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Boomers: Toward a Higher Marketing Consciousness
by Brent Green
The $750 Billion Question:
Do boomers truly offer marketers a fertile business opportunity?
To this question there is one reverberating answer: “Duh!”
Nevertheless, this question is being bandied daily in business media.
Marketing and media have a youth bias … and we can partially thank boomers for industry indolence. When they were younger, boomers became Madison Avenue darlings by stimulating and popularizing youth marketing.
And it remains true today: marketers are obsessive-compulsive about the 18-to-49 demo and its junior counterpart, 18-to-34. Boomers have become a neglected target audience, except by companies selling age-specific products and services. (Please, no Viagra jokes.)
People 50+ haul in over half the discretionary income in the U.S. but receive less than 10% of ad messages.
Now go figure: the nation’s youth market is shrinking; the mature market is burgeoning.
David B. Wolfe, distinguished lead author of Ageless Marketing, compiled data two years ago to reveal that people 40+ outnumbered 18-to-39-year-olds by 123 million to 84 million. By 2010, the imbalance will swell 138 million to 87 million.
In 2001, Advertising Age magazine concluded that of $8 billion spent in TV’s upfront and scatter market, 55% targeted the 18-to-49 group. The remainder went to children (under 18) and adults 25-to-54.
A neurotic youth-demo fixation appears to be driven by the old brand-habit theory instead of quantifiable evidence. (This theory holds that brand loyalty hardens with age, and you can’t teach old dogs new tricks.)
A recent study by AARP, the advocacy group for 50+ adults, discovered that the majority of people over 50 aren’t overly brand loyal. Brand devotion varies more by category than age.
Of demos and psychos
To wrestle fully with the niggling question about boomer economic value, we need a spoonful of demography and a pinch of sociology.
The baby boom generation is composed of Americans born between 1946 and 1964. Post-world War II parents procreated 76 million times during this 18-year span (call it pent-up demand), and immigration has expanded the cohort by six to eight million since the end of the boom.
Those born between 1946 and 1955 are called leading-edge boomers; those born during the second half are referred to as late boomers.
Most pundits agree that two sociologically distinct generations have been wrapped neatly in this nineteen-year package. The leading-edge boomers are different from their younger brothers and sisters in some fundamental ways.
Members of the older group shared teenage encounters with the galvanizing experiences of the Vietnam War era and the “cultural revolution,” including modern feminism, civil rights, and environmentalism. They came of age when pugnacious social and cultural forces crashed in on the Eisenhower era and President John Kennedy’s Camelot. Leading-edge boomers vividly remember the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK, as well as the debut of Four Lads from Liverpool on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Leading-edge boomers are most often associated with the protest movements of the sixties, as well as over-publicized experimentation with “drugs, sex and rock n’ roll.” Late boomers entered college after the Vietnam War ended in January 1973, and most experienced a more peaceful, less culturally chaotic time to start careers and begin families.
Leading-edge boomers are receiving a lot of attention right now because they are nearest to retirement, with bountiful implications for the housing, health, and hospitality industries, to name a few.
Marching across the threshold
Every eight seconds, another boomer turns 50. That’s ten- to twelve-thousand per day and four million per year. America is getting older every month, and we can count on one-third of the U.S. population being over 50 by 2010.
What’s so fascinating about this? Well, in the entire history of the U.S. — and all of Western civilization, for that matter — there’s never been such a dramatic march to maturity.
A century ago, most people didn’t reach retirement age … they died.
The average life expectancy at birth for someone born in 1900 was 47. By 2000, average life expectancy at birth increased to 76.5 years. Perhaps the single greatest achievement of 20th century science was the addition of 2 1/2 years to average life expectancy for every passing decade.
Now AARP: the Magazine, the world’s largest circulation magazine, heralds “60 as the new 30.” Former youth icons cross the maturity threshold monthly, from Billy Crystal to Lauren Hutton. It’s astounding to consider that members of The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac, the defining rock supergroups of the seventies, are targets today for senior discount programs.
Two-thirds of all those who have lived past 65 are alive today … presenting a sobering view of the future. Global pharmaceutical giants have 750 new drugs under development to target the aging process and expand our mortal timeline even further. A culture once dominated by youth values is transforming to the psychological agendas more characteristic of older adults.
This population and cultural shift is so large and all-encompassing that it as difficult to notice the change in direction, as if trying to perceive the Queen Mary 2 turning in the middle of the Atlantic while you’re on deck blithely dancing the night away.
As historian and social observer Theodore Roszak observed, “The future belongs to maturity.”
Beyond trends; toward transformations
Boomers have proven that they don’t just occupy life stages, they transform them. Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D., Author of several books on the subject, including Age Power: How the 21st Century will be ruled by the New Old, points out that boomer trends become social phenomena and cultural obsessions. Allow me to elaborate.
When a plethora of boomer children overwhelmed mealtime during the fifties, a company called Gerber introduced portioned and prepared foods for babies and toddlers – such memorable delicacies as pulverized spinach in a jar.
When the nascent medium of television enraptured elementary school children with the Mickey Mouse Club, mass marketers found the perfect medium to propel galactic fads such as Hula Hoops and Silly Putty.
When boomer teenagers developed a taste for carryout food and its conveniences, McDonald’s grew from one humble California store to a national French-frying juggernaut.
When GM became a metaphor for Big Brother during the antiauthoritarian sixties, Germany and Japan, America’s World War II arch-enemies, captured the U.S. automotive market with VW Beetles and Toyotas.
When boomers decided to lose extra pounds from consuming so much fast food, jogging became a craze, and Nike became a Fortune 500 company.
One question boomer Dychtwald poses is worth further contemplation. Considering the paradigm-busting history of the boomer generation, why would anyone apply yesterday’s thinking about aging and retirement to tomorrow’s possibilities?
It is ludicrous to expect members of such an outspoken, demonstrable generation to accept their parents’ standards for retirement life. Or to foresee them sauntering passively into a golfing sunset, estranged and disenfranchised.
Recall the battle cry many boomers enjoined during Vietnam: “Hell no, we won’t go!”
Today’s economic and social realities portend a different kind of retirement era, one driven by activism more than resignation. We’re on the threshold of an entirely new life stage, a third age.
Showing the money; taking the money
Then consider the economic clout held by boomers and older generations.
Today, 50+ American adults represent 38% of the population, and that group will explode to 47% by 2020. According to data collected by the U.S. Census and Federal Reserve, the 78 million Americans who were 50 or older as of 2001 controlled $28 trillion, or 67% of the country’s wealth. In 2000, households with someone in the 55-to-64 age group had a median net worth of $112,048 — about fifteen times the $7,240 reported for under-35 adults.
Concerning the dim-witted question leading this article, adults 50+ control more than $750 billion of all household discretionary income; mature consumers outspend younger adults by a factor of two to one.
A huge generation guarantees attractive and sizeable market segments for all comers, whether business-to-consumer or business-to-business. A generation accustomed to experimentation and a surfeit of brand choices since infancy obliterates the myth that brand loyalty hardens with age. A generation warily observing their parents age is also learning about the unattractive aspects of maturity, longevity, and retirement.
Expect radical changes
Another salient fact about the boomer generation is the same conclusion marketers must grasp when targeting any segment. Segmentation is still based on descriptive generalizations. The boomer generation is not a homogeneous market.
For example, it’s common to portray the typical boomer as someone who grew up in a professional, white collar, and economically healthy family. However, according to U.S. Census data, approximately 57 million boomers, or roughly 70 percent of the generation, came from poor, working-class, or family-business backgrounds.
Nearly one-third of the generation is not prosperous today, or even marginally comfortable; 25 million boomers are broke. This is gloomy news, but people without liquid assets still consume a superfluity of products and services designed to address their economic handicaps.
Getting higher
When marketers understand this generation and its wants and needs, companies make money … lots of it.
One final question: “What are some of the tricks that will open collective pocketbooks?”
A full answer to this sweeping question will require more than an article — more like a book — but here are some examples of cohort-sensitive marketing approaches.
Spiritual satisfaction
The quest for self-discovery and self-actualization are fundamental mid-life issues. Boomers are increasingly seeking paths toward self-expression, while advancing agendas focused on balance, core values, and psychological self-reliance. People who arrive at this stage of development become more concerned about relevance and legacies, less concerned about acquisition for purely material satisfaction.
Spiritual concerns in a material world have, at their roots, a collective desire for community, abundant health, brightening horizons, and life satisfaction. There is an underlying search for holistic solutions — those modalities that interlace body, mind, and spirit.
This searching culture has generated a marketplace of new spiritual resources, including books, videotapes, audiotapes, weekend retreats, newsletters, Institutes, and digital networks. Spiritual leaders enter this fray, espousing eclectic paths to transcendence, drawing upon timeworn religious traditions and New Age psychobabble.
Are you considering the value-proposition of your product or service from a spiritual, self-actualizing perspective? Expand your consciousness!
Beyond stereotypes
You’ve probably seen a few boomer advertising clichés: hippies and Earth mamas; wistful nostalgia about the sixties, ad infinitum; and SUV-driving, cell-phone-yakking yuppies who appear inane and egoistic
For example, a global electronics manufacturer launched a colossally expensive TV campaign last year. The flashy flourish, featuring a boomer’s global orbit in the International Space Station, makes its hero appear narcissistic and irresponsible. The underlying message, wherein the protagonist proposes to disinherit his children in the name of self-gratification, is a subtle putdown, veiled in cinematic beauty and boomer nostalgia.
A marketing campaign this year by a multinational pharmaceutical company demonstrates another typical error. The TV spot rivets attention with its classic rock music bed by Queen. But as boomers gyrate to the nostalgic beat while celebrating their erectile-dysfunction medication, they appear overweight and disheveled.
These ads are the products of the most high-profile, respected advertising agencies in the world.
Boomers are growing weary of this kind of positioning. No generation deserves to be dismissed as “self-absorbed” or some other sweeping invective. A generation by definition is too large, too complex, and composed of too many unique individuals. Additionally, generational bias is simply another form of prejudice, just a different chapter and verse of the primordial thought processes that foster sexism or racism, homophobia or xenophobia.
Opportunity lies in creating advertising that compliments rather than criticizes — messages that elevate rather than denunciate.
Experiential marketing
When boomers were young, marketers sold them tailored products — tangible goods such as bell-bottom jeans. Companies then expanded products with services such as the increasing conveniences offered by fast-service restaurants.
According to Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore, authors of The Experience Economy, the newest source of value creation is experiences: promotions, events, and shopping environments designed to engage boomers in a personal and profound way.
We have seen this phenomenon in Denver with the proliferation of cutting-edge theme restaurants such as Ted's Montana Grill and the Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen.
We need not search far in Denver for an exemplar experience marketer. Recreational Equipment Incorporated, or REI, has created a Flagship Store nonpareil in Lower Downtown that brings together outdoor equipment and an interactive shopping environment — a perfect place to play with potential purchases.
The key to marketing with experiences is to position brands as a reflection of unique psychological encounters. Experiences create memories, rich with sensations and personal engagement. Boomers are experience seekers, especially today in mid-life.
Freedom values
Aging is often associated with the values of comfort, predictability, and routine, but healthy boomers defy these generalizations. Many head in the opposite direction and embrace unabashed experimentation as a pre-retirement lifestyle.
Experimental behavior could manifest itself in a number of new ways. That’s why the adventure travel trend is gaining momentum in the early years of the new century.
Tour offerings coming forward by National Geographic and other companies are not your grandfather’s idea of travel. Newer travel adventures highlight exploration and self-discovery.
A recent article in TIME magazine, entitled Saddling Up, documented an emerging motorcycle-loving trend among a mushrooming segment of the boomer population. In fact, the article observes: “Baby boomers are the fastest growing segment of America’s million-member motorcycling population; their numbers are increasing 10% a year. Nearly a third of Harley-Davidson riders are now 50 or older.”
Freedom is the most romantic and compelling lure of retirement, and its multifaceted meaning will find expression during the next few years through new or revitalized products and services.
Gathering and community
Boomers became accustomed to communal experiences at an early age. It was common for many to coexist in groups of 40 to 60 or more within classrooms built and designed for half as many. Boomers learned early in life to get along with each other, even under the pressures of overcrowding and loss of anonymity.
Another phenomenon most boomers will recall is disproportionate numbers at public events. This generation may not have created the blockbuster movie, but it certainly added new dimension to this sought-after Hollywood showcase of cinematic success.
During adolescence, the stadium-sized rock concert soon became the ultimate manifestation of group engagement. Elvis Presley set the stage, and a legion of boomer rock bands followed.
Rock concerts featuring classic rock artists still fill venues to capacity in spite of inconveniences posed by large gatherings: spurious ticket prices, traffic jams, less than ideal acoustics, and uncomfortable seats. As the generation creates new settings for group engagement, such as huge RV cities in the middle of the Arizona desert during winter, many will be pulled inexorably to congregate and connect.
There are two facets to communal experience: the gathering of tribes at cultural and artistic events, and the more intimate gathering of close friends seeking validation, safety, and harmony.
Appealing to this sense of generational community can become a powerful motivator for marketers selling lifestyle housing, recreational facilities, entertainment events, and educational conferences.
Cause related marketing
Since the mid-1970’s, many boomers have refocused on careers, child rearing, and the increasing demands of economic competitiveness. However, I believe important lessons from their teen years about group engagement remain buried in the generation’s collective psyche; many retain a spirit of social activism that took shape and found passionate direction in the sixties and seventies.
As retirement comes closer, many are changing their focus from “success to significance,” where they hope to get back in touch with youthful idealism, and perhaps rekindle a belief that single human beings can positively change the world. Participation in philanthropic causes is destined to become more fashionable.
Many left the sixties and seventies behind with a deluded confidence that they can influence positive change in the world, and now that they have more resources available for community projects, it is time for many to be constructive with gifts and giving.
Most companies are not philanthropic as the core purpose because they sell products and services to make a profit. So how can a company effectively take advantage of the predicted resurgence in boomer civic engagement?
The answer is marketing public relations or MPR.
The opportunity is always available for your company to embrace and support a worthwhile non-profit cause and then enlist your customers and stakeholders to participate in promotions that integrate advertising, sales promotion, and public relations.
Ultimately, marketers can satisfy nobler human motives by helping customers contribute financial resources and time in support of programs designed to assist those who are less fortunate.
As a corporate brand development strategy, MPR programs powerfully resonate with boomers.
During a recent visit to Denver, author David Wolfe wisely reminded me that “the most effective marketing is marketing that helps people process their lives.” Help boomers process their lives with marketing communications and targeted brand strategies, and you won’t need to ponder the $750 billion question any further.
You’ll just profit from its answer.
During a Colorado career spanning 23 years, Brent Green has directed marketing communications for The Broadmoor Hotel, McDonald’s of Southern Colorado, and Total Petroleum.
Last year he published Marketing to Leading-edge Baby Boomers, a “fascinating and trenchant tome” that reveals seminal strategies for marketing to one of the nation’s most economically powerful cohorts.
He is President of Brent Green & Associates, Inc., a full-service marketing communications-consulting company founded in 1986 and based in Denver.
His firm has produced marketing programs for a diverse range of clients, including Orange Glo International, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Men's Fitness magazine, Men's Health magazine, Natural Home magazine, Experimental & Applied Sciences (EAS), FrontRange Solutions, Hewlett-Packard, and the United States Olympic Committee.
Over fifty awards acknowledge his creative and commercial accomplishments, including the Direct Marketing Association’s International Gold Echo Award. In 2000, The Rocky Mountain Direct Marketing Association selected him as Direct Marketer of the Year.
Brent has served on the Board of Directors of the Pikes Peak Advertising Federation, Junior Achievement/Rocky Mountain Inc., the Pikes Peak Attractions Association, and for ten years, the Colorado Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau, where he also served as board chair. Last spring he was a volunteer marketing advisor for Mayor John Hickenlooper’s campaign. He currently helps with programming for the Rocky Mountain Direct Marketing Association and the Business Marketing Association and is a member of the Leadership Council for the Business Forum on Aging, American Society on Aging.
Brent can be reached at (303) 743-0140 or brent@bgassociates.com. Marketing to Leading-edge Baby Boomers is available from Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.
Copyright 2004, Brent Green & Associates, Inc.
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