Ahhh – not another photo of a couple strolling on a beach

This article in Marketing Week is about an oldies research study from Business Development Research Consultants (BDRC) that is be based on 5,500 interviews. The study appears to be mainly aimed at the Financial Services industry.

Some of the ‘headline’ comments:

1. The 50-plus group used to be far more homogenous; kids flying the nest and people being ‘empty nesters’ and then eventually retiring. It used to be very well delineated but this is changing

2. Delayed “empty nesters”, who have discovered their nests are no longer so empty now the kids are back again, may have to come out of retirement and then go back to work.

3. Grandparents are becoming childminders to their children’s kids and this greater family interaction is creating a generation of “blended families”.

4. Marketing by life stage is a more effective mechanism to engage with consumers than focusing on age.

5. The jargon used in financial services can be bewildering. Relating marketing to real-life situation is a far more effective way of engaging with the 50-plus market.

I have to say that none of these insights knocks my socks off. I am sure there must have been more interesting observations than these – surely? These points are all so 2005.

Here is one observation that was not reported about the Financial Services industry. Most of the 50-plus believe banks, insurance and all other types of ‘investment’ companies to be incompetent and self-serving. OK, I might exaggerate a tad but believe me if you see the research that passes over my desk the Financial Services industry is always on the bottom of the pile of ‘trusted’ organisations about the same level as UK politicians - that is low, low, low.

The Financial Services Industry has a massive confidence building job of work to do. If I were them I would start there. Normally, I would say to never consider the 50-plus as a single group, but their dislike of the Finance Industry is one thing that unites them.Dick Stroud