Marketing to the over 50s. Time to get rid of those damn stereotypes surely?

Not everyone over 50 is "old" and stuffy

I have just beem looking at a leaflet for a marketing conference promising to provide “practical tools and new insight into engaging the over 50s through intelligent segmentation and tailored messages”.

It sounds promising, exciting and revolutionary. But when I looked at where they were looking to source the speakers from, it all felt like was defaulting into stereotypes. Catalogue home shopping, BUPA (private medical aid), insurance and Visit Guernsey. No top technology companies, no leading social media, no adventure holiday companies, no designer and lifestyle brands and stores.

What the hell?

As an over 50, admittedly only 2 years over, I am by far ahead of most of the “younger” crowd at work when it comes to the gadgets, use of digital tools and the internet. I am the first to try new technology and stuff. One reason is mindset, but also have disposable income and time that younger people around me with families just do not have. I am not the only one. Why do the over 50s have to be seen as slipper wearing, doddery and old fashioned. I see many people on their 50s heading off on sabbaticals and “gap years”. This means risk, this means adventure, this means exploration.

To really get insights and finding out how to engage over 50s, surely the best is to look at the big brands and how much of their business is actually over 50 and look at how their young, youthful and positive activities attract that group. Reinforcing knitted jumpers and slow country walks is not going to give new insights...




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Even dogs in a dog shelter need to understand the principes of good communication! ThinkBox teaches this old marketing dog some new tricks..

Harvey cooks - as in the ThinkBox TV ad

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I was watching the main commercial channel in the UK (ITV1), and they had on one of those "best ads of the year" shows on - as voted for by 8000 of their viewers. What is impressive is that the TV industry ad that promotes the use of TV advertising was chosen by viewers as the best ad.

Interesting that the TV industry managed to create an ad to promote use of TV advertising, so really targeted at clients was loved by consumers. Which also probably reinforces another view of mine that you try and approach your advertising with a consumer, not a marketer hat on..

And it is a great ad. The ad is by ThinkBox. At the time the ad came out this is what I wrote about it:
I love the new THINKBOX TV ad. Thinkbox is the organization that promotes the use of TV by advertisers in the UK. Their new ad shows a couple going to a dog shelter to find a new dog. All are cute. All are appealing. All you want. But one stands out. Watch the ad:

What really struck me was not about using TV as such, BUT the bigger point that YOU NEED TO STAND OUT WHEN COMPETING! Many products and services are largely the same, no matter what category you are in.


You must be different. You must stand out. You must be remembered. You must have appeal and a connection.


It seems this is true even for dogs in a dog shelter! They are all cute, appealing, and the target is actively seeking to "buy". But one stood out.


I also love that the client bought this. It is wacky, charming, funny, watchable and memorable. And gets the message across. Thanks to THINKBOX for something to make us smile and learn at the same time..It seems you can keep teaching this old marketing dog some new tricks....


This is the official stuff about the ad from Thinkbox: Thinkbox's second TV ad has been created by The Red Brick Road and directed by multi-award winning director Andy McLeod of Rattling Stick. Starring the multi-talented and extremely smart Harvey, it's designed to show, in an engaging way, the power of TV advertising to affect people's decisions. Whereas Thinkbox's first ad focused on television's ability to create long-term memories, and hence value, for brands; the new one is essentially about TV driving instant success in a competitive market.

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7 things I learnt from the best boss I ever had in marketing about being successful.

Recently, I have been thinking about the very best boss I ever had in my marketing career to date and what I had learnt from him.

I realised that a lot of what I try and do (not always successfully) has been heavily influenced by him over the years. So here is my attempt to identify what I learnt and what makes a great marketing leader (and as he now runs one of the biggest and most admired companies for marketing I suspect that he was very right).

(1) Make people feel they are part of something big, special and incredibly exciting. Set a clear vision. Make it exciting and a bit thrilling. Abd a little bit scary even!

Sales, share and profit are not exciting. They are the results and outcomes. Ensure your teams feel they are part of something that will make a difference. Set an inspiring vision about why people should follow you and what you are trying to achieve.

(2) Encourage diversity. Actively work to get as much differences as you can across your team

Make it alright to be different. People that challenge the status quo are the winners. All to often the middle round and common denominator succeed and survive in large organizations. But across very successful organizations it is the ones that challenge the status quo that are the winners.

(3) Only ever recruit and have people on your team that you not only would like to work for one day – but really expect to.

You must find people who you know are smarter, faster and more creative than you. Remember you win by your people winning!

One day they will be very nice to you when you work for them!

(4) Delegate. Properly. You do not know all the answers. Ever.

Set a clear vision, set a clear way you will assess successful outcomes and then let people get on with it. Be a mentor, a sounding board and a guiding hand. Let go by letting people know the boundaries they can operate in. Do not confuse delegation with abdicating...!

Never assume you know the best and right answer. You don’t, but you have people who probably do and will.

By letting people who work for you make decisions, you increase the chances of success. They have to make things work, they can’t syndicate the risk or blame you. If you trust their judgement they will go the extra mile to make it work.

Nothing makes people work harder and be more loyal when they know you are taking a risk on their decisions and judgement.

(5) Celebrate success, and also openly celebrate failures.

There is no gain without pain. If you never have failures you probably will never win big time as you are not pushing boundaries.

(6) Remember that the good guys always win – in the end. Take the moral high ground. Have principles and encourage and reward honesty.

Create a culture where there is no fear, so people tell you early when things are going wrong or may be an issue.

Know that you have always done and made your team what is right, even if it means less sales or profit. The good guys always win in the end. In the short term cutting corners or taking risks on quality, environment and so on may give a short term boost – but it is wrong finally. Know you are doing the right thing. Always.


(7) Move fast and decisively when people are not delivering.

Everyone knows who they are. Hoping they get better and stalling. Everyone respects decisive and clear action on people. Just do it with honour and openness. Everyone has a strength. Help them find it and embrace it and then help them pursue it. Within or outside the company. They will one day come back and thank you for it.


I need to make sure I remember all of these and although I try and work to them, it is easy to drift!

Thoughts?



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Rafael Nadal and Armani. Australian surfers and Aussiebum. What can near naked men teach us about good marketing?

What can we learn from Christiano Ronaldo in Armani underwear?

Despite all of the many postings and musings on branding, marketing and digital on this blog, by far the most popular and read postings are the ones about naked and semi-naked men and footballers in advertising.

Though the postings do make some serious points about what we can learn from a marketing and communication perspective, it also proves the point that a lot of people like looking at buff men in their underwear (or less). And as people do like to look at them, then marketers and agencies will keep showing more and more of them. Even bloggers like me will find ways to keep writing about them, as they attract attention and traffic to sites and blogs. So it seems that sex sells. An eternal truth!

But what else can we learn?

In previous posts (links at the end of this posting) I have explored some implications. But there is one additional though that has struck me as I see the increasing volume of naked and semi-naked men selling brands. They are all starting to blend into buff men in pants. They are no longer as distinctive, they are no longer differentiated, they are no longer unique.

So what is one to learn and then do when buff men in pants all look the same? Do what any good marketer should do and think about what can be done to be unique, differentiated and distinctive. Think about how to stand out in the crowd of sameness. It is all too easy to follow the trend, you need to think about how you stand out and bring something unique.

Years ago Calvin Klein probably was the one label that stood out when they started to use buff men shot in stylish black and white, flirting occasional with celebrities like Marky Mark. But largely at the time they were the first to show men in underwear in a different way to the Jockey underpants catalogue style imagery. They were fresh, they were unique, they were different, they stood out, they changed the rules of the category. They were successful.

Now they look like everyone else in the category. Everyone is doing the same thing pretty much.

I think there are 2 brands in the space that are showing how you can be in a cluttered and busy market, and find ways to stand out and be different – but still play to the category expectations. I think we can all learn from them, even if we don’t want or need semi-naked men in our communication!

The 2 brands are Armani and the Australian underwear and swimwear company called Aussiebum.

Armani are using iconic sportsmen like Rafael Nadal

Armani has stolen a march in the category by using famous, style setting, young and successful sportsmen with a really global profile. They used David Beckham, Ronaldo and then Rafael Nadal. They manage to associate not only fit and aspirational physiques (which all brands now do) but also give the brand a sense of style, success and maleness by borrowing from their sportsmen’s success and imagery. By using icons from sport they borrow other attributes and imbue their brand with them. In a category where pretty much the products are the same, with a fancy label on them, this added brand connection and imagery is key and unique.

Aussiebum uses Australian surfer and lifeguard imagery

Aussiebum have done something similar. In their case, they play up and borrow extensively from a stereotype of the fit, athletic, beach and sea loving Australian male stereotype. They always show imagery of men who seem to be lifeguards, surfers or associated with them, on the beach and in the sea. Instantly you can recognise an Aussiebum image. But, interestingly and importantly, while the men are all ticking the criteria of fitness, you tend to see the situation and the imagery and the context. They borrow and imbue the brand with that world. This makes them own this and all the positive associations that come with it. It is unique, it is distinctive and stands out from the many other brands.

So once again we can learn from naked men in their pants. You need to stand out in a crowd. Being fit and looking good in next to nothing is not enough when everyone else is also looking that way. You need to be distinctive, unique, differentiated and own something. I believe that this technique of “borrowing” imagery and associations from someone or something is very powerful. Bringing to your brand positive associations from someone (e.g. iconic sportsmen) or something else (e.g. Australian beach scene/ lifeguards) relevant can make your brand have relevance and a competitiveness by osmosis as it were.

What do you think? Leave you thoughts and comments on the blog, Facebook page or Twitter..

My other postings on naked and near naked men and what we can learn:

http://www.garybembridge.com/2008/04/is-it-just-me-or-are-there-more-naked.html

http://www.garybembridge.com/2010/08/naked-and-near-naked-footballers-is-it.html

Rafal Nadal romping about in underwear and jeans for Armani:



Christiano Ronaldo commercial for Armani:




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BRANDS HITTING ECONOMIC TURBULENCE! WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM AIRLINE PILOTS?

Photo used under Creative Commons. By http://www.flickr.com/photos/lockergnome/27276309/

At a recent trends presentation I attended by the market research house Nielsen talking about mass market grocer trends, they made a few points that are of note and importance I felt. And also were a bit of a surprise too...


The basic premise and analogy given was that we are going through a period of “turbulence” economically, and they argued that if an airline captain reacted the way that retailers and manufacturers are reacting to turbulence, you would find yourself on a very scary, wild and irrational flight! One that would be overly dramatic and very unpleasant. An airline captain when entering turbulence would ask passengers to buckle up and make some fairly limited adjustments to the high or direction and get through it without too much drama and upset.


However, what retailers and manufacturers seem to be doing is wild and over exaggerated movement and adjustments. The point they were making is that if you look at trends over time you would not do that at all, but focus on the core key fundamentals that the trends show. And ride out the turbulence with a clear focus on the destination ahead.


There were 3 key factors and trends that stood out to me that support their view on the best approach:


1: Consumers tend to shop where they always shop, and there is huge inertia and not dramatic shifts taking place in where they are shopping for groceries and related items. The key factors affecting this are the strength of the retailer brand and what is stands for in the shopper’s mind and location. They argue that retailers need to focus on having a clear and differentiated brand story and proposition for their chain and stores, above and beyond just price.


2: There is no data showing that shoppers change their favoured store due only to promotions, but they do look at and seek out promotions in their preferred store. This did resonate with me as a shopper. It shows the importance of constantly improving and looking at how you offer value and keep interest in the brand to get repeat and loyalty. Or shoppers may jump to and from what is on deal.


3: Private label gains share at the expense of smaller and 2nd tier brands. The market leader with a clear proposition and support tends to be affected least. It shows the important of having a strong brand, strong offer and differentiated offer that you support and reinforce. Or consumers will drift into the private label offer as they will start to seem better value, or price will start to drive choice as offers are seen as less differentiated and more similar.


Some interesting thoughts, about how it is important to focus on the good practices and core fundamentals of branding and building brands – even in times of turbulence.


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