The mysterious case of the marketer and the pot of silver
Welcome to a Tuesday update from Unmade. Today: Why brands struggle to change boomer habits. And Seven West Media drags down the Unmade Index after being kicked off the ASX300.
Today’s full post is for Unmade’s paying members only. Beneath the paywall is a coupon code for members-only pricing for HumAIn, Unmade’s exploration of how AI is changing the world of marketing, which takes place in May.
Upgrade today
Silver economy
Last night, I went to a great little restaurant in Sydney. I say little - there must have been fewer than 20 seats. It was one of those sort of places you had to hunt for up an alley.
The menu, lots of tasty, tiny dishes was complicated. And in the gloom of the room, almost impossible to read. As someone who regularly creates a debacle when I inevitably forget my reading glasses before moderating panels on stage, I was already instinctively reaching for my phone light.
Fortunately I’m about four years too young to technically be part of that most reviled of generations, the boomers, but at font-challenged moments like that, I feel like an honorary member.
However, the restaurant had thought ahead. Rather than the (some would say practical) solution of providing lighting of adequate wattage, they had distributed discreet, lipstick-sized torches to each table. And magnifying glasses.
I felt a little like Sherlock Holmes investigating the case of the emulsified amuse-bouche as I peered at the degustation menu.
It added to the experience almost as much as the comical moment of trying to turn off the torch and accidentally triggering some sort of emergency distress mode which flickered across the room at maximum brightness.
But at least they’d thought about it.
A provocative press release dropped yesterday from RMIT University. Brands, it claimed, are missing out by failing to market to and cater to older Australians with the same vigour they do for the young.
Baby boomers - those roughly over the age of 57, depending on your chosen definition - account for 21.5% of the population, but half of the nation’s wealth, point out the RMIT academics.