• Brandweek, Wednesday, February 6, 2008 11:45 AM

Marketers misunderstand--and inefficiently target--this country's 78 million baby boomers, according to a new survey of 1,320 baby boomers from Edelman. The results find that marketers overgeneralize, misrepresent and sometimes ignore the generation, lumping them together and, in the process, alienating them.

Consumers born between 1946 and 1964 comprise nearly 24% of the population, have a buying power of $3 trillion, and include many of the country's current business and political leaders. But only 71% of those surveyed defined themselves as boomers, which means 22 million Americans--generally those over 60 years old and under 46--don't even consider themselves as part of the demographic, says Laurence Evans, president of StrategyOne, the agency's in-house market research subsidiary.

Advertisers may think they're appealing to a wide audience by using the term baby boomers, but in fact they are distancing those who resent the generalization. "Baby boomers have always been considered the 'me-generation,'" says Marilynn Mobley, senior vice president-strategic counsel at Edelman. "We're still just as self-centered, and we want things very customized."

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