{"id":18079,"date":"2015-09-06T19:24:47","date_gmt":"2015-09-06T19:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lern.org\/?p=3657"},"modified":"2021-08-02T12:24:03","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T17:24:03","slug":"what-to-call-senior-citizens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lern.com\/lerntest\/what-to-call-senior-citizens\/","title":{"rendered":"What to call senior citizens"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Question<\/a><\/strong>Call them Boomers. That is their name, and they like it. This is a common question from LERN members whose programs serve older adults. A better question would be \u201cWhat should we call the population cohort traditionally referred to as senior citizens?\u201d The appellation of \u201csenior citizen\u201d is a term that is almost 40 years old and it came into vogue during the period when young Baby Boomers were seeking ways to delineate an older population segment using terminology that was both definitive and respectful.
\nThat was fine for the time. Older adults identified with the term \u201csenior citizen\u201d and embraced it. For the GI generation and the oldest segments of the Silent Generation, the term was positive. These population segments identified the term \u201csenior\u201d with accomplishment, respect, and status. To be called a senior citizen was a good thing. It certainly beat being called \u201cold\u201d or \u201celderly\u201d or even \u201ccodgers and codgerettes;\u201d a name suggested by one of LERN\u2019s former consultants, Sam Brightman, who was in his 80\u2019s. Indeed, Mr. Brightman\u2019s suggestion incited politically correct Boomers to riotous objection.
\nWe are defined by our name<\/strong>
\nThere is wisdom; however, in Mr. Brightman\u2019s satiric suggestion. We care about names, and we are defined by our name. The Romans had an expression, \u201cnomen est omen,\u201d meaning, \u201cname is destiny,\u201d and today, a great deal has been written, blogged, and floated about online regarding how individuals respond to their names and how others classify us based on our name. We have all been taught that by using a person\u2019s name in conversation, we can create and solidify a positive relationship.
\nResearch indicates that people are unconsciously drawn to things, people, and places that sound like their own names. Psychologists call this phenomenon “implicit egotism.” Further, research has determined that people have a unique brain response when they hear their own name and are more likely to have a heightened response when hearing their own first name (http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/22361115<\/a>).
\nThe Coca Cola Company\u2019s recent campaign to increase sales by printing popular names on Coke bottles is one example of implicit egotism in action. Termed \u201cwildly successful\u201d by USA Today,<\/em> this campaign reversed a steadily declining sales trend and resulted in the largest ever year-over-year growth trend. The success of the campaign in achieving the dual goal of increasing sales and having young consumers take the product viral by posting selfies with their personalized bottles has been so substantial that the company is increasing the number of names printed on the bottles from 250 to 1000.
\nPop psychology and some controversial research have even suggested that our name plays a big role in our academic and career success. Students with names beginning with \u201cC\u201d or \u201cD\u201d have lower GPA\u2019s than those whose names begin with \u201cA\u201d or \u201cB\u201d and attend less prestigious schools. (http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/magazine-26634477<\/a>). One hypothesis is that the letters \u201cC\u201d and \u201cD\u201d are less aversive to those who have them as the first letter in their name.
\nWhile this may be a little over the top, it is true that parents are suffering \u201cunprecedented angst\u201d over choosing a name for their baby, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal<\/em> on July 22, 2007. From checking social security registers to determining whether a name is \u201ctoo trendy\u201d or hiring \u201cnaming consultants who use complex mathematical formulas,\u201d naming has become a big business. Dozens of baby naming books have been published in recent years, along with books on naming everything from your dog to your pet chicken (http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/The-Quickie-Book-Chicken-Names\/dp\/1494746530<\/a>).
\nIt is about the individual, not the name<\/strong>
\nMarketing, like everything else, has cycles. One of LERN\u2019s mantras is, and has been, \u201cknow your customer. It\u2019s not about your product, it\u2019s about what your customer wants.\u201d This concept is alive and well in the marketing world today and in an environment supported by technology and the ability to gather more intelligence than ever before about whom our customers are and what they want, the \u201cnew\u201d marketing approach is to use \u201cpersonas.\u201d We will talk more about personas in future articles, but in a nutshell, it is an approach to help you know who your customer is and what that customer wants.
\nBasically, personas are about reaching customers based on directing the right message to the right customer at the right time. Thus, as consumers redefine themselves in terms of who they are, it becomes more important than ever to communicate to an individual\u2019s expressed values, self-perception, needs, and interests.
\nAs society changes, the ways we define our segments may change as well, along with how we name them. Segments will increasingly be defined by the customers\u2019 journeys, goals, and interests, rather than physical or qualitative characteristics.
\nSo, what should we call \u201csenior citizens?\u201d<\/strong>
\nIf you must call them something, call them Boomers. That is their name, and they like it. There is no requirement that adults who meet certain criteria, primarily age-based, need to be called senior citizens. Only Gen Y and the GI generation use that term. The cohort of Boomers; today\u2019s \u201cseniors,\u201d don\u2019t use it, don\u2019t like it, and won\u2019t resonate with it. Interestingly, in a recent Google search on \u201ceLearning for senior citizens,\u201d there is almost nothing after 2007, the year Boomers began turning 60. Research after 2007 is far more likely to use terminology such as \u201colder learners\u201d or \u201cBaby Boomers\u201d rather than \u201csenior citizens.\u201d
\nLike many terms in the marketing world, the term \u201csenior citizen\u201d is a result of efforts to define a market segment. Just as the names of individuals change, the names by which we identify our market segments will change as well.
\nDefinitions and perceptions of age vary. According to a study by the Pew Research Center in the United States, respondents up to their early 30\u2019s say that old age begins at 60. Those who are older than 65 believe old age begins at 74. Thus, with the oldest Boomers just starting to turn 70 in just 4 months, it is clear that members of this cohort do not yet believe they fall into the category of senior citizens.
\nToday\u2019s adults over 60, however, already have a name. That name is Boomer. Adults in the generation born between 1946 and 1964 \u2014 and even those born a few years earlier, identify positively with that name. To those in that generation, the name denotes power, influence, individualism, idealism, success, resilience, and yes \u2014 forever vital (if not truly youthful). This is a generation not concerned with growing old gracefully \u2014 but rather with not growing old at all.
\nJenny Joseph, in her poem, \u201cWarning,\u201d may have captured it best:
\n\u201cWhen I am an old woman, I shall wear purple with a red hat, which doesn\u2019t go and doesn\u2019t suit me. And, I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves and satin sandals and say we\u2019ve no money for butter. I shall sit down on the pavement when I\u2019m tired and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells and run my stick along the public railings and make up for the sobriety of my youth. I shall go out in my slippers in the rain and pick flowers in other peoples\u2019 gardens and learn to spit.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Call them Boomers. That is their name, and they like it. This is a common question from LERN members whose programs serve older adults. A better question would be \u201cWhat should we call the population cohort traditionally referred to as senior citizens?\u201d The appellation of \u201csenior citizen\u201d is a term that is almost 40 years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":3658,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lern.com\/lerntest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lern.com\/lerntest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lern.com\/lerntest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lern.com\/lerntest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lern.com\/lerntest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lern.com\/lerntest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19269,"href":"https:\/\/lern.com\/lerntest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18079\/revisions\/19269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lern.com\/lerntest\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lern.com\/lerntest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lern.com\/lerntest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lern.com\/lerntest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}