How to make meaningful connections with over 50s

To engage over 50s a brand must stand for something that is genuinely meaningful to them aside from its functional attributes. 

To understand why this is so important we need to understand the psychology of over 50s. Abraham Maslow who created the famous ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ said we spend most of our lives looking at the world through D-cognition (‘Deficiency’-cognition). In other words a state of perpetual FOMO. Typically marketing feeds off D-cogntion by emphasising what needs fixing in the consumer’s life. However this is an intrinsically negative message, and we know that negativity is a big turn off for people once they reach their 50s and beyond. 

For marketers it’s a lot more effective to look at the world through the lens of B-cognition (‘Being’cognition) where you present your brand as a gateway to ‘being.’ 

To appeal to over 50s a brand should be a way to enjoy meaningful, worthwhile experiences - which are the stepping stones to the top level of Maslov’s Hierarchy, where people achieve ‘Self Actualisation.’