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Internet Travel Monitor - Marketing & Research
December 19, 2007
Boomers Force Marketers to Disregard Age
ATLANTA, GA – The aging baby boom generation is rewriting the rules of marketing.
It's time for businesses to throw out the decades-long belief that products should be aimed at two groups —- those age 18-49 or those 50 and over —- experts say.
"You have to take how old the person is out of the equation," said Matt Thornhill, founder of the Boomer Project, a Virginia marketing and research company that advises companies how to reach baby boomers. "It is not a chronological stage, but a life stage."
He said advertisers want to aim for people with kids at home, empty nesters and grandparents. But today's adults don't fit the stereotypes.
"There are 45-year-olds who are grandparents and 60-year-olds who have 10-year-old children," Thornhill said.
To Hugh Delehanty, editor in chief of AARP publications, "boomers are not interested in anything different than previous generations —- health, money, family and consumerism —- but the look and feel has to be different."
"Aging for them is not a crisis but a quest," Delehanty said in a recent speech to the Cleveland chapter of the American Advertising Federation.
And there is a good reason for advertisers to take notice: The 77 million baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964 are America's largest and wealthiest group.
More than two-thirds of the 43.7 million boomer households have discretionary income after expenses and the average is $29,754, according to a recent study by the Conference Board.
Delehanty said companies must realize that the bulk of spending is by older people.
And don't call them "seniors."
"They want to be young-thinking forever, not young forever," he said. "They are really open and welcoming to new ideas and embrace change. They were raised on television and are the most media-savvy generation. They want authenticity, short stories, and stories that focus on empowerment and social action. You have to get the emotion right. With the previous generation, it was rational; with this generation, make it personal."
David Jankowski, director of account management at Wyse, a Cleveland marketing and communications company, said while his clients realize the "power of the pocketbook" of boomers, reaching them can be challenging because of the different media they may embrace, including traditional newspapers and the Internet.
Advertisers have focused on boomers over the past few years, he said. And instead of aiming at a wide target, such as college-educated 18- to 49-year-olds, they are choosing small segments.
"It is using different mediums to find those people who have shared interests or lifestyles," he said.
"It's more psychographic —- meaning attitudes, values, emotions and interests."
Thornhill, 47, who founded his company in 2003, said businesses understand they should target boomers, but many still don't know how to do it.
"People still think everyone over 50 is old," he said. "So many of the front-line marketing executives are in their 30s or younger."
Copyright 2007 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. All rights
reserved. From http://www.ajc.com. By Karen Farkas, Cleveland Plain Dealer.
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