Fat, old, and ugly - meet your best customers

[emp]

Back when I studied psychology, one of our professors made the following statement:

Everyone wants clients I call YASIF - Young, Articulate, Sexy, Intelligent, and Fun.
The reality is, as a clinical psychologist, your clients are not going to be like that. Most likely, they are old, not young. They are not articulate, because a stroke just hit their speech centers. They are not sexy, half the face is sagging. They might not be smart, and most likely won't be fun to be around.​

While this put me off working in the clinical field, it gave me something to think about.

The same thing is true in online marketing (or any business)

We all want the young, attractive, sexy, smart, and rich crowd. We want to be part of it, and we'd like them to be our customers. The latter to be part of the crowd by extension if not virtue.

There are some things standing in your way.

First, a lot of big players surround that iPhone wielding population. Welcome to the jungle.
Second, you are barking up the wrong tree.

I am going to outline a short model on how to tap the real market.

Let's take a first look.

Age demographics

A lot of countries in the world have an aging demographic. While not a lot of countries hit Japan levels of aging, the trend continues. The population is getting older.

So forget about 20 somethings, hit the 50+ crowd.

Fat

Obesity epidemic. Believe it or not, problems caused by too much food are a bigger issue than hunger in our world.
Let that sink in.

Then look at how insanely fat some people have become.

Ugly
Age doesn't protect from ugliness.
Neither does youth, to be honest. If you are going to market any beauty/fashion related stuff - you're not gonna sell only to the sexy crowd.

Poor
People are not rich for the most part.


What to do?

With any issue, there is two ways people go about it.

1. Fight it
2. Accept it

Fight it
The "Fight it" stance is a powerful one. It can also be exploited.

Old - Selling stuff that makes people feel younger. Fitness, youthful clothes, vitamin supplements, etc..
Fat - Selling stuff to help people lose weight. Diet pills, diet programs, healthy food, etc..
Ugly - Makeup and perfume, fashion, jewelry, etc..
Poor - Make money from home, biz opps, etc..

Acceptance
Another way to cope and another way to market.

Old
Technology for elderly people (mobile phones) comes to mind. Medicine / supplements not geared towards feeling young (e.g. arthritis/pain), emergency buttons, etc..
Fat
Oversized toilets are a thing! (Still pissed they don't have an aff program), so is gear for helpers (oversized gurneys, etc..)
Poor
Well, accepting this is a bitch, but take a look at the "frugal" crowd. Coupns, anyone?
Ugly
No coping with that.. you guys are on your own...

Takeaway
Learn about the world and the consumer demographic you are marketing to. If you focus on young,rich, and sexy, odds are high you are doing it wrong.

::emp::

 

[RiverStyx]

Goods point all around; the other factor is that young does not generally equate to rich, so if you want to target people with money a lot of times they WILL be over 50. One of my e-commerce sites specifically targets old, well-off women - and its great!

 

[lyannastark]

Great post!

I think one of the concerns many IMers have when thinking about targeting the over 50 crowd, is traffic, because theoretically, there are more young people online. I haven't tested this, but I'm assuming that many of the problems that the "over-50's" have, they aren't necessarily looking online for a solution. Whereas a "youngster" so to speak will take to the net for their every whim and fancy, the older crowd have probably gotten used to finding off-line solutions. For example, financial advice and so on...

Then there's the paranoia that people are going to steal all their info and tap into their [large] bank accounts. I have personally had to deal with this with my mother... Maybe that's just been my experience though... as I said I haven't tested it, and I'm sure some niches must be really popular with the over 50 crowd, seeing as how Pinterest has a large user base of middle aged females.

 

[emp]

I would kindly point you here:

::emp::

 

[RiverStyx]

I would totally agree with those stats and each year more and more older people are coming online. I started in my niche in 2007 and in the beginning I had a lot of people who would ring up to place an order because they wanted my product, had found my website, but didn't have a clue how to start the order process/or were scared to enter card details online. I also offer payment by cheque and although I get maybe 1 cheque per month these days it was about 10 per month when I started out.
I would say there is absolutely no reason not to target this crowd, just make sure you have a phone number and someone on the other end of the line to answer questions and you should be golden