A few years ago, I turned 55. In the real world, this was not considered a notable occasion. No one threw me a surprise party, and I did not feel I had just reached a major milestone in my
life. In the world of marketing, media, and advertising, however, it was a birthday of great significance.
After aging out of the mythical 18-49 age group five years earlier,
I was now moving out of the key 25-54 demo and into the dreaded and nebulous 55+ category (any demographic group with a “+” at the end is, by definition, nebulous). All of a sudden I
was no longer in the target audience for products and services that I still used as much as ever, despite having more disposable income than ever.
Too many media and marketing executives see
me as though I’m part of my father’s generation, with the media and buying habits he displayed when he was in his late 50s, early 60s. I am not. Ignore me and those like me at
your own risk.
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Some things to consider:
-- My dad grew up during the Depression and its immediate aftermath. I grew up during the 1960s and ‘70s, the heart of the
middle-class Baby Boom generation. The way we relate to money and the purchase of things we want (rather than just need) are dramatically different.
-- When I was growing up, my
parents’ friends were mostly within a narrow age range. Virtually all of them were married to their first spouses, and had kids who were around my age. Life stage didn’t mean
anything when measuring media audiences back then, because people of a certain age were usually in the same stage of life. Once you knew a person’s age/sex, there wasn’t anything else you
really needed to know.
-- Today, some of my friends have kids the same age as my 17-year-old son, some have kids who long ago graduated from college, some have no kids, some are married,
others are divorced or never married. I also have friends 15 years younger than me with kids the same age as mine. In other words, I have friends in many different life stages, with age
not being the major determining factor it would have been 30 or 40 years ago.
-- Whose media and buying habits are closer to my own? When it comes to music, probably someone closer to my
age. When it comes to a whole host of other products and activities, there are likely more similarities to younger parents with kids the same age a mine.
-- My TV viewing habits are
probably somewhere in the middle. My favorite shows include “NCIS,” “Criminal Minds,” “Major Crimes,” “The Last Ship,” and “The Blacklist”
(all of which might fit my age profile), but I also like “The Walking Dead,” “Homeland,” “Fargo,” “Family Guy,” and “South Park, which Nielsen
would tell you have much younger age profiles.
About 10 years ago, when I was on the Council for Research Excellence, we produced the landmark Video Consumer Mapping Study, which dubbed 45- to
54 -year-olds “Digital Boomers.” This group tended to be heavy TV viewers, similar to the next older age group (55-64), but used new technology and mobile devices more like the next
younger age group (35-44). These Digital Boomers are now 55-64, and are vastly different from their parents at the same age, both in terms of media access and usage, and in willingness to switch
brands.
The bottom line is that I’m part of a completely different generation from my father, with a different mindset, different experiences, different media access, and different
spending habits. Advertisers, marketers, and networks should take note, as should TV measurement services, who too often simply lump people together in broad categories that no longer represent
cohesive behaviors.