Every week the local newspaper puts not only the TV ratings overall, but also the TV ratings for the ‘prime demographic’, whcih they list as 18-45 or such.
I’ve also seen that kind of demographic broke down by age, leaving out the higher end of the middle-aged people, as well as the older crowd.
Why is this? Common sense would indicate that a 50 year old retiring early would have a lot more income than some 18 year old punk straight out of high school. Do older people not buy anything?
They tend not to change their buying patterns. They’ve decided which brand they like and it takes a lot more work to move them off it.
That, and if ten years in various forms of retail have taught me anything it’s that they don’t shop nearly as much or as impulsively as younger people, and when they do it’s often at some discount or another. Unless your product or service caters specifically to that group, they just aren’t where the money’s at.
Les Moonves, the president of CBS, said something similar to this when he was interviewed on Charlie Rose.
Rose basically asked Moonves the same question. Rose said, look, the average 55 year old has a lot more money than the average 24 year old, so why is it that the advertisers all want to reach the 24 year old. Moonves said that 55 year olds are pretty much set in their ways. They know what they like. So advertising is generally less effective with them.
3 things.
As noted, we old farts buy what we’ve always bought - our "brand loyalties’ are set.
Not so in the 20-30 range.
We old farts may have more money, but our big expendures are made - it is the people moving who buy major appliances, furniture, carpet,etc. - and oldies don’t move real often.
Our kids are gone - we no longer participate in the crib-formula-toys-bike-orthodontist-off to college spending extravaganzas
Things are going to get interesting in the TV world now that the medium’s median age is 50. (Accounting for DVRs pushes it all the way down to 49.) What will the advertisers do when it hits 55? 60? 70? Dead?
The other thing that has not been directly addressed here is that 18-40 somethings are in the process of “developing” their buying habits/brand loyalties.
The second purpose of targeting that demographic section is to encourage them to form these preferences early and with great devotion, so that when they are rich old farts, they will keep buying their brand, feeling that it connects them to their roots and youthfulness.
A bit cynical, but this principle has been known and exploited since Olgivy and Olgivy back in the 50’s. I don’t have a cite , but David Olgivy is credited as saying something like “The Jesuits are famous for saying 'Give me a child until they are five years old, and I will have them for life.” - Give Olgivy and Olgivy a chance to get a 25 year old into a Ford, and they will be a “Ford man” all their life!"
Regards
FML
David Ogilvy also said: ‘The consumer is not an idiot - she is your wife’
However, from observation I would say that advertisers chasing the ‘Grey Dollar’ (or in the UK - Grey Pound) have a lot firmer idea of which media work for them.
TV is only part of the advertising mix - and it is expensive and pretty untargetted.
You can’t take it with you. I’ll probably stop buying new stuff when I hit 40. What’s the point? When you’re that old, you could go at any second.
The Dead have notoriously unpredictable and capricious purchasing habits. They’re also the most discriminated against – in many communitioes the dead are not allowed to vote or hold property. But the fact that their numbers are expected to rise could lead to changes. Look for more commercials for mortuary services. And restaurants serving fresh brains.
During the years 18-45 (or so) you’re in the prime acquisition stage. You move out of your parents’ house and set up housekeeping, get married, have kids (and buy stuff for the kids), buy and furnish a house, etc.
Once you get to age 50, the kids are grown, and if anything, you start to think about downsizing. That doesn’t mean grayhairs aren’t a market for anything. Because they have more disposable income, they’re a market for financial services, luxury items, retirement communities, etc.
Traditionally, though, those types of industries haven’t advertised that much on TV, because the medium has traditionally attracted a younger viewership. I notice there are a LOT of ads for retirement communities, reverse mortgages and stuff like that on daytime TV, so maybe that’s starting to change.
Older people have matured out of buying things because its trendy or because everyone else is buying X and also over the years they have aquired most if not the things that they want or need.
Think about how difficult it is deciding what to get an elderly relative for their birhday or Christmas,before she died my old gran had received enough scented bath salts from family members as presents that she would have to have had five baths a day,every day to use them up.
But the alternative ie. not to buy her a present on her birthday etc.would have seemed like a snub no matter how much she protested that she didn’t really want anything.
This is treated as received wisdom in advertising.
Polls and statistics don’t support it. My brand loyalty is no greater than someone in their 20s. I’m not going to run out and buy a Saturn, for instance, simply because I own one.
But advertisers are set in their ways and are unwilling to change their thinking.
I have no brand loyalty, except for beer and liquor.
I am, however, a cheap old bastard. I research all purchases extensively (I don’t even buy gum on impulse) and television advertising is a vanishingly small portion of the research.
I do not know if I am typical of the over-the-hill demographic.
That’s the common wisdom, and it’s total crap. My mother and everyone I know in her near-retirement age range shops constantly, constantly buys new stuff that they see advertised, and as a rule of thumb has way more income to dispose of on crap than anyone in my 25-40 age range with kids and a mortgage…
I am an older senior citizen and I only shop when necessary. I already have too much stuff and am trying to get rid of it. As one grows older you become less thing oriented.
Our children give us gifts,but we ask them not to, as they are gift enough.We are pleased that they are good decent people. We would be much happier if they put the money in a savings account for their own retirement.
Monavis
I wonder if it is an issue that the “conventional wisdom” developed at a time when The older demographic was made up of people who lived through the depression–which, IME, lead to some very cautious shoppers–my grandmother never through away a bread bag or a twist tie she hadn’t used three or four times.
To rise? Oh mh GOD, when?! Barricade the door! Stockpile the flickery candles! Cut the power lines! Start up the creepy music! Everybody arm themselves with an unlikely weapon and proceed separately into atmospherically lit rooms!
Marketers market to those who are most easily swayed by marketing. That’s disproportionately young people and women.
Having said that, watch a golf tournament on television. When there are large enough concentrations of older male viewers, marketers will have a go at pitching to this captive audience.
It’s the impulse, TV and radio want NOW, before you can think. The older you get the more likely you’re to think. Also credit cards, old guy says “I would like an HDTV but I lived without one all my life, I’ll make due.”
Also the older woman may say “I’d like and HDTV but I have to save for my old age.”
Young people say “I’d like an HDTV and what the heck, I’ll charge it and pay it off for the next 10 years. I have lots of time to save.”