Now for something totally different and rather specific: where does an aging population (Hi Mom and Dad!) fit into the world of sustainability marketing?
They are without at doubt a valuable market, and "spend an estimated $2 trillion year on products and services" (Belch and Belch, 152). What market wouldn't want to capture that? Apparently the problem lies in those 30-something youngsters clogging up the creative department.
I have no trouble believing the statistic from the Association of Advertising Agencies International that 40 percent of agency workers are ages 30-39 (Belcher and Belcher, 152). Apparently, this means they can't connect to the older population with product and service messaging, let alone sustainability marketing messages.
Here's what I think:
Know your target audience! What do they believe in? What are their dreams and aspirations? Such reads the mental framework that unwinds as I march forward on my master's project around the somewhat intangible issue of water quality. Except that it's not intangible really, if it's polluted, you can't use it! Turning on a tap in this country though, is like living an idealized existence.
Sustainability in advertising, for my sense of creativity at least, is like a magic wand.
Depending on whether or not abstract thought has kicked in, some of the best ads - often by consumer brands - really know how to use sustainability as a way to stroke our emotional side. If you recall in my last post, the Lifebuoy hand soap ad can bring tears to your eyes. It isn't overtly about the soap, but a father rejoicing that his son has lived to age five by using it.
Ads like these make use of real statistics - that hand washing has literally saved thousands of children's lives from disease in India - and connect a distant group of people to the viewer with something nearly all people can connect with, the gift of life for your child.
From where I sit (and dab my eyes), that sort of reach into the soul of humanity is a sacred tactic, that I suspect doesn't come naturally at first to just any brand or marketing agency - there are whole conferences developing around this idea. It takes some abstract thought, some real brainstorming on how what you're selling, be it an idea, product or service, creates wellbeing for your audience. Making it good for the environment should be a given (but I'm an idealist, a hallmark of my age group).
So what if it's the creative-director young things that have a stronger grasp on all the technical ways to make ads, we shouldn't forget who the market dictates to us has great spending power (Hi Mom and Dad!) - and subsequently can vote with their dollars accordingly, if we share the right stories with them, the stories that really concern all of us as people on this Earth, learning from those who went before.
An article in The Guardian has a beautiful take on what older people can bring to the sustainability round table, and that marketers and advertisers alike can learn from, just as we always have from our elders. They have skills and life experiences to inform how we approach sustainability, especially from an advertising point of view.
One of the most telling pieces from the article that I feel can greatly influence sustainability marketing toward older people is as follows:
"The narrative in the media seems to stereotype this population as coffin dodgers, clogging up our health and welfare system. They are seen as a burden. They are marked down as a net cost to society, viewed as a drain on our limited resources...The truth of course is that few people want to be seen as old, and fewer still want to be a burden, or labelled as such. We urgently need to develop a more positive narrative, one that doesn't reduce the retired to clichés of people who are a danger to the future sustainability of the country."
Develop a positive story around the collective intelligence of this group! Research shows that many boomers don't adhere to their parent's idea of a retirement community. Show them how needed they are in helping us move toward a world of multi-tiered wellbeing. Sustainability is the issue that belongs to everyone, and it is not going to be solved by the latest group of movers and shakers out on the street. Instead of ads directed toward a life of pure comfort among other older individuals, let's approach this group with actionable messages of their value and need in our world.
Disclaimer: (please forgive the excessive onslaught of older white men in the next three images - that's another post.)
Not this!
www.selwyncare.org
SHOW THIS!
AND THIS!
Sources:
Adil, Abrar. 2013. A sustainable society means harnessing the skills of older people too
The Gauardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainable-future-harnessing-skills-older-people 29 Jan 2014.
Belch, George and Michael Belch. Receiver decoding. Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective. McGraw-Hill, 2012.
Burstein, David. 2013. Millineals will save us! Salon.com Retrieved from http://www.salon.com/2013/02/16/millennials_will_save_us/ 29 Jan 2014.
www.huffingtonpost.org
www.selwyncare.org
www.sustinablebrands.com
No comments:
Post a Comment