Yesterday I delivered a lecture to Eastern Institute of Technology ‘Branding’ students which focused on internet-based marketing. Over and above coming to terms with contemporary principles in respect of internet-based marketing and critiquing various ecommerce websites; I asked students (most of who are under 30 years of age) to take care when selecting marketing channels.
Why ? Despite the fact that many people over the age of 55 years – who didn’t grow-up routinely interacting with digital technology – are seeking education to help them understand how to use at least mainstream digital platforms such as Microsoft products, etc, there is a large faction of older people who either are not interested in up-skilling themselves in order to become more digitally involved or they are simply refusing to.
As many marketers know, people aged 55 years and older generally have a significantly higher level of disposable income compared to people who are younger than this; and therefore they should not be ignored as a primary segment of target customers. In appealing to these customers the key is to choose channels that they actually prefer to connect with – not those that you “think” they prefer to connect with.
Having been involved in designing and implementing formal market research in relation to various companies in recent times, I can tell you with absolute clarity that many older people are nowhere near as connected to the internet as many marketers like to think they are. In fact there is a faction of this demographic who are rebelling against what they deem to be an intrusion of digital technology in their lives by purposely not using it as a matter of choice. And instead continue living their lives in the manner that they have been accustomed to for many years – e.g. visiting in person their local bricks and mortar shops, banks, travel agencies, etc.
As I was conveying to students yesterday, businesses that are wanting to appeal to these “anti-internet rebels” and those who are simply choosing not to get involved in digital technology any more than say for work and internet banking purposes, need to use channels over and above ecommerce websites and social media sites.
Which brings me to the point of saying that if you are a young brilliantly-minded digital tech expert who has a strong bent towards using digital channels/ platforms thoroughly wherever possible, and you’re hoping to appeal to older people as a target customer segment, then my best advice is take “your hat off” and “put the hat of older people on your head instead” – to approach your marketing strategy formation with a truly empathetic mindset. If you don’t do this then I suggest that you run the real risk of spending a whole lot of marketing budget on channels that simply aren’t being used by these people anywhere near the extent that you think/ hope they are.
In my view, a multi-channel marketing strategy is still best – i.e.putting your eggs in a range of baskets that you know have a strong likelihood of being picked-up by target customers, still makes most commercial sense.