Ten thousand Baby Boomers turn 50 every day.
America contains about 78 million adults over fifty, and another four million are added every year. Many view the aging Boomer population as a crisis, citing Social Security and increased medical expenses. However, savvy marketers view it as an opportunity. Cutting your slice out of the Boomer pie will ensure a profitable business. Prepare to think differently, though. Baby Boomers are about to shatter all your perceptions on aging.
Common Misconceptions About Boomers
Many marketers seem unaware of the economic promise of marketing to boomers. Why do so many marketers ignore this growing demographic—the demographic that controls $28 trillion, or 67%, of the nation’s wealth? They do so because of several misconceptions.
The fact is, traditional marketing has written off the 50+ group. Marketers look at the generations before and assume Boomers are exactly the same. Conventional wisdom says their brand loyalty is fixed, so there’s no use trying to change their minds. Or, they have to buy products anyway, so why bother marketing to them? So, the general tactic is to either ignore Boomers or lump them in with the “senior” category—neither one a good strategy.
When marketers do try to reach Baby Boomers, they mistakenly assume they’re speaking to a homogenous group. After all, aren’t all Boomers prosperous offspring of white-collar families? Aren’t all Baby Boomers either hippies yearning for the sixties or self-absorbed yuppies yakking on cell phones?
Not by a long shot. At the same time, however, Boomers were influenced by the same generational experiences—the debut of the Beatles, the assassinations of JFK, RFK and Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Vietnam War, among others—which means there is some common ground when it comes to reaching them as a demographic.
Andrea’s writing background includes features, editorials, reviews, profiles, poetry and fiction. She was the winner of the MOTA short story contest in 2002 and received honorable mentions for fiction from Writer’s Journal magazine in 2002 and 2004. She served as editor for AVA (Advertise Virginia) Magazine from 2005 to 2006. Check out her blog at http://creativewithwriting.blogspot.com
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