Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Language of Ageing

Earlier this month I wrote about the names we use to describe older people.

This blog entry considers some of the terms us marketers are all too happy to bandy about without really knowing what they mean. Terms like retirement, caregiver, Sandwich Generation and aging in place. These terms don’t have any absolute meaning and as sure as eggs are eggs they don’t mean very much to older person.

Maybe I should create a directory of ageing terms.

The message for marketers is not to be lazy and slip into using terms that are open to misinterpretation just because of the effort required to accurately define/explain. Dick Stroud

1 comment:

Paul said...

Not just marketers, but salespeople approach folks with terms that have different meanings for different folks (and not just to 50+ folks). My daughter taught me that "hook up" might have a different meaning to others than it does to me. Here's a link to my article, Four Common Words That Will Ruin Your Sale, that elucidates on common sales misinterpretations: http://paul-johnson.com/2006/05/four-common-words-that-will-ruin-your-sale/