your brand isn't outdated, it's irrelevant
Sep 29, 2025
Brought to you by The Art Of Positioning Podcast
Your client base is aging out. The referrals seem to be slowing.
Look, this isn't about your reputation going downhill.
Your work is still excellent. Your clients still trust you.
But somewhere along the way, you stopped being relevant to the next generation of decision-makers.
What I keep seeing: established service businesses hit a growth plateau, and everyone's telling them the same thing. "Go younger! Update your brand! Get on social media!"
Yeah, wrong approach.
Chasing millennials with TikTok strategies or rebranding with trendy colors... and, oh gods... a 'modern' look 🤮 won't fix this.
What I've seen consistently work is making your existing positioning speak to different generations without losing what made your current clients choose you in the first place.
See, different generations recognize trustworthiness and competence through completely different signals.
Let's look at why "going younger" backfires 👇
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To get your brand to resonate across generations, you need your marketing and brand to ACTUALLY work together - which, in turn, creates effective campaigns and communication. This episode of The Art of Positioning with marketing fiends Emma Davies and Ruta Sudmantaite is about closing that gap and building traction.
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Most service businesses panic when they notice their client demographics skewing older.
They start chasing the next generation by completely changing their approach.
A law firm I know spent six months "modernizing" their brand. New logo, casual language, social media presence focused on work-life balance themes. They thought they'd attract younger customers.
Instead, they confused their existing referral sources and failed to connect with younger prospects.
Why? Because they changed their positioning instead of adapting how they demonstrate their values.
The next generation of customers still wants expertise, reliability, and results.
They just recognize these qualities through different proof points.
📸: GIPHY
Each generation has learned to identify trustworthiness and competence through different signals.
Take innovation as an example, each generation spots it differently:
Baby Boomers see innovation in your track record, adapting over decades. They want stories about evolving your practice while maintaining stability.
Gen X recognizes innovation in efficiency improvements. They notice when you've streamlined processes or eliminated steps that save time.
Millennials identify innovation through new tools and methodologies. They want to see you actively testing better ways of working.
Gen Z spots innovation in real-time adaptation. They want live examples of your team testing new approaches.
Same core value. Completely different proof points.
Alright, how do we make it work across generations?
Your core positioning can stay the same.
But how you demonstrate it needs to work for different generational expectations.
A CPA firm realized all their innovation stories focused on "staying current with tax law changes" which is perfection for Baby Boomers who value stability through change. But younger prospects didn't see this as 'innovative'.
They started sharing different proof points for the same value:
For Gen X, it was showing their streamlined onboarding process that cut setup time in half.
For Millennials, they showcased their adoption of new tax software and automated workflows.
For Gen Z, they shared behind-the-scenes content of their team testing and rating new tools.
Same value: 'innovation'.
Different ways of proving it.
Yeah, I'm not going to do you dirty and leave you with that - let's create some real change in your business 👇
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Badass Tip
Audit how you demonstrate one core value across different generational expectations, then adapt your proof points without changing what you stand for.
What it looks like in practice:
🦘 Pick your strongest value.
Choose the value that differentiates you most, something you're against, a distinct approach, a type of communication that's you, whatever makes clients choose you over competitors.
Document exactly how you currently prove this value (internally and externally).
Look at your case studies, testimonials, and examples your team shares in meetings.
🦘 Map generational proof points
For that same value, identify how different generations see that value.
How does it translate across? What does it look like?
🦘 Test your current proof points
Show your existing case studies, content, ads, website, etc, to people from different generations.
Ask: "What does this show about how we work?" or "Does this prove we're [insert value] in a way that matters to you?"
If some say no, you need different proof points for those generations.
🦘 Expand your proof library
Create multiple ways to demonstrate the same value and get your team familiar with the approaches. It makes it far easier when they understand what those values actually mean in play. That way, they're not memorizing a script.
🦘 Track proof point effectiveness
When prospects from different age groups reach out, ask what convinced them you could solve their problem. That way, you know which values are translating well.
This isn't about reinventing your business. Duck that noise and expense.
This is about being relevant and understanding how different generations evaluate competence with respect to what THEY want from you.
So, which generation can't see the proof they need in how you currently demonstrate your strongest value?
-B
