Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
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.)
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So I lied and came back for one more post since the thread was still on my screen upon returning from my teaching.
That's, IMO, a VERY small part of the reason ads focus on that age group.
Another poster hit the nail on the head--its the age group with the most disposable income.
Once you get toward 30-35 and above most people have kids, mortgages etc.--more costs, more need to save money for kids' educations, retirement. Retirees tend to be on fixed incomes.
The 20-35 set is where you have the single, young professionals who are making real money for the first time, aren't paying for kids, mortgages, or all that worried about long term savings yet.
That and some products like iPods just aren't going to sell all that well to the 65 and up crowd currently. They wouldn't get enough extra sales from that demographic to justify the costs to targeting some ads at it.
Down the road when the people 65 and up are people who grew up with video games, mp3 players etc. I suspect we'll see more broad tech ads since we'll have a whole society who's been immersed in tech gadgets their whole lives. Vs. now where as the older you go the less technology people were exposed to in their youth, the less they used it in their work etc.
I do think for some gadgets, there missing out on sales by focusing to much on the younger crowd. But I don't think they'd miss many in terms of a business focused tablet device like the MS Courier. Look how many people on here bitch and moan about how they don't want that as it would be expensive and they don't need all the extra features and just want something they can read on.
But things like iPods, HDTVs, Blu Ray players I think they do focus too much on the younger crowd as they are easy to use and I think older segments of the population would buy in more with some more targeted marketing. It just becomes less so when you get at complicated gadgets more aimed at the young professional crowd--both for age reasons and likelihood of having a career that is aided by such gadgets.