As I pointed out in our last blog, by 2040 63p in every £1 will be spent by the mature consumer. And in case you missed it, this group accounts for around 70% of household wealth.
McKinsey’s report, State of Tourism and Hospitality 2024, begrudgingly admits:
'Whatever baby boomers’ stated feelings and preferences, they still account for a substantial share of travel spending. And they still spend more than younger generations—three times more per traveller than Gen Zers in 2023, for example.'
What a weird consumer group comparison! What have they got to do with the price of butter?
Anyway, we’ve spent 6 months having a nosey around the leisure travel market to see what it thinks it knows about the mature consumer in the context of effective advertising:
We’ve reviewed 200+ ads and signed up to some 50-odd mailing lists
Enlisted the help of Brunel University to review what academia has published on the subject
And asked our Humbug Club (group of individuals aged 55+) what they think about advertising and what influences their plans and choices when making leisure travel purchases
A summary of our findings and a short video is available on our website.
You can also request a copy of our Blue Paper, FREE (yes), for more detailed insights and observations.
Desk analysis of reports from the likes of Saga, McKinsey, World Travel and Tourism Council, The Guardian, Conde Nast etc., uncovers clear themes; use of digital, appetite for flying, impacts of global warming, potential of the cruise sector, 'bucket lists' and so on.
YET our humble research flags some industry ‘beliefs’ as perhaps not in touch with mature consumer needs and wants as they need to be.
Take cruises for example.
Everyone forecasting high growth, increasing share, expanding fleets, bringing forward customer spending, enhancing ‘guest’ experience and satisfaction levels, and making the right noises about sustainability.
However, Mintel suggests it is challenging to get 1st-time cruisers to engage, observing sales from repeat customers dominate; possibly a COVID hangover in play regards enclosed spaces and nasty bugs.
Our friendly professors at Brunel concluded in their review of academic papers that there are '...some common experiences, not much documented.'
(Mature Consumers’ Preferences: A Case Study of the Leisure & Travel Industry Brunel University Business School February 2024 - we can take you through this review in more detail if you like.)
Humbug Club members' responses to the question 'Tell us about your best holiday experiences' indicate cruises are not as popular with some mature consumers as the industry might think or portray in their advertising!
They shared 2249 words telling us about their best holidays ever but only 15 words were used to describe the 3 cruise experiences mentioned, 10 of which are in this quote:
'Cruise actually. Not the boat or people but the multiple destinations.'
And plenty didn't hang back:
‘People of my age go on cruises, but it just does not appeal to me the idea of being stuck on a ship, being with a bunch of other people I don't know, some of which I probably hate and many of which carrying diseases that I want to avoid. No, I just don't see the appeal of cruises.’
All in all, we think there is plenty of work to be done for operators to engage more effectively with mature consumers around the positives of cruises!
Thought for the week:
Only 15% of our Humbug Club agreed with the statement:
‘Do you think advertisers know how best to talk to older consumers?'
Oops.
If you need some innovative planning advice regards engaging mature consumers with more effective advertising, want to know more about our Blue Paper, or just have a beer and chew the cud for half an hour, then please get in touch.
We're bored of writing and want to do some game-changing ideation!
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