When we started the Boomer Project back in 2003, we decided to focus on what we called "the second question." The first question was, of course, "Why market to today's older Boomers?"
Recent
contributors to this column have addressed the "why" quite effectively.
Our point-of-view from the beginning was that marketers who woke up to the economic power of the Boomer generation,
even beyond age 50, would then ask the next question: "How do we engage Boomers now?" We wanted to be there to answer it.
Fortunately, there were enough healthcare and financial services
clients to springboard our marketing consulting and research business forward from those early days, but precious few marketers beyond those categories. Until recently.
It seems that pain is
a great motivator. The economic pain created by the recession has triggered more marketers across more categories into thinking about how to engage the Boomer consumer today. They have moved beyond
the "why" and want help on the "how." Good for us, and good for them.
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Let me share with you some of the key ideas we help marketers understand about communicating effectively with today's
older Boomer.
1. Boomers are only in the third quarter of life, not at the two-minute warning. They have lots and lots of years to go as active, vibrant, relevant
consumers for virtually everything anybody sells in America.
2. They represent one of three adults alive today, so they're not a niche. In fact, being a "Boomer" is
meaningless in their lives -- it's just a demographer's or marketing label, not an affinity group. You better understand their diverse life stages and lifestyles, and do not lump them into one
homogeneous group.
3. They worry about many more things than just their age or health. Almost all Boomer-focused marketing today is to help older Boomers with age- or
health-related maladies, real or imagined: bladder control, cholesterol, osteoporosis, hearing loss, erectile dysfunction, constipation, prostate issues, arthritis and countless others. Enough
already. Boomers want to know about cars, travel, electronics, packaged goods, electronics, home improvement and other products you have to sell that they want to buy.
4. Boomers do
still consume traditional media, but they go online to research what they buy off-line. The latest data from BIGresearch's Consumer Intentions & ActionsTM survey, from August, reports that
94% of Boomers regularly or occasionally research products online before buying them in a store. Similarly, 96% of Generation X consumers, those ages 28-44, report doing the same. The top five product
categories researched by Boomers are, in order: electronics, home improvement, appliances, apparel and medicines/vitamins/supplements.
5. Your marketing doesn't have to be
exclusively targeted to Boomers; it just should include them. Most companies and organizations don't have the marketing budget to develop separate marketing efforts to older Boomers. So they
focus on younger consumers and ignore, irritate or inflame older Boomers by excluding them altogether. The goal should be to instead find ways to include them in your overall marketing approach.
It is this last point where the rubber meets the road. The most cost-effective way to engage Boomers is by developing marketing strategies, advertising creative materials and media strategies
that reach and connect with Boomers. Not exclusively, but inclusively.
Our message to marketers is to take your mass marketing and make it universal marketing. Find the
universal truth in your brand, message or positioning that cuts across age or life stage. Use the principles of universal design in your creative, packaging, Web site and on-site materials. Develop
messaging with universal appeal, not limited appeal.
How, you ask?
That, my friends, is the third question.