FRANK L. CONAWAY : Advertising’s Age Gap : Primelife Fine-Tunes Ads for ‘Mature’ Population

By neglecting to market their products and services to “mature Americans,” most advertisers are losing a lot of potential sales, says Frank L. Conaway, an 18-year veteran of the marketing and communications industries.

Conaway formerly worked as an account executive for the Ohio-based advertising firms Lord, Sullivan & Yoder, and Howard Swink Advertising. Now he is chief executive of Primelife, an advertising firm in Orange that he founded in November, 1989, to specialize in the development of strategies for reaching the mature market.

In a year, he said, Primelife has done work for six companies, including consulting on senior housing projects for TransAmerica Corp., a San Francisco-based financial institution, and Leisure Care, a Washington real estate management company. Among its current projects, Primelife is developing an advertising and public relations campaign for Optical Radiation Corp., an Azusa manufacturer of products used in cataract surgery.

Conaway points out that there are 62 million Americans over age 50 who earn $800 billion a year after taxes and wield half of the nation’s discretionary income. Moreover, they control 77% of the nation’s financial assets, including savings, stocks and bonds, he said.

He says “the mature consumer market” is the single-largest untapped consumer group in the nation because many advertisers have the mistaken notion that marketing to older consumers is much like that directed at other groups.

In an interview with Times staff writer Leslie Berkman, Conaway discussed advertising to the nation’s most experienced and astute shoppers.

Q. Would you define the “mature market” for me?

A. There are several different categories: those from 55 to 64, from 65 to 74, 75 to 84 and over 85. These groups differ in their lifestyles, spending habits and values. What happens in this business is that many people, because of myths and misperceptions that they have, look at the mature market as a homogeneous group. They figure that if you are 55 or older, everybody falls into the same category and you can market to them the same way. But if you do that, you probably will fail. A 75-year-old and a 55-year-old are worlds apart.

Q. What are some of the differences between the various mature market segments?

A. My dad, who is 79, for example, worked when there weren’t many good pension plans. He mined coal and worked in a steel mill. Like many men of his generation, he had to work from the time he was 13 and spent a lot on his family when he was raising kids. He and my mom are on Social Security and don’t have a lot of discretionary income to spend.

But younger groups in the mature market do have discretionary income. Those 55 to 65 years old are the wealthiest. Many of them have saved and have good pension programs. They’ve invested. Many have bought houses. They have money to spend.

Also, the people in different age groupings have a different attitude toward how they are identified. I think 75- to 80-year olds are content with being called senior citizens. I don’t think they like the terms “elderly” or “older” or “gray panthers” or “golden-agers,” which are all somewhat demeaning terms.

I think younger mature-market people like to be called “active adults.” But if I called my 56-year-old brother a “senior citizen,” he’d probably smack me. You have to be sensitive to those issues. People 55 to 60 do not perceive themselves in the mature market necessarily and some of them fight that.

Q. I suppose the baby boomers will be an even bigger factor when they enter their mature years.

A. In all the books and articles I read, everyone says wait until the baby boomers come, that’s when you really should get into mature marketing. My thinking on that is, excuse me, we have 62 million people over the age of 50 now. They have the most amount of money in the population and they’re most willing to spend it for products and services. And for the most part, they are being ignored.

Q. What are some of the considerations you make in marketing to an older audience?

A. As we age, we often can’t see as well and type size has to be larger. Reader’s Digest figured that out years ago. They have two different kinds of books, the large type version and regular type.

Also, as we get older it is a bit more difficult to discern certain colors. For example, blues, greens, black and purples all tend to blend together while it is easier to distinguish reds, oranges and yellows. When you advertise by direct mail, you have to use a type and color design that works for older people.

Q. Besides the appearance of the advertising material, what kind of message appeals to the seniors?

A. Probably the biggest hot button with the mature market is convenience. They are looking for things that will make their lives easier.

Q. Do you see advertisers making mistakes in their efforts to reach mature consumers?

A. One of the most notable examples was Wendy’s “Where’s the beef?” ad. The elderly spokesperson they featured in the ad was used to stereotype seniors as unintelligent and forgetful. It was a well-remembered campaign, but mature consumers were offended by it.

Q. How about the Denny’s commercial in which one of two older women engaged in friendly chatter is always confusing “Denny’s” with “Lenny’s” and making various outlandish comments?

A. I am appalled at the Denny’s commercial. I am not sure whether the traffic at Denny’s has increased or not, but that’s the kind of advertising that misses the market. It makes old people look like buffoons, like they are developing Alzheimer’s disease or something. I call it “ageism.” Like racism or sexism, it perpetuates false stereotypes and myths about a segment of the population.

Q. Have any of your clients made mistakes?

A. One of our clients, an intraocular lens company, developed a series of ads it was going to begin to run to the consumer who needs cataract surgery. We suggested that we first show the ads to a group of seniors who objected that some of the statements the ads made were incorrect.

Q. Can you give an example?

A. One ad campaign showed photographs of a guy mowing the lawn, going to a ballgame and playing with his grandchildren after having cataract surgery. The focus group of seniors said that was very misleading because if you had cataract surgery in the morning or the day before, you certainly are not going to do those things. So those ads were pulled.

Q. So it is important to be honest in your presentation? So the consumer doesn’t think cataract surgery is going to be like a day in the park?

A. Exactly. The approach should be very factual. We are giving the ophthalmologists a package of information they can present to their patients that will tell them step by step what is going to happen to them from the time they come to have their eyes examined through surgery and what kind of follow-up care they will need.

Q. What kind of elderly people do you portray in advertisements? Are they all very good looking?

A. A lot of companies use models, and I think models are very effective, but some of the criticism of mature market advertising is that everyone in the ads looks like a model, and in reality everybody doesn’t look like movie stars. You need to show real people.

Q. When people grow older do they mind identifying with people who have a lot of wrinkles?

A. They do mind. In advertising there is a chronicle age and a cognitive age, which is the way we want to be perceived and the way that we feel. Most people feel 10 to 15 years younger than they are and think other people perceive them as being younger.

Too often, mature people are portrayed in housecoats and ill-fitting, out-of-style clothing. But they are not that way. One gal I used in an ad was 84 years old and looked like dynamite. She dressed very well and looked like she was about 74.

We also need to show them in working situations, because 50% of the 55- to 65-year-olds are still working and many will continue to work.

Q. So mature adults want to be portrayed as active and capable?

A. Yes. Too many times promoters of senior housing promise that if you move there you will be taken care of. But older people want to remain independent and involved, and they don’t want to go to a place where they perceive somebody’s going to take care of them.

Q. When you market senior housing are you talking to the seniors or to their children who may be responsible to pay for it?

A. It depends on the product. If you are marketing a golf community, your buyers are active 55- to 65-year-olds. But with assisted-care facilities you must also direct your marketing to the children. They usually do all the work finding out about the different facilities, although they will usually take mom there to make the ultimate decision.

Dual marketing to the very elderly and their children also extends to financial and estate planning.

Q. How does a business tailor itself to the mature market?

A. Right now we are working with a restaurant in downtown Long Beach called the Williamsburg. The owner doesn’t want to lose his senior business to a Sizzler that is going to open up nearby. So we are going to do some surveys and other research for him.

Q. What kind of features do you think would attract seniors to a restaurant?

A. They are more concerned about their health and food intake than other generations. You try to provide the kind of meals they want at a reasonable price. Sizzler restaurants are popular with seniors because they provide a wide variety of choice that they like.

Q. What are the business fields that can benefit most from marketing to senior citizens?

A. Health care, housing, financial services, insurance, fund-raising and travel. I think down the road a lot of travel companies will develop shorter trips, because as you get a bit older, it’s too strenuous to take a trip for 10 days or two weeks. So they might have three or four-day packages for some of the older age segments that would be more appropriate.

Also, we recently made a presentation to handle public relations and advertising for a company that has developed catheters as an alternative to surgery for alleviating urinary difficulties caused by prostate obstructions. We hope to show urologists how to market this treatment to older men who frequently tend to get this problem. For instance, the doctors could provide patient education materials in terms of graphics and videos that could compensate for sight and hearing problems that people get as they grow older.

Q. How would you present videos for a mature audience?

A. It would be just the opposite of MTV videos which are geared to teen-agers. You need to speak distinctly and delete any extraneous noises that would make it more difficult to hear the message. In choosing colors for the video, you would would stay away from the blues, purples, greens and blacks that tend to run together in the perception of older people.

Q. Aren’t businesses trying to learn about the needs of older consumers?

A. I think the mature market is probably the least researched of any. We are a youth-oriented society. Most of our products are geared to youth. I think 7% of all TV commercials last year had a mature-market person in them when the majority of TV watchers are seniors. They watch more TV than any other age group.

Businesses have recognized Hispanics, Asians and blacks as specific market niches and gone after them, but they haven’t done this in terms of the mature market.

Q. Why is that?

A. One reason is that the people in the advertising business are young. The average age is probably about 30. So they are not thinking of marketing to somebody who’s 70 years old.

Another reason is the misperception that all the elderly are poor and don’t spend. But if you look at all the demographics and all the research it will tell you just the opposite. The thing that amazes me is that advertising agencies and businesses haven’t been able to realize what a tremendous opportunity this is.

Q. Will businesses have to pay more attention to the mature market in the future?

A. I believe there will be increasing competition to sell to that group. Already there is much more competition among senior housing developments in Southern California. A few years ago if you opened a senior housing complex, it filled up immediately. All they had to do was put up a sign. Now that is not the case, and they are having to hire marketing firms.

Q. What is the most effective way to market to seniors?

A. We did a telemarketing campaign for a senior housing complex in Anaheim Hills that worked very well. The objective was to get people to visit the facility and give them a tour.

But hiring the right telemarketers is very important. We interviewed 15 or 16 people and finally hired a woman who was 57 years old. She had a great telephone manner. She was a good listener and very conversational. She did not have a high-pressure sales approach. She would talk with seniors about what was going on in their lives. It’s a longer process and more involved, but it also has bigger rewards at the end. I think she made about 150 calls a day for over two months and increased the number of visitors to the housing project by almost 40%.

Q. Are there any other advertising forms that work?

A. We’re looking at developing cable programs for the mature market because it is a much less expensive and more effective way to target a specific audience than advertising on commercial television.

Newspaper advertisements are also effective. Seniors grew up as newspaper readers and still read them for information more than younger people. Also, there are a lot of senior newspapers and magazines now that you could use to advertise.

Q. How about door-to-door sales?

A. The mature market is very leery of that. They grew up with the Electrolux vacuum cleaner salesmen and the Fuller brush salesmen. But because so many strange things are happening now, they worry about security and don’t want people coming door to door.

Q. Are seniors afraid they will be cheated?

A. Yes. They are very careful shoppers. So it’s not a quick sell. They are very rarely going to walk in someplace and buy a TV for $500 to $600. They are going to go to three or four different places and they are going to look at the newspaper to see what’s on sale. They’ve got the time to do it and they are very smart consumers. If you can provide guarantees, warranties and specific product information, they’ll read it. They read the stuff on the box. They read the warranties on the inside. And if you can provide that kind of information, you have a better chance of selling your product or service.

Q. You always hear stories about the elderly being defrauded of their life savings.

A. Some are and that is why seniors as a whole are much more conservative about how they buy and what they buy.