You’re as old as you feel

You’re as old as you feel. What does that mean for today’s brand marketers?

Christmas is gone for another year. Did the females in your family receive the traditional perfumes and cosmetics? Maybe a classic scent for Grandma and funky cosmetics for the discerning tween? Or maybe, you were surprised by the role reversal choices of this year’s gifts? Maybe your tween wanted a classic perfume and Grandma wanted purple eye shadow?

Targeting consumers by age is increasingly fruitless since people no longer conform to the behavioral patterns expected of them. The baby boomers still act like 20-somethings, tweens think they’re all grown up and many people in their thirties still lead the lifestyle of an undergraduate student. So what should brands do moving into the future?

We still see brands catering to an age or specific consumer group. For example, Spanish confectionery brand Chupa Chups teamed up with Coty to unveil Love Trap, a new fragrance line for tweens and teens, which recently launched across Europe. It is too soon to chart sales but this may well be successful with a certain age group for a certain period of time. But what happens when they start to grow up? Will this be as relevant to the next batch of tweens? How do brands retain a loyal consumer base and maintain successful brand longevity?

Maybe the answer is to avoid the age-obsessed agenda and concentrate on designing the product to make it attractive to consumers of all ages. One iconic brand that comes to mind is Chanel, which has stood the test of time by appealing to a broad spectrum of ages and connecting generations of women. Similarly, Ralph Lauren has introduced new fragrance Pure Turquoise. Pure Turquoise is packaged in a clear glass bottle, ribbed at the neck and un-branded with a choice of a cap or — at a more premium price — a turquoise gem stone stopper, which embodies a timeless elegance. In marketing to a cross-generational audience, everything from form, copy, color, and function has to work in ways that make us feel our futures are more youthful despite the age we are. But don’t sell us the unreal illusion that we are getting younger in age. Consumers increasingly distrust grandiose claims and those products to successfully target the age spectrum will be those that put the emphasis on the product benefit for all and communicate this through modern, optimistic and youthful, but not trendy, design.

The other factor to bear in mind is the difference between someone’s actual and mental age. The old adage “you’re only as old as you feel” has never been more relevant. Brands seem to find it very difficult to feature older people without it being patronizing. Why? There is no doubt that the marketing tactic of featuring ever-younger models on cosmetics packaging has reached a limit of credulity. A woman of 60 might hope for skin like Andie McDowell but is not gullible enough to believe a cream — no matter how expensive — is going to turn her into Kate Moss.In the U.S., as across Europe, by far the most successful advertising campaign of recent years has been the Dove campaign, which features models of all ages, shapes and sizes proving that a more egalitarian, honest approach has great cross-generational appeal.

Traditionally, skin care has been marketed in terms of normal, dry or combination skin and maybe it is time for us to re-instate this. All ages suffer from the drying effects of winter skin and Philosophy’s new Winter Weather Survival Kit is fun and retro for the younger generation, but the 50s inspired winter scenes also resonate with mom and grandma.

There is also the very real opportunity to bring products to market which are not only handed down and used generation to generation, i.e. Olay, but which also target mothers and daughters. Although known as a kitsch tween brand, Hello Kitty now produces mother and daughter goody bags and Jean Ford, founder of Benefit, and mother of two teenage daughters, has readily appreciated the scope of her market. The fun packaging and humorous name of Benefit’s Boi-ing concealer makes the product attractive for teenagers with problem skin. It is equally appealing to the more youthful side of mom, who’s using it for under-eye help.

Today, brands across this and every sector need to take on the mantle of the lifestyle brand. Just as consumers have readily adapted to a fast-moving, 24/7 society, brands too need to learn to be more fluid, resourceful and adaptable. Currently, any brands that are working out clever ways to segment their offering for people with many different roles in life are the brands that are successful.

Cosmetic brands are also among those leading the way in instigating new partnerships and cross-category innovations to try to fulfill the need for brands to be a part of a lifestyle, i.e. SkinCola. Brands need to see these new developments as a way of strengthening rather than fragmenting their offer; interacting with and answering lifestyle needs in an ambient rather than a direct marketing context.

People are not only closer in age and not conforming to an age, but they are contradictory and change their motivation according to circumstance and occasion. Design is a key medium for packaging cosmetics, principally because it can reconcile contradiction by appealing to the mind and/or the emotions. As with food packaging, the ingredients listed on a cosmetic brand can appeal at two different levels: at a functional level (pore cleansing) or at an emotional and pampering level (enriching and illuminating). In recent years, copy has come more to the fore as a product driver to consumers in this category. Similarly, an innovative structure can sell a mood or an aspiration to any age.

Design should be recognized as one of the strongest weapons in the brand marketing armory. To successfully package a product, be it food, drink or cosmetics, the designer needs to know what’s hot and what’s not, what the consumer perceives to be bad and what the consumer perceives to be good. The brand in question will determine the logical point of balance between emotion and function with the designer using simple structure, clever graphics, name generation and clear copy to transfer knowledge and desire.

Packaging design, if done right, will allow the individual respect, knowledge, connection, freedom and contradiction all in their choices —whether the consumer is 18 or 80.