Analysis: Brands miss out on over-50 market

over 60, buying a Senior Railcard. She reports that, remarkably:
"Seniors are ten per cent more likely than 16 to 25 year olds to buy
their railcards online."

Discoveries such as this are forcing the online marketing world to
finally sit up and take notice of the over-50s market. We have seen
online communities such as 50connect and mychumsclub set up to join
established players such as Saga in a market that is fast growing,
wealthy, and increasingly online. However, while online marketers are
starting to take the grey market more seriously, they are also
discovering that reaching this market is far from easy.

The power of the grey pound

Fiona Hought, managing director of marketing agency Millennium, offers
some figures to demonstrate the spending power of the over 50s: "The
grey sector accounts for 40 per cent of consumer spending and controls a
staggering 80 per cent of the country's wealth. Furthermore, an Ofcom
report recently highlighted that the over 50s are spending 42 hours
online a month and this is set to rise."

She continues: "According to a recent TGI 2007 report, 25 per cent of
over 50s are using the internet every day and now account for 30 per
cent of all online users. Therefore it comes as no surprise that the
over 50s are set to dominate the online shopping market by 2010.
However, remarkably, fewer than five per cent of the total British
marketing spend proactively targets the over 50s."

The evidence is overwhelming. The average net worth of a 60 year old is
seven times that of his or her 35-year-old counterpart. People aged 50
to 65 are now spending twice as much on leisure and entertainment as the
under 30s. The TGI 2006 report showed that nearly three-quarters of the
over 50s had DVD players and nearly 80 per cent had a mobile phone.
Likewise, nearly 60 per cent of over 50s now own a PC or a laptop.

Womenswear brand Gray & Osbourn had always used mail order to reach its
customers, who are typically aged over 50. However, Katy Ingram, its
commercial director, reports that this is now changing: "As time has
gone on and the market has become more internet-savvy, our online
presence has grown and our e-newsletters have become a central part of
our marketing mix. The online facility has also allowed for a more
interactive customer experience."

Untapped market

In some ways it is remarkable that this enormous market is so
under-exploited. To some extent, this is because the over 50s have been
relatively slow to become comfortable with online shopping. However,
Louis Fernandez, senior account director at marketing agency Acxiom
Digital, believes there is another reason why so little online marketing
is targeted at this rich seam of potential customers.

He says: "Digital attracts a lot of young, talented people, and they
tend to be more comfortable working for the brands they consume. These
tend to be in sectors such as gaming, social networks, mobile telephony
and fashion brands. If you're under 30, you have very few personal
reference points when trying to construct a campaign aimed at the over
50s."

Underestimated

Iain Dawson, director of communications planning at Equi=Media, is less
charitable. He believes that brands have chronically underestimated the
potential of this market: "There is still a perception that the over 50s
will not provide long-term value for brands. This is not true. A survey
from Westminster Primary Care Trust predicts that a wealthy 65-year-old
woman in central London can expect to live until she is 96."

He continues: "It is no surprise therefore that the over 50s are now an
important and active part of the population. Brands need to recognise
the lifetime value of older customers who are more likely than younger
ones to remain loyal to the brand. The over 50s are well worth investing
in and acquiring as new customers, both offline and online."

Those behind 50connect, Mychumsclub, SagaZone and similar sites have
clearly recognised this fact, and are aiming to provide a space in which
brands can communicate with this audience. As Pete Anderson, planning
director at marketing agency Underwired, says: "Mychumsclub is a social
community site for the over 50s, which provides a great platform for
conversations, information and brand engagement with the target
audience."

Andrew Wilson, founder of Funky Fogey, adds: "Funkyfogey.com and other
such sites have built a rapport and trust with members. Therefore our
communications with them are more likely to be viewed positively.
Funkyfogey.com has also been designed so brands can easily target our
audience via the ezines and by interest area, in an innovative and
interactive way."

Trenton Moss, director at web design agency Webcredible, says the key to
reaching this audience is to address usability issues. He offers this
advice: "Investigate innovative ways to communicate the fact that a page
is not finished and requires scrolling. Often older users will scroll
down and may miss important information. Avoid technical terms if
possible. Identify links in a consistent and obvious way. Make content
as concise and clear as possible. Lastly, provide a 'make the writing
bigger' link, and always use high contrast to display text."

However, brands should be careful not to make inaccurate assumptions.
Jenni Lloyd, director at marketing agency NixonMcInnes, says: "When
designing a campaign for Stannah Stairlifts we assumed that users would
tend to have low-spec PCs and low-resolution monitors. Looking at the
website analytics totally disproved this. We also assumed that users in
their 70s would have a lower level of ability in using the internet.
Testing the website in a usability lab with real users again disproved
this."

Separate identities

Indeed, while targeting and site design are important, by far the most
important factor in successful marketing to the over 50s is
understanding that they are not a homogenous group. Nicholas Miller,
chief executive of marketing tools manufacturer Kyp Systems, explains:
"The interests of a 55-year-old male chief executive living in central
London are going to be very different to those of a 75-year-old retired
female living in Kent. However, the two are typically bulked together in
market research."

According to the Office for National Statistics by 2031, 43 per cent of
the UK population will be over 50. That is an extra four million people
compared to today. This means that online marketers need to start
targeting this group. However, paradoxically, to do this successfully
they need to avoid marketing with an age group.

As Rob Kelly, senior publisher sales manager at TradeDoubler concludes:
"Even when using sites that target age, consumers are much more likely
to respond to messaging that is based on their interests. This means for
an advertiser to view this market as a homogenous mass would be an
error. Targeting specific groups within this audience is a must for
anyone who is serious about achieving results."

FLORA PRO.ACTIVE TARGETS OVER-50 WOMEN WITH CHOLESTEROL CAMPAIGN ON
50CONNECT

In December 2007 the Flora pro.activ team approached Rachael Hannan,
editor of 50connect, an online community for the over 50s. According to
Flora's 'Check For Change' report, only 15 per cent of the healthcare
professionals they surveyed were aware that menopausal women face the
same risk of coronary heart disease as middle-aged men. It is not
standard practice for GPs to offer their female patients a cholesterol
test when they start showing symptoms of the menopause.

Flora wanted to raise awareness of this issue and in turn, boost sales
of its pro.activ cholesterol-lowering products, by targeting women who
are approaching menopause. As part of their campaign, they were urging
women to take charge of their own health, by offering a free cholesterol
and blood-pressure test at Lloyds Pharmacies. The test was free on the
presentation of two Flora pro.activ products.

Those that did this were given a money-off voucher so that if they
wanted to make diet and lifestyle changes, and consume Flora pro.activ
products, they could return to Lloyds Pharmacy for a re-test in three
months to see if their cholesterol was now at a healthy level.

Hannan says: "As a market-leading over-50s website with two million
unique monthly visitors, 50connect was the natural choice to showcase
Flora's campaign. We ran a health article on this issue. To date, this
has received 14,138 visits."

As an offshoot, 50connect also interviewed Gloria Hunniford and ran it
as a feature. Hunniford is the face of Flora pro.activ, starring in all
its television ads and pictured on the packaging of Flora pro.activ
products. These two articles were linked together and as such, subtly
reinforced the Flora campaign and their pro.activ products. Both pieces
went into the monthly newsletter, which goes out to the 140,000
registered members of the site.

Hannan says: "The over 50s are not about to be easily sucked in by
scaremongering or sensationalism. The Flora 'Check For Change' campaign
is an example of successful marketing to this demographic. The campaign
had solid research behind it and encouraged women to take charge of
their health with a free cholesterol test, therefore offering a complete
package for anyone concerned about the link between menopause and
cholesterol."