The highly discussed Down-Ageing Syndrome is right at the top of numerous other changes that are taking place in the world today and thus, is a topic of great interest. All over India, urbanized people who have reached 40s and even 50s are completely defying their age not just simply by looking young but also through their lifestyles, personas and behaviors.
Middle-aged actors, industrialists and even common people are doing every possible thing one associate with the bubbling juvenility. Jeans and T-shirts, which is normally associated with the youth, has become the default dress style of all. It has also been observed that the middle-aged people are fervent consumers of those products that are mainly used by the young. However, marketing strategies have a lot to do in making these people behave like teens. Various products, which promise to make them look and feel young, have brought about a belief among them that looking young has many advantages.
According to a study by IMBR, it has been found that almost 41% of middle-aged Indians feel that it is important to appear attractive to the other sex. The consumption patterns have changed and now the marketers are not only targeting the young but also those who are youthful (Sangameshwaran, 1). This vanity consciousness between the middle-aged people is not new as the beauty industry is more or less built on it. The number of beauty parlors and gymnasiums has also increased in the past few years.
People are more and more asking for treatments, like Botox, to look younger. Some even visit the beauty clinics to look more appealing in their workplaces. The syndrome is also due to a mental change in the people who no longer tone down their behavior with age. They still look forward to things, which they could not have as youngsters. For example, a lot of them have a profound interest in tech products. They buy sleek laptops, funky mobile phones, music players, and even PlayStation. They also prefer adventurous and offbeat holidays rather than simply the relaxing ones.
From the above we can easily understand that the down-aging syndrome will last for a long time. The older customers are more and more looking for the youth dominated fashion categories like mobiles and denims. The middle-aged people are seen with sports cars flashing funky designs. As a result of all of this segmentation has become very important and various companies will need to develop products with details to supply these sub-segments, thus, modifying their marketing mix strategies.
However, as we live in an environment with apparently converging consumption styles, the seasoned marketers have the opinion that we should try and not be deceived by the traditional marketing traps. The result of changing the target audience before properly understanding the needs of the customers can sometimes be disastrous.
Not all middle-aged consumers are attracted to products that are meant for the youth. However, if the marketers broaden their target audience to include both the young and old, they might lose the older customers. Thus, it is important for the brands to target the young consumers as they more likely to stay with it longer and they benefit from this as the older consumers consider the brand to be youth centric too.
Works Cited
Sangameshwaran, Prasad; The Great Down-aging Syndrome: Why 40 is the new 20;
The Economic Times, (New Delhi, India), Wednesday, 2009.