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Misha Cornes is Director of Strategy at Organic, a leading digital marketing agency that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Omnicom. With over 15 years of experience, Misha translates strategic marketing goals into exceptional online experiences for companies like Sprint, Mitsubishi Motors North America, and Bank of America. He provides leadership to cross-disciplinary creative teams to ensure that every project is rooted in a deep understanding of customer needs. Prior to Organic, he was a management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton. Misha also serves as editor-in-chief of Organic's blog, ThreeMinds.

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The Digital Generation Gap: How Brands Can Capitalize on the Growing Senior Online Set

Written on
January 10th 2007
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by Misha Cornes  |
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One brand we are currently working with is Geek Squad, a national network of computer repair consultants who wear clip-on ties and make house calls in their iconic black and orange Volkswagen Beetles. Their brand is extremely relevant to the kind of affluent online Seniors who have an affinity for new technology, but need a helping hand from someone they can trust.

In designing their website, we wanted to acknowledge the differences between Seniors and younger, more tech-savvy customers. Organic engaged the client in a persona development exercise to understand Geek Squad’s customers at the level of their beliefs, emotions, and behaviors, particularly around technology. We created a persona, Charlie, who has many of the characteristics of the typical online Senior. Charlie is retired, but he emails his grandchildren regularly and knows his way around a PC. Charlie is getting tired of calling up his son when things go wrong. Knowing that the Web is full of people trying to take advantage of unsophisticated users like him, he wants to find a computer company that will prove worthy of his trust. And we want to design a website that won’t talk down to him and that takes his concerns and fears about technology seriously.

To speak to Charlie, we are creating a specific pathway into Geek Squad’s products and services that speaks to computer issues in language he understands. Rather than forcing him to understand terms like “wireless networking” or “VOIP”, we start the Charlies of the world off with a problem statement like “I can’t connect to the Internet” or “I think I might have a computer virus”. Understanding how Charlie thinks about technology is the key to demonstrating what Geek Squad can do for him.

Second, we know from our research that while online Seniors and the overall online population have similar click-through rates, they are more than twice as likely to call an 800 number to order products after seeing ads online. Since they prefer toll-free numbers, we made sure that every touchpoint aimed at Charlie includes references to 1-800-GeekSquad and messaging about Geek Squad’s 24/7 access to real live humans.

Another example of reaching out to Seniors was a pitch we recently gave for a major cruise line. The majority of cruises are still booked through travel agents, partly because they are more complex products than simple airline ticket purchases, and partly because the core audience for cruises are 55+, and are only just beginning to demand better service through the online channel. This client was convinced that we should focus on a building a richer research experience that demonstrated the superior service qualities of their high-end brand, then create a hand-off to the travel agent.

We came with a point of view that the Senior market was ready to take control of their own itinerary and book online. We proposed a streamlined trip planning guide that included elements of both a standard trip configurator and a customization tool. Knowing that many online Seniors travel together, we also created a widget that allows passengers to share the planning process with their loved ones.

While I may never get my parents to install broadband at their house, I do see some hopeful signs. My father-in-law, who is about the same age but infinitely more web-savvy, has gotten into Flickr in a major way. My folks are starting to feel some peer pressure. Seniors will be the next big wave of customers to embrace the online channel. How can your brand take advantage of the growing numbers of Seniors online?



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Reader Comments.

Misha, I read your posting and wanted to add some additional thoughts to your post. First, at 64 your mom is at the high end of the Boomer generation. this generation shuns the world senior, grey, silver or any word that smacks of being old. This Age of Aquarius protested, burned their bras started the women’s movement - they do not mirror the stereotypes of past generations of “older” seniors.

You mentioned the seniors lack of trust in technology. Why should they trust an industry that continously fails to design for their needs? For example, how many web sites use 10 pt type and/or pale text colors, with no contrast that are harder to read as one ages - or worse yet reversed out type. Ask a Boomer what they hate about using a cell phone and the females will tell you “having to put on “reader” glasses to see the numbers”. Ever try to use a Palm or Blackberry with aging fingers? The need to cram more into smaller doesn’t meet their needs. And ask an ad designer or web designer if her know that the use of Flash causes problems with screen reading software and accessibility tools - TRUST, their trust hasn’t been earned and isn’t deserved. Forester needed to ask the question, why has technology not made your life easier - I bet the answer would be because it is not designed with my needs in mind.

Companies and agencies refuse to acknowledge research that shows that Boomers will change brands. Study after study has shown that the aging consumer considers this “the time of their life - a time for experimentation and learning”. Think of all the loss opportunties for new customers because of the refusal to view this market as a “new” market segment.

I applaud your use of Persona’s, 1-800 numbers and live humans for the Geek Squad - but wouldn’t we all like this type of service from our cell phone, cable providers, insurance providers?

I believe that the failure of companies and agencies to embrace this market comes down to three things. First, it isn’t perceived as fun, flashy or sexy to create for the older population. Second,it requires us to set aside our preconceived notions, biases, backgrounds, cultural views of aging and requires us to filter out the youth obsessed imagery that surrounds us daily. Third, it requires research and learning new ways of designing to serve the market.
OK, enough, I would have written this on my blog and pinged you, but the “service” at Typepad has not been trustworthy :)

Posted by Terri Whitesel | 2:02 am on January 11, 2007.

I absolutely echo the points put across by Terri Whitesel. The Baby Boomers are not being catered for by marketers. True we may not be so tech savvy as younger people but that is changing fast. And it would change even faster if marketers thought more intelligently about the hurdles Baby Boomers face when going on line. The bottom line is that marketers better wake up fast to the potential that they are letting slip through their fingers in their obsession with the 18-34 year old target group.

Posted by DChampness | 5:25 am on January 11, 2007.

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