A dominant narrative has emerged to explain the decline of America's automobile industry: Detroit failed to make the kinds of small, fuel-efficient cars that Americans wanted. The left-of-center critique faults management for failing to anticipate rising energy costs and global warming. The right-of-center critique pins the blame on labor contracts that gutted productivity and hobbled the manufacturers with unaffordable pension costs. There are elements of truth to both, but there's a third version - arising from generational analysis - that makes Baby Boomers the culprit.

Jefferson National Life Insurance, based in Louisville, Ky., has set its sights squarely on Baby Boomers in marketing its "No Such Thing as too Much Tax Deferral" campaign for annuity products. Among other initiatives, the company has launched online "communities" for consumers and advisors here and here. 
 
The insurance company gets some things right in its online initiative. It provides a wealth of clear, concise information explaining the advantages of tax-deferred annuities along with some pretty catchy slogans (as catchy as it's possible to devise for the insurance industry): "Fat Insurance Fees Are Out, Flat Insurance Fees Are In." (We guess that explains the steamroller.) The web site has good graphics with an imaginative rendering (above) of an "amazing new retirement vehicle."
 
Best of all, one of the web sites profiles a prototypical Boomer investor, 47-year-old pediatrician Jane Smithline, who plans to retire at age 65 then start a clinic for underprivileged children. Somebody over there knows enough not to picture sleek, silver-haired Boomers sailing their yacht or walking along the beach at sunset. Boomers have other dreams for retirement that typically include encore careers or civic engagement. Too bad you have to dig to find the profile.
 
But we think the insurance company missed the mark in important ways. We're skeptical that the web sites will build much of a "community." The "blog" posts have all the sparkling personality of a corporate brochure, under the signature of Jefferson's CEO Lawrence P. Greenberg. Call us cynical, but we'd be willing to bet that a 30-something ad copy writer penned that material, not the CEO of a company with more than 3,000 employees. We'll even go out on a limb and suggest that readers are not likely to re-visit the blog to see Mr. Greenberg's next scintillating observation.
 
The Boomer Line: There's an even bigger problem. The web sites are overwhelmingly information oriented. But if you're pitching to Boomers, you don't put that information front and center. It's like a boxer leading with his jaw. You stick it in a place where someone can access it if they want to know more. Jefferson would have done better to have splattered Jane Smithline all over the home page. Starting a clinic for underprivileged children has an emotional resonance that will pull Boomers right into the web site, thinking, "I'd like to do something like that, too. How is she going to pull it off?"
 

 

Writing in WirelessWeek, Jean-Laurent Poitou with the Accenture consulting firm, makes the point that as mobile handsets become commoditized, the key differentiator isn't new, high-end applications but a better customer experience. Citing a December 2008 Accenture study, he says that 79 percent of respondents still use mobile phones primarily as a means of communication. The technological gew-gaws that entrance members of the Millennial Generation -- cameras, texting and so on -- have only modest appeal to their elders.

 
It strikes us that Baby Boomers are more likely to respond positively to some of the mobile phone applications popularized overseas than they are to features pioneered by the Millennials. The Japanese, for instance, widely use their mobile phones to make payments. Now, that's practical.

 

The Japanese also use the phones' GPS capabilities to keep track of their kids. The phones can be programmed to notify parents when children go outside a pre-designated area. Now you're talkin'! That application could represent a mass market for worried Boomer parents of teenage children. "Do you know where your children are?" As a matter of fact, I do -- down to the exact meter.

Social necessity. Meanwhile, another study sheds light on teenage usage of mobile phones. CTIA-The Wireless Association found that mobile phones, next to clothing, is fast becoming a "social necessity" among teenagers. Fifty-seven percent view their phone as "the key to their social life."

 

The Boomer Line: While Boomers are more accepting of francy gadgets on their mobile phones, most still have a utilitarian attitude.  When selling to Boomers, product developers would be well advised to focus on the fundamentals -- such as making it easier and more intuitive to enter and update names in the address list or sync up the Bluetooth -- or introduce innovations proven overseas.