Younger Advertisers and Older Consumers

            Communication has been variously defined as the passing of information. Belch’s Advertising and Promotion mentioned that here must be some common thinking between two parties (consumers and marketers) and information must be passed from one person to another or from one group to another (pp.145, 2012). However, many of the younger people who work in the creative departments of advertising agencies cannot develop ads that connect with older consumers. The reason I think is advertisers ignore older consumers.

            Older consumers are not attracted by advertisings (baidu.com, 2014). According to a survey for older people about advertising from baidu.com, many older respondents states that advertisings are too noisy, and advertisings much focus on younger people. They have a negative view of advertisings (meihua.info, 2013). 75% respondents claim that they will not make the shopping decisions based on advertisings (meihua.info, 2013). Therefore, advertisings ignore older consumers.

            On the other hand, it is hard for older consumers to understand the advertisings. The report found that older consumers are not satisfied with the market shopping, because market cannot fully meet their needs (meihua.info, 2013). They had some unhappy shopping experiences in markets. For example, the shelves either too high or too low that led they could not reach the products easily. They often didn’t’ know how to open the product package, the store labels, and the price tag, and they didn’t pay attention to the advertisings (meihua.info, 2013). Therefore, in my opinion, advertisings ignore older consumers, and older consumers also ignore advertisings.

广告对于老年消费者来说没有什么吸引力。调查中，很多受访者对广告持消极看法，认为现在的广告太嘈杂，太过注重年轻人和摇滚乐。英国老年慈善组织“英国老年问题”（现已改名“老年英国”）的调查也有类似的发现：2/3的受访老年消费者称他们在广告里的形象是负面的，3/4的受访者则称他们不会将广告作为购物决定的参考。对于一些与年纪相关的产品，通常是医疗保健方面或个人护理方面的产品，传播正确的信息是件极具挑战性的事情。

　　广告是年轻人的游戏。尽管50岁的人财力更大，消费能力也更高，但是要在市场营销中做到对年龄的表现不偏不倚，从而打动老年消费者，对于广告商来说着实困难。18到34岁的消费群体以及已身为人母的女性仍是广告营销的主战场。但报告指出，人口老龄化震荡的影响很容易被错过，但是若企业熟视无睹，那么后果将非常危险。

报告发现，老年消费者认为市场、零售商和制造商不能完全满足他们的需求。大部分不满来自于他们面临的困难：大商场里商品琳琅满目，但却让他们晕头转向；货架不是太高就是太低，他们很难够到所需商品。他们经常不知道如何拆开产品外包装，商店里标签、价签和指示语对于他们来说都难以理解。

           

References:

Belch, E. George & Belch, A. Michael. (2012). Advertising And Promotion: an integrated marketing communications perspective -9^th ed. Published by McGraw-Hill/Irwin, a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Meihua (2013). How to trade with Older People. Knowledge Article Center. Meihua.info. Retrieved from: http://www.meihua.info/knowledge/article/6142