Friday’s speaker was John Cochrane, president of be. Group-Southern California Presbyterian Homes also an attorney. This is one of the nation’s largest non-profit organizations providing housing, health support services for elderly people. His topic was “How to market to Kathy Kirshland and her 78 Million friends”. John’s talk centered on marketing to the elderly of our society, who are often times not addressed or considered for their buying power, when in fact senior citizens control 70% of what is spent and have two times ownership of all the assets.
Marketing entails three ingredients: Change, Crisis and Opportunity. The element of Change is increasing very rapidly in our country and there are a lot of new products and things available to people. He says, “A senior tsunami is coming, the 75 and older people are the fastest growing group in our society and therefore this is affecting the marketplace.” He pointed out people who were older than 70 who were considered over the hill, but still produced: John Glenn, who went back into space at 78 and Tina Turner, age 72 who is still performing. Age 70 is not what it used to be.
Examples were given how companies have learned to market to the older citizens and increased sales and revenues. He used marketing tools by Coca Cola as versus Pepsi Cola to demonstrate how to successfully market to the elderly. “Coke” doesn’t sell its flavor, or the taste, it markets emotions. Coke understands it’s not the product, it’s the emotion. He used TV ads to demonstrate his point. Pepsi was selling its taste, but not focusing on the emotional aspect of buying this product, so while the product was favorably accepted, sales did not equal the taste satisfaction. Don’t use 1985 ideas to market a product in 2011. So Cal Homes noticed this and created an ad that appealed to the emotional side of the elderly, rather than depicting the homes or facilities it was trying to market
His message is very simple: Create a way to speak to the consumer and get them interested. Ads have to be livelier to get people to notice what you are selling. Video ads seem the way to get people’s attention and their remembrance of what you are selling. Print ads are getting out of date. Brand names are very important, for instance the Brand Name Coca Cola is worth many times more than the company itself is worth. Another proven example is that people hire a lawyer, who they want for representation, rather than the Firm or offices in a high rent district.
In marketing the product, keep in mind that people are more advanced than we give them credit for. Consideration the social media and the group you want to sell to and program you efforts in that way. Baby Boomers are changing everything we think about aging.