Ever feel like the lost demographic?

[Peace Of Mind]

I feel the same way most of the time. It's either crap (I throw away better stuff I see being sold today) or so ridiculously over priced I find I didn't want it bad enough to pay the price. The good news is my retirement and savings are above my goals (so far) and I'll just keep putting it there instead. I have less crap and more money for retirement. Win/win.

[TrixAre4Kids]

I tivo what little tv I watch, so don't get advertising there. Most of the ad's I do notice are on Facebook (and they're just certain that I'm looking for a sexy mature he-man!) The rest of the marketing I come across is from Amazon, they are always emailing me about the electronics deal of the day or this month's booklist topsellers. My mailbox almost daily has credit card offers (nope, I have enough of those!), the Wall Street Journal trying to sell my dead mother a subscription (WTF!), and mail order clothing catalogs. I have to say, Amazon is doing the best job to target what I am interested in.

[Urban Chicago]

I also hate how most marketing in the magazines I read (Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, and National Geographic) is aimed at either grandmas or really rich morons ($1000 "diamelles" anyone?)

[Deleted]

Jan 13, 2011 10:18:25 GMT -5 Urban Chicago said:

I also hate how most marketing in the magazines I read (Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, and National Geographic) is aimed at either grandmas or really rich morons ($1000 "diamelles" anyone?)

On another Board I mentioned Chico's for clothing for women over 30 and one woman responded, "No, too much of it is Granny bling!" I never thought of it that way but I do have to bypass a lot of spangles and sparkles in their stores.

I do think marketing is a lot more complicated than it was. Your typical 50s woman may be a divorcee just scraping by on a clerical job or she may be the principal decision-maker on family investments. She may spend a lot of money at Krispy Kreme or she may run marathons.

Then there's the "aspirational" market. I think Coach got into that in a big way. They had an image as a high-end bag maker but somehow managed to drag in many buyers who were less well-off than their usual demographic but who wanted Coach bags badly enough to run up credit card debt to acquire them. I occasionally visit another Board where the average poster is still learning how to manage money and I swear those women have more Coach bags than I do. (I have 3, and quit buying them when they moved all production to China.) In the 1950s and even the 1960s, if you didn't have the bucks you couldn't buy those things, so it was easier to pick the demographics for your marketing.

[zibazinski]

My Aunt loves shopping there but buys their casual look that she can put together with other outfits but she is in her 70's. I've never seen anything a 40 or 50 year old woman would wear in there.

[tiredturkey]

I second what Patstab said in her post. We don't need "pre-need funeral plans", Medicare supplements, walk-in bathtubs, a reverse mortgage or incontinence supplies delivered to our door in discreet packages. And we sure as hell don't need some sleazy fool trying to sell us annuities as investments over a free lunch. Perhaps our hearing and vision aren't what they used to be, but we do recognize a con when we see and hear it. We counted, in December hubby got 62 separate offers for Medicare Advantage plans.

[Poppet]

Granny Bling
That's a new one.
Yes, describes Chicos to a T.

[thyme4change]

I've never been in Chicos, but just this week I noted to x-ray technician at the doc's office her beautiful necklace. She said Chicos has great jewelry, which isn't that expensive. She was a little older, I wonder if she does the granny bling in her personal wardrobe. LOL.