Feb 16 2008
Labels: A Strategic Dead-End in Marketing
The NY Times recently ran a story about a 2-year-old website targeted to Baby Boomers. The article is a classic cautionary tale about strategy and marketing.
The story concerns www.Eons.com, a site specifically designed to appeal to Boomers (of which I am one…the tail end of the Baby Boom!). Eons attracted a lot of blue chip VC money, drove a lot of traffic by buying expensive key words (that had no bearing on the real focus of the site), and then crashed and burned because Boomers were ultimately not terribly interested. Now Eons management is scrambling to come back as a social networking site (join the club), deemphasizing the explicit Boomer focus.
The fact is pretty inescapable that Eons.com did most everything wrong, especially from a strategic point of view. (The original site was executed nicely, just based on a faulty strategy.) 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.
- Never assume anything (or at least don’t assume too much…some assumptions are unavoidable in marketing).
- Talk to people you know who represent that group. A Boomer would have told the Eons folks that they would never go to a site that immediately places them in an over 50 (which means old to many people) category.
- If 50 really is the new 30, then you should never use the term 50, or Boomer, or middle age, or longevity, again!
- 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.
The Eons strategic misfire is the same one so many companies make – they choose the seemingly easy route and rely on stereotypes in marketing. Huge mistake!! Avoid stereotypes in your strategic planning, in your product planning, in your communications, in everything. People will defy your stereotypes of them every day…just out of principle (and spite!).
The reworked and repositioned Eons.com is now built around shared interests. Not a particularly original idea for a web based community. At least now, however, they have a fighting chance to succeed because they are not turning off their intended target audience from the get go.
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Great insights, Patrick. We saw a marketing guru recently who pigeonholed everyone into African-American late boomer and Hispanic early millennial and so forth. I really thought it was mostly common sense and nonsense - that you behave in lockstep with everyone your age. We all know there are generalities that are generally kind of true . . . and yet so untrue that they don’t help us be smarter marketers. It’s the opposite of one-to-one marketing that the Google Age has ushered in.
Doug, I totally agree! People hate to be pidgeonholed…marketers and presidential candidates ignore that fact at their peril.
I had a similar experience with one of my clients in the fashion business. They assumed that a discounted price and a mass market approach would lead to better ROI. In our research we found that people always aspire to be of a higher social class then they really are. To prove this point they are willing to go beyond their budget to buy stylish, branded and higher end fashion.
When we re-branded and re-positioned their product line with a higher price and more targeted marketing approach the ROI showed significant improvement.
I totally agree with your point about peoples’ aspirations and how it relates to products and services they consume.
Imran Hassan
Project Manager
Blueliner Marketing
http://www.bluelinerNY.com
My favorite and oh so artificial label is geography. “Brand x has a special offer just for residents of Arizona” Thinking somehow that I identify with every other resident of my state as some special group - I don’t. (have you ever been to Blythe, AZ?).
As you’ve described Eons it seems someone confused segmentation with marketing. Identifying a unique subset of customers allows you to find efficiencies in your marketing plan. But those characteristics must be both marketable and relevant to the customer.
And I agree with the sentiments of this thread. If you are going market to me using a label, at least use a label I am proud of or aspire to – you know, the special brand only for really smart, good looking marketing dudes.
When marketers begin targeting consumers based upon demographics, rather than needs, they get in the mess that Eons got themselves in.
While demographics can sometimes be helpful in explaining why people do certain things (Boomers are disproportionately concerned about retirement issues for example), it is their deep seated needs that actually drive their behavior and interests.
Greg and Paul, you both hit the nail on the head. It’s never just about segmentation or demographics. Those are just a relatively small part of the marketing equation. But, too often, marketers think that if they get those considerations right, then they have a marketing strategy. Not even close!
Sooooo true,
Come to think about it, back when we were thinking who am I and where am I going (somewhere around the high school years) we didn’t want to be labeled as teenagers either.
Oh yes, remember back then thinking that someone 50 was OLD. Personally I don’t plan on hitting 50 years of age until getting at least another five years experience as a 40 something.
Thanks again for the insights.
[...] the IdeaDrivenMarketing.com blog there is a post about a social networking/content sites for Baby Boomers called Eons.com. This [...]