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The purpose of marketing and sales communications is to stimulate awareness,
interest and desire in consumers' minds that lead to decisions to buy. An implicit presumption in marketing is
that consumers' minds -- at least adult consumers' minds -- process information more or less the same way. So,
we direct our communication to the "Average consumer".
However, information processing varies considerably across the life span.
If a sales presentation is not keyed to the information
processing styles that generally characterize consumers within an age group, the presentation will likely fall
short of achieving its objectives.
Creators of marketing and sales messages routinely strive to project values, needs and interests that supposedly
characterize consumers in an age group. But this often is inadequate for stimulating awareness, interest and desire.
Creativity and technical competence in reflecting the values, needs and interests of a target group are not enough
to carry the day. The message must resonate with the cognitive styles of the objective targets of the message.
David B. Wolfe, noted author, lecturer and expert in marketing to older consumers has developed an approach to
marketing he calls "Developmental Relationship Marketing." His approach to communicating with older consumers
has as its foundation writings of behaviorists Abraham Maslow, Eric Erikson and other noted authors. The concepts
developed in this article are taken from several of David's unpublished papers.
Beginning in adolescence and throughout a good portion of the first third of the normal adult life span, we see
the world through cognitive lenses that highly differentiate the makeup of reality. We neatly parse reality into
finely distinguished categories which delivers to our conscious minds images of reality sharply defined in black
and white clarity. The superior clarity of differentiated thinking in young adulthood is why great breakthroughs
in science usually flow from the minds of people in their 20s.
Sometime after our 20s, we begin to change our image
of reality. Our thinking starts becoming more holistic as we start
seeing subtle connections between the contents of reality that we cannot see earlier in adulthood. Now, nothing
stands alone. Nothing can be defined categorically, that is, outside some context.
And because context continuously changes, nothing can be absolutely defined. And further, because redifferentiated
perceptions are highly subjective (we each see things at least a bit different than everyone else), Truth is not
an objective quality, but a benign attribute of a matter that is individually determined.
How do we know (for ourselves) what Truth is? A growing body of evidence suggests that our sense of Truth is more emotionally-originated
than reason-originated, and that this becomes more apparent with age when we more readily regard something as True
simply because "it feels right." Feelings are consciously experienced representations of underlying emotions
which we apply labels to in order to make sense of them. Emotions play a larger role in consumers' decision-making
in midlife and beyond than in early adulthood as is indicated.
| Emotions - Driving the Sales Process |
The experience of emotion motivates individuals to
act. This obvious notion has become even more significant with the
recently published findings in neuroscience concerning human motivations. In particular, published findings from
research conducted by Antonio and Hannah Damasio (reported in part in A. Damasio's "Descartes' Error,"
Grossett/Putnam, 1994) suggest we are unable to make decisions having personal relevance unless we have been motivated
by our emotions. Reason, according to the Damasios, plays an analytic role, not a decision role in matters of personal
significance. The experience of emotion is necessary to motivating individuals to act (on matters having personal
relevance).
Some research suggests that age is associated with positive emotional development. The writings of Abraham Maslow
and many others examining later-life perceptions of people are filled with observations supporting this statement.
"Positive emotional development" in this case does not mean "positive outlooks." Instead, it
refers to the generally greater skill of older people in managing their emotions and extracting more from emotional
processes than do younger people.
Cognitive operations in later life reflect a shift from the dominantly objective mode of younger minds to a blended
mode that reflects increasing amounts of subjectivity. Simplistically
speaking, this means there is less rationally-derived content and more emotionally-derived
content in the fully formed perceptions of older people.
| Emotionally Neutral Sales Presentations Are Less Effective |
Empirical studies have shown that older adults are relatively superior to younger adults in understanding emotional
states. This observation is consistent with the notion that has gained considerable credibility from other studies
suggesting that older minds often get the gist of a matter faster than younger minds. They will generally "get
the picture" with less being said, provided that what is said is capable of quickly stirring emotional responses.
On the other hand, it appears that older minds tend to be slower in getting the picture when the information representing
it is emotionally neutral.
"Relationship" selling is more important
in older markets than in younger markets. Research suggests that
evaluations of prospective relationships are determined more by emotional than rational readings. For this reason,
it can be said that "the emotional quality of
a prospective relationship is more important than features and benefits in the early stages of bonding between
consumer and seller."
| Therefore, to focus on functional competence in the early stages of a consumer-provider
relationship is to place emphasis on the least important issues in the consumer's mind. Older consumers generally
are inclined to pay more for the value-added benefits of a rewarding relationship. Further, once they are in a
solid relationship that gives them pleasure, they will be more forgiving of company and product shortcomings. |
Memory for prose containing a well-structured, coherent story line appears to be least affected by the aging process.
This is a critical point. Among other things, it means that older minds will have more difficulty recalling the
contents of marketing communications and sales presentations that are highly objective (emotionally neutral) and
that lack an underlying narrative theme (as opposed to an expository or didactic theme.)
Typical marketing literature and sale presentations tend to be linear presentations of benefits and features. Marketing
messages generally lack coherent story lines. Rather, they project information fragments, often delivered in somewhat
staccato fashion. Yet, less is often more in older
markets. The message doesn't have to say a lot in terms of measurables,
such as details on the company and the products offered.
Weaving information into an attractive tapestry that integrates "facts" into an emotionalizing matrix
can satisfy the need of older consumers to gauge the potential emotional quality of the relationship before considering
the product. Relationship quality cannot be measured;
it can only be felt; too many facts too early in the consumer-provider relationship dampen feelings.
The relative salience of emotion increases with age . . . emotional material was processed more deeply than nonemotional
material. This suggests that often the best way to transmit objective, emotionally neutral information to older
markets is to piggyback it on or sandwich it between emotionally enriched information.
Whereas our findings add to the considerable literature documenting age-related decrements for neutral information,
they suggest that a similar toll is not taken on memory for emotional information . . . thus . . . emotional material
may come to occupy relatively more thought over time.
| This observation is the crux of the matter. It suggests that the traditional
focus of marketing communications and sales presentations on product features and benefits and other objective
information reaches a point of diminishing returns more quickly among older consumers. |
Emotional information is retained and recallable in greater detail. The more limited experience of younger people
deprives them of the higher level of ability that older people have to bring intuitive processes into their cognitive
operations. As a consequence, there is often a tendency
among younger people to "oversell" older people. Older people generally don't need to be sold. After
they get the basic picture if they decide to consider a company and its products they mainly want unadorned information.
Wisdom entails the coupling of large bodies of procedural and factual information about the world with an appreciation
for the uncertainties of life and the relative status of facts. This observation relates to the much-written about
character of older people's outlook on reality as painted in "shades of gray." Seeing reality in such
ambiguous tones tends to depreciate the value of the clear-cut, black-and-white propositions that dominate marketing
messages. Tolerance and even preference for ambiguity in communications styles largely derives from a shift away
from the more linear styles of youthful minds to a more circular, less cause-and-effect oriented style in which
direct reasons for events lose in importance.
The fact that most studies of memory do not use emotional stimuli suggests that they may
inadvertently place older people at a disadvantage . . . Results of this study suggest that the typical nonemotional
quality of experimental stimuli themselves may favor younger age groups over older.
This observation has enormous potential importance. In the first place, it proposes that memory deficits ascribed
to older people may be overstated because of the nature of the instruments used in measuring memory capabilities.
This and other research show that older minds can remember items of categorical relevance to them as competently
as younger minds. What seems to be at work here is the higher dependence on emotionality in constructing mental
renditions of reality in later life.
Emotion, of course, is only one of several key factors in perception-building. However, in some ways it is the
most important factor: it is the device the brain/mind complex uses to determine the relevance of a matter to a
person's interests. There are considerable differences in how younger and older brain/mind complexes process information,
with variances in the use and management of emotions being central to those differences. Sales presentations intended for people in midlife and beyond will benefit from
respecting these differences in message content and style by delivering high-grade results more often.
Effective and successful sales presentation=s begin with creating an emotional
environment that reflects:
1. A desire to listen to the customer
2. A process that eases the qualification process
3. An understanding of the customers needs and wants
4. An understanding of the changing communications process in older consumers
5. The development of a bond, a trusting relationship (vulnerability, honesty and integrity
6. Ease in the processing of relevant facts and information
7. Continued expressions of empathy throughout the presentation
8. Which will Result in more efficient and sustainable closes |
| Biographical note: James J. Gilmartin is president of Illinois-based
Coming of Age, Incorporated. Since 1991, the full service integrated marketing firm
has specialized in helping clients to increase market share and profit in baby boomer and older consumer markets.
The firm provides clients marketing communications strategy planning, advertising, public relations, customer loyalty/affinity
programs, sales/service improvement training and customer satisfaction improvement programs. The firm helps companies
develop and launch successful communications campaigns and sales improvement initiatives for these rapidly growing
populations. Jim can be reached at jimgilmartin@comingofage.com. |
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