• by Stephen Reily , Columnist, June 8, 2015

At the Cannes Lions festival later this month I’ll be joining Kirsty Fuller, co-founder and co-CEO of the global insight and brand consultancy Flamingo Group. Kirsty and Flamingo have been studying the aging marketplace for many years. Their 2009 report, “Talkin’ ’Bout My Generation,” delivered new insights on the rapidly changing marketplace of 50+ consumers, and the value in reaching them.

As we prepare for our panel discussion, “Whatever You Do, Don’t Call Them Grey (or Silver,” Flamingo’s fresh insights add real value to the ongoing debate over how to engage women 50+.

Here are some of those insights:

Brands avoid marketing to women 50+ because they fear it will damage their brand equity – especially with the younger consumers they can’t afford to turn off. 

Some Boomer-marketing promoters have implied that brands avoid older consumers only out of prejudice and ageism. Flamingo’s new point is more subtle, and gives brands credit for a strategic decision, but a strategically flawed decision, because it assumes that they have to choose marketing to either the 18-24 demographic or the 50+ demographic. 

But why do we so readily assume that this binary (either/or) strategic decision is correct?

Millennials and Boomers may be ready for the same message

As I’ve noted here before, there are many ways in which the “generation gap” that long divided older and younger consumers has faded, if not disappeared altogether. Flamingo’s insights confirm that Boomers and Millennials now share almost identical attitudes and values around technology, health, family, travel, and change. 

When consumers of very different ages share attitudes and values, it means that they are already talking to each other about them. It’s time for marketers to join that conversation, and to stop fearing that doing so will cause them to lose one group or the other.

Millennials May Aspire to Boomer Values

Of course, Millennials and Boomers aren’t entirely alike. 

Research continually points to some differences that age brings: namely, that older consumers are increasingly happy, that they know who they are, and that they don’t need brands to give them an identity. This research is no secret, even to Millennials. 

The growing body of universally acknowledged happiness research may inspire a new era in ageless marketing. 

If Millennials aspire to a Boomer level of happiness and security, then it may be time for marketers to market to both generations with a similar message, one that doesn’t tell consumers how the brand will make them cool, but explains how the brand can enable a more engaged and connected life. 

Maybe consumers of all ages are ready to embrace a message focused on the happiness to which we all aspire rather than a concept of “youthfulness” that seems more dated than ever. 

Who doesn’t want to be on the upswing of the U-curve of happiness?