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Buy our book, Boomer Consumer, today |
| Voted "Best of the Best" Business Books in 2007 by CORBIS.
Available and in stock online at Amazon.com, BN.com and at Barnes & Noble stores in major markets.
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| Can't Get Enough of that Baby Boomer Stuff? |
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There's more. Oh, yes, there's much more.
On the Web:
Check out the Boomer Project Web site where we archive our published content and tell you how to line up Matt Thornhill and John Martin as speakers.
Visit the Older Dominion Partnership, a Virginia-based consortium of businesses, not-for-profits, universities and government agencies planning 10 to 20 years ahead for the Age Wave of aging Boomers.
In the Boomer Consumer blog, we venture beyond the topic of marketing to Baby Boomers into Boomer finances, family structure, sociology and the science of aging. |
| About Us |
The Boomer Project offers the most thorough and up-to-date portrait of today's Boomer Consumer. How can we help?
We offer consulting to help companies and organizations develop their "50+ plan." If you don't have one, you better. It's the only demographic segment that will increase in size over the next decade, growing some 23% while the 18-49 segment stays stagnant (Census data, baby).
We also conduct on-site programs, where we educate your marketing and/or customer service personnel about how today's Boomer Consumers think, feel and respond to your messages. These day-long sessions include insights obtained from our on-going proprietary national research among Boomers.
Contact us to learn more about all of our services.
Email: info@boomerproject.com
Phone: 804.690.4837
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| April 9, 2009
News & Insights from the Boomer Project
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Dear Matt,
It's less than a week before taxes are due and our sense is that maybe we should enjoy this April 15th because future ones are not going to be a tea party. As one respondent recently told us in a survey: "Somebody's gotta pay for these bail-outs and I guess I'm somebody." This issue reports on the continuing changes in Boomer behavior as Boomers tighten their belts (and plan on spending less money eating out), weaken their attachment to their local newspaper, and invest almost ten hours daily in viewing a screen like this one. And here's an update: More and more reports are coming out that the "New Fru" behavior we told you about has the potential for it to be a lasting change. Here is one from " All Things Considered" on NPR, and another, from a newspaper. Who knows, maybe our renewed focus on frugality will make future Tax Days bearable. -- The Editors |
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Trends Let Them Eat Big Macs
All of our data, including the Consumer Intentions & Actions Survey by BIGresearch, indicates that Boomers began curtailing their spending last year in response to economic hard times and the "d'oh" realization that they have been living beyond their means. While they spent less on cars, travel and other luxuries, Boomers appeared to be spending more on dining out.
According to an NPD Group survey of consumer purchasing and consumption patterns at commercial restaurants, Boomers (defined by NPD as 50 to 64 years old) increased their number of restaurant visits to 209 on average in 2008, up somewhat from 204 the year before and 201 the year before that.
The let-them-eat-Big-Macs behavior of Boomers contrasted to that of Millennials (ages 18 to 24), who were cutting back on restaurant visits over the same period of time, and of parents (not defined by generation) who continued dining out but increasingly left the kids at home.
Here's our hypothesis of what was going on. While Boomers were cutting back on expenditures of big ticket items, they still were treating themselves to less costly treats, such as dining out. The situation with Millennials was different. Their incomes were smaller. Because they dined out more than other generations, their restaurant bills comprised a larger percentage of discretionary spending. If they cut spending, they had no choice but to trim back their eating out.
The Boomer Line: That was then, this is now. We don't question the NPD data for 2008, but remember this: It was a yearly average. Boomers' re-evaluation of non-essential spending didn't harden until the stock market melt-down accelerated toward the end of the year. March 2009 data from our partner, BIGresearch, suggests that the NPD findings are out of date. Precisely 50% of Boomers -- more than any other generation -- now say the current economic crisis would cause them to "spend less when dining out" over the next five years.
Our advice: Don't deceive yourself that Boomers are treating eating out differently than any other expenditure. Offer modest prices in line with Boomers' more modest lifestyles and spending habits.
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| Case Study
Gosh Darn It, Let's Ride
 Sometimes, when the world economy is going to hell, your core customers are cutting spending on luxury products, which your product surely is, and sales are plummeting, you've just gotta say, "Screw it. Let's ride."
That was the closing line in a full-page ad run by Harley-Davidson in The New York Times last month, which had written an article earlier that month highlighting the company's challenges. The headline copy struck the same tone: "You can file our obituary where the sun don't shine."
The Times had observed that Harley sales have been eroding as Baby Boomers, the motorcycle company's core demographic, have struggled to put food on the table. Harley's response: Whip up some of that ol' anti establishment Easy Rider rhetoric that appeals to the inner rebel in all Boomers. Said the ad:
"It's times like these that raise the important questions. Do you cower, or do you live free? Do you succumb to fear and doubt, or do you seize the throttle and give it a fearless twist forward?"
The Boomer Line: While we applaud Harley's bravado. We wonder if the company should apply the same philosophy to its corporate strategy. Far from seizing the throttle and seeking new vistas, the company is focusing on its existing customer base, trying to entice existing Harley owners into trading up to newer, more expensive models. Jumpin Jack Flash did note last month that the company was trying to entice a younger audience with a cheaper model, the Sportster. But "Sportster" isn't exactly what you'd call an iconic rebel name. Sounds like Harley's actions aren't nearly as bold or adventurous as its words.
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 Technology
It's worse than we thought. It's well known that Boomers, who have been exposed to television since their earliest years, are hopeless couch potatoes addicted to mind-numbing bouts of TV watching. Now comes a study by Ball State University's Center for Media Design that says people consistently under-report their television usage.
Instead of merely being catatonic zombies for more than one third of their waking hours, a terrifying number of Boomers are clinically brain dead. OK, Ball State researchers didn't say that exactly - we deduced it from what they said. But the $3.5 million, year-long Video Consumer Mapping Study (caution, 5.7 mb PDF), which observed participants throughout the day and collected their exposure to televisions, computers, cell phones and all other "screens," found that historical surveys based on self-reporting techniques are less than accurate.
"What differentiates this from all other attempts to measure video exposure at the consumer level it its scale, the range of media covered, and the fact that it is focused on consumers first and media second," said project leader Mike Bloxam. "Among the things we learned ... is that people generally cannot report accurately how much time they spend with media."
The most video screen-addled demographic - the real flesh eaters from The Night of the Living Dead - are the "younger baby boomers" in the 45- to 54-year-old age bracket. They watch video screens up to 9 ½ hours daily. The reason, it appears from the Ball State data, is that the younger boomers watch as much traditional television as their elders while supplementing it with the Web, email and other newer technologies.
The Boomer Line: Media consumption by Boomers isn't waning as they grow older, it's
expanding. What's surprising is that traditional media still works to reach
Boomers of all ages, but it isn't the only tool. Smart marketers are using a
wide array of media vehicles to influence purchase decisions of today's
Boomers.
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 Media
Going to the Dogs
Newspapers may be living on borrowed time but publishers are hoping that their news franchises still have some life left in them. While Gen Xers and Millennials are deserting print for electronic media, Boomers for the most part still appreciate the feel of paper in their hands and the whiff of ink in their nostrils every morning. Newspapers may not be able to deliver all generations, the wishful thinking in the newspaper industry goes, but as long as they can deliver Boomers (and their vast buying power), advertisers still need them.
Now comes discouraging news from the Pew Research Center. Only 33% of people aged 40 to 64 (Boomers and late Gen Xers) would miss their newspaper. Forty-three percent said they would miss the newspaper "not much" or "not at all."
There's more, and for die-hard newspaper fans like us, it gets even worse. Only a minority of readers appreciate newspapers' strongest value proposition, its ability to cover local news. Only 42% of 40- to 64-year-olds said the closing of their local newspaper would hurt civic life "a lot."
Pew found a fairly strong correlation between age and loyalty to newspapers. More than half of Silent Generation readers would miss newspapers. But if newspaper publishers are counting on Baby Boomers to pull their chestnuts out of the fire, they're likely to be disappointed. Boomer attitudes towards newspapers are closer to that of young people than it is to the over-65 crowd.
The Boomer Line: Boomer Project research has found that much of the Boomers' lingering loyalty to newspapers as a printed medium stems from morning habit and ritual. Once readers break that habit, there's no regaining them. To extend the life expectancy of their print franchise as long as possible, newspaper publishers are well advised to focus increasingly scarce resources on retaining existing readers (or converting newcomers to the market who might still have the newspaper habit), than trying to sign up young people who will likely never develop the habit.
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