Ageism is alive and
well in most product manufacturing circles - eg we're being given the
shaft.
Here's why, and why
it matters to us.
If we believe what we see in product
advertisements, we Boomers barely exist. Which is absurd even on its face: the
mere size of our generation alone makes us hard to ignore. But when it comes to
major advertisers, ignore us they do unless they’re marketing any item for the
aged (think bladder control and osteoporosis).
Why is this a
problem, you say? Because if marketers think we don’t count, that means the
product and service sectors they represent also think we don’t
count…which is why you see most products geared to young people…not
us.
The result: the
very products we need and use are being designed to meet the needs of a younger
consumer, from packaging print that requires a microscope to read, to hotels
designed to look quite hip at the expense of comfort – great for kids, bad for
us… Ageism.
And you know,
given the statistics, you’d think every product on the planet would be trying to
get our business…after all:
- Boomers spend a whopping $2.3 trillion
annually on goods and services; that’s $400 Billion more than any other age
group
- We hold 65% of all disposable
income
Sadly, however, the vast majority of products &
services glorify youth while peripheralizing us….in fact, according to
most product manufacturers and the 30 y.o. marketing geniuses they hire, we
Boomers’ lives boil down to such things as…
Read on…