that? Do we all look the same? Does anybody care? Game over? Great…

And that kinda sums it up; the Baby Boomer audience (61-79 if we are being more specific) are a fascinatingly misunderstood breed.

Let’s start with the wider profile that we have developed: forged during times of economic fluctuation, liberal self-expression and major societal change, the more affluent survivors of this generation are both demanding and challenging, with a flourishing imaginative, self-confident sense of individuality.

​They’ve been around the block, emotionally and intellectually grounded. They feel safe and that they belong in society. Generally happy, and satisfied with their lives and their relationships, they generally feel the things they are doing in life are worthwhile and come across as less anxious, and lonely than younger generations.

Baby boomers aren’t fools and don’t suffer them gladly either. They are tolerant and trusting where it matters, forming part of the most ethnically diverse society in Europe. They’re increasingly likely to be of colour themselves, and as they scamper past the age of 80, many of them will be female, the males having shot their bolt.

No different to others of all ages, they’re concerned about their natural environment and the existential challenges their societies face and recognise they have a role in doing something about it. They never have been shirkers. The question is more ‘what’ to do?

Increasingly still working, they’ve carved out a work/life balance that suits their lifestyle. Retirement can be an obsolete concept in this tribe.

Growing up in the extravagant age of consumerism, they were fundamentally shaped by it. They continue to buy things for themselves to look good, feel good, but also increasingly to do good. Their hierarchy of needs is changing.

Exactly, you get the picture; with changing needs comes different priorities and that can have a big bearing on what marketing messages do and do not resonate.

Now, we have a beautiful segue back to survey land…where we have spent considerable time looking into this audience with a much tighter range of age bands and specifically the relevance of marketing messages.

And what they shared with us is a huge sense of frustration, of being patronised by communication that shows a lack of appreciation or attention, of marketing campaigns that fail to understand their ‘normality’ and individuality beyond the stereotypes.

At Humbug, our mission, via our unique proprietary insight, is to really challenge nay smash such crass stereotypes and to help marketing folks to think again about how to engage this valuable audience.

So, firstly let’s get into the mindset of the East Asian sexagenary cycle and assume far from being game over…life does indeed begin again at 60, or Kanreki as the Japanese term it.

In which case you can imagine a whole series of key life events that might, over the next 20+ years of your life (coz the average life expectancy is 80+), have a significant impact on your marketing behaviour.

And that’s exactly what we have done; gathered from our proprietary survey and together with academic and industry scientists we’ve mapped the relationship between age and 20+ key life events, along with factors such as their likely disposable income, social values, health and wellbeing, brand trust, and engagement with advertising per se. Consequently, you can understand at a much deeper level what influences your customers purchase decisions and target your advertising accordingly.

It will be of no surprise…that some of these key life events are positive and some negative, but what it does do is validate that it’s a truly dynamic stage of life…one that is full of twists and turns. So many in fact that we’ve named our whizzo planning tool Later Life’s Cresta Run!

Yeah, there are some in the key life event list that you might expect, such as retirement, but clearly a whole lot more which you might not have considered. Is the ‘bucket list’ really that significant a driver of behaviour or one of those stereotypes?

It’s self-evident that some of us may experience more of these key life events than others and that there is no standard route, it’s a multivariant sequence.

Humbug can help to contextualise this via a simple report highlighting where your customers are likely to be versus the 20+ key live events we know have, are, or will happen to them between the ages of 55 and 80.  How these might impact on their spend and engagement with advertising.

So, you can consider more personalised communication (coz that’s what we increasingly expect), when and how to change advertising messaging to be more effective based on their circumstances.

Which given the potential customer lifetime value over a 20+ year period might be worth considering?

Do you want more know-how?

Contact tim@bahhumbugs.co.uk or quentin@bahhumbugs.co.uk

By Tim Birchinall