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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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| May 7, 2009
News & Insights from the Boomer Project
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Dear Matt,
Lots to cover with this issue. Let's get to it.
The economy is starting to show signs of improvement -- at least when we look at overall attitudes about money and spending ( see story below on Generational Money Mindsets(sm)). But we still strongly believe the days of unbridled consumerism are gone for good. This week we've come across some additional evidence that the "New Fru" we've been talking about is taking root across all generations. Age Wave, Dr. Ken Dychtwald's firm that follows Boomers and the Mature market, released a new study fielded March 30-31 this year called "Retirement at the Tipping Point: The Year That Changed Everything." You can download the PDF (3 mb) here. A key finding was that at least 80% of all generations believe that "living within your means" is the most important lesson to pass to the next generation. This is a change from last year, when Age Wave posed this question in a study conducted for Charles Schwab before the economic meltdown. Back then, only 63% of Millennials and about 75% of the other generations felt that way.
Marketers need to think about how their products or services can help consumers "spend less, live smarter." Responsible Consumerism is here to stay.
This month's Entrepreneur magazine features a story about marketing to Boomers that the Boomer Project's Matt Thornhill contributed. -- The Editors |
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Trends
 Email Me... Please.
Boomers may harbor their share of civil-libertarian zealots on the subject of personal privacy, but it turns out that, when given a choice, 53% of them would provide personal data such as name, age and city in exchange for personalized advertising. So says a new study by Q Interactive, a provider of digital marketing services.
The same study also queried "Echo Boomers," a group that is roughly synonymous with the Millennial Generation (Generation Y). This group was even more receptive to the idea of sharing personal data, with 63% approving the idea.
"The findings go against a lot of perceptions brands and advertisers have about what consumers will provide in order to receive personalized advertising - and the value it brings to their online experience," said Matt Wise, CEO of Q Interactive. "Overall, consumers are beginning to see personalized ads as something that improves their online world." (Read the story in BizSanDiego).
The Boomer Line: What we found remarkable was not the fact that there was a gap between Boomers, most of whom did not encounter the Internet until middle age, and their children, who were raised in a digitally interactive environment, but that the gap is as narrow as it is.
Boomers have made the transition to digital media. The Web and email, two media that are popular with them, are easily customizable. Brand managers need to integrate these tools into any branding or marketing program.
As for us, we'd gladly give our name, address, phone number, social security number, whatever it takes, if we could be assured that our online experience would never again by marred by one of those annoying, generic target-shooting ads!
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Case Study
 Feet, Don't Fail Me Now
Speaking of customizing the Internet experience (see previous story), FootSmart, a Georgia-based purveyor of "foot and lower body healthcare products," has gotten the message. The retailer has just engaged ExactTarget, of Indianapolis, Ind., to design a personalized email marketing campaign aimed at "America's baby boomers." (See press release.)
FootSmart sells shoes for comfort and for health. Not only does it stock dozens of brands of footwear from Birckenstocks to Crocs, If you have a sore heel, FootSmart has a gel cup for you. If you have an ingrown toenail, FootSmart has an ingrown toenail file. Foot odor? FootSmart offers everything from creams to socks to shoe liners. Sore ankles, varicose veins, bunions, athlete's foot, aching knees? You name it, FootSmart sells a remedy.
Needless to say, many foot and "lower body" conditions are related to age, and Boomers are a prime market. FootSmart plans to integrate its customer database and web analytics to develop a profile of each customer based on browsing and purchasing history (including purchases through the company's print catalog). Based on the customer profile, the company will include relevant offers and news the company in the emails it sends subscribers.
The Boomer Line: FootSmart's new marketing strategy is a... step in the right direction. The company doesn't just sell shoes, it sells health and comfort -- and information, which is the key differentiator from other shoe retailers. Most Boomers know the latest medical and product information is diffuse and hard to find. FootSmart will deliver that information to customers on a personalized basis. With 80% of Boomers now active on the Internet, we suspect that FootSmart has a... running start on the competition.
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Just the Facts Ma'am
More Than a Dead Cat Bounce
If the stock market is any indication, investors may believe the economy has found bottom and could be heading back up. Consumers are feeling a tad more confident, too, about the economy generally and about their personal economic circumstances, according to the Boomer Project's Generational Money Mindset (GMM), a composite of 11 data points from the BIGresearch Consumer Intentions and Actions survey. (Click on image above for legible version of the chart.)
The GMM, which measures attitudes about consumers' thinking about the economy and about their personal spending, saving and investing, shows all four generations ticking up in April. Even Boomers, who have been consistently the most pessimistic of the generations over the two years we have been tracking the data, managed to shake off a little of their gloom. Consumers aren't exactly festive, but we think they do see light at the end of the tunnel.
The Boomer Line: Americans think the economy is turning the corner. But if you're marketing to Boomers, remember, they're still the most pessimistic in the short run of the four generations. Even when the picture improves, they'll be saving more and spending less than they did during the good ol' days of endless credit.
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Case Study
 Kindle and Boomers
Earlier this year Amazon.com launched the Kindle 2 wireless reading machine. On Wednesday it introduced a new, larger version, to make the product better for both textbooks for the college market, and for newspaper and magazines for the general public.
The Kindle comes with Internet access (free) so you can download a New York Times bestseller in about two minutes for $9.99. The Kindle can store about 2,500 books and Amazon has over 250,000 available for purchase.
While marketed to everyone who reads, there seems to be a consensus forming that the Kindle is especially appealing to older consumers, specifically today's Boomer Consumer. Two recent blog posts ( here and here) report on analyses performed on the "Comments" section on the Kindle page at Amazon.com. The results are not scientific, but suggest that the average Kindle owner is age 50. And that 70% of Kindle 2 owners are age 40 and up. The bloggers get a little excited that Boomers are still embracing new technologies. We do, too, but we feel compelled to point out some other factors that might contribute to the age distribution.
First, according to Census data, the median age of the adult population (those age 18 and older) is now 49. If Kindle appeals equally to everyone, then it's no surprise the average owner is 50 years old. It's demography, stupid.
A second factor is the price: $359. In today's economy, that's a lot of scratch for younger (and likely lower) income earners.
Third, while we don't have hard figures to support this assessment, we suspect not as many of the younger, digital generations are book readers.
The Boomer Line: Smart marketers will look at their age distribution and not panic if the median age of a buyer is age 50, even if it is a technology product. The new normal for marketing isn't to focus only on the young. As Kindle proves, a business can be built on the wallets of older consumers, too. | |
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