Dan the Early Retired Man: Assailed by Advertising
In another installment of Dan the Early Retired Man, my cousin Dan from Minnesota, who retired from the U.S. Postal Service in February at age 53, learns lessons in how to find target audiences for advertising:
I have always been fascinated by how advertising and marketing people get their products in front of the public. In the Mall of America, every courtyard in front of the anchor stores and each escalator has a kiosk with the map of the mall. New technology has allowed each of these kiosks to now have 4 large flat screens with changing advertising. My iPod keeps this outside world from bothering me but Monday, I forgot the Bluetooth gizmo that connects my iPod to my headphones so I was stuck with the outside world as my companion.
I started to wonder, does the mall adjust their advertising based on time of day? Since only us retirees are walking the mall between 7 and 10 a.m., is the mall targeting their advertising at us? Without my iPod, I would soon find out.
I start my walk at the Broadway entrance. It is called Broadway because all of the bars, clubs and upscale restaurants are close to this entrance but sadly the non-smoking laws have forced most of these establishments out of business.
On the kiosk at Broadway, an advertisement for footwear. The mall has lots of terrazzo floors so good footwear would be essential to the retirees who walk the mall. The kiosk by Sears is squawking about a local weight-loss store. Most of us are here to lose weight and improve our health, so this could easily be targeted to the walkers.
The kiosk in front of Nordstrom’s has me stopped in my tracks. In white letters on a green background I see:
THE CARDIOLOGY CENTER OF MINNESOTA
That’s just mean!
For earlier adventures of Dan the Early Retired Man, see this retirement tale and this one.
April 5th, 2009 at 11:24 am
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