Aspirational age is a concept from advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

 and marketing

Marketing

Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...

, and refers to an ideal age whose characteristics consumers aspire to embody. Thus, marketing messages aimed at that target age will resonate with consumers of other ages.

It is said that the aspirational age in Western society is 16 or 17, the cusp between childhood and adulthood. In theory, consumers younger than this age aspire to the maturity and freedom it signifies, while those older than it seek to recapture the (real or imagined) youthfulness and freedom from responsibility of this age. Thus, products pitched at notional 16-year-olds will appeal to a broader target market

Target market

A target market is a group of customers that the business has decided to aim its marketing efforts and ultimately its merchandise. A well-defined target market is the first element to a marketing strategy...

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