Does older mean wiser? Marketing to seniors

Africa is all about youth. We’ve all said it. Population studies and media consumption research support it. The new pundits in America, who are really just noticing Africa for the first time, all allude to it. That said; there are still millions of people on the Continent who could be counted as senior citizens in the broadest sense of the expression. But our seniors tend to be much younger than those in Westernised markets. We age sooner, and sadly we still die earlier. A quick look at the latest CIA fact book (yes, those wonderful people who brought us Rendition) confirms that. Average life expectancy on the planet is 65 for men and 69 for women. African countries occupy the bottom of the longevity league table. Highest in sub-Saharan Africa is Senegal with an average age of 63; many West African populations weigh in between 60 and 55. In East Africa, Kenya, Tanzania are all 20 percent below the world average. Further South, many of the countries with the lowest life expectancies, namely Swaziland, Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique are suffering from very high rates of HIV/AIDS infection, with adult prevalence rates ranging from 10 to 38.8 percent. Interestingly don’t think I have ever been in a marketing meeting where we have tried to define African senior citizenship, as opposed to downright old age. With the focus on youth, most marketing organisations use 45 years of age as an absolute cut-off. Beyond that you are considered to be ‘not influenceable’ at best. Shuffling up the carpeted steps to God’s Waiting Room, at worst! And yet, older people have often survived the early challenges to their household income. Certainly, in our growing middle class, kids have grown up, the house or shamba may be built, and business or professional life may be stable. Its a time for these consumers to spend a little more on themselves. Perhaps in further education, smarter cars, leisure travel (still a relatively new phenomenon), technology and entertainment. And older consumers are smarter too. They may appear conservative, but their decision-making skills are perhaps at their sharpest. Last weekend I leafed through a study from Canada that evidences getting older really does make you wiser. The sample was taken from the over 55’s (In African terms that might well equate to the over 45’s). And it showed that older people use their brains more efficiently than their younger counterparts, because they are much more likely to shrug off mistakes. And while they may take more time to come to a decision, they are simply conserving their energy. Younger people give the impression of being sharper, simply by coming up with answers more quickly. But this, say the researchers, may be a sign of inexperience rather than wisdom. Scientists set two groups of participants tasks that involved sorting words into pairs, and scanned their brains as they completed them. The tasks included pairing words according to category or initial letter and picking out words that rhymed. Neuro-imaging scans revealed striking differences between the brains of the older and younger participants when they made a mistake. In the younger ones, the error instantly activated several different parts of the brain to help them decide what to do next. The older people, however, held their fire until the game restarted. Only then did they start thinking about what they were going to do. Overall, the older group, who were aged between 55 and 75, took longer to complete the game but did roughly as well as those aged 18 to 35! Study author Dr. Oury Monchi, of the Institute of Geriatrics at the University of Montreal, compared the results to Aesop’s fable of the tortoise and the hare, saying: ‘Being able to run fast does not always win the race – you have to know how to best use your abilities. AT Y&R we already know from our 4C’s segmentation model that there are greater number of Reformers and Succeeders in older age groups. Reformers are more altruistic, more concerned with societal and personal improvement. Succeeders, as we said recently, are about exerting control and enjoying the rewards of success. These are both valid and interesting target audiences for brands that can address these motivations. But they will be a discerning and thoughtful audience, which will require its own marketing approaches. The author is the Chairman Young & Rubicam Group Africa To comment on this article, visit www.chrisharrison.biz