According to Hans O. Melberg of the University of Oslo:
The problem of spurious correlation is large in the social sciences. Using the term misleading or illusory correlations is better because it is not the correlation itself that is spurious, but the inference from the existence of an insignificant correlation to the existence of a significant relationship that is spurious.
Marketing is a social science. The opportunity to reach conclusions based upon misleading associations is great indeed. According to Mr. Melberg, in order to deal with misleading associations, we have three options:
- Downplay the mismatch or degree to which there is a mismatch
- Admit that the problem is serious, in which case we must accept the rather disappointing conclusion that the scope for reliable knowledge is not very large
- Admit you are wrong and try a different approach to knowledge
However, if you are an account service person in an advertising agency and you happen to see a spurious correlation in a new advertising effort, you don’t dare speak up. You might lose your job. Don’t rock the boat, it’s still floating and you’re on it.
The topic of aging is captured in numerous statements that contain misleading associations. Like most myths, the ones about aging include a confusing blend of truth and fancy. A few of the most familiar misleading associations are listed below. As Rowe and Khan have indicated, these axioms and others like them usually have some link to reality, but are nearly always in significant conflict with recent scientific data. These phrases represent the lens through which those in the Spring and Summer seasons of life view those in the Fall and Winter.
Misleading associations linked with aging:
- As you age, you will most likely get sick.
- As you age, you will lose interest in intimacy.
- As you get older, you become less and less likely to try anything new.
- Older people lose control of bodily functions.
- Older people cannot function in the work place.
- The older individual can’t understand today’s technology.
- The older you become, the less likely it is that you have a social life.
- The older you become, the more you will need help to make decisions.
Misleading associations linked to leading-edge baby boomers:
- You aim to keep your ego fed.
- All you care about is you.
- You are rebellious.
- You are not a money saver.
- You don’t read newspapers.
- You are fixated on retaining your youth and good looks.
The public, in general, and advertising people, in particular, are programmed with these misleading associations that, in turn, lead their values "lenses" to perceive aging as a bad thing: Once you’re past 40, you’re over the hill and out of the game. However, if you talk with most healthy older people, you’ll learn there are many positive things about aging. In fact, Rowe and Khan speak to "successful aging [as] dependent upon individual choices and behaviors . . . attained through individual choice and effort."
Many advertising people—copywriters, art directors, account executives, and media buyers—subscribe to these misleading associations not because they choose to, but because there has been no education encouraging them to challenge their beliefs and discover new information that could change the advertising and marketing messages and strategies. It is easier for young staffers to stick with what they know and understand (i.e., what appeals to them personally). These misleading associations about aging perpetuate the creation of off-target messages resulting in higher costs of generating new leads and new sales. Maintaining these misleading associations also perpetuates the alienation of those in the Fall and Winter seasons of life and does nothing to enhance market share and increase potential revenues.
It is not impossible for advertising people to reexamine and reeducate their received, if limited, notions of aging. Crafting successful communications to the New Customer Majority fully engaged in making those individual choices and efforts that will result in successful aging calls for a new type of understanding on the part of advertising people. Younger account executives and creatives, especially those more than 20 years removed from what they define as their "generation," are capable of showing an amazing amount of empathy when their values lenses are refitted for a long view of consumers 45 and up. Understanding the values of this consumer group is an exciting new way to get "beyond the numbers" of traditional ways of categorizing those in the Fall and Winter seasons of life.
In the Value Portraits: A New Approach Toward Appealing to Individuals in the Fall and Winter Seasons, we will take a more specific look at the research that resulted in detailed portraits of those age 45-plus who share similar values. We will also take a look at real sales training perspectives and marketing challenges where values have played an important role in crafting approaches and successful creative solutions.