Talking about my generation: what baby boomers think of your marketing strategy
In the second part of our new series on demographics, we ask a Baby Boomer (widely agreed to be people that were born in the post-war years from the early 1946s to the early 1960s) what social media they use and what they think of financial services marketing. Demographics can be tricksy things, and be split in all sorts of ways – but what do we really know about how different generations respond to financial advertising and sponsored content?
Name: Jean Hutchison
Age: 60
Occupation: Teacher
Dwelling: West Midlands
I tend not to believe financial advertisements – basically because I don’t understand finance and they could easily be a load of nonsense and I wouldn’t know. I prefer taking advice from people I trust – or will look at advertisements if it is a product someone trusting has already told me about.
I’ve never bothered changing banks, I’ve been with HSBC all my life. I think it would be too difficult – but it probably isn’t. I don’t really understand all the financial jargon – my eyes just glaze over. When I see capital at risk I think my house is it risk. Is that what it means? I’m probably losing out. But then I do just hate big banks and their advertising because they are just money grubbing [blanked out].
If I’ve got to make a financial decision, for insurance or something, I go to Money Saving Expert. I like cost comparison sites. I do see ads come up on my Facebook feed, those sponsored ones, but I hate them. How do I make them disappear? I also don’t like being sent useless stuff [emails] by brands – unless it’s 38 Degrees or political stuff.
I’m probably not the best person to even ask about online stuff. I’m on Facebook every day but mostly because I play silly games on it. I’ve got a Linkedin profile but I think I am too old for it. I’m also on Twitter but I only use it to complain to companies. I don’t get what it is all about really.
To read what one Gen Xer thinks of financial services marketing, head here.