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Buy our book, Boomer Consumer, today | | Voted "Best of the Best" Business Books in by CORBIS.
Available and in stock online at Amazon.com, BN.com and at Barnes & Noble stores in major markets.
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Read:
Longevity Rules:
How to Age Well into the Future | |
Available online at Eskaton
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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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August 2, 2010
News & Insights from the Boomer Project |
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Dear Matt,
Last month we complained about the ridiculous heat in our part of the country. Silly us. It's been hotter since we complained. Ugh.
Having learned our lesson, we'll skip any weather commentary.
But we are a little hot under the collar because of all the excitement over Nielsen publicly announcing that marketers need to wake up to the Boomer segment. This was seen as real news by a wide variety of outlets, from AdAge to American Public Radio's Marketplace show.
Our perspective is more like that of Brent Green, a Boomer-marketing guru of some repute, who took Nielsen to task in his blog. We have some additional thoughts to share in this month's issue.
Boomers may finally be getting the attention they warrant, but Boomer women are about to get even more attention, thanks to a new political initiative called The 2012 Project. Read about how a Rutgers University program plans to encourage Boomer women to enter politics.
Also, we comment on a booming category for marketers, where and how older adults will live. We write about two emerging trends we expect will make money for someone. Maybe even our readers.
This past weekend was Chelsea Clinton's big day, her wedding in New York state. The fact that her playlist for the wedding looks like it was created by Bill and Hillary might suggest a role music should play in your marketing. We offer a thought or two.
Lastly, we noticed that Boomers are in the middle of some stories on race in America these days. Maybe this really isn't news, but we have some perspective to offer there, as well.
For now, let's follow the advice of Samuel L. Jackson, and "stay cool, brother."
-- The Editors
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Boomers and Media
Reaching Boomers is Easy, If You Try
 Okay, we're not going to go on a rant about the "news" that Boomers are a market segment worthy of attention, just because Nielsen says so and AdAge writes about it. That's so last century.
But what might be news to many readers is that Boomers are an easy media target to reach. Even the AdAge piece makes note of the impact of Boomers growing older on the TV audience today:
TV advertising was founded on reaching the demographic of consumers between the ages of 18 and 49, yet the median age of viewers of prime-time broadcast TV is nearing 51 -- two years above that age range. To maintain relevance to advertisers, the big networks need to find a way to establish the relevance of older consumers if they want to continue to draw the marketers that support TV so heavily.
Boomers do indeed still watch TV. Maybe not as much network TV as before (but then, who watches network TV anymore?), but they do selectively watch TV. They also listen the radio, read magazines and even newspapers (the ones printed on dead trees and delivered to your door, not your in-box). And, Boomers use the Internet as much as younger generations, just a little differently.
We know this by analyzing lots of syndicated data, especially the Simultaneous Media Consumption study done twice annually by BIGresearch, a strategic partner of ours. The SIMM (as it is known) data from July 2010 (yes, it's that current), indicates Boomers are the easiest media target to reach because they consume vast quantities of all media.
They also rely on word-of-mouth, so social media and mobile media and other ways to reach out and touch Boomer consumers will make succeed.
Boomer Bottom Line: The good news for marketers trying to connect with Boomers is that you have unlimited media options. If you want to reach them, you can get in front of them.
Once you do, thought, you also better make sure you are talking to them.
That means making sure your message is appropriate for today's Boomer consumer, and not your current 30-something commercial simply scheduled to run on the Food Network as the way to reach Boomers. That's one way to guarantee you will be ignored.
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Boomer Women
Eat. Pray. Love. Rule!
 This month Hanna Rosin of The Atlantic has written a compelling cover story called "The End of Men." Rosin details the long and inevitable rise of women in the post-industrial world that will ultimately lead to the gentler gender dominating men for now and forever after. She makes the case that the days of a male dominant society has already given way to today's equal footing.
But equal footing isn't the end point, it's only the midpoint. Women will rule the planet. And soon.
(Quick aside: "The End of Men" is recommended reading for anyone at any age, but especially anyone who is, or knows, a young man, under the age of 25. The writing may be on the wall that women will soon be large and in charge, but males under 25 seem to have already done all they can to get out of the way of the ascension. Perhaps they should be made aware of where they stand.)
Rosen's piece is about all women, not just Boomer women. If Boomer women themselves do not have the ambition to dominate men and society, the stars are aligning for them nonetheless.
For example, the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University has launched The 2012 Project, a national, non-partisan initiative to get more women to run for public office in 2012 for local, state and national political offices. Today, less than 24 percent of state legislators and 17 percent of Congress are women. The U.S. ranks about 70th in the world in terms of women in policymaking government positions.
The 2012 Project is focused specifically on Boomer women. The project will "identify and engage accomplished women 45 and older from underrepresented fields and industries. These include finance, science, technology, energy, health, environment, small business and international affairs."
Why Boomer women? The project says "women over 45 - the baby boomer generation - are the most ready talent pool of potential female candidates. These women are typically at the top of their professions, have fewer family responsibilities, are more likely to be financially stable, and have deeper roots in their communities."
Web sites like Vibrant Nation, designed to appeal to women over 50, and groups like the Red Hat Society and Blue Thong Society (we did not make that up), suggest that Boomer women are already organizing, communicating and determining the game plan for this stage of their lives.
The Boomer line: Marketers should not be bashful about targeting this powerful and self-assured group. They have money, they make decisions about spending money, and they share with others their feelings about companies and brands.
Soon, too, they will rule us all. Just wait. |
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Biz Opportunity
Boomers at Home, Now and Forever
 We are often asked by organizations in the senior housing, living and community business what the future holds for them, given that survey after survey reports that Boomers intend to "age in place." Most studies we see suggest Boomers plan to grow older either near where they live now, or literally in their current home, even if they have a debilitating illness.
That explains the organic growth of "Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities" (NORCs) across the country. The first one, Beacon Hill Village, in Boston, started as a community effort to help older people in the neighborhood who couldn't manage for themselves. Ultimately, a co-op was formed whereby participants could pay a monthly fee to access services, and those who couldn't pay were subsidized so they could still age-in-place and get services.
This article in USAToday reports on the subsequent explosion of the concept across the country. Mark our words: this is only the start.
Another, equally radical idea comes from Australia, originally. Called "Granny Flats" there, the idea is a temporary structure on your property that can serve as an "accessory dwelling unit" (ADU) for an older relative or friend.
A recent Washington Post article profiles MedCottage, a Virginia-based start-up that managed to get the state legislature to pass a law that supersedes local zoning laws and allows families to install such a dwelling on their property with a doctor's order.
The ADUs typically have a bedroom and bathroom and perhaps a small kitchen area. The units are wired to the main home and include monitoring equipment to enable the main residence occupants to keep tabs on the older relative remotely.
Once more, we say: this is only the beginning. |
Chelsea Clinton's Wedding
Why the Music Matters
 No, we haven't changed our editorial focus and become like People or US Weekly.
But when the song list for Chelsea's wedding hit the Internet last week (thanks to TMZ, which, again, is not our business model), we were struck by the selections, as were others.
Of the 23 songs listed, only one was written in this century: "I Gotta Feelin'" by The Black Eye Peas. The rest were hits from the 1950's, 60's, 70's and so on. Sam Cooke's "Twistin' the Night Away," Ray Charles' "Unchain My Heart," Ike and Tina Turner's "Proud Mary," ABBA's "Dancing Queen," and the like.
Speculation is that Bill and Hillary created the list, except we don't see Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop Believing" anywhere on the list, so that's clearly not the case.
We are going to assume Chelsea and her new spouse, Marc Mezvinsky, picked the tunes. Their choices are not that unusual for children of Boomers.
The musical connection between Boomers and subsequent generations is strong. It's one thing for the digitally remastered Beatles boxed set to have sales of more than 13 million in the last year, since Boomers still buy "records." But it is quite another when The Beatles: Rock Band video game sells 3 million copies. That's the platform of choice for Millennials.
Who knew that a band that broke up over 40 years ago would still appeal to younger generations. Given that we Boomers rebelled against the music of our parents, there is something interesting here.
In fact, the power of music to connect these two generations -- Boomers and the equally-as-large Millennials -- cannot be ignored. It is no surprise that many marketers are trying to use Boomer music to "broaden" the appeal of their message across generations. Watch TV any night and you'll hear classics by The Who, the Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac and countless others as back-drop to dozens of commercials targeting the young.
Some argue that adding Bob Dylan music to a spot targeting younger people won't connect a brand with Boomers, and they are right. Your message, tone, manner and other components have to be relevant to your audience, no matter their age.
There is a special relationship between Boomers and their music, and now, apparently, between their kids and the same music.
We recall the comment by Tom Hanks in a recent documentary about Boomers. In talking about the role of TV and music during his formative years, he said "TV told me what time it was, music told me how to feel."
Given that, the songs selected by Chelsea and Marc make perfect sense. The music matters. |
Boomers and Race Relations
We were struck by recent news items involving race issues in America and found Boomers in the middle of them.
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