Ken Dychtwald is a name from the past - good to see that he is still involved in the ageing business.
In JWT's end of year pronouncement about trends for 2012 it identified the older consumer as something companies should do something about. Let's face it, that is not a conclusion that is that difficult to reach.
Anyway, JWT ask Ken Dychtwald to comment about the trend. Here are a few quotes
Generally, people think old age begins around 80. If old age moves back, what about all that territory between 50 and 80? What is that? All good stuff, unfortunately nobody has told our bodies that this happening and even if our perception of ourselves remains young bits of the body will keep telling us that that isn't true.
What’s replacing the linear life plan is a cyclic life plan, in which people are continually reinventing themselves and trying new things. For today’s elders, it was considered abnormal. I mean, if you were a dentist, and didn’t want to be a dentist anymore, people thought something was wrong with you. This might well be true for the professional classes but try telling this story to a 55 year-old factory worker who has been out of work for 12 months. We must not extrapolate the universe of older people from our own experience. It is a trap I fall into and as I suspect does Mr Dychtwald
Aging is becoming more ageless. Bang on the money with this observation, although I think age-neutral is far more expressive of the reality.
The one thing that was missing from the article was that dreaded word ' recession '. As I have said countless times - the recession changes and will change everything. Dick Stroud
No comments:
Post a Comment