 |
|
 |
|
Nevermind The Bullocks. "The belief that once you get a customer they're yours for life is complete bullocks," says Andrew Cracknell, in a Wall Street Journal essay by Eric Felten. Andrew, (who's British, you know) a former creative director of Bates in Europe, and he says he's thinking about starting a new agency called "Long Trousers" -- for "consumers who've grown out of short pants." Eric Fenton's essay actually is about the youth market market myth, the well-worn idea that advertising is wasted on the young. The premise here is that kids simply don't have as much money to spend as adults, and that there is just no truth to the idea that if you win brand loyalty at a tender age, you've won it for a lifetime.
On that second point, Eric suggests it's really just the opposite, that most people actually "go out of their way to reject brands they once embraced, brands they now associate with their less sophisticated, former selves." Al Reis is good for a quote on this one: "When a guy gets promoted, he doesn't get a more expensive Chevy," says Al, "He buys a BMW." That insight is perhaps most important for brands whose appeal is among those in their fifties. The natural response is to think -- oh, no -- all of my customers will be dead in a few years. Try telling that one to Henry Fogel of the Chicago Symphony, http://www.cso.org, whose research shows an average concertgoer age of 55. He got over whatever impending doom he may have imagined after looking up research done 30 years ago that also revealed an average concertgoer age of 55. And so he's advertising his orchestra on classic rock stations!
Eric's essay also assesses the adverse effect of advertising's youth-orientation on popular culture (because it wouldn't be a Wall Street Journal essay without it). Eric says that the real reason we all should care that so much marketing is wasted on the young is that "it's one big reason that so much of the dial -- and the broader culture -- is filled with dreck." He goes on: "Take away the unearned premium demanded by shows that skew young and there might be more room for entertainments that aren't embarrassing to grown-ups." Yeah, like that embarrassing Murray the K. Anyway, Eric Felton is quite right that some companies may be wasting billions of dollars on the youth market and that marketing opportunities lurk within. As Andrew Cracknell puts it: "Big business's capacity for making mistakes is enormous."
Tim Manners, editor
|
|
|
