GETTING BETTER WITH AGE

It has always surprised me how many efforts – often by very highly rated people – to specialise in marketing to the over-50’s have been relatively unsuccessful. Peter Hubbell seems to be an honourable exception, to judge from his agency credentials, his website, and particularly his stellar client list. This is the second book in his Age of Aging series, the first being The Old Rush (2014). Maybe he’s done well because of the David Ogilvy factor. The great man famously said, ‘The consumer isn’t a moron. She’s your wife’. Hubbell has taken it a stage further, asserting that he understands the aging consumer, because it’s him!

Baby Boomers are generally regarded as those born between 1946 and 1966 (dates vary slightly by country, depending on how long it took for populations to get back on their feet after the ravages and disruption of the Second World War). Hubbell’s agency is called BoomAgers (based in NYC and Chicago). He believes in telling it as it is. A prominent ad headline on his website reads. “Bladder leaks can feel like no big deal”. He’s not a fan of shots of glamorous silver foxes at the helm of their yachts.

I liked the book and found it highly readable, and also easy to dip in and out. Part 1 is a persuasive introduction to his thesis that the 50+ marketplace is the most exciting (and in mature markets, the fastest growing) segment for brands and marketers. In Part 2, Hubbell singles out analogues for humans aging and getting better – wine, leather, cheeses, cast iron skillets and, of course, memories!

Part Three is called Fifty Ways to Get Better with Age, and this is the best bit. Hubbell has clearly had an interesting life, which he has enjoyed with his eyes open and his faculties tuned. He also writes well about the people, places and clients he has experienced. There are some great tips in the ‘Fifty Ways’. To highlight my top picks from this section (which comprises more than half the book) – first, the best teams in the world practise far more than they perform, so why does our industry think it can make amazing presentations without rehearsing?  Secondly, people become happier as they age. Mortality is not something you dwell on. So enjoy the present. Thirdly, just because Boomers are digitally competent and fluent in social media, it doesn’t mean that they don’t respond to ideas. Fourthly, concentrate on the psychology of aging, not its symptoms. It’s a variant of one of my favourite aphorisms: ‘don’t beat yourself up with problems, concentrate on the opportunities’.

If I have a beef with this really insightful and useful book, there is a constant confusion between getting better WITH age (happy Boomer), and getting better AT age (smart marketer). I think Hubbell could have been more direct in encouraging marketing professionals from Generations X and Y to become experts in reaching the over-50’s. It’s harder for them, but they understand at least some things about their parents and grandparents. And Hubbell’s book will help.