Insult or ignore. How is that for a marketing strategy to the demographic that has the most disposable income and whose numbers swell by the week? You would never buy into a strategy like that but the truth of the matter is many companies seem to be doing just that when it comes to marketing to baby boomers.
I’m not a boomer but I’m not that far behind them so I perk up whenever a story about them pops up. It’s my way of peering into my future. One of my favorite boomers, Jane Pauley popped up along side Tom Brokaw last week on Morning Joe. The two talked about their days on the Today Show and the conversation veered into the dis job advertisers are doing on boomers. Check it out.
Pauley was on Morning Joe in part to promote a special she’s doing, “Boomers 2.0”. I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet but the Huffington Post’s Barbara Hannah Grufferman did. She keyed in a point Pauley made on how advertisers are feeding their own misconceptions when it comes to advertising to those 50 and above, “If youth sells to the boomer market, and your only impression of boomers from the commercials run during the early evening newscasts, we’re incompetent, impotent, or incontinent”.
The advertising sweet spot is the 18-54 demographic, yet as Pauley pointed out, boomers control three quarters of the nation’s wealth and spend $2 Trillion annually on consumer goods.
Driving Away from Boomers
At the North American International Auto Show this year, auto makers unveiled their new designs and to the Wall Street Journal, it seemed very clear that the auto industry was playing to Generation X & Y with very little left in the tank for boomers. Volkswagen’s CEO Rupert Stadler confirmed the reporter’s suspicion when he said, “The baby boom is 60-years-old. We have to look for younger customers”.
Stadler’s desire for younger customers is sound. Companies need to develop brand loyalty and why not hook them while they’re younger and forming brand alliances. But Stadler also seems to be writing off a demographic that is shifting from saving to spending, and they are spending a lot more freely than their parents. The Journal reporter found one brand remembering to dance with the one that brought it. Corvette reintroduced Stingray, its classic model from the 70s and a nod to boomers that they still matter.
What’s strange about this decision to ignore boomers is the fact that this generation has a LOT of disposable income. That’s not to say that boomers didn’t take a hit in the last recession but they did a much better job at surviving it than younger folks. According to the New York Times, unemployment levels for those over 45 were anywhere from 2-10 points lower than Gen X, Y, and millennials. So if baby boomers kept their jobs, and their cool, chances are good their 401ks have more than rebounded since the Dow’s deepest valley and depending on where they live, housing values may have come up significantly as well.
Getting It
Some advertisers are coming around to the realization that many boomers are sitting pretty and looking to spend. The travel business, “having studied the predilections of boomers as if they were a tribe recently discovered by anthropologists “ (Rosenbloom, 2013) has figured out that many boomers have delayed retirement and are looking for shorter trips to exotic locations. The restaurant industry as well has picked up on this trend of boomers staying in the workplace longer. “It would be wise to begin marking more heavily to baby boomers in 2013… they’re not cutting back on spending as much (as younger people).” (Dostral, 2013).
Unlike their parents, boomers don’t seem to have a desire to stop working and shut their wallets when they hit 65. I see my older siblings blow past 50 and they’re redefining what it means to age. They are closer to their kids and are very active in social media. Health-wise, the news is just as good. I have one brother who just ran a 30k over the weekend at the age of 56. He seems typical of a generation open to new things… it will be a challenge to those in their 20s and 30s to develop an advertising strategy that speaks to them. The roles have changed in another way too. Advertisers are used to telling us what’s cool, now it’s the boomers letting them know the way they’re advertising to them isn’t cool at all.
Resources:
Dostral, E. (2013, January 14). Five Trends for 2013: Consumer Forecast. Nation’s Restaurant News. Retrieved February 10, 2013 from Proquest.
Grufferman, B.H. (2013, January 31). Life after 50: Has the TV industry finally figured us out? Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-hannah-grufferman/tv-shows-life-after-50-what-post50_b_2574644.html
Rosenbloom, S. (2013, February 03). We’re all boomers now. New York Times. Retrieved from Proquest.
White, J.B. (2013, January 17). Corporate intelligence: Automakers look past baby boomers — A rethinking of design & pricing to win over 20 – 40-year-olds. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from Proquest.
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