We Are Family … Now More Than Ever

By Jerry Shereshewsky | March 17, 2009

In the words of Thomas Paine, these are, indeed, the time’s that try men’s souls (and women’s, too). More than two trillion dollars of savings have disappeared over the last 15 months, and many people, living on relatively fixed incomes, or contemplating active retirement, are being tried mightily. The Baby Boom generation, nearing retirement, are reevaluating the intelligence or even the possibility of it. And an increasing number are not only trying to help their children and grandchildren, but are finding themselves becoming deeply enmeshed in the care of their older parents. With increased life expectancy, this “sandwich generation” is growing rapidly and the social norms and conventions of how to deal with these issues are just beginning to be worked out.

Here’s my advice:

  • We all have to recognize that this is a family affair. We have to take care of each other – regardless of the positing in the generational hierarchy. Who needs help? Well, everyone. This economy doesn’t discriminate by age. Getting through this will be a team effort. Sure, older people are getting clocked, but so are the younger.
  • Zero-base all your expenses. Inertia has us often paying for things long after they have lost their utility. e.g., are all the cable TV packages you pay for still as relevant?
  • Bend over and pick up that $10 bill on the street. Seriously, people leave a lot of money on the table. They don’t use coupons and rebates. They neglect to apply for all the existing benefits. Vanity keeps some for asking for a “senior citizen” discount at the movies or manicurist. Check out every benefit imaginable.

We have all heard about older people moving in with their children. And, just as commonly, we are hearing about younger people moving back in with their parents. We know that in many sectors, jobs are evaporating, and it may seem hard to believe that older Americans actually have a leg up here. Many companies are looking for experience they can access on a part-time basis. (Not only are part-time workers inherently less expensive, but they do not generally get full-time employee benefits). Monster.com now has a 50+ section. In Milwaukee, a new employment agency, called Patina Solutions, is entirely focused on the 60+ market for part-time help. Anecdotally, we have heard of many retirees actually switching roles: a doctor becomes an “expert witness” for attorneys, for example. And, of course, economic times such as this give rise to an incredible proliferation of new start-ups. Maybe this is the time to actually take that idea you’ve had and put it into action.

We are very interested in how this economy is impacting you and your family.  Please write and tell us. Good ideas deserve to be shared.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged , , . 4 Comments

Why Don’t They Love You?

By Jerry Shereshewsky | February 25, 2009

Often I find myself thinking these days about why advertisers are so afraid of selling to grandparents and people over 50 in general. Yes, afraid!

It must be fear, for nothing else could possibly deter avowedly orthodox capitalists to be so contemptuous of their most valuable customers. I know that many people assiduously avoid contact with people who suffer from serious maladies like cancer for fear they will contract the disease themselves. Perhaps marketers are worried about becoming suddenly old and wrinkled, even though they are in their thirties. There is ancient tradition that tells us not to “paint the devil on the door” (e.g., make reference to bad things lest they happen). So perhaps their avoidance has something to do with that.

People over 50 spend about $150 billion dollars a year on new cars, used cars, automotive service, parts, etc., etc. Yet not a single automotive advertiser spends even a penny trying to attract their unfair share of that market; preferring, apparently, to beg for government handouts of franctional value compared to this enormous pot of potential. I was told by a mid-level executive at a car company that they avoided the “older” market (50+) because “they’re going to die soon and don’t have that many purchase cycles left anyhow” (my boldface).

I mentioned in my last post that L’Oréal, marketers of hair and skin products to a generally older female audience withdrew from advertising on the Oscars because the audience was too old (half over 50).

Our office is upstairs from a large Babies R Us store here in New York City. Their checkout clerks know to ask their customers if they wish to split the bill among several payers (generally the young mom and her mother/mother-in-law), yet their own marketing people, blithely unaware of this reality, insist that their audience is exclusively young moms.

In our recent educational video produced for the marketing community (Meet The Grandparents http://www.grandparents.com/gp/corp/meetthegrandparents.html) one of our subjects points out that, with three daughters she will be in the “baby business” longer than any one of them!

I could go on and heap blame and scorn on marketers and their agencies. But that’s too easy. Instead I want to place the blame squarely on where it belongs: ourselves.

That’s right, the fact that advertisers and marketers don’t pay attention to us, create special product for us, offer incredible value deals to us, content for us, is that we are invisible to them. And in a world where everyone with a computer (that means you) is a publisher, that’s just foolish and sad.

What can you do? Write to companies that portray your generation in a cartoonish way and tell them they’re wrong. Write to companies that don’t pay attention to you and your generation and tell them they’re foolish. And vote with your wallets (and your mouse) to reward marketers and advertisers who “get it” and do court and value your business with your attention, your clicks, and your purchases.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged , , , , . 2 Comments

You Used To Be Worth It

By Jerry Shereshewsky | February 18, 2009

Once upon a time, you were worth it. Sure you were getting older. Sure your hair was beginning to turn a bit gray at the temples. But L’Oreal, with a bottled solution to those simple problems, always felt that you should, would, and could pay a little extra — because you were worth it. Not any longer.

L’Oreal has backed out of its Oscar advertising commitment. Now it could be because times are tough and paying $1.7 million dollars for a 30-second spot doesn’t have the tingle that it used to have. Or it could be because L’Oreal has discovered that the average age of the Oscar viewer is now 49.5 and they just don’t want to be associated with a bunch of women of a certain age.

Call me crazy, but I thought that it was precisely at that “certain age” that women began coloring their hair (other than the purple and orange experimentations of teenagers). And I would have thought, because women of that certain age were generally much better off financially than their younger sisters, that this would be precisely the audience that L’Oreal would seek. Silly me.

Brad Adgate, Media Research Guru of Horizon Media (and a good friend) opines: “The Academy Awards has a median age of 49.5 years, and that’s on the wrong side of the key [18-49] demo for marketers looking to reach the target.”

With the spirit of entertainment in the air, I strongly urge L’Oreal and other marketers, despondant over the inexorable aging of their audience, to heed the words of those great philosophers, Crosby, Stills Nash & Young: “If you can’t be with the one you love … love the one you’re with.”

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged , , , . 2 Comments