Episode 2: Debbie Marshall of the Silver Marketing Association: Busting Myths and Rethinking an Expanding Class of Consumers

Fiftyfaces Focus Podcast - The Next Chapter

Debbie Marshall is managing director of the Silver Marketing Association, a membership B2B organization connecting and informing businesses and individuals with an interest in marketing to older consumers. She previously founded the Silver Travel Advisor, an information website that provides travel advice and reviews for the mature traveler and is a Chair of the Board of Trustees of Dementia Adventure as well as holding other Non-Executive Director Roles.

We start by tracing Debbie’s roots in marketing and the gap in the market that she perceived when she realized that older consumers were spending a lot of money on travel but rarely getting a service tailored to them. When she successfully sold the Silver Travel Advisor she turned her skills to marketing more generally, again focusing on the diverse needs of older consumers.

Debbie reveals some common tropes around age that are often exploited in marketing – whether in the birthday card market or in the media as a whole and why she believes that calling these out is the way to eradicate them and the biases that they reinforce. We speak about the impact that targeted marketing can have and the potential growth of the market as the wealth and empowerment of older consumer grows.
This podcast series was made possible by the kind support of Darwin Alternatives. Darwin Alternative Investment Management Limited offers innovative, alpha-driven investment solutions that are uncorrelated with traditional asset classes and feature business areas which have not previously been considered by investment funds. The firm aims to create new opportunities for investors to further diversify their portfolios and achieve stable absolute returns.