The headline in today's FT says "Rift grows between old and young - Chancellor continues to shelter older people from austerity measures."
What follows is a pathetic attempt to construct an argument to justify the headline claim. It is worth marketers understanding the technique the FT attempts to employ. When done well it can be very effective - when done like this it is beyond contempt.
Dick Stroud Financial Times print journalism age data analysisThis week I spent some time in one of the largest advertising agencies in the UK. I always love going to agencies. There is a lot of energy - people rush around - there is a lot of laughing. How could you not find that motivating. The downside, for the agencies, is that the people that work there are, with very, very few exceptions, half the age of most of the people that buy the products they are trying to promote.
Dick Stroud advertising agencies age grey aging population academiaSteve Jobs once said: "It's rare that you see an artist in his thirties and forties able to really contribute something amazing". Yet in his forties and beyond he went on to reinvent the music industry model, mobile phones, computers (again) and books.
Neil Perkin entrepreneurship ageOnce again – thanks to David Weigelt for his excellent SilverTsunami video blog, where I heard about these three stories. One of David’s colleagues has written a useful article titled: “What Google + means for the 50+.” I am still waiting to get onto the network to try it first hand but clearly a lot of others have joined.
age Dick Stroud Internet usage social mediaDevelopmental psychologists love to remind us that the frontal lobe isn’t fully developed until humans are in their mid-20s. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for our ability to assess the consequences of our decisions, our ability to understand how what we do will play out into the future. This is often used to explain why teens (and, increasingly, college-aged people) lack the cognitive ability to be wise.
danah boyd young teens age brain risk behaviour patternsGuest Post by: Jo Stratmann
Online community moderation company Community 102 recently published an interesting infographic which looked at how different age groups interact online across the social web.
age Internet usage Jo Stratmann social networksWhen I was in Dublin I had a TV interview about all of this ‘i’ stuff and why it is such an important development for older people. Having watched it again I think it covers most of the points, however, I must stop repeating myself. Put it down to age.
apps Dick Stroud iPad grey ageI totally agree with the conclusions of this article that Apple products are and will continue to be popular with older people. I don’t agree with the rationale for reaching this conclusion. The author is basically saying that older people buy Apple products because the want to be ‘hip’ and this gives them an easy way of achieving this goal. Here are some of the quotes:
age Apple demographics Dick StroudMichelle Kaplan is the co-founder of Winster.com. Many thanks for contributing this article to my blog. It is always good to hear stories that demolish the stereotypes about older people and how they use, or don't use, technology. This is what Michelle had to say.
Dick Stroud gaming social gaming grey age
