Just turned 40, the average age in north east must be around 50! did notice when I first went to camber sands average age was lower, maybe there should be a regional pole
If you paid attention to the marketing pictures for Ceroc you'd imagine everyone there was 28 and good-looking, which is very far from the truth, as we all know!
It's beginning to put me off actually - whenever I look at a Ceroc site I'm presented with images of these young things gurning at each other in pre-pull mode. It makes me feel like Ceroc is an age-inappropriate activity for me nowadays.
Perhaps I need to look in on Chesham to make me feel young again? Or perhaps Ceroc could include the occasional tiny photo of a carefully vetted crinkly in their marketing bumph?
We were only talking about this last week at the 'older' venue I crew at.
We're struggling to get new people through the door as younger people come once but are put off by the fact that apart from crew & 2 very young girls who come with their parents, the youngest people are probably late 40s. To keep a venue atmosphere and encourage new people to come along, there needs to be a good mix of ages otherwise a venue could start to stagnate, especially if you get a proportion of the 'older' dancers who sit in small groups chatting all evening rather than mixing and getting up to dance. Even as crew it's sometimes hard to persuade them to dance (despite the fact they say they enjoy the music!)
I take your point, you're right about the mix of ages. But my point is that the over 40s who comprise a good proportion of Ceroc's customers are ruthlessly expunged from all Ceroc literature in the (failed?) bid to pull in the custom of young people. As someone who's proud to be mature (at last) I find that off-putting, bordering on offensive. But no matter, I'm sure Ceroc can afford to lose a few grey-dance-pounds!
In my experience, it's the older dancers who are never off the floor and are willing to mix and dance with anyone, whereas it's often the under 25s who hang around moodily in groups dancing mainly with each other. That would certainly spoil the atmosphere of a venue for me.
At the moment, Ceroc advertising seems to be falling between two stools. They are not accurately representing the product they are selling, so young people turn up and may find it not to their taste, while older people who are a more suitable target audience given the demographics are not being drawn in. Also, I'd have thought fostering a committed customer base of mature people with plenty of disposable income to spend on a Ceroc-habit would be as worthwhile as courting the impoverished and fickle youth.
Seriously - the marketing imagery that Ceroc use has not changed much in a decade. It's putting me off, for one. Is it really working for you?
We're struggling to get new people through the door
Personally it doesn't worry me, as I just want to go to dance - that's what I looked for when starting out, rather than looking at all the marketing bumpf. But the first time I went along (having been recommended it by older friends) I hated it as I was the youngest person there by some years at 27ish and didn't go back until a year later (with some younger friends who wanted to try it). I can see the marketing might put people off/make them feel ostracised, but I'd have thought having younger people in the marketing would put fewer older people off than vice versa.
I guess it all depends on the area - the central Oxford venues are much younger in demographic than the venues just outside of Oxford in my experience, although the ones even further away seem to have a broader spread of ages.
I think, like in most areas of the media, ceroc want to portray the 'best' view of their business, however aspirational - if that's the target audience then fine, even if the majority of their customers may be older.
Yes, I just go to dance as well, and it wasn't marketing literature that got me involved in the first place, but word of mouth.
Having had a bit of a break from freestyles recently, I've been surprised, on returning, to find how much dance is dominated by older age groups. So I've felt at home, and I'm not surprised you felt a bit out of it!
I bet that is spot on! Think about it... How many models for anything are portrayed to be the real age of their target market?? Women's magazines are a prime example.
We all feel young and alive when we dance (it's the level of aches and pains afterwards that start to set us apart! )
i have only been dancing for 6months and i am one of the youngest people at the ceroc night and it doesn't bother me one little bit. i am able to mix with mainly everyone. i find the younger dancers don't tend to ask me up that much and same at party nights. this doesn't put me off and i like the fact that it is all ages that go. seems to be that you catch the ceroc bug as soon as you start and then you are hooked. so if they can hook younger people then they will be dancing years later
Ceroc are bound to market the dance with younger ppl and yes in my area I am one of the youngest. In my area its between late 30's - 40's +.
I only got into this dance due to my mother wanting to go & see what it was like, I then got hooked
Started Ceroc when I was 27. Will be 44 on Tuesday. Doesn't seem that long though.
--ooOoo--
Age is a question of mind over matter, if you don't mind, it doesn't matter
Leroy (Satchel) Paige (1906-1982)
Mickey Mouse's girlfriend, Minnie, made her film debut, along with Mickey, in "Steamboat Willie" on November 18, 1928.
That date is recognized as her official birthday.
--ooOoo--
Age is a question of mind over matter, if you don't mind, it doesn't matter
Leroy (Satchel) Paige (1906-1982)
Mickey Mouse's girlfriend, Minnie, made her film debut, along with Mickey, in "Steamboat Willie" on November 18, 1928.
That date is recognized as her official birthday.
Sure does feel there's much more negative skew (few young folk, lots of older folk) at the lessons/events i've been to. Maybe it's very region dependent on the mix? Sub 30 male lead seems an anomaly it seems. (WCS doubly so!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skewness
I was just talking about distribution of age My take was just that I haven't seen classes with such a normal distribution around 30-40, with 18-30 having such numbers.
So, perhaps that's due to larger city events having a younger crowd?
(Ceroc membership database / similar large jive membership databases probably hold a lot of data that could have these trends within them)
Last edited by t0mt0m; 16th-February-2011 at 12:57 AM.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Bookmarks