v Advertising must relate to the experiential background of the mature market. A senior’s lifetime of experiences is an important element in designing your offer. These experiences should be acknowledged if you hope to motivate the mature consumer to buy. Nostalgia and clichés can be utilized profitably. Instead of modern jargon and images, use language and references to fond memories with which seniors can identify.
v Personalize the selling/buying process as much as possible and build rapport. Be aware of the senior ideal, as opposed to the mass-market ideal. Seniors prefer to be regarded as individuals. Their buying history began at a time when merchants knew them personally. This is the last group of people in our society to enjoy personalized relationships with the people who provided them with goods and services. Unlike the generations that have followed, the mature market is not a product of an impersonal, mass-produced world.
v Use examples instead of statistics. Seniors are unimpressed with numbers.
v Resistance to change and dedication to tradition are important characteristics of the senior market. Avoid the suggestion of change and newness as much as possible. For example, market your products as simple to use, not disruptive to one’s lifestyle, something that makes life more comfortable and easy.
v Since their buying habits are conservative and they want to be in control of the buying decision process, the mature market is more likely to buy if you use powerful, specific “reasons why”. Help them make a decision do not hype or push the mature consumer into buying.
v Seniors like to receive mail. One of the major blunders direct mail marketers make is thinking that members of the mature market aren’t willing to read, or are unable to understand or comprehend. In fact, they are one of the most responsive groups to this marketing medium. They look forward to receiving mail and read it carefully. Seniors are willing to read longer letters, longer copy and they are the best mail-order buyers in terms of frequency, multiple purchases and higher dollar amounts. That’s why an informational approach can be so successful with seniors.
v Seniors respond positively to direct response television and radio.
v The hot markets for the next 10 to 15 years for this segment of the population are service-oriented. They consist of travel, health and fitness, household services, family fun, convenience, information services, investment and financial services, safety and security. Grand parenting represents an enormous additional marketing opportunity.
v The mature, or senior, market is enormous and growing dramatically in size and affluence each year. In fact, today, baby boomers (who are quickly becoming seniors) are becoming “empty-nesters,” as their children leave home to start households of their own.
vAs a result, there will be a 20% increase in the number of homes without children under 18 present, a jump from 35.8 million today to 45.7 million in the next 5 years. This represents a profound shift in needs, wants and preferences—as baby boomers continue to be the center of attention in the marketplace as empty-nesters, and as they cause the senior segment of the marketplace to swell even more.
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