Target audiences, like all of us, age. And when they do, they step out of your demographic bracket, so to speak, making space for new generations to step into it. To thrive as a company in the long-term, you must adapt your go-to-market strategy to stay ahead of demographic shifts. The marketing strategy of 1911 wouldn’t work on the customers of 2024.
Seems so simple that it feels obvious, right? Yet it escapes many companies who get caught up in doing what they’ve always done under the misconception that they’re staying true to the brand.
Thriving as a company requires keeping up with the age cohort you most want to appeal to. Tackling new generations of customers or new target demographics, without alienating core audiences, is a key reason any legacy brand like Coca-Cola manages to stay relevant. They didn’t allow their history to become their handcuffs.
Staying relevant through changing eras
It’s a feat that is far easier said than done. Call it an “anti-aging routine” for brand marketing: continually rise to understand the needs of new eras of people or untapped audiences, or risk becoming irrelevant. Constant evolution isn’t just a luxury in brand management, it’s a requirement.
Take the case of Stanley drinkware. Founded in 1913, the brand targeted men, particularly those with a workman or outdoorsy lifestyle—people navigating construction sites or camping trips. Their advertising (like this commercial from 1978) demonstrated its quality and toughness, ready to stand up to any challenge. They used personas like “a 30-year-career veteran policeman” and “a retired Army soldier” as guideposts for their marketing. And the company got comfortable there for more than a century, ignoring a goldmine of potential customers: women.
By broadening their target demographic, they’ve increased annual earnings from $75 million in 2019 to $750 million in 2023. (Here’s a quick breakdown from OptiMonk on the company’s tactics.) It’s an incredible turnaround, and all thanks to a trio of women bloggers who noticed the Stanley Quencher and included it in their list of “must-buys,” simply because they appreciated the product’s quality.
The Quencher had, until then, not risen to the top of the company’s product list because of poor sales to its target audience. That one customer interaction, initiated by the bloggers, launched a profitable influencer marketing era at Stanley. And it was simply because executives paid attention, recognizing an opportunity to engage an audience they had been ignoring for decades.
The product itself hasn’t drastically changed, but now Stanley speaks to a demographic that’s almost entirely women aged 35 to 44. In turn, their marketing methods, communication channels and colorways have all grown to appeal to these new customers. Stanley responded to trends that were in their peripheral vision and put them front and center so that they could capitalize on them. They learned how to talk to and appeal to new generations and audiences through changing times by changing their focus to “hydration, color revolution and meeting consumer lifestyle,” according to this explainer from Retail Dive.
Your 4-step anti-aging regimen
What can companies learn from successful consumer brands like Coca-Cola and Stanley? How can they use these ideas to continually evolve their brands to stay relevant with the new generations entering their target audience?
Here are four steps in an “anti-aging” brand regimen to help ensure you’re continually bringing new audiences into your brand fold.
1. Know thy audience
Understanding your current and potential audiences is crucial. Are your current personas giving you an accurate and clear picture of your customer base? You’re looking for more than simplified descriptions of an age group. Enriching your demographic data with information about the psychographics, media consumption habits, barriers and triggers of your main audience, and updating for every generation, is the only way to build a smart strategy. Because once you uncover that information, you can identify how it will affect your efforts to entice new consumers coming of age as your target audience moves into a new era of their life
2. Don’t get caught with audience blinders
Keep your eyes and ears open to potential persona extensions. This should capture audiences outside of your target who already independently promote your brand, like the Stanley example, or could connect with a new or broadened product offering if you can match their preferences and needs. If you don’t look outside your core audience, you’re leaving a major source of potential revenue untapped.
3. Deliver information in the way people want it
I don’t consume information the way my mom did, and my daughter doesn’t take in information the way I do. Every generation has its channels. As your audience ages into and out of your target demographic bracket, make sure you understand each generation’s media consumption habits. How will a 35-year-old in 2034 want to receive information from your brand compared to a 35-year-old today in 2024? Ensure your company stays ahead of inevitable demographic shifts within your target age bracket by anticipating change.
4. Brands must align with their audiences—not the other way around.
Brand evolution is important to stay relevant. This can be done through media or content shifts, new product developments or expected (or unexpected) influencer strategy. An example of this is Traeger Grills and their “Traegerhood.” Walking out of a big box store recently, I saw an SUV with a Traeger sticker proudly affixed in their window. That level of brand loyalty—where the person identifies with the brand as part of their personality—is exactly what you want to achieve. In contrast their competitor, Weber grills, is almost 100 years older than Traeger and has built their brand around generational grilling. But, in my opinion, they continue to struggle to emotionally attach to the new wave of potential buyers. Striving to build a loyal community like Traeger should be a goal of any brand—a level of loyalty that can only be achieved when you truly understand your customer.
The final word
Good brand marketing is never a “set-it-and-forget-it” strategy. To stay relevant, you must understand the ever-changing needs and preferences of your target audience, rather than expecting them to align to your brand. Think of your target demographics as brackets—generations will enter and leave as they age in and out of that bracket. Be prepared and willing to shift with them to create long-term brand loyalty.
