• by Sarah Mahoney , Staff Writer @mahoney_sarah, April 3, 2009

Ask anyone marketing anything to mid-lifers these days, and they'll tell you how tough times are in Boomerville. And The Hourglass Solution: A Boomer's Guide to the Rest of Your Life (DaCapo/Lifelong Books) by the Ph.D. duo of Jeff Johnson (EVP of Cramer-Krasselt's New York office) and Paula Forman (an ad exec turned sociology prof) deserves plenty of credit for nailing the gloom that surrounds so many of the 75 million Baby Boomers.

Boomers "are addicted to the notion of a life of their own choosing," they write, and the reality that it is a generation that, in many real ways, has run out of choices, terrifies most of them. The book is liberally sprinkled with stats to prove it, from their high divorce rates to depression to the increasingly alarming increase in suicide.

Whether they like it or not - and all that free-spirit mythology notwithstanding -- Boomers are stuck, hamstrung by sick parents, their own diminishing health, vanishing career options, and for too many, the dependence of their endlessly adolescent children. Most of all, they fear "the crushing finality" of the R-word.

They feel squeezed in the middle, like an hourglass, and the book offers a blueprint for moving toward what the authors call "Greater Adulthood," an after-50 era that will expand with nearly as many choices as they had in their salad days. Read as a guide to Baby Boomer reinvention, this book deserves a place next to classics like Susan Crandell's Thinking About Tomorrow: Reinventing Yourself at Midlife and Sara Davidson's Leap! What Will We Do with the Rest of Our Lives?

But as a guide for mass marketers, the book is full of blind spots - most notably the irritating Boomer trait of focusing on the exceptional (competitive lacrosse, for example) instead of the typical (like two-thirds of Boomers struggle to zip up their Dockers.) Take "Sam," one of the dozens of pseudonymous Boomers quoted throughout: A former finance guru who took early retirement at 54, who - after a brief fling as executive director of the Atlanta Ballet - finds his true calling in financing micro-enterprises in developing countries. On one hand, the authors reverentially applaud his derring-do. On the other, they casually mention that while Boomers do control 70% of the country's wealth, more than 60% have saved less than $100,000 for retirement, that 28% have less than $10,000 in savings. That won't cover many flights to Africa, will it?

Boomer boosterism aside, this book would have benefited by focusing less on either the exceptional or the pathetic, and instead on the masses: The tens of millions muddling their way out of midlife, and on to the next phase.

***

The Marketing Accountability Imperative: Driving Superior Returns on Marketing Investments by Michael Dunn and Chris Halsall (Jossey-Bass). For all the pressure on marketing execs to demonstrate how spending builds brands, you'd think executives would at least have a handle on terminology by now. But as Dunn (CEO of Prophet) points out, most can't even agree what ROI means, let alone separate it from other issues of accountability.

"Rarely do good things come out of such a combination of desperation and confusion," he notes, and the book's jumping-off point is helping executives "recalibrate basic beliefs about marketing spending," including the frank admission that while spending can build a brand's long-term value, it isn't always the right answer.

At 400-plus dense pages, the book is a long, slow read, and suffers from more than its share of concentric-circle diagrams and presentation jargon (Anyone else for breaking down some silos?) But it thoughtfully delves into all manner of content and new technology, offering a well-reasoned test-and-learn approach.

***

When Growth Stalls: How it happens, why you're stuck, and what to do about it by Steve McKee (Jossey-Bass) Finding new ways to succeed in mature industries is a challenge many marketers were wrestling with even before the recession, and now that the economy has gotten worse, the word "stall" will ring true with too many readers.

The book draws on extensive research -- McKee teamed with Decision Analyst to look at growth issues in 700 companies over a six-year span - to pinpoint growth ailments. And most execs will have plenty of moments when they say, "Yes! That's exactly what our problem is."

McKee clearly identifies a viscous cycle hampering many established companies, fueled by a lack of corporate consensus, loss of focus, loss of nerve, and inconsistencies, especially in marketing. McKee's "No guts, no glory" bravado makes for a good read; it's also a little disingenuous.

From the vantage point of McKee, founder of a small ad agency in Albuquerque and a columnist for Businessweek.com, helping a company redefine its targets almost sounds easy. For the thousands trapped inside these stalled behemoths, we suspect it's a little more complex. Still, McKee's book will help marketers who are feeling stuck get their eye back on the ball.

Editor's note: To have a book considered for review, contact Sarah Mahoney.