Niko Herzeg Marketing

So there was/is this debate in the Netherlands about the age of retirement. Most likely is going up to 67 years from 65 (early retirement being 63, which is also going up). The reasons are well known, demographics, empty pension funds,etc..

But listening to a conversation between a minister of the Cabinet defending the policy and someone from the opposition, I came across a great couple of lines, that encompas everything that is often wrong, lacking and great about the agency client relationship.

cabinet minister: Because of various reasons the people will have to get used to working longer, or in this case the age of 67. The country needs this from it’s citizens in order to ensure our current retirement system will not totally colapse in a couple of years.

Opposition politician: Can you garantuee work for people aged 60 and over? If you want us to work longer, you need to be able to provide work in the first place. Reality is that many companies are trying to get rid of older employees to cut cost and wages. Tell me minister, have you thought about that?

With one swoop the entire conversation went from “ask what you can do for your country” to “sure we want to help, but have you thought about other needs and not just your own” ? Not hard to figure out, who the public thought made more sense.

Which of course sits at the hart of the everyday struggle we have to face. Balancing the wants of the clients, with the needs of the consumer (not forgetting we can manufacture consumer needs very well, but that is a different conversation).

The above also shows the need for us to keep questioning to find out what the real brief is. Is it to convince people of the need to work longer (straight b2c), or to make sure people will have jobs once they get to market undesirable ages (upstream b2b)? The objective in both cases is the same, the strategies could not be more different.

Face value is skin deep for a reason. ABC: Always be Questioning (fonetically it makes sense, ha).