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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.
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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| June 25, 2009
News & Insights from the Boomer Project
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Hello,
Various Boomer-focused topics to cover in this issue:
The national discussion on healthcare reform is now in full swing. We had the opportunity to attend an event at the National Press Club two weeks ago called "Boomer Bust" about the impact older Boomers will have on the healthcare system in the coming decades. With Newt Gingrich and Tom Daschle both on stage, it was fascinating. Read about it below.
The recovery from this recession is going to be a long, slow climb back out. How do we know? George Will says so. But Americans are saying so, too. Marketers need to plan for a new, less consumption-based economy.
This the 40th anniversary of the summer of love, and man's first step on the moon. Marketers are waxing nostaglia these days. Does it work for Boomers? Only if done right.
Plus, we share some Boomer humor, just to put a smile on your face. Laughter, they say, is the best medicine.
-- The Editors
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National Debate
Health-based Health Reform?
Volunteers of America, a national, nonprofit, faith-based organization dedicated to helping those in need rebuild their lives and reach their full potential, hosted a three hour round table called "Boomer or Bust: From Greatest Generation to Crisis Generation" about the coming onslaught to the healthcare systems caused by Boomers growing older.
 The session featured former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, who currently runs the Center for Health Transformation; Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle; Volunteers of America's president, Charles Gould; and Mary Bateson, cultural anthropologist and daughter of Margaret Mead. The session was moderated by Donna Brazile, Al Gore's campaign manager in 2000 and a regular commentator on CNN.
What surprised us was that everyone on the panel agreed with the need for change and didn't offer substantially different solutions -- personal responsibility for health based more on staying healthy (wellness) than curing illness; reduce the costs of healthcare; improve the overall quality of care; and provide coverage for all.
Senator Daschle made an interesting observation that our healthcare system overall ranks 37th globally in quality outcomes. He attributes that to how we approach the healthcare continuum from wellness/prevention on one end and heart transplants on the other end. Most countries focus funding on the wellness/prevention end and proceed as far as funding allows on the continuum. America seems to operate by funding first the heart transplant end (high tech, expensive procedures) and proceeds towards wellness/prevention until the money runs out.
Gingrich essentially agreed and said we need "health-based health reform."
You can watch a TV interview with Gingrich and Daschle here.
For an additional perspective, read Dr. Ken Dychtwald's take on what is needed to fix the healthcare problem from the Huffington Post.
The Boomer line: Both politicians said they think we'll have some sort of healthcare bill passed this year, if both sides agree to meet somewhere near the middle. If either side refuses to budge, then typical Washington gridlock will rule. For organizations in the healthcare arena, this summer and fall could prove to be transformational. Our advice: stay tuned.
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Economy
Recovery, Not Restoration
The early "green shoots" of an economic recovery seem to be pushing through the topsoil, but we suggest caution. First, George Will told us to be cautious in a piece last week:
During recent periods of strong growth, 70 percent of economic activity has been personal consumption. If Americans' new sobriety -- more saving, less spending -- survives the first tantalizing green shoots of recovery, can the recovery continue?
An excellent question, and one that should worry most businesses and marketers.
We were not surprised by a recent survey by Alix Partners, a global business consultancy, which found that Americans say they have changed how they plan to use their money. According to the survey done in late February, Americans say that even after the recession ends, their spending will return to just 86% of pre-recession levels, which equates to an approximate 10% drop, or more than $1 trillion annually, in GDP. They also say this new, lower level of spending is structural and could last for nearly a decade after the recession ends.
Ouch. That means the economic downturn may end soon, but don't expect any significant uptick.
The Boomer Line:This new data supports our hypothesis from last fall, when we saw a precipitous drop-off in consumer spending plans in our analysis of BIGresearch's data, that the "New Frugality" is here to stay.
Marketers need to accept this new mindset of spending less and spending smarter. Make sure your products and services can fulfill the consumer desire to make better buying decisions.
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Trends Nostalgic for the Summer of Love
 Ah, the summer of 1969: Man on the moon, Woodstock, the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland catching fire. The good ole days, for sure. And this summer, 40 years later, they're back. Not the river on fire, but all the memories of that last great summer of the decade of social change, the 1960's. Marketers from across the spectrum are embracing the feelings, images and attitudes from 1969 and putting them into current advertising and marketing programs this summer. From VW to Wawa to Luvs and Levis, marketers are reliving the past to attract both new and old customers. Stuart Elliott's "Kickin' Down Madison Ave, Feelin' Groovy" piece in The New York Times offers a full accounting of the efforts underway. Elliott also reported earlier about marketers trying to leverage the 40th anniversary of man's first walk on the moon. This walk down memory lane makes us wonder if nostalgia works with today's Boomer Consumer. It may enable brands to borrow some of the brand equity of the 1960's -- claiming that its new Luvs product is "revolutionary," Procter & Gamble chose to link to a time when that mindset was prevalent. (Makes us wonder if today's "change you can believe in" will become the anthem of Pampers in the future). The Boomer Line: In our work, we find most Boomers are fully entrenched in midlife -- ages 45 to 63 this year -- and are not waxing poetically about the "good ole days." Most Boomers are forward looking, thinking and planning what's next, not reminiscing about what has been. Marketers need to think about how they will use nostalgic figures, facts and images to attract today's Boomers. Our advice is to find ways to use old images and icons in ways that are relevant to life today, not harkening back to days gone by. |
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Trends Old is Hot
 A few years ago we predicted that thanks to a movie and comments by Katie Couric, it was soon going to be okay for women to grow older. We said the long-held belief that beauty is only for the young would give way to a broader, more realistic view that beauty comes in all ages. Further proof came from Dove's now famous "Campaign for Real Beauty."Progress continues on that front as evidenced by year two of the reality TV show "She's Got the Look" airing on T VLand. It's a model contest for models over the age of 35 -- with one model age 72!
The Boomer Line: Marketers need to be mindful of this new definition of beauty and older women. Don't shy away from featuring attractive older models in your marketing materials. "Old" is not only "cool" these days, it's "hot," too. |
Boomer Humor
We recently saw this simple chart and laughed out loud. Maybe you will too:
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