Article Review: Do's and Don'ts of Connecting, by Jim Gilmartin

Though most people who follow this blog are caregivers, many are vendors of products intended for Seniors or  Long-Term Care recipients.

I found an article yesterday by Jim Gilmartin from Coming of Age Inc, with some great tips for those "interested in securing a competitive edge for your product in baby boomer and older consumer markets (aging customers)".  When marketing your product or service to an aging population--whether they be baby boomers, or senior citizens, keep the following do's and don'ts in mind:



Some of the Do's include:

1. Learn as much as you can about physical and behavioral changes caused by the aging process. Apply your knowledge to product design, marketing, advertising and sales communications and approaches.  
2. Design your promotion or advertising to allow the consumer to define the service attributes using his/her imagination in terms of his/her needs and desires. Don't try to shove ten pounds of copy into a five-pound page. Less is more.
3. Design your product to meet functional, social reinforcement, and related experiences' expectations. 4. Promote and advertise your product as a gateway to desired experiences beyond the intrinsic value of your product. What additional value does you product provide?  
4. Be authentic and give them the facts (reduce hyperbole).  
5. Portray these populations as doing for others, as individuals, as smart, as active, as wise.  
6. Use marketing and advertising firms with a demonstrated knowledge of your target markets (Check if people matching your targets age are on the creative team).
7. Use aging customers to assist in product, service and communications development.  
8. Touch their hearts and they will allow you to enter their minds. 

Some of the Don'ts include:
1. Don't underestimate the significance of these markets. They are the New Customer Majority. More than 110 million people in America are over the age of forty.
2. Don't consider age a determinant of consumer behavior (there is no evidence that a person's age is a major factor in determining buying habits). Age should be considered as a correlating factor only.
3. Don't design your service or advertisements to appeal to self-gratifying interests of the consumer.
4. Don't design or promote your services to appeal to the vulnerabilities associated with the aging process. At times they feel bad enough; you don't have to remind them.
5. Don't attempt to instill a "sense of urgency" during a purchase consideration (time is usually not of the essence in their decision making process).
6. Don't over-embellish product or service performance claims -- may be automatically perceived as misleading as would small print on product labels and advertising.
7. Don't stress self-indulgent of your product/service -- more effective in younger markets.
8. Don't stress images that are contrary to traditional basic values. Generally accepted universal or traditional values may include American flag, church or temple, home, traditional small town, etc.


The entire article can be read here. 

Craig Christiansen
Pinnacle Quality Insight