Marketing to the Undead

More international ether, this time from Canada:

John Farquhar: marketing to the undead
I thought I'd watch a little television this week and see how marketers see me, someone over 50. Apparently I'm dying, in constant pain, infertile, incontinent, undersexed and over-pollinated.

It’s one of NostraChuckus’ predictions:

Boomer Backlash II
If every time someone over fifty sees a commercial targeting them and it’s always for an age-related product or service, pretty soon their eyes will glaze over, they’ll get itchy and grumpy.

More from Mr. Farquhar:

But of course, as conventional wisdom goes, we're not going to spend it on your product. Boomers have made their choices. We've chosen the brands we'll stick to for life. Everyone knows that. So why spend money getting us to change when we never will?

I guess it’s conventional – although I’ve been pricking holes in the no-change brand balloon since 2003.  A quote from a review of my book (the 2005 edition) by Dr. Joyce M. Wolburg of Marquette University, published in The Journal of Consumer Marketing:

A second favorite excuse of agencies is: "Baby Boomers don't change brands" (p. 52, italics in original). Nyren dismantles this excuse nicely with examples of brand switching, and he further acknowledges that in cases where loyalty to a brand does exist, marketers who do not target Boomers give them no reason to change.

Read the full review. (PDF)
John also talks about cars.  I’ve talked plenty about cars:

Big Business is behind the curve, as usual. But better late than never.

And I yak on and on about this subject (and feature a news piece from Canada) in a recent online presentation.
One more important piece of info from marketing to the undead:

You've got a target group that's easy to reach: we still watch TV, we still read newspapers, and we listen to conventional radio. We spend a ton of time online and we're easy to find there.

That sounds familiar. A post from 2007:

How Ads Affect Our Memory
I'm often asked about media planning and Baby Boomers. My glib answer: "Who needs media planners? The 50+ Demo is the only one that soaks up all media - TV, Radio, The Web, Magazines, Newspapers, Direct Marketing, etc. Take your pick. You can't miss them."

It’s great that someone’s joining Kit in promoting advertising and marketing to Baby Boomers in Canada.