April 12, 2006

TV Land & Dychtwald Argue for New 42 to 59 Demo

Marketers & Networks Accused of Living in Menudo-Land

By Jack Myers

Advertiser and agency executives who have attended author and Age Wave guru Ken Dychtwald's recent speaking tour hosted by TV Land have been impressed with his argument for the creation of a new 42 to 59 year old demographic targeting the market that dominates most consumer groups. "The logic of this presentation and the numbers are an awakening for many of us," commented Larry Jones, president of TV Land and Nick-at-Nite to Jack Myers Media Business Report.

"There is almost a religious attachment to younger audiences," Dychtwald says. "It's ironic; when baby boomers were young, marketers wanted to reach them. Now it seems marketers have flip flopped." In an exclusive interview with Jack Myers Media Business Report, Dychtwald suggested "marketers and agencies are operating in a Menudo marketplace, living within yesterday's demographic boundaries." Dychtwald explains there were no regular members of Menudo, the once popular singing group. "They were young boys with no particular talent, and as they got older, the record company replaced them with new younger performers. Marketers are doing the same thing," constantly looking to replace their consumers with younger audiences. Menudo's success, Dychtwald points out, was transient while groups like the Rolling Stones continue to break concert tour records.

"Take a look at the recent Destiny's Child tour," suggests the nation's foremost visionary on the impact of population and aging trends. "Even with Beyoncé, there were a lot of empty seats. The Jay Z and Eminem tour shut down. But the Eagles, U2, Rolling Stones, and Simon & Garfunkel tours all sold out. Baby boomers are now in the center of the demographic sweet spot and are breeding a new kind of vitality into what once was a sort of dreary part of life. The greatest concentration of power and money and the most important group for marketers today are people in their 40s and 50s."

Dychtwald argues "we are living longer and there is no need to phase out consumers like Menudo phased out performers. The television medium is excessively oriented to youth." TV Land's Jones adds, "Madison Avenue is so youth focused. We hired Ken and we're doing research to help our advertisers understand the potential of this market. In the past, we have heard about the 50-plus audience but the peak of the Baby Boom was 1957 and those people are 49 years old. The bulk of the boomer generation isn't 50 yet. Now is the time to pay attention to this new 42 to 59 demographic. It's the bulk of the buying public. The reality is 70 percent of the adult audience falls within that age group. It's a great opportunity for TV Land to be clear about who we are and the market opportunity. The time is now when it comes to marketing to baby boomers and to be the entertainment brand that targets this generation."

Dychtwald adds, "I'm not up there saying pay attention to the 50-plus consumer; if you carve the gemstone at 40 to 59, it's an amazing story. There is no demo that is as important, that has more money, that has such an enormous appetite for life, and that is as underserved by marketers."

He also argues the traditional concept of lifetime brand loyalty no longer applies. "The disappearance of brand loyalty is the lynchpin of our story," he explains. "The 18 to 24 year old is in a state of hormonal excitation. They're flirting, gaining an understanding of sexuality, and have hardly even begun to think about jobs and careers. The responds to trend and fads, are fickle. It's a provocative and immature inflection point in life," suggests Dychtwald. "The 42 to 59 year-olds are thinking about who they are, success or failure, the passing of parents, love for children, cross generational connections and the dissolution of marriages. They are wondering about the purpose of life, the transition from leisure to legacy, from success to significance, from ambition and achievement to the possibility of all the new memories and life experiences ahead. They are reinventing themselves, there's an awakening of deeper self-knowledge, and a shifting from a financial to an experiential existence. They are thinking through their purchase decisions and are actually more likely to be open to new brands than the younger generation. If 47 year olds were never considering a new car model or a new toothpaste, then I'd say go after youth, but that's not the case."

Jones acknowledges "a lot of the research is to help us understand the viewer better and to make their bond with TV land and Nick-at-Nite stronger. While our off-network programming will always be a mainstay of TV Land and a consistent refuge for audiences, we will do more and more originals. This helps inform us."

"Television has the capacity to touch so many people's lives, to raise consciousness and raise hope," says Dychtwald. "It's a tool with almost no rival to influence how we think and feel and impact what we do with our lives. If TV remains pubescent with characters, stories and its consciousness, it's an incredible missed opportunity and loss to society. At the risk of coming off as romantic, it verges on tragic. It's like having the potential to sing like Pavarotti but never expanding beyond pop music. Or the physician with enormous powers of diagnosis and healing who never expanded his practice. I can't see how marketers and TV programmers can look at our data and not come to the conclusion that they need to expand their vision and consider TV in terms of its potential to relate to grown ups."

Dychtwald has been sharing his message with the ad community since CBS hosted a series of breakfasts touting his best-selling book, The Age Wave, nearly two decades ago. His latest book is The Power Years: A User's Guide to the Rest of Your Life.