On the Couch, Dr. Gail Saltz, one of the specialty blogs offered through iVillage had a very interesting article about women and their friendships. The article discusses the benefits that come to women who become close friends with those much older and/or much younger than themselves. The blog comments were very telling AND if viewed through a marketing lens, show the power these intergenerational relationships could have on a company's Brand and bottom-line.
" I am part of a multi-age social group. I am the youngest person in the group and reap so much great advice" (a post by a 29 year old teacher). "Thanks for the article, I never stopped to think about it...my best friends are 68 and 23 - I'm 33." One women, in defending her friendship with her best friend's mother stated that her friend had "juvenile/parental blockage syndrome". What a great phrase and one which both researchers and marketers, if honest, could admit to suffering from. Their blockage - unwavering loyalty to traditional marketing segments, long held beliefs that older consumers can't/don't change their brand...despite evidence to the contrary.
After reading this article I began to observe groups of women when I was traveling and realized that there is a hidden opportunity in intergenerational WOM programs. First, I would like to share a personal experience that happened to me this summer. Last February, a friend I have known for over 25 years sent me an email. That email was copied to 10 of her closest friends - none of which know each other. She invited us to spend a week together - she wanted her wonderful friends to meet each other. So, after months of successful pre-planning we all arrived in Michigan where we settled into two lake front homes that had every amenity we could want. On our first night together we shared how we met our friend in common. The ages represented around the table were 41 to 82! The next week we shopped together, went horse back riding, spent a day at a spa, went to Mackinac Island and went antiquing, and with each new day, new bonds of friendship were being forged. And we were not in the minority, every place I looked were groups of women laughing and enjoying each other's company.
Our week flew by. We talked about our businesses, our lives and in 6 short days, found our lives enriched. Today, across the country we email, call each other for recipes and plan for next years adventure in the making - tentatively a fly fishing trip.
So where am I going with this story. Well, from a marketers perspective, this was a captive audience that any travel, spa, resort, tour, restaurant or retail marketer could have leveraged. For example, we went to a local golf/spa resort. They knew from our check in information that we had traveled far (translation - we had money we were willing to spend it).While at the resort I noted two ladies weekends that they offered in the fall and winter, but not one person thought to ask us about our interests or offered us a special deal on renting one of their homes for one of these future events. Ditto for the tour/brunch/trip to Mackinaw Island. If any of you have ever been to Mackinaw, we ARE this resort's target market. One person in our group even mentioned what a wonderful place the island and the Grand Hotel would be for her daughter's wedding - can you say missed wedding bell opportunity! The lack of intergenerational opportunity recognition was unbelievable. Over wine, we talked about what we would have done had we ran the businesses that served us throughout the week.
One evening as we played cards, we began to talk about our businesses, our offices and the products and services we all use. In the space of 2 hours we covered cell phones, software, office equipment and the recommendations flew around the table.Talk about WOM on steroids! A little wine, a lot of laughs and a few skewered vendors later, model numbers, vendors names - and personal reviews covered our cell phone plans, a new PDA, all our individual digital cameras and a lightweight new Apple computer ensued. The resounding echo for the business women was very clear - no one designed products to meet these Boomer's business owners needs, and electronics shopping for their companies had become as unpleasant as shopping for a car.
Perhaps its time to rethink market demographics as THE way to view 'like' market segments. Perhaps orchestrating a girls getaway week would yield more honest product reviews and be worth its weight in consumer generated golden ideas!
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