Market to the Older Crowd

I read an interesting article the other day about how those over the age of 50+ are ignored by television and movie powers that be.

The people responsible for making our popular culture entertainment prefer to cater to what they call the all-important 18-25-year-olds. There are scads of demographics articles about how to sell to this group.

What About the Older Consumers?

The article went on to say how ignoring older people is short-sighted at best and bad business at worse. Why? Because the average 55-year-old + consumer has more disposable income than the 18-25 year-old crowd ever thought about having.

You see, if you’re older than 55, most people have a steady job with benefits, retirement savings, and  major expenses like raising kids and sending them to college have already been taken care of.

In other words, they’ve got money to spend. Don’t do the expected and ignore them. Do the unexpected and show them something that gets them excited enough to spend their money.

What Do Older Pop Culture Consumers Want

• something that’s not dumbed down
• something that appeals to humor without preadolescent vulgarity
• something that doesn’t have the premise that everyone is a recreational drug user
• something that’s original, not a rehash of other popular movies and/or books
• something that’s well-plotted and doesn’t depend on coincidence or actions that are just plain stupid
• something that doesn’t show people over 55+ as idiots or greedy bloodsuckers
• something that recognizes that most people in that age group have been using computers for 20+ years. They don’t need to get a 12-year-old to explain Facebook, email, Internet, etc.

Takeaway Truth

As Yogi Berra said: “The thing about the unexpected is that it’s likely to surprise you.”