Commentary
The Apple Of A Boomer's Eye
- by Anne Mai Bertelsen , March 8, 2010
That ad got me thinking about Apple's other marketing efforts targeting Boomers. We often think about Apple -- with its emphasis on beautiful design and cutting-edge technology -- as a young person's brand. Certainly, one could draw that conclusion watching iPod commercials -- particularly from a few years ago. But, Apple also seems to have realized the potential of marketing to Boomers long before its technology and lifestyle brand competitors -- who are myopically focused on the youth market.
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For example, back in 2006, Apple launched the "Get a Mac" campaign created by TBWA Media Labs. That campaign, which ran through 2009, featured two friends, Mac and PC. When the campaign first broke, many thought that Mac, the jean wearing, laid back hipster was the younger friend to PC, the dweebie, pudgy -- albeit likeable -- middle manager always dressed in a suit.
But, in fact, as we would learn over the course of the campaign, Mac and PC are the same age and their friendship dates back to their childhood (confirmed in the "Flashback" spot). And, in "Broken Promises," when PC revisits Windows operating systems launches -- appropriately garbed in the historically correct sartorial trends -- we learn that Mac and PC are part of the Boomer generation. (What Gen Xer was in a suit at the release of Windows 2?)
What's striking about these two campaigns -- for the Mac and the iPhone -- is that Apple bucks the trend of how many companies market to Boomers. Consider:
- Absence of "senior" visuals: None of these campaigns uses an "older" actor to visually represent a Boomer as so many television and print advertisements do (think: pharma advertisements). Mac and PC are represented as being "middle-aged" -- somewhere between 30 and 40-ish. In iPhone ads, the iPhone is the visual hero; only the actors' voices are present. In "First Steps," only the baby is shown; voices allude to the other actors. Given that many Boomers don't believe that they are "old," this non-senior casting is spot on.
- Absence of "senior" copy: The scripts never allude to age; there are no direct references to "now that we're of a certain age," common in so many advertisements targeting Boomers. Instead, Apple focuses on communicating the rational benefits of owning and using its products -- albeit highlighting Boomers' desire for technology that helps simplify and mange their lives. For example, a Mac is virus-free and easy to use, right out of the box. An iPhone lets you connect easily with what's important in your life -- your family.
- Authentic, clever story-telling: Apple uses story-telling to illuminate how technology helps a Boomer's life in an authentic and often humorous way. There is no staged, corny encounter between couples on the merits of a product over dinner or between spouses before they go to bed. Those conversations don't really happen in real life -- and Apple's creative team gets that.
Of course, it helps that Apple products deliver on the advertised promises. They have won over Boomers with their thoughtful designs, intuitive user interfaces and inclusion of technologies that make Boomers' lives simpler or more rewarding.
Maybe that's why Boomers represent a third of iPhone users, half of Mac users and the leading group that pays $99/year for one-on-one training in Apple's 284 store locations. Given that Boomers control 50% of all discretionary spending in the United States and that they are expected to outspend younger generations by $1 trillion on technology purchases in 2010, it's a smart strategy.
Funny this should be written today. On Friday, I (am 45 and longtime Mac user) took my 57 yr old beau to the Apple store and he switched from PC to Mac, buying a Macbook. Very exciting... That said, and even though he is very youthful, we both walked out of the store feeling a bit on the 'old' side, since the average age of both the customer service AND the kids hanging out playing with product was oh, maybe 20. We were amused, and yet...left feeling just a little more senior.
Great post, Anne! When I speak at conferences I often laud Apple as the best example of an advertiser that beautifully connects across age and gender lines. They also blow me away withimmaculate follow-through.
1st, let’s take the whole “I’m a Mac” campaign. They took what could be a dry, product points-based, geeky messaging platform and personified it in a way that’s immediately understandable, relevant and lovable. They achieved what I would tell any brand to do if they wanted to win over women. They humanized themselves. In fact, they humanized the whole Mac vs. PC debate. In fact, they humanized this entire technology. It’s worth noting that, as far as I can see, they did it without alienating young men even as they brought in "older" women.
But what I really adore is the follow-through in the stores. It does not matter one iota that I am a middle-aged woman or that my mom is in her 70's. When we walk into their store we are greeted immediately and warmly and when my appointment comes up at the Genius Bar, I am talked to as an intelligent person who really matters. Perhaps you have to be a middle-aged woman to understand how rare and wonderful this is in a tech environment, but I don’t seem to be the only one who appreciates the service. On a recent Sunday, I was in the store and took a cursory inventory of customers. The ratio of men to women was roughly equal. Notably, so was the ratio of young to….well, lets just say, more experienced. There were twenty-year olds and seventy year-olds playing with products. I watched a 65+year-old woman learning how to put pictures from iphoto on to her website and blog in the One to One training area. Apple is what every brand should aspire to.
Great article... and so spot on about the contrived conversations between "older" couples and the over-emphasis on age related ills. We sell tees and hats to the active 50+ crowd and the last thing they want is to be told they are old, infirm, and incapable of enjoying this next phase of their lives to the fullest.
Anne, your article is dead on when you infer that agencies don't know how to talk to Boomers. Traverse the hallways of just about any major agency, and it will feel like "Logan's Run" come to life (now THERE'S a Boomer reference)...no one over 50 in the place. So when the brief comes in and says 'target boomers,' the boilerplate solution is to cast actors who are gray in the temples and buy the rights to some '60s song. The truth is, you don't persuade Boomers (or housewives, or African Americans or Latinos or any other group) by pandering, but by being smart. And Apple has always been about 'smart.'
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I don't know where Julie's Apple store is or frequents it much, but the store where I go has quite a mixed clientele.
Well, I am going to weigh in here. It is International Women's Day after all and I'm a high tech veteran (HP, ComputerLand, Sun, Informix).
Boomers represent a third of iPhone users, half of Mac users and the leading group that pays $99/year for one-on-one training in Apple's 284 store locations.
About three work in their retail stores. Ok so its more than three. Thirty-five maybe, part-time, no benefits? So what you might find interesting about employment in the Valley:
Apple, Yahoo, Oracle and Applied Materials waged an 18-month Freedom of Information battle with the
Mercury News and won argument that race and gender of its work force is a trade secret and they do not have to disclose. Others complied including Intel, Cisco Systems, eBay, AMD, Sanmina and Sun Microsystems. Analysis of data of 10 firms by the Mercury News (the database they used is accessible and you can look at numbers company by company on the site) notes: The share of women at those 10 companies declined to 33 percent in 2005, from 37 percent in 1999. There was also a decline in the share of management-level.
Amen.
I wonder whether Apple's genius is in its brilliant deployment of "ageless" marketing of the brand's experience.
But beyond that, it's worth mentioning that Our <Boomer Gen> collective consciousness holds Apple's mind-blowing, media-bending , only airing once "1984" Super Bowl spot. Those who saw it live were between 20 and 38...the then most-coveted age bracket (17-34) before the era of micro-segmentation. We bit and bought Apple then, & we're still biting now.