Ageless Marketing: Strategies for Reaching the Hearts and Minds of the New Customer Majority

by David B. Wolfe, Robert E. Snyder

Today's richest market is the New Customer Majority-middle-aged and older adults who make up the biggest percentage of the buying public. Never before have adults 40 years and older been in the majority. Understanding this population and persuasively selling to it require a new kind of marketing research arsenal. In Ageless Marketing, authors David Wolfe and Robert Snyder document the results of a groundbreaking research project on the aging boomer generation, detailing the core values, buying behaviors, and emotional factors that distinguish the New Customer Majority. As more companies seek sales from multiple age groups, "ageless marketing" becomes critical to financial performance. Companies that master its subtleties have realized amazing profits. New Balance, for example, saw an annual rate of 25 percent or more with its ageless marketing themes, even when the athletic shoe industry had shown no growth since 1997. Ageless Marketing introduces a new research approach in profiling this lucrative market. Companies that want to tap into this important segment will get insights into the characteristic values and motivations that trigger the New Customer Majority's spending choices. Wolfe and Snyder describe the challenges in marketing to this group, the stages and differences in their life experiences, and the ways to make meaningful marketing overtures. Above all, readers will see how "empathetic connections" drive many buying decisions for this market, why traditional ploys simply will not work, and how to create marketing campaigns that yield continuing customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Jeeet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over 60 percent population of U.S. is above 50, it's enough to pay attention and learn..

[Meagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was an interesting read for me, having no marketing background. I work at a company that specializes in helping businesses market to seniors, and this was recommended reading there. The book states that most companies are making a mistake by focusing on the 18-49 year old market. Baby boomers and their elders make up the majority of the population and have more disposable income than the younger people in the US. That made sense to me, but the part I found enlightening was the difference in explicitly defining your brand and leaving it open to interpretation by consumers at different stages of life. Defining your brand to appeal mostly to a certain age group needlessly reduces your market reach. Ageless marketing is much more inclusionary.

The book was a bit long so I started skimming in the middle, but I still thought it was a good read for anyone working in/around consumer marketing functions.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has some very informative information about marketing. An important reference for people trying to sell stuff. The premise of the book is that marketing to youth is a failing proposition for the most part because the majority of people in the U.S. are now over 45. One thing very interesting in this book is the concept of psychological development as a process that continues throughout life even into the final elderly years. Like others, I had been led to think about psychological development as a process that takes the child into early adulthood. But the fact is that people develop significantly as they pass through middel age and into the autumn years. These developmental stages are very important to marketers or at least they should be.