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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? |
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. We tweet: Follow us on Twitter.
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. |
| 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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| October 12, 2009
News & Insights from the Boomer Project
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Dear Matt,
Marketing to today's older Boomer Consumer has made the news, thanks to a cover story in Barron's last week. You can read the entire story online at Smart Money, a sister publication of Barron's.
 While there is not anything new in this analysis of the largest, wealthiest and most influential demographic group currently being ignored by Madison Avenue and most advertisers, we're delighted to see coverage of this topic in mainstream business press. Especially since our own John Martin is heavily quoted and they decided to title the story with the same title as our book, Boomer Consumer.
More importantly, when CEOs and CFOs read the story here, perhaps it will cause them to pause and think about targeting Boomers. Time will tell.
In this week's edition, we share some thoughts on social networking sites and older adults. Plus, we take a quick look at some products and organizations focused on Boomers. Apparently there are some CEOs who get it already.
Lastly, we share some research that suggests that the holiday season isn't going to be merry or bright for most retailers.
-- The Editors
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Get Real
Social Networks and Older Boomers
 We frequently see excited news reports proclaiming that older adults, age 45+, are the "fastest growing demographic" group on [Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.]. If you are marketing to older adults, the logic follows, you need to be investing heavily in social networking and social media.
Hold your Benjamins. We don't share in the excitement that Boomers and older adults are truly smitten with social networking sites for three reasons -- one anecdotal, one based on psychology and one based on the math.
Anecdotal: Over the last several years at least a dozen Boomer-focused social networking and social media sites sprang up -- BoomerTowne, BOOMj, TeeBeeDee, Eons, and more -- and all have disappeared due to lack of interest among Boomers (Eons lives on but only after it broadened its user base to include anyone over the age of 13). If Boomers want social media, they apparently don't want it exclusively targeted to them.
Our conclusion: Boomers are not that interested.
Psychological: We have long been a fan of Stanford psychologist Dr. Laura Carstensen, who has developed several widely accepted theories about how people grow older and the changes in how their brains work.
One such theory is the "socioemotional selectivity theory," which basically says that older adults become more selective about their social networks, investing in people and networks that deliver emotional satisfaction. That typically comes from familiar individuals with whom they have had rewarding relationships (in the "real" world, we might add). Older adults narrow their social interaction to maximize positive emotional experiences and minimize emotional risks of investing time in relationships that may not deliver positive feedback.
Carstensen's hypothesis is that our motivations change as we grow older. When people are young, they perceive their future as open ended, so they tend to focus on future-oriented/knowledge-related goals. When they grow older, gradually, over time, they feel that time is running out, so their focus tends to shift towards present-oriented/emotion-related goals.
Our conclusion: Older Boomers don't have the same motivation to use social networking sites and aren't willing to invest the time necessary to obtain emotional satisfaction from them.
The Math: No doubt, Facebook's growth among adults ages 45+ seems impressive -- an increase of about 900,000 users in September alone (76% of whom are women). Facebook also added over 1.7 million 18-34 years in same month (62% women).
Yet growth doesn't tell the whole story. Again, we agree that older adults are discovering Facebook and other social media sites, but the overall numbers remain modest. Facebook has 15.7 million users who are 45+ (out of total population of 121 million 45+, or a penetration of about 13%).
Not bad, but tiny compared to Facebook's 18-34 age segment figures, which are three times greater. In September, Facebook reported about 43 million users ages 18 to 34, out of 72 million 18-34 year olds, or a penetration of about 60% -- over five times greater than the penetration among 45+ adults.
Boomer Bottom Line: Let's agree social networking is simply not as widely accepted among Boomers and older adults as it is among today's young adults. And based on Carstensen's theory, maybe it never will be.
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Case Study
Products for Older Boomers
 In our last issue we ranted that products targeting Boomers are about health, growing older, or diseases. Few, if anyone, is selling everyday products focused on older Boomer Consumers.
We heard from our friends at online catalog marketer, firstSTREET Online, who reminded us that they have a very successful business selling all sorts of products to "Boomers and beyond." Sure enough, they have a site with a wide array of products for the older adult to make life, especially life at home, easier.
To our critical eye, most products at their site are really for the very old, those over 75, rather than Boomers. But we cede the point that there is money to be made selling products to Boomers and older adults.
 Oxo Brands has built a franchise focusing on older adults and using the principles of universal design (design everything for everybody). In a recent story in BusinessWeek, we were reminded that if you design for older adults, you can also attract younger users. That isn't typically the case with products designed for young people. Oxo now applies their universal design principle to a wide range of products, including product for infants and toddlers.
 Another interesting product we came across is a new "voice-guided" coffee maker. Instead of fumbling with little buttons to program the brew time, one only has to answer simple questions from the maker. We wonder why this technology hasn't been more widely implemented in a host of products (like the cable TV set-top box).
Boomer Bottom Line: With the U.S. population of 65+ set to double over the next twenty years, we anticipate about a million more products designed to be easier to use for older adults, and ultimately loved by people of all age.
The future isn't mass market products, but universal products.
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Holiday Woes
Bah, Humbug!
 This holiday doesn't look promising for most retailers, according to two recent surveys about gift plans.
Our partner, BIGresearch, found in its September Consumer Intentions & Actions study that about 1.4 more people plan to "spend less on gifts" this holiday than plan to "spend about the same." All in all, some 73% of Boomers say they either plan to spend less or about the same this year.
On top of last year's poor holiday season, that's not good news. It isn't surprising, as we've discussed several times since last fall -- there is indeed a New Normal when it comes to consumer spending.
Another survey comes from an ad agency in New England, which reports that 54% of Boomer moms are willing to eliminate holiday purchases that are not "completely necessary." So much for impulse buys.
Boomer Bottom Line: Marketers, especially retailers, should focus on offering today's more frugal consumer "value," no matter the price. Find ways to position your product or service as something worth having, and a good value for the money. That's how to not only survive, but thrive, in a world with a new consumer attitude about spending.
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