Relevance isn't about chasing youth

Somewhere in a meeting room right now somebody is saying, “We need to get younger.”

I would put money on it.

There is something almost automatic about the relationship between growth and youth in business thinking. We need future consumers. We need Gen Z. We need TikTok. We need to modernise the brand.

Maybe you do.

But I’d quite like to know why first.

I don't have an issue with younger audiences. That would be a fairly bizarre position. What I have an issue with is deciding an audience is commercially important based primarily on their date of birth.

Is there a genuine need? Are younger customers entering the category? Is your existing customer base shrinking? Is there a long-term recruitment issue? Is there something about how younger people live that creates a new job for your product?

Brilliant. Now we have something interesting to understand.

Or have we simply decided that youth equals relevance?

Because I think brands can do extraordinary contortions trying to look younger. New language, creators, cultural references, TikTok dances that everyone involved would probably prefer to forget.

Meanwhile, there might be an enormous 45-year-old customer sitting there with money, need and almost nobody talking to her particularly well.

Younger audiences don't necessarily need younger brands anyway.

They need brands that matter to them.

I’d start with relevance and work backwards to age, rather than starting with age and desperately trying to manufacture relevance.