eric rochow : social media handyman

So we keep reading about how marketers are always trying to catch the eye or ear of the coveted 18-34 yr olds, and I, being a bit older (43), keep thinking: the rest of us have plenty of money to spend (and time to do it) as well. This is especially true of seniors, who have ample free time, and many have ample funds to spend.

In Bob Tedeschi’s E-Commerce Report today in the NY Times

“This group [seniors] has been kind of overlooked until now,” said Heather Dougherty, an analyst with Nielsen/NetRatings, an online consultancy. “But the older boomers are far from newbies at this point. We’re not talking about people who are 100 years old and haven’t seen a computer.”

Kinda overlooked. I’d have to agree.

5 years ago, I set up my father with an AOL account, and one of his first calls afterward was this panicked, “I clicked on a button and I think I bought something by accident!”

Now my father and father in-law now both have DSL lines. Dad is selling a car on eBay.

a recent Nielsen survey found that 27.4 million people age 55 and older bought something online in the last six months, compared with about 26 million a year ago.

The marketers rationale for going after this younger group is that they seem to think that this is when consumers make brand choice decisions that stick for life. I disagree, my own experience proves this wrong. I wouldn’t have bought a Dodge Caravan when I was 30. A good quote from Bob Tedeshci’s column:

“To assume someone at 35 has made all their decisions about brands for the rest of their lives is utterly ridiculous,” Ms. Dougherty said. “A lot of companies have an antiquated way of looking at older people, which makes little sense when you look at how much more disposable income they have now.”

So now online marketers are making AARP friendly sites, with the help of AARP. Smart.

Next we’ll see ringtones sampled from songs from the 60s on these sites.