Abstract
As the number of people nearing or entering the retirement phase of careers continues to grow, financial service companies, like Prudential Financial, will become increasingly important to the public. This point is especially true given that there is a lack of preparedness surrounding retirement planning. This project explores how Prudential discursively constructed the concept of retirement through a qualitative content analysis of the organizational website. Results show that Prudential used a traditional problem–solution persuasive framework as it situated retirement as a risk and offered self-serving solutions that could mitigate the potential threat. Specifically, risk was constructed through the construction of a grand narrative that showed challenges associated with retirement and relied on trusted sources and rational evidence. The solution was then depicted as an efficacious process that was future-oriented through the telling of stories by current retirees. Based on these findings, a set of theoretical contributions regarding retirement and risk communication were developed, including the extension of risk communication to the financial sector and showing how organizations can simultaneously use grand and individual narratives to both highlight and resolve a potential threat. Ultimately, this research provides the opportunity to further examine how the concept of retirement is constructed by organizations through the lens of risk communication.
Financial services are becoming more important in light of current retirement trends. Approximately 10,000 baby boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964 (Taylor and Doverspike, 2003), will retire each day until 2019 (Pew Research Center, 2010). Demographic projections indicate that by 2030, over 20 percent of the American population will be over 65, meaning that they will be entering, nearing, or thinking about retirement (Sightings, 2014). These numbers become problematic when coupled with data that show a high level of unpreparedness for this career stage. In fact, a 2014 Harris Poll found that nearly half of non-retirees felt as though they had not saved enough money ‘to live the lifestyle they want in retirement’ (p. 4).
The lack of preparedness is surprising given that retirement is traditionally conceptualized as an inevitable career stage for the American worker (Smith and Dougherty, 2012). As such, when people approach the traditional retirement age, they begin to plan for retirement. However, there is a difference between knowing that one should plan for retirement and actually taking the appropriate preparedness steps.
This gap creates a discursive space for financial planning companies, such as Prudential, to enter the conversation about how to ‘successfully’ retire. These organizations highlight the potential financial risk associated with not preparing for retirement while simultaneously offering self-serving solutions to minimize potential negative outcomes (e.g. products and services). Ultimately, this communicative messaging falls in line with the concept of risk communication, or the ‘process of exchanging information among interested parties about the nature, magnitude, significance, or control of a risk’ (Covello, 1992: 359).
However, retirement is not necessarily a risk, but the manifestation of the uncertainty associated with finances and the retirement process (e.g. How long does the money need to last? How much will be needed to support the retirement I want?). Like all risks, the unknown aspects of retirement (e.g. longevity and health) create a need for communication about the potential threat and possible solutions.
Risk communication is a powerful tool because it shapes people’s attitudes and influences behaviors that could prevent or mitigate a perceived risk, although it is often ‘the case that publics have the “correct” attitude and still continue to be inactive’ (Turner, 2007: 115). In other words, people are aware of a given risk, but choose not to plan for that risk. This sentiment corresponds to the retirement research that shows a general awareness about retirement planning, but still demonstrates a lack of financial preparedness actions among non-retirees. For example, 22 percent of non-retirees reported that they would prefer to ‘die early’ than prepare for retirement (Harris Poll, 2014: 4).
With that said, there is a lack of scholarship in the area of financial risk communication. In fact, risk communication has been focused mostly on health, safety, and environmental threats (McComas, 2006; Palenchar and Heath, 2007). This research introduces the idea of financial risk communication – a form of risk communication that is unique to the financial sector and monetary topics. This contribution is made by examining the ways in which Prudential merges risk and financial communication through its online retirement discourse. In this case, Prudential relies on grand and individual narratives to simultaneously create and resolve the risk of retiring, thus underscoring the important role narrative plays in this communicative process.
Literature review
The communicative construction of retirement
Retirement is a relatively new concept that stemmed from the implementation of the Social Security System (Achenbaum, 2006). Since it is still developing, retirement tends to have a fluid, fuzzy, and complex definition that underscores the unknown inherent in this career phase (Denton and Spencer, 2009). For example, retirement has previously been thought of as a permanent ‘withdraw from paid working life’ (Denton and Spencer, 2009: 64). However, it is now seen as a time for ‘second act’ or a period of active leisure (Anderson, 2015; Featherstone and Wernick, 1995).
The shifting meanings makes sense given that retirement is a social phenomenon that changes over time and, as such, becomes ‘a social[ly] constructed institution’ (Simpson and Cheney, 2007: 195). From this perspective, communication – that is the discourse, narratives, interactions and materiality – provides meaning to the concept of retirement.
Moreover, the notion of what makes for a ‘successful’ retirement and how to plan for it ‘is learned throughout a person’s working life’ through these communicative means, especially the sharing of narratives (Smith and Dougherty, 2012: 454). In fact, Smith and Dougherty (2012) revealed a master narrative that is woven into the discourses of retirement. Through this research, they show how surrounding narratives become powerful conceptual tools as they imbue the idea of retirement and financial planning with meaning, thus serving a sense-making function. The role of communication in shaping the conceptualization of retirement was also examined by Anderson (2015) as she uncovered the ways in which strategic narratives were used by AARP to frame the publics’ understanding of retirement and advocate for older workers.
With that said, narratives are a powerful communicative tool that provides meaning, socializes people, and sets expectations for retirement. They are an important part of communication as humans are essentially ‘storytelling animals’ that rely on narratives to make sense of and organize life (Fisher, 1984). Narratives come in various forms and are communicated from multiple levels, such as grand narratives (meta) and individual narratives (micro). Grand narratives, or those stories told at the meta-level, are those that appear to be generalizable as they reflect prevailing sentiments about a given topic (e.g. work, marriage, parenthood, and retirement) (Lyotard, 1984 [1979]). This type of narrative was at the heart of Smith and Dougherty’s (2012) and Anderson’s (2015) retirement research. In contrast, smaller, individual narratives are also crucial in providing meaning to the retirement process. These are the specific stories that are told on the micro-level – by individuals. Here, everyday people share stories that reflect personal experience rather than larger, thematic ‘truths’. However, both forms of narratives set expectations and provide meaning for people, ultimately working together to support and/or resist the communicative construction of a topic, such as retirement.
The way the concept of retirement is understood by publics and the corresponding expectations for this career stage has profound implications for organizations, including shifting practices and policies that reflect the changing needs of current and future retirees (Dennis and Fike, 2012). Anderson (2013) examined this change when she detailed the ways in which BMW prepared for the aging workforce. In that case, BMW made updates to the factory floor and workstations to adapt to an older population following the institution of the ‘Today for Tomorrow’ program. However, more policies and practices will need to be changed as the graying population leaves the workforce to engage in this period of active leisure.
Ultimately, the acceptance of retirement as a culminating career phase means that people must plan for unknown events that could impede their individual conceptualization of what it means to retire successfully (e.g. finances) (Taylor and Doverspike, 2003). The ‘unknown’, in this case, then becomes a threat that people must prepare for separately or in tandem with organizations. The act of retirement, therefore, is framed as a risk by financial planning organizations that could be avoided if proper steps are taken.
Risk communication
A risk is a probabilistic event that holds consequences and can evolve into a crisis (Palenchar and Heath, 2007). As such, the concept of risk calls for prevention and preparedness. Risk communication plays an integral part in the act of preparing for such an event as it seeks to define the risk, negotiate its significance, and prepare for impact through the exchange of information about the risk itself (Capriotti, 2007a; Covello, 1992; Heath and Palenchar, 2000). The hope is that the risk event can be minimized or avoided if certain actions are taken and these steps are communicated to given publics through effective means.
The concept of uncertainty underlies risk events as it determines what is and is not perceived as a potential threat. The way people gauge the likelihood of an event occurring was studied by Kahneman and Tversky (1973). They found that representativeness, as a heuristic, is used to evaluate the likelihood of an event occurring. In this way, people pull from past experience, narratives, and knowledge as a way to make judgments about the probability they will face a potential threat.
Moreover, the communication of a risk takes many forms and often includes many actors making it a complex topic to evaluate (Kaspersund and Palmlund, 1989). With that said, the focus of risk communication tends to be on community members rather than organizations. This emphasis makes sense given that previous conceptualizations of risk tend to examine health, safety, and environmental concerns (McComas, 2006; Palenchar and Heath, 2007). From this perspective, the organization tends to be positioned as the reason for potential risks as opposed to solution. For example, scholars have previously explored the communicative messages about operational risk from the chemical industry (Capriotti, 2007a, 2007b; Rhee, 2008), carbon capture and storage facilities (Lofstedt, 2015), and nuclear power plants (Song et al., 2013). In this case, the risk is the uncertain financial aspect of retirement, not Prudential.
However, organizations can also engage in risk communication even if they are not risk generating. Rather, organizations can be positioned as a solution that prepares publics for an impending risk event – such as retirement and the accompanying financial uncertainty. This positioning is unusual given that risk communication typically focuses on entities that battle over the presence, magnitude, potential effect, and such of risks. Here, the source of risk is the uncertainty that surrounds retirement – that is the length of life and the amount of money needed to support a person’s ideal retirement.
Prudential tries capitalizes on this risk and magnifies it through its organizational discourse. In this way, financial risk communication positions itself similar to traditional forms of risk communication. Based on this information, organizations that position themselves as a form of preparedness in concert with risk communication need to account for several key factors, including the trustworthiness of the communication source, the level of multivocality present in the risk discourse, and perceived efficacy of the proposed solution. And these factors can be communicated through narrative means.
Trust
In order for risk communication messages to be effective, the information source needs to be deemed trustworthy in the eye of the intended public (Renn and Levine, 1991). The importance of trust and transparency in terms of establishing an effective risk communication message was demonstrated by Menon and Goh (2005) in their analysis of the SARS outbreak in Singapore. Most notably, the authors demonstrated the ways that the local government and political leaders tried to foster trust in the eyes of the residents of Singapore. In doing so, they underscored the crucial role trust plays in risk communication.
The source of the communication surrounding risk events is an important part of the communicative process. In fact, Ropeik and Gray (2002) found that people are less afraid of risk and more receptive to solutions offered by people and organizations they trust. In other words, the reputation and credentials of a source matter in terms of the risk message (Webley, 2004). Palenchar and Heath (2007) extended this notion as they argued that the ‘main product of risk communication is not informed understanding as such, but the quality of the social relationship it supports’ (p. 127). Establishing a trusting relationship between a given source and its publics is a difficult task, especially when the communicative interactions take place in an online format (Bekmeier-Feuerhahn and Eichenlaub, 2010). This is one of the challenges that Prudential’s risk discourse must overcome in order to be accepted by its intended publics as it attempts to demonstrate trust and transparency through its organizational website. And nowhere is this relational aspect and trust imperative more evident than in the framing of a partnership between financial advisors and future retirees.
Multivocality
In addition to the trustworthiness of the information source, the variety of included voices also seems to matter in terms of responding to risk messages. The risk communication process is not a top-down directive, but rather a continual negotiation between publics (including organizations) about the nature of the risk (Fischhoff, 1995). Risk communication becomes a multi-way process that shares information about a present, emerging, or evolving risk (Sheppard et al., 2012). This idea corresponds to what Heath et al. (2009) termed as ‘requisite diversity’, which is the need for multiple voices to be included in preparedness communication (see also Hon and Brunner, 2000; Weick, 1979).
Efficacy
Besides a focus on the source of information, the public also has to perceive a sense of efficacy when responding to risk discourse (Song et al., 2013, Witte, 1994). In other words, publics have to know what the risk is and the potential consequences of the given risk, as well as specific steps for preparedness. This project is situated in the preparedness phase of risk communication. During this time, communication is used to ‘address public’s awareness and knowledge gaps related to risk events, to elicit desired preparedness behaviors’ (Sheppard et al., 2012: 11).
The importance of perceived efficacy is central to communication actionable risk (Wood et al., 2011) where the focus is on the communication rather than the risk itself. As such, the messages play a key role in establishing efficacy among publics. In fact, being able to communicate actionable risk relies on the information observed and received by publics. In other words, publics respond well to seeing what other people are doing to prepare for the given risk and receiving specific recommendations that aid in preparedness (Wood et al., 2011).
Background on Prudential
One organization that provides retirement planning services is Prudential Financial – a large financial institution that was founded more than 140 years ago. Prudential has continued to grow and currently boasts more than US$1.71 trillion in assets and has a US$1.2 billion annual income (Forbes, 2015; Prudential, 2015). One reason for Prudential’s success is its Retirement Solutions Division, which brought in a reported US$5.7 billion of deals during 2015 and is expected to double its income in 2016 (Forbes, 2015). Prudential is also a self-proclaimed ‘leader on retirement issues’ (Prudential, 2015: 2) citing the organization’s involvement in policy discussions at the local, state and national levels. This stance lends further credence to its reputation as a hub for retirement planning.
Based on this context and related literature review, the following research question is asked: How does Prudential communicatively construct the concept of retirement as a risk through its organizational website/discourse?
Materials and method
In order to address the overarching research question, a qualitative content analysis of the Prudential organizational website from a communicative perspective was completed in 2016. A qualitative analysis of risk is important to discern the processes and content of risk communication in order to ‘better understand the message content that lay people and experts use to frame and discuss risks’ (Palenchar and Heath, 2002: 128). A qualitative content analysis provides one way to examine organizational risk discourse since it is a ‘flexible method for analyzing text data’ (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005: 1277; see also Cavanagh, 1997). This method allows for attention to be paid to the language and communication in texts as ways of establishing meaning (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005), which falls in line with the goal of understanding how retirement is constructed as a risk through organizational discourse.
Descriptions of texts
Organizational websites are a rich means for research. In terms of risk communication, organizational websites increase the perception of organizational transparency about the potential risk as well as a means for preparedness (Palenchar and Heath, 2002). In fact, Capriotti (2007a) claimed, ‘the Internet and the corporate websites are interactive tools that fully meet this need’ when referring to dialogue-based communication efforts (p. 326; see also Capriotti, 2007b; Stuart and Jones, 2004). As such, organizational websites are an important avenue to explore when examining issues of risk between a given organization and its publics.
The Prudential website (https://www.prudential.com/personal) contains multiple content sections related to personal wealth and investing. Since this research explores how Prudential constructed retirement through its organizational website, only the sections that explicitly discussed retirement and financial planning and housed Prudential’s retirement-related content were included in the data. Within these section were multiple links that encourage site visitors to ‘build a solid financial future’ (Prudential website, 2016, n.p.). The website capitalized on multimedia formats and interactive mediums – all of which come together to form narratives about the retirement experience. Three content sections that were emphasized included the commercials, challenges, and stories.
Commercials
Three Prudential-produced television commercials were retrieved from the website and were used in this analysis. These commercials all feature an external source of information – Dan Gilbert, a professor and behavioral expert and were featured in the Prudential discourse including Ribbon Experiment (1:17), Magnets Experiment (1:02), and Dominoes Experiment (0:46).
Challenges
Five challenges are presented on the Prudential website (https://www.prudential.com/personal/workplace-benefits#byc). These challenges are topical headings that organize supporting retirement content (e.g. videos, polls, infographics). They are titled: (1) I might live how long?, (2) I’ll do it later, (3) it won’t happen to me, (4) I just can’t resist, and (5) I want it now. The topics of these challenges range from questions of longevity to feelings of gratification. Each challenge is introduced by Dan Gilbert, the same academic featured in the television commercials, who speaks about the science behind each of the given topics for 39 seconds to just over 1 minute.
Embedded in the challenges are a variety of content including short animated films and video clips (ranging from 1:39 to 3:48), polls (n = 10), timelines (n = 1), infographics (n = 10), and maps (n = 1). In addition, there is an Is your Brain to Blame episode located in each challenge section. These clips feature an expert on the topic at hand and discuss brain physiology in order to explain the potential problems associated with retirement as well as reasons for being unprepared for the life stage. Each of the episodes runs from 3:00 to 3:49.
Stories
Stories of everyday retirees are featured prominently on the Prudential website. The stories fall into two categories, Day One stories (http://www.preparewithpru.com/) and Chapter Two stories (https://www.prudential.com/personal/annuities/envisioning-your-retirement). The Day One stories depict people who are experiencing their first day of retirement, whereas the Chapter Two stories feature people who are making the most of their retirement. There are five Day One stories on the website. These stories are told through 4-minute videos that include a mix of the retirees account as well as written information that contextualizes the telling. The Prudential website also houses 10 Chapter Two stories that include pictures of the retirees engaging in activities and work as well as text that tells their story. In addition, five of the Chapter Two stories include a video that further illustrates their retirement experience. These videos range in time from 2:57 to 3:21.
Coding process
Qualitative content analysis is a way to examine communication messages (e.g. text, visual, written materials) (Elo and Kyngas, 2008). In order to understand how the Prudential website and corresponding texts communicated retirement and risk, an iterative approach to coding the content was used. This approach ‘alternates between emic, or emergent readings of the data and an etic use of existing models, explanations, and theories’ (Tracy, 2013: 184). Moreover, it complements that directed form of content analysis as it highlights the reflexive process that connects the data, theory/concepts, and the researcher (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005).
In using the iterative approach to content analysis, the data were read and then coded, which is the act of ‘labeling and systemizing the data’ (Tracy, 2013: 186). In this case, the focus was on what material was present in the data when viewed through the lens of risk communication. As such, initial codes included academics, brain research, and science. In subsequent rounds, the codes were refined by critically examining the previously identified codes and the connections that appeared in the data. Here, the descriptive codes were developed by examining and interrogating the previously established relationships and corresponding interpretation of the texts. The process of codifying allowed for the emergent data to be situated in the context of risk as well as illuminate connections between codes and categories (e.g. academics, brain research, and science all fell under the larger heading of trust). Ultimately, this step showed the relationship between individual codes and larger categories and enabled a reflexive interpretation of the data (Saldana, 2009). In all, this iterative approach to data analysis allowed for the identification of results that were organically constructed within the confines of a conceptual framework – in this case, the traditional conceptualization of risk communication.
Results
The research question asked how Prudential communicatively constructs the concepts of retirement and risk through its organizational website/discourse? In exploring this question, two overarching themes emerged that coincided with the foundation of risk communication. First, Prudential (1) created a risk by constructing a grand narrative through challenges, engaging with trusted sources, and presenting rational evidence. In order to respond to this threat, Prudential then (2) presented a solution that would then mitigate the created risk by offering efficacious solutions through individual narratives that detail a process for achieving a ‘successful’ retirement, take a future-oriented temporal stance, and highlight everyday people and their retirement experiences. In all, these two overarching themes served as a discursive formula that was followed throughout the organizational materials.
Communicatively constructing a risk
In following the problem–solution formula, the Prudential organizational website first communicatively creates a sense of risk that surrounds the concept of retirement. This pairing seems counterintuitive since retirement is often thought of as a happy milestone – not one that could be harmful or pose a threat (e.g. health, natural disaster). Yet, Prudential creates a grand narrative that support the idea that people have not saved enough money, may outlive their retirement savings, may be overly optimistic about the future, and are underprepared for retirement. In doing so, risk is constructed by posing challenges that raise questions with uncertain answers that are designed to elicit the sense of a risk.
Since financial planning and retirement are complex processes, a focus on the ‘rational’ is emphasized on the organizational website. In presenting seemingly objective evidence, Prudential attempts to enhance the trustworthiness of its claims and sources. To accomplish this, Prudential features experts, including academics, researchers, and scientists in their online content. In addition, numerical and scientific evidence is presented as a way of giving credibility to the impending risk and aids in creating a sense of representativeness. These rational arguments include experiments, brain research, polls, and statistics all of which come together to create a grand narrative that retirement is a risk.
Presenting challenges to construct a risk
As previously mentioned, there are five challenges: (1) I might live how long?, (2) I’ll do it later, (3) it won’t happen to me, (4) I just can’t resist, and (5) I want it now. These challenges are focused on uncertainties that people must face in order to retire. Challenge 1 deals with the question of longevity. This is an important question since no one knows how long they will live and this proves to be a barrier in effectively planning for retirement. Challenge 2 is concerned with procrastination. Challenge 3 addresses the optimism bias where people expect things to work out for them. Challenge 4 is interested in decision-making. Finally, challenge 5 explores impulse control and gratification. All of these topics are contextualized within the frame of ‘successful’ retirement as well as the impact of these on preparing for an uncertain financial future.
Within these challenges are multiple content sections that come together to support the overarching narrative being constructed – that is a ‘successful’ retirement in unattainable unless you prepare for it by using Prudential’s financial services. For example, the longevity challenge contains animated clips, experiments, polls, and infographics that all address the question of how long the average person should expect to live. Overall, the challenge attempts to show how long people should expect to live and in doing so how much money they should save in order to comfortably retire. This is then coupled with information that shows how difficult it is for the average person to save/prepare for the uncertainties of retirement without the help of Prudential.
The longevity challenge begins with a poll that asks visitors to guess ‘what age experts suggest planning to?’ There are four options, 85, 95, 105, and 150. Once an option is selected, the correct answer is shown (which, in this case, is 105 years old) along with the percentage of people who selected each response (e.g. 32% guessed 85, 39% guessed 95, 20% guessed 105, and 9% guessed 150). The poll then encourages the visitor to ‘scroll down to understand why’.
The uncertainty of longevity and its connections to preparing for retirement is further supported by a series of facts that are visually presented through infographics. In one of these infographics, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is shown along with text that reads, ‘Babies born today are more likely to live to 100 than to have a peanut allergy’. Below this fact are the corresponding statistics (‘Odds of living to 100: 1 in 3; Odds of having a peanut allergy 1 in 50’.
The odds of living a longer life are emphasized throughout the Prudential website as a way to address the uncertainty that revolves around the question of longevity and how to live a longer life. With that said, all of the five challenges follow the same format as the first challenge. They rely on multiple content sections that use a variety of media and templates to create a grand narrative that situates retirement as a potential threat that needs to be addressed. The constructed risk is further supported by trusted sources or experts.
Trusted sources
In order for risk communication messages to be effective, the information source needs to be deemed trustworthy in the eye of the intended public (Renn and Levine, 1991). The source of the communication surrounding risk events is an important part of the process. The Prudential challenges are often presented and explained by academics and scientists. These trusted sources are introduced by their credentials in order to lend expertise to the points they are making and further supporting the grand narrative that Prudential is perpetuating. The trusted sources are often featured in the introduction of the challenge and are shown conducting experiments and explaining human behavior.
The most visible source of information is Dan Gilbert, a professor and behavioral expert. He is the face of retirement for Prudential and, as such, Gilbert introduces each of the five challenges. His introductions are brief video clips of him sitting in a chair behind a desk discussing longevity, procrastination, or gratification – ultimately giving credence to the overarching problem–solution narrative that Prudential created.
Gilbert’s introductions are all approximately 1-minute long and contextualize the idea of saving for retirement in a larger frame. For example, when discussing instant gratification, Gilbert explains that the human brain was not originally developed to think about tomorrow since the original focus was surviving today. He then encourages the site visitors to recognize that reality has changed, which means we have to think about ways to adapt our thinking about the future.
Other academics and scientists are also featured on the Prudential website including Dr Piers Steel, a professor who studies procrastination; Dr Tali Sharot, a neuroscientist; Hal Hershfield, a professor of social psychology; and Adam Alter, a social psychologist. These experts are shown in the Is Your Brain to Blame section of each challenge, which is a segment used to explain human behavior that could inhibit planning for retirement.
These trusted sources are an unlikely choice for experts when the topic at hand is financial planning. It seems like an economist or financial advisor would have been a more fitting choice. Regardless, the academic or scientific credentials add credibility to the risks that Prudential creates through its website, especially when coupled with rational evidence that further supports the overarching narrative that people need to financially prepare for retirement.
Rational evidence
The Prudential trusted sources are depicted alongside rational evidence. The forms of rational evidence used by Prudential on its website include experiments, brain research, polls, and statistics. Again, these pieces of data contribute to the creation and perpetuation of the grand narrative that retirement is a risk that one must prepare for while communicating a sense of knowledge, expertise, and transparency, all of which are important factors in establishing effective risk communication (Peters et al., 1997).
Experiments
The most visible form of evidence is the experiments conducted by Dan Gilbert, which follows a typical television commercial format. There are three commercials featured on the website and are titled, Ribbon Experiment, Magnets Experiment, and Dominoes Experiment. Each experiment corresponds to one of the topics featured in the overarching challenges. However, there are weaknesses to the argument presented in each commercial as the analogies and statistics are somewhat flawed as they are one-sided.
For example, the Ribbon Experiment examines people’s perception of longevity. Here, Gilbert asks participants, ‘How much money will you need when you retire?’ They are then given a ribbon that shows how long that money will last. When comparing the length of the ribbon to the age chart, most participants ended up short of the age in which they wanted to live. In fact, one participant’s ribbon only made it to age 70. Thus, the experiment served as a way to visualize the possible difference between expected longevity and the amount of money needed to sustain a lifestyle through that age.
The other commercials follow the same format and each sets up an experiment that serves to visualize the given topic. The Magnets Experiment explores the optimism effect using past and future boards where participants share ‘something that was significant that happened in the last 5 years’. The participants were instructed to write good events on yellow magnets and bad events on blue. The results served as a visualization of the way optimism effect works. The past board was composed of an even mix of good and bad events, while the future board was composed of almost all good things. The findings show that people tend to think optimistically about the future, but need to plan for reality.
Finally, the Dominoes Experiment dealt with the topic of gratification and attempted to show how a little bit of something can go a long way. In this experiment, the participants are asked to write down the amount of money they have right now on small blocks. These blocks are then set in front of increasingly larger blocks like a line of dominoes. The small block is pushed, which falls and knocks over the next block. This process starts a chain reaction until the final, towering block labeled ‘Retirement’ falls. Again, the experiment serves as a way to visualize how saving small amounts of money now can build to a successful retirement.
Brain research
Besides the experiment-based commercials, rational evidence is also featured on the Prudential website through the Is Your Brain to Blame segments. Each challenge contains one brief episode that explores how the brain can impact preparation for retirement. Again, the segments all follow the same format where a general overview is provided and draws on past brain research to support the expert’s claim. The segments always include a photograph of the brain that shows which part is activated under certain circumstances, like when thinking about negative and positive life events. Building on this progression of evidence, a mini-experiment is conducted and the results are placed in a general context with corresponding facts about the level of unpreparedness the average American faces regarding retirement.
For example, Adam Alter, a social psychologist, asks people on the street whether they will give him a couple of dollars toward his retirement in order to show that people were unwilling to donate to a stranger’s retirement fund. In this case, the segment draws on research about procrastination and brain functions to explain the overarching challenge. In addition, this example shows that the same area of the brain is activated when thinking about a stranger and the future self, thus drawing a comparison between the future self, a stranger, and the reluctance to save for retirement.
Like the commercials, all of the Is Your Brain to Blame segments feature mini-experiments. In this case, Alter pairs up with a hypnotherapist, Ed Regensburg, who allows participants to visualize their future self and then interviews the participants about what they saw and how they felt about the future self. The researchers reported that over three-fourth of the participants said they would give more money to their retirement contributions and more than half said that they would double their contribution after ‘meeting’ the future self. The segment concludes with a series of facts about the level of unpreparedness faced by the average American, claiming that ‘2/3 of Americans believe that they are behind in planning for retirement’ (Prudential, 2015: n.p.).
Statistics
Statistics play a significant role in establishing the potential risk of retirement. They are used throughout each challenge in multiple forms, including the commercials, Is Your Brain to Blame segments, animated videos, infographics, and as answers in the polls. The statistics tend to take two forms, either as results to a given experiment or poll response or as a general fact about the larger, American population.
Specific statistics are used to debrief results from experiments and poll responses. For example, in the final challenge concerning instant gratification, a poll is given asking site visitors whether they would ‘rather have $100 today or $110 two days from now’. After a choice is selected (today or 2 days from now), the following text appears ‘85 percent said they’d wait, but what about everyone else? It’s surprising how so many people wouldn’t wait two days to get a 10 percent return’.
On the contrary, general statistics are used to show how widespread the lack of preparedness regarding retirement is in the United States. These statistics are found in the infographics featured under each challenge. For example, one infographic depicted three generic bodies in blue and one in white with the corresponding text, ‘3 out of 4 people choose to take their Social Security as soon as they turn 62, and get a smaller monthly check because of it’. Another infographic showed a set of blue eyes in bubble letters that read, ‘Babies born today are more likely to live to 100 than to have blue eyes. Odds of living to 100: 1 in 3. Odds of having blue eyes: 1 in 6’. The most common statistic cited throughout the materials is that ‘2/3 of Americans believe that they are behind in planning for retirement’, which comes up after each of the Is Your Brain to Blame segments.
Polls
Along with statistics, interactive polls are dispersed under each challenge to test people’s knowledge about retirement and related topics. The polls compare the visitor’s response with aggregated previous responses. For example, in the procrastination challenge, the poll question is, ‘You have a week to prepare a speech for your best friend’s wedding. When do you start?’ The options provided are (1) right away, (2) night before, and (3) wing it. The site visitor can then ‘click on the options to make your guess’. The response options are then transformed to show how your response correlates with past responses. In this case, 48 percent of people said they would start preparing right away, whereas 35 and 17 percent said they would prepare the night before or wing it, respectively. Text then appears at the bottom of the poll that reads, ‘48 percent say they wouldn’t procrastinate. When it comes to delivering a speech, you don’t put things off. But how are you with your finances? Scroll down to find out how procrastination can affect your financial future’. This text not only contextualizes the question and responses to retirement but also encourages the site visitor to continue to explore the risk associated with being underprepared for retirement.
When taken together, the pieces of rational evidence serve to demonstrate the representativeness of the constructed risk. In this case, Prudential shows how common it is to be un(der)prepared for retirement, and as such, supports its message that the public should be looking for ways to counter the potential threat retirement poses.
Communicatively presenting a solution
While Prudential creates a risk through its organizational discourse, it also provides efficacious solutions to the threat, which is an important aspect of encouraging preparedness among key publics (Song et al., 2013; Witte, 1994). It creates a sense of efficacy by detailing easy steps can be taken in order to prepare for retirement. Prudential offers a specific Retirement Solutions section that includes three components: Solutions by Age, Solutions by Life Events, and Stories. This solution is highlighted in three primary ways, all of which explicitly rely on individual narratives that can serve to counter the grand narrative communicated when creating the risk. First, in presenting a solution to the previously constructed risk, Prudential shows that preparing for retirement is a process that corresponds to life stages. Second, a future orientation is needed in order to prepare for retirement. Finally, people who have retired are featured in the solution in order to provide different models of success. These approaches emphasize the role of efficacy available for retirement planning while incorporating the perception of multiple voices into the messages (e.g. current retirees, financial experts), or what is termed, faux-multivocality.
Presenting retirement as a process
The idea that preparing for retirement is a process is exemplified in the Retirement Solutions section. Here, retirement is positioned as a journey where people can follow in the footsteps of individuals who have ‘successfully’ retired. In order to aid in this process, Prudential provides steps that are outlined in the Solutions by Age and Solutions by Life Event components.
In the Solutions by Age component, four steps are presented: ‘begin, build, envision, enjoy’. Each of these steps has a brief description underneath the heading and shows an animated picture of life events that tend to accompany the age that Prudential is targeting. For example, under the begin heading is an animation of four non-descript people. Two of the people are seen in graduation regalia, one is dressed in hospital scrubs and the other is dressed in a suit and holding a briefcase. The text underneath the image reads, ‘Learn how saving as early as possible – even in your 20’s and 30’s – will give you more opportunity later!’ When the site visitor clicks on the heading, they are taken to a page with retirement resources, such as financial calculators and related articles. The visitor also has the option to create and monitor an account through Prudential.
The Solutions by Life Event parallels the Solutions by Age component. This makes sense given that life events tend to follow the life-course as well. Here, there are 10 life events featured, including job change, debt and credit, home ownership, saving for education, marriage, parenthood, divorce, estate planning, loss of a partner, and caregiving. The headings also include brief, descriptive text and animated pictures. For example, under the parenthood life event, the text asks, ‘I am having a baby! How can I manage expenses and still save for retirement?’ Accompanying this question is a picture of a man with his arm around a woman holding a baby. When the visitor clicks on the parenthood life event, they are taken to a page with three options. Again, retirement resources are provided, as well as a featured article that discusses how people with children can save money, and finally, there is an offer for help from Prudential.
These lists are inclusive in nature to capture as many site visitors as possible. Regardless of where the site visitor is within the life-course or whether they have had a setback, there are ways to continue to prepare for retirement, which is evidenced by the tools and advice offered by Prudential that are designed to help people who need to ‘catch up’. Moreover, the process is presented as a series of steps that are easy to follow in tandem with the financial advisor and tools provided by Prudential.
Presenting retirement as future-oriented
All of the solutions presented by solution are future-oriented. The future orientation is highlighted through wording choices. For example, the individual retirement stories are featured in a section under the heading ‘preparing you for your day one and beyond’ and ‘prepare for tomorrow starting today’. The future orientation is also emphasized through the Next Chapter stories. These narratives focus on people who have retired and explore what retirement means to them.
The heading under the Chapter Two stories reads, ‘after your day one of retirement there is chapter two’. This section features 10 stories of people who have used retirement as a time for re-envisioning their lives as a second act. One of the people who share their story is Carol Lewis, a retired postal worker. She shares the ways in which retirement has allowed her to become a first time film director. Another person who takes part in the Chapter Two stories is Maj Kalfus, a retired retail executive, who is now using her time to pursue her interest in art.
The videos depict retirees as very active people, which may stand in contrast to traditionally held conceptualizations of retirement. For example, Carol is shown in an editing booth and Maj is depicted drawing (sometimes on her iPad) in her office and taking meetings with other cartoonists in the city. The idea that it is never too late to reinvent yourself or pursue your dreams permeates throughout the videos. A quotation from Mike Tiscia, a retired bank examiner turned artist, captures this sentiment. He said, ‘it took me 32 years to get back to what I always wanted to do’. All of the Chapter Two stories end with the phrase ‘day one of retirement can be the start of a new chapter’. In doing so, these individual narratives build off of the Day One stories, which also highlight people and their experiences.
Presenting people who have successfully retired
The Day One stories emphasize people. There are nine stories featured on the Prudential website and these stories show people on their first day of retirement. The narratives describe their past in order to contextualize the experience and then focus on their hopes for retirement now that it is beginning. These stories serve as examples of what is possible if people plan for retirement.
The Day One stories depict a variety of people and correspond to Heath et al.’s (2009) argument for requisite variety in effective risk communication. The variety of voices presented by Prudential extends past race and gender as it includes diversity in terms of activities, work, past careers, and family composition. One of the stories features the Browns, a Caucasian couple who retired together. The clip shows them and their blended family in a very active manner. The Browns ski, dance, and reminisce on their very full lives (e.g. three children, careers, vacations). Another Day One story included in the section features Mujahid Abdul-Rashid. In his video, Abdul-Rashid is shown fishing, cooking, and playing with grandkids. Toward the end of his first day of retirement, he compares retirement to the ‘first sunrise of the next phase of your life’. The people and their experiences on the first day of retirement are always highlighted in the videos. Ultimately, the Day One stories serve as models for how to achieve a successful retirement.
Prudential strategically presents the individual Day One and Chapter Two stories to tell the experiences of multiple people who have successfully navigated retirement. However, the storyteller is not the individuals portrayed in the narratives, but rather the organization. Here, Prudential creates the perception of multivocality, or faux-multivocality, by creating an illusion of multiple voices.
Discussion
Prudential communicatively constructed the concept of retirement as a risk through its organizational website by creating a grand narrative that positions retirement as a threat. Specifically, it highlighted challenges that impede retirement while relying on trusted sources, such as academics and scientists, and presented rational evidence through experiments, brain research, polls, and statistics – thus attempting to develop trust with its publics while demonstrating the representativeness of this risk. In addition, Prudential offered solutions to prepare for the created risk through the use of individual, smaller narratives. It portrayed retirement planning as a simple process (efficacy) that needed to be future-oriented and highlighted organizational-vetted stories of people who serve as models of success (faux-multivocality). In doing so, the research extended risk to include financial communication and identified ways organizations can engage in risk communication when they are not the cause of the created threat.
Contribution
In the past, risk communication scholarship has tended to focus on health, safety, and environmental threats (Palenchar and Heath, 2007). However, the concept of risk communication has not previously been applied to potential financial threats, such as retirement. This oversight is surprising given that financial sector is inherently filled with risk and the concept of retirement has become more prominent due to the graying workforce (Anderson, 2015; Sightings, 2014). With that said, the findings do not necessarily fit within traditional conceptualizations of risk communication, but extend it to include financial risk communication.
Moreover, organizations’ role in the traditional view of risk communication was one that viewed organization as a risk-generating mechanism. When viewed from this perspective, organizations would engage in risk communication in order to quell concerns about how the operation of the organization can pose a potential risk to the public. However, Prudential is not the cause of the risk, but a possible solution to mitigate the impact of the threat associated with not being prepared for retirement. In this case, the organization capitalizes on this potential threat as it creates and perpetuates a grand narrative that retirement is a risk that must be prepared for. After emphasizing the risk, it relies on individual stories told by people who successfully used Prudential’s financial services to counter the perceived risk. Ultimately, these narratives followed a problem–solution structure intended to persuade Prudential’s publics to invest with the organization.
These narratives were further supported through the use of credible sources (trust), curated individual stories (faux-multivocality), and perceived efficacy. Trust was emphasized by Prudential through its use of credible sources and rational evidence. This approach makes sense as it capitalizes on the representativeness heuristic (Kahneman and Tversky, 1973). In this way, Prudential presented a potential risk by drawing on the implicit credibility of professors, scientists, and content experts. This information can then be coupled with public’s past experience and knowledge about retirement to gauge the likelihood that they too will not be ready for retirement and as a result, must begin preparations. The way trusted sources and rational evidence were used to demonstrate the concept of representativeness is powerful as it provided credence to the claim that this risk is likely and will threaten a ‘successful’ retirement experience if action is not taken.
Multivocality was evident in the solutions presented by the everyday people featured in the First Day and Second Chapter stories as well as the participants in the experiments. However, when viewed from a critical perspective, the organization’s discourse does not actually include multiple voices. Rather, the stories and experiences are curated content that was developed and vetted by Prudential. This content supported Prudential’s overarching problem–solution narrative while also prioritizing the organization’s goals. Ultimately, the faux-multivocality created a false sense of multiple retirement experiences, but in reality is just a singular organizational voice.
Efficacy also emerged in the construction of solutions as Prudential urged potential clients to follow the future-oriented processes and review the provided financial tools and resources, and it encouraged the public to buy financial services that could aid in retirement preparation. However, the efficacy created by Prudential is somewhat deceptive, as the steps outlined to achieve a successful retirement seem simple and straightforward (e.g. save more money during each pay period), but the message ultimately presented these steps as ‘challenges’ that cannot be achieved without the help of Prudential and its in-house ‘experts’ (e.g. financial advisors). Again, this step promoted a sense of efficacy, but ultimately benefits the organizational goals more so than the individual preparing for the risks that surround retirement. Individuals cannot adequately prepare for retirement on their own, but need Prudential’s help in order to overcome the financial challenges associated with retiring.
Limitations and future research
This research serves as a first step to understanding financial risk communication and retirement. While it provides insights into how Prudential communicatively constructed retirement as a risk and then presented solutions to the threat, it does have some limitations that underscore additional research needs.
First, this project focused on the risk discourse created by one financial organization. As such, it is unclear whether the way Prudential communicatively situates retirement is typical or atypical. Future research should look at the way other financial companies construct the concept of retirement to identify the ways the organizational discourse converges and diverges from one another. A genre study could produce useful insights into the ways that risk and corresponding solutions are created and communicated for organizational profits.
Such research may find that financial organization use fear appeals to create a sense of risk around the concept of retirement, and in turn, sell their products and services. The use of fear to motivate publics would be an interesting route to explore as it has been shown to be an effective motivator for behavioral changes. However, it would be important to take a critical view when examining financial-based fear appeals as the arguments made by an organization may be flawed or one-sided (see the Prudential commercials which uses spurious analogies and partial statistics). One useful framework to apply to this type of research would be Witte’s (1994) Extended Parallel Processing Model (EPPM) as it can be adapted to the financial industry to see how fear-based retirement planning campaigns can persuade publics to adopt new behaviors (e.g. starting a 401K or investing in an individual retirement account (IRA)).
Second, this project did not examine how Prudential’s publics viewed the risk discourse. Future research should explore how individuals perceive the risk discourse created by financial organizations. Moreover, incorporating the publics’ voice into retirement planning may provide an avenue for two-way communication to take place as it provides a space for true multivocality and collaboration to emerge.
On a larger level, it would be interesting to examine the national framing of retirement as a crisis at the national level. Recently, the implications for rising retirement rates in terms of social security, healthcare, and the workforce have been highlighted through popular media outlets. This discourse often uses disaster terms like ‘silver tsunami’ and ‘demographic time bomb’ to heighten the urgency surrounding the potential crisis (CBS News, 2010; Loch et al., 2010). This proposed future direction for research builds on this study about risk communication and retirement since, as Heath (2006) argued, ‘crisis is risk manifested’ (p. 3).
Demographically speaking, the population will continue to age and more people will exit the workforce. Thus, understanding how people prepare for this career stage as well as how the concept of retirement is constructed in various contexts will become increasingly important. This line of inquiry will improve retirement planning processes and enable more people to live the retirement they choose if scholars and practitioners alike begin to better communicate and understand financial risk information about retirement.
Footnotes
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.