In October 2024, Olivier Koning, founder of The Fresh Pool, and Edgar Keehnan, founder of Grey Ocean and author of Grey Ocean Strategy, had the privilege to join a panel discussion on the BIG Handshake Loyalty Event hosted in their hometown of Amsterdam.
The BIG Handshake Loyalty conference is supported by the European Loyalty Association and is a prestigious international event that brings together over 120 loyalty experts from all over the world.
Olivier writes:
The theme of the panel was “Gen Z Buzz to Silver Gen Fuss -bridging loyalty across the generations”. Which was a really catchy and realistic theme for the discussion.
In the panel were marketeers from Ikea and Nike and the silver generation was represented by the eloquent Bill Hanifin (The Wise Marketer) and our own Edgar Keehnen.
As a warmup, the audience could enjoy the well-known Nike campaign ‘The Iron Nun’ which is a brave attempt by the sports brand that is in dire straits at the moment. Although the execution is great, it still has a layer of “look at these crazy old people” feel to it, right?
After a few slides with impressive numbers about our Silver target group, the audience was asked if the ‘we’ are great loyalty customer. Only 6% responded that they would use the same strategy as for other generations. 1-0 for the silver bunch!
And how does that work for a brand like Ikea? “Ikea is a brand for the many”, the marketer points out. “It’s about life at home, which touches lives of all generations”. “And we see that there are groups of consumers in transitional phases like the Empty Nesters”. What a great brief to work on right?!
At this point the Nike marketer joined in by stating that they aim to develop ageless marketing”. And that is what ‘Just do it’ stands for. On the other hand, the brand has a big focus on Gen Z as it needs to sell shoes and gear that is cool and hip. Experts like Bill and Edgar emphasized that it should not be about the one or the other but work on both groups of consumers and try to really understand and support them.
That’s where Edgar could present the 7 Soft Spots from his book ‘The Grey Ocean Strategy’. He found seven emotions of the older, experienced consumer that differ significantly from younger groups. This really resonated in the audience and gave a fresh perspective on how they perceive, and experience live. Big potential for the silver bunch for loyalty programs as well as loyalty is all about personal attention. A great quote from Edgar: “When a person books a hotel room, he’s a customer. When he enters the hotel, he becomes a guest. When he leaves, he became a friend”.
The final question was if companies are ready for tapping into this great market of engaged, wealthy and curious people. And as always, there’s some good and bad news. The bad news is that is hard for the average 32 years old marketer to break out of an environment that pulls them towards young, flashy and ‘on trend’ marketing experiments. The good news is that other departments in companies (research, product design, corporate) are getting noticed and building successful dossiers around the silver generation. We need to help framing these initiatives as exciting, new and effective for the brand! Let’s give the marketers the data and confidence to start experimenting ‘the other half’ of their audience and build a stronger business.
Hadie Perkas, CEO of the European Loyalty Association and The BIG Handshake Events commented:
“The BIG Handshake Loyalty 2024 was an outstanding success. With over 130 brands in the room, all talking about loyalty marketing, we just had to include a session on the Silver Generation and how brands must upgrade their marketing and engagement strategies to meet the changing needs of our ageing population.”
Watch the movie https://europeanloyaltyassociation.org/tbh-loyalty-october-24/
