The sandwich generation needs you:
How marketers can help stretched families, care for each other.
COVID has produced an unusual dichotomy in New Zealand. A situation where we have embraced a new definition of ‘wealth’. While every person in the country has been affected financially and is seeking security, there has been a shift in prioritizing action and spending towards health with McKinsey research showing people have more worries about their family’s health than their jobs1.
New Zealanders are also leaning towards known entities for feelings of security and calm, this familiarity breeding content and reinforcing deep-set emotional drivers of protection, care and manaakitanga as whanau and communities look to wrap around their bubble. A bubble that’s now 1600km long.
So what is a brand’s responsibility in the next 6 to 12 months as NZ re-weaves it’s social and commercial fabric and health becomes the new wealth?
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People want to hear from you; they want to know how you can help them and their families. How can you help them secure the vitality and strength of their whanau?
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Keep active. Part of our modern ‘hunter-gatherer’ lifestyle is searching and connecting with brands, they are the new ‘cave paintings’ that we use to demonstrate how we live. Brands provide social capital and methods of personal expression. Let people see you. There’s a security in seeing the things in your day that you know and trust.
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Care for more. In a recent survey of 1000 Family Health Diary viewers, 97% said they wanted companies to keep communicating to them; they want your products and services to help them care for themselves and those around them, so be there for them. Use high impact, short term tactics to reach them quickly in Q3+4 and to earn income to keep your business healthy for the 2021 bounce back.
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Be true. Have a straight, unwavering line from your values, through your partners, to your customers.
Who needs you most?
The people who most need your help in the next 4-6 months are those in the ‘sandwich generation’, those looking after their elderly parents as well as their children (and if they have time, themselves). They are more likely to be female, 35 – 55, working full or part-time and spending approximately $200/week on caring across their parents and children. They are stressed with many at breaking point2. COVID will be making this worse. They are busy but efficient, they want direct, easy to access, almost ‘instructional’ communication that presents a problem and a solution, in one moment. If we can support these people, we can care for many.
In the last half of 2020, health brands and organisations have an opportunity to lift people out of the stress of COVID and build their family’s w/health. We’d like to help you, help them. Ka mahi ngatahi.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12147360
