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Marketing Knows No Age Limit

Destination CRM, 10/20/09

Abstract:

Ken Dychtwald knows a little something about switching gears. Originally a psychologist, Dychtwald then became a gerontologist, which is what he was before he turned into an entrepreneur. Now, he's president and chief executive officer of Age Wave, a consultancy specializing in helping companies target Baby Boomers and mature adults, and he opened his midmorning keynote presentation at the Direct Marketing Association's annual conference here today by asking attendees to "take all the things you know about how to market and to whom to market and put it aside." In other words, he wanted them to shift their collective attention away from flashy (and, at the moment, financially enfeebled) youngsters to a demographic that's not just more affluent, but one that's living life to the fullest and breaking the stereotypes of "old age."

In the past, Dychtwald said, people didn't age -- they simply died. Since 1900, he said, the average life expectancy has increased from 47 years to 78 -- the largest jump in history. And Dychtwald contended that the human body has the biological potential to live far longer than that - perhaps to 120 or even 140 years of age. The "problem" is, no matter what medical advancements or healthcare improvements are introduced to the market, what comes out at the other end, he said, is old people.

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