Aspirational Marketing
by Michael HoffmanTuesday, February 26th, 2008
Do people see themselves as you see them? This is an important question for anyone trying to market a product or idea or organization. Do you see people as old or young or religious or rich? They might not see themselves that way.
On the IdeaDrivenMarketing.com blog there is a post about a social networking/content sites for Baby Boomers called Eons.com. This site is a failure due to a basic misunderstanding how their target market sees themselves.
What went wrong with their strategy? Let me enumerate the ways:
* The LAST THING Boomers want is to be labeled as such. We don’t want to be viewed as “old.” Ever!
* And neither do so-called “seniors.” (unless they really are seniors, which to me is 75 or 80 plus…John McCain is 72!).
* Creating an age restricted, velvet rope around a label no Boomer wanted in the first place was the dumbest thing a web company could ever do.
* Just as many Boomers don’t welcome that label, you should not assume that a “Millennial” wants to be characterized as such. Nor an African-American, Gay consumer, Hispanic, Gen X’er, etc.
* In fact, forget the labels. Big mistake in marketing.
The last point is the most salient:
Remember, the Toyota Scion and Honda Element were both similarly designed for and marketed to twenty somethings…young people. Guess who bought a ton of them? Boomers in their 40s and 50s! There is a big strategic lesson here for marketers. People are fundamentally aspirational in their buying decisions, and their lives in general (which is one reason why Barack Obama is having such stunning success in his campaign, and not just for the legions of young people who flock to his speeches and his website.) You’ve go to appeal to individuals’ hopes and dreams, not simply the reality of who they are now.
People are fundamentally aspiration in their decisions. Who does your target market aspire to be? Is your organization or campaign helping them become that person?
Thanks to Karen Taggart for the link.
