Quote:
Originally Posted by dmaul1114
I don't think it's marketing. Are you saying MP3 players suck and young people are just stupid and fall for the marketing.  ...
They aren't avoiding targeting ads at the older set because they are wise and don't fall for hype. |
I'm not saying MP3 players suck, nor that young people are stupid. I'm saying the advertisers have their media crosshairs right on kids' foreheads, and they've been at this game long enough that they rarely miss.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dmaul1114
100% agree. That's the point I was trying to make, in response to Steve saying young people are targeted for gadgets like iPods as they're more susceptible to marketing. That's just silly IMO.
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It may sound silly... and I'm not saying it should be this way... but it's an established fact. Madison Avenue knows exactly what it is doing when it creates ads. It knows very well how to target to young people, because yes, they do
demonstrably respond to the suggestion, even when overt and obvious, that products will make them more hip or sexy, more than any other demographic. (Older Americans tend to respond to more covert suggestions of sexual potency or popularity, while the oldest Americans have largely moved on from those concerns to more basic self-enjoyment and health issues.)
When products... most any products, tech or otherwise... are developed, they are immediately considered against how well the 18-35 demographic will respond to them, because the most money stands to be made from that demographic. Products will even be tailored for that demo, to encourage those sales. It doesn't make young people stupid... it means they're unilaterally targeted with psychologically-refined, proven marketing techniques, and more often than not, they succeed in making sales.
As the overall population ages, and the Boomers take the retirement stage, these stats will change, and the ways products are marketed will change accordingly. But right now, oldsters are patently being ignored in tech marketing based on now-mostly-outdated notions of what "retirees" want and like to do, and suppositions about their mobility and dexterity that applied more to their parents, not so much to them. Madison Avenue is ignoring the market, because right now it's too easy to keep selling to the kids. Who knows when that will change?