Since Empire made its debut on the Fox network in January, my husband and I, like millions of viewers, have been glued to our TV sets on Wednesday nights at 9pm hanging on every scene, every word, and anxiously waiting for the next episode.  The show has been the subject of conversations among our friends.  Instead of talking about what our boomerang children are doing and how well the grandkids are doing in school, we are sipping our wine and reflecting on every Empire episode—-what we saw and what we think will happen next.

BUT WAIT A MINUTE—

We’ve over 50—pushing 60 actually—and according to the Nielsen ratings we don’t really count when it comes to measuring the success of Empire.  According to Nielsen, “Empire earned ANOTHER series high this week, notching a 4.7, up a tenth from last week’s series high 4.6 adults 18-49 rating.”  So if the 50 plus crowd were actually included in the ratings, Empire’s numbers would be even more phenomenal than they are now.

Nielsen goes after the 18-49-year-old market because that’s where they believe the advertising dollars are for the products they want to pitch. They have all but written off what the older generation might be interested in for marketing purposes.  Perhaps they think we’re watching Black-ish because Empire is too ghetto and we wouldn’t understand what was going on.  Yeah, whatever!

So much has been said of late about the differences between baby boomers and millennials:

We don’t speak the same language

We didn’t grow up with computers whereas millennials don’t know how to have meaningful conversations without texting

We’re driven by the “hard sell” while millennials are more laid back

We’re pushy, arrogant and inflexible and millennials need to get a clue

I am of the opinion that we can both teach other new things and help each other grow.  I know it is literally impossible to target everybody when it comes to doing business but you can let people rule themselves out.  For example, as a writer I am more inclined to write about subjects for the over 50 crowd but that’s not to say someone in their 30s won’t find my work interesting enough to check it out for herself or share it with her mother and/or older friends.

Our own personal experiences and knowledge can make us believe we understand that so-called “target market” when, in essence, we don’t know much if we haven’t actually done any research.

So what is my point?  Very simply put:  You should never rule anyone out when it comes to selling a product, doing business or marketing.  Now I didn’t say everyone can be your customer.  There is a difference between not ruling anyone out and targeting everybody.

Perhaps Nielsen doesn’t have to target us specifically but don’t rule us out because our boomer voices are saying “Empire is RIGHT ON man!”