A Mature Approach to Senior Marketing

Young, old, or any age group in-between, understanding your target audience is the key to developing any marketing campaign. ; Knowing what appeals to them, their media consumption and retention habits, and attitudes serve as the precursors to and foundation of your campaign. ; It is no secret that young-adult audiences easily identify and respond to marketing programs aimed toward glamorizing their peers. ; Now let’s say your product’s target market is geared towards seniors, adults age 60 and over, the fastest-growing demographic in the country. ; How do you talk to them? Do you show pictures of seniors playing bingo or napping in chairs in front of a television or maybe hang gliding or waterskiing?

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Your intentions might be good, but in reality, marketing to senior audiences is the complete antithesis of young-adult marketing and requires a deeper understanding of what motivates this demographic. ; Today’s seniors have active lifestyles, feel healthy both mentally and physically, and remain in touch with their world. ; They do not identify themselves with or respond to traditional stock photos of elderly individuals engaged in stereotypical “senior” activities. ;

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Connect With Your Consumers

The key is to carefully market and sell your products based on their own merits. ; Take time to explain in a clear and straightforward way exactly what you have to offer, what benefits they will receive, and why they should be interested. ; Keep in mind that this particular audience demands respect and does not like to feel patronized. They are typically educated and self-reliant, and value kindness, compassion, family relationships, and the community they live in. ; Their age has not altered their comprehension or appreciation for life, nor their capability to make

the most of it. ;

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Special Delivery Required

There is no one particular way to reach senior audiences. It might surprise many to learn that they are receptive toward information received in a number of different ways. ; Seniors are tuned-in and online. ; Developing a fully integrated marketing campaign will allow you to deliver your messages through a variety of media, including print, radio, direct mail, web, and public relations. As always, you must still take time to understand your market and intended audiences.

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Seniors are a multi-segmented group, each having its own wants and needs. Someone at age 60 has different cares and concerns than someone at age 75 and your marketing messages must reflect those differences. ; Each age segment can be defined further by income, ethnic status, health and more. ; It’s important that you identify the segment to which you are marketing and take the time to incorporate that knowledge in everything from your copy and design to your choice of advertising or marketing media.

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Understanding your particular audience’s limitation will help guide you through media selection. ; More and more seniors are online, making the web a popular source for advertisements. ; Billboards are less effective toward reaching mature markets, especially individuals over the age of 70 who have difficulty with their vision and pay closer attention to the road than overhead advertisements. ; ; If budgets are limited and an integrated marketing approach is not viable, consider developing direct mail campaigns with strong calls-to-action. ; This will help you build strong one-on-one relationships with your prospects. ; Mature markets value personal ties and this will provide them with the time to get to know your product or service. Experience tells them that few things require an instant decision and they are unlikely to respond well to pressure tactics.

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The ability to successfully impress a message upon the mature market is becoming an essential tool for more and more businesses. ; As you may know, the Baby Boomer population – the US’s largest age demographic ever – is beginning to enter retirement, as they will do for the next 20 years. ; With them, they bring their ideals, their expectations, and their unique consumer demands. ;

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Martino & Binzer Credentials

Martino & Binzer is a full-service communications firm, specializing in business-to-business advertising, strategic marketing, public relations, Web, and interactive media. ; For more than a decade, the agency has strengthened an ability to provide precise and objective marketing to the mature market, with campaigns centered on local retirement-community marketing, as well as financial services products. ; Current and/or past senior living industry clients include: RLS, Cloverwood (Rochester, NY), The Overlook (Charlton, MA), Peconic Landing (Greenport, NY), Granite Hill Estates (Hallowell, ME), Van Scoyoc Associates, Seabury, Sunny Acres, Goodwin House, Westminster at Lake Ridge. Additionally, Martino & Binzer is working with Sodexho Senior Services promoting food and management services to the retirement-living and skilled-nursing markets and Universal American Financial Corp., PennLife, and The Pyramid Life Insurance Company promoting Senior Solutions, a line of insurance and financial-services products targeting the over-65 market.

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Martino & Binzer is also the integrated communications resource for Kearns & Kearns, PC in West Hartford, CT. ; Jay Kearns was the first Connecticut attorney board-certified as an elder law specialist by the National Elder Law Foundation (NELF) and is the Principal of Kearns & Kearns, PC, whose practice areas include probate, estate planning, elder law, and special needs trusts. ; Jay is a fellow of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA), a member of the Executive Committee of the Connecticut Bar Association’s Elder Law Section, and past president of the Northern Connecticut Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.

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Martino & Binzer has been recognized as one of the Top 50 Business-to-Business Agencies in America for three years running, 2003, 2004, and 2005 by BtoB magazine, the leading magazine, for marketing strategists.

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source: Dave Martino, President of Martino & Binzer, Avon