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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 23, 2009
News & Insights from the Boomer Project
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Dear Matt,
The mainstream media has caught up to us out here in the blogosphere, or email-newsletters-o-sphere. Two examples:
 Witness the latest cover story of Time magazine: " The New Frugality." The sub-head summarizes the theme that we've been developing in Jumpin' Jack Flash since last November: "The recession has changed more than just how we live. It's changed what we value and what we expect -- even after the economy recovers."
Time does its usual excellent job of putting a human face on broad social and economic trends, but faithful readers of Jumpin' Jack Flash won't find any special insight there that they haven't seen in this newsletter over the past six months. The second example is from Stuart Elliott's advertising column from The New York Times earlier this week, called "The Older Audience is Looking Better Than Ever." Everyone on Madison Avenue reads Elliott's columns, and this one got wide play:
Of course, we've been beating this drum for six years now. Maybe our message about today's Boomer Consumer is gaining traction.
To stay ahead of what the mainstream media will cover next, read on...
-- The Editors
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 Trends "New Normal" Emerges in Grocery Shopping
Baby Boomers and Gen Xers are curtailing their grocery spending more aggressively than older Silent Gens and younger Gen Ys, according to recent research findings by Retail Forward. While some changes in shopping behavior reflect the cyclical economic downturn, the ShopperScape survey suggests that "some of these changes will be permanent," said Kelly Tackett, author of the Retail Forward Intelligence System report.
"The results of our survey signal the need for food, drug and mass retailers and their manufacturer partners to prepare now and adapt to a 'new normal' in shopping behavior, said Tackett, as reported in Marketing Daily.
Among the key findings, shoppers:
· Intend to curb impulse purchases.
· Are trading down: buying fewer premium products, more private brands and eliminating "just too expensive" items from shopping lists.
· Are changing how they shop: more coupon-clipping, stockpiling and consolidating shopping.
· Are eating out in restaurants less frequently and switching to more affordable restaurants.
According to Retail Forward's press release, "shopper usage of money-saving tactics tends to increase with age, peaking among 45- to 54-year-olds before tapering off in the oldest age groups." When asked what habits they thought would stick, even when the economy rebounds, the top answers were, "not buying pricey food items," "buying less on impulse," and "using coupons more frequently." The Boomer Line: These findings are consistent with our discussion last month about restaurant spending. What's new is the evidence that Boomers and Gen Xers are saying that the change in shopping habits is not a brief, recession-related phenomenon. Many people are fundamentally re-evaluating how they spend their money. |
Two Boomer Marketing Events There are two opportunities in mid-May to learn first-hand about marketing to Boomers. One in Tampa, and one in Washington, DC. Both are offering discounted admissions, about $200, so make plans and go.
- Florida Boomer Lifestyle Conference -- Tampa Bay Convention Center, Tuesday, May 12, 2009.
This is an all day event, with a great list of speakers, including both John Martin and Matt Thornhill of the Boomer Project.
- Targeting Boomers and Beyond Workshop -- Arlington, VA, Marriott Residence Inn, Friday, May 15, 2009
Also a one-day workshop, with an equally stellar list of speakers, even without anyone from the Boomer Project there.
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Trends
 Driving Home a PointAmericans aren't just saying they're cutting their spending on food (see story above) -- they are cutting their spending on food. In the last quarter of 2008, writes The Wall Street Journal in "Food Firms Cook up Ways to Combat Rare Sales Slump," consumer spending on food fell by an inflation-adjusted 3.7% from the previous quarter. That was the steepest drop since 1942 -- during a little disruption called World War II. No one's handing out ration cards these days, but food executives are bracing themselves for a "long-term shift" in consumer attitudes. Among the survival tactics, people are setting food budgets, drawing up lists and avoiding impulse purchases, clipping coupons and eating down the stocks in their pantries. |
Trends
 Pets, the New People
Americans may be cutting back on their food budgets (see stories above) but they don't appear to be cutting back on their pets' food budgets. Data points: People food sales: down 3.7% in the 4th quarter of 2008. PetSmart Inc. sales: up 2.3% during the first quarter of 2009.
Americans will spend an estimated $45.4 billion on their pets - up $2.2 billion from the year before, reports ZT Pet News. A big part of PetSmarts' financial success was selling more premium foods for pets. Industrywide, pet food prices climbed 13.5% in the last quarter of 2008.
"Food is food," explained Bob Vetere president of the American Pet Products Association. "You have to feed your pet and people are becoming increasingly conscious of how they are going to feed their pets. They want them to have the best food."
Along with society's general sentimentalizing of animals, Vetere credits empty nester Baby Boomers for the trend. "Baby boomers have had their children leave home and move on, and they are looking for something else to care for. Lo and behold, there's Spike. He never talks back and doesn't take the car out late at night, and it's like, 'I love you, Spike.' This is a new child to hover over."
The Boomer Line: Boomers crave companionship like everyone else. But they had the fewest children of any modern generation in history, and most of those children have flown the coop. (According to the latest BIGresearch CIA survey, only about one in four Boomers still have kids under the age of 18 living at home -- no word on how many "kids" over 18 are still around.) The bull market for pets provides insight into the older Boomer psyche. When feasible, marketers should position their products and services as addressing the same emotional void that drives the indulgence of pets.
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Just the Facts Ma'am
The Debtor Generation
Most analysis of consumer indebtedness that we've seen focuses on mortgage and credit card debt. But there's a third big category, and it provides a lot of insight into generational behavior. We're talking about student loans.
A college diploma is such a mandatory credential for white collar jobs in the United States these days that three out of four high school graduates acquire some level of college education today. But college tuitions are so expensive that many students must borrow significant sums to pay for expenses. The average debt for graduating seniors is more than $19,000.
According to the March 2009 BIGresearch Intentions and Actions survey, 35% of all Gen Ys were burdened with student loans, as were 27% of Gen Xers. Here was the shocker: More than 10% of Boomers are still paying off student debt -- and so are one out of a hundred Silent Gens.
What are retirement-age people doing with student loans? Boomers could be paying off loans for their kids. But mostly, we suspect these are Boomer and Silent Gen members who have gone back to school for advanced degrees, or to learn something new, or to finish something.
The Boomer Line: It took Boomers years to spend and borrow their way into perpetual debt servitude. Gen Ys are starting out life in hock. (We haven't even touched upon the use and abuse of credit cards yet). We suspect that indebtedness explains a lot about Gen Y consumer behavior, including their prolonged financial dependence upon mom and dad. It also explains why Boomers have had so much trouble saving -- they're trying to help their kids pay off their debt.
Perhaps an economics PhD candidate can write a thesis about the massive transfer of wealth from the general population to colleges and universities. In the meantime, some enterprising sociology grad student could explore the impact of indebtedness upon the relationship between Gen Ys and their Boomer moms and dads.
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