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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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September 2, 2010
News & Insights from the Boomer Project |
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Dear Matt,
Happy New Year!
That's right, the first of September is more like the begining of a new year than January 1st these days. Businesses and consumers pick back up after the summer slow down and kids go back to school. It's a fresh start and there is much to get done before the holidays slow us down again.
On our summer vacation we learned two new expressions: "boomer moment" and "kidults." Read on to get the definitions.
We also saw a new viral video on the Internet about growing older. Boy, is it funny. We'll show and tell.
This month's issue actually reports on some Boomer initiatives underway out there in marketing world, finally. Uh, hold on, that's not "finally" as in "finally we're writing about it," but "finally it's happening."
In recent weeks, Avon announced a new Boomer effort. Yea! We're so excited we share some thinking on why targeting Boomers is a fiscally smart thing to do.
There is new data available on Boomers and social media usage. We'll tell you why it convinces us not to join the refrain that all Boomers are on Facebook or LinkedIn.
Meanwhile, the North Carolina retirement town of Asheville wonders if the Boomer boat is in dry storage. It is.
Lastly, we're excited to announce our new book, which will debut on January 1, 2011, the day the first Boomer reaches age 65.
The title? Boomers@65, of course.
Meanwhile, raise a toast with us to the New Year.
-- The Editors
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The Boomer World
Learning the Lingo
 Let's start with the fun stuff: two new expressions to use and abuse.
First is a "boomer moment," defined in the Urban Dictionary as "when someone acts or (more typically) speaks under the assumption that their perspective couldn't possibly be missing anything."
Used in sentence: "I tried to tell my boss that his idea wasn't practical, but he was having a boomer moment and wouldn't listen."
Brilliant. We have boomer moments all day every day. Proudly.
The other term is "kidult," as in a 20-something who has finished college, gotten a job but still lives with a parent or two. We've found evidence of its usage from several years ago, but had never heard it until this summer.
The issue of these "boomerang" kidults has long held the attention of psychology professor Jeffrey Arnett. He calls this life stage "emerging adulthood," and asserts it is a developmental stage we need to better understand. Here's a recent NYT article about Arnett's theories.
On a different note, here is some practical advice from another psychologist on how Boomers should deal with today's kidults.
And if you are like us, you too will wince at this cover from The New Yorker Magazine of a "kidult" hanging his Ph.D. on his bedroom wall as he moves back in with Mom and Dad. Ouch.
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Viral Video
Growing Older is Funny
Our client, Home Instead Senior Care, is enjoying the fruits of a video from their sales meeting in 2009 suddenly going viral.
In the last week, this video has been emailed all across the Internet.
It's the invocation at their annual meeting, given by a 72-year-old local Omaha client of Home Instead, who at the end of her prayer, says, "Lord, there's a few more things I need to say, and since I've got the microphone..."
She goes on for five minutes and gives one of the funniest deliveries -- completely deadpan -- of a prayer about the foibles of growing older that you'll ever see.
For some reason, this week it has taken off and has been viewed over 1.3 million times. Watch it and laugh, then share it as you see fit.
The Boomer line: The lesson is that it doesn't cost a penny to post videos on YouTube and the payout could be invaluable publicity.
So post already! |
| Boomer Marketing
 Avon announced a new extension to their "Anew" line of skin care products, called Anew Platinum and designed for those 60 and older. The Platinum line will be promoted with ads featuring 66-year-old Jacqueline Bisset.
Bisset has spoken out against plastic surgery and Botox, comes across as an authentic spokesperson for the brand. She represents the attitude we expect more and more Boomer women will embrace: the goal isn't to appear younger, but to look as good as you can at any age.
 The jury is out as to whether or not the line will succeed in attracting older women, but Avon has been successful with age-based versions of the Anew line for women in their 30's, 40's and 50's before. No reason to stop.
In the coming years, marketing to Boomers is likely going to continue to focus on health, but we also anticipate new "anti-aging" products and services that are more nefarious than Avon's Anew.
For example, Arlene Weintraub, author of "Selling the Fountain of Youth," observes that there is money in selling aging as a disease that can be cured -- these days the profiteers are selling hormone therapy as the latest elixir. But Weintraub also warns that the promise of a longer life is uncertain at best, despite the scientific breakthroughs.
We're reminded of Dr. S. Jay Olshansky's chapter in the Longevity Rules book, entitled "Why Do Anti-Aging Doctors Die?" Indeed.
The Economic Case for Focusing on Boomers
We disagree.
Not because of our focus on Boomers, but because we dug into the numbers the Journal presented and found a big hole. About $500 billion large.
The Boomer Line:There's money to be made targeting Boomers, even as they grow older. Our new book will identify 21 categories poised to explode as Boomers reach age 65 and beyond.
The future starts January 1, 2011. |
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Ahead of the Curve?
Boomers and Social Media (Again)
 Once more news reports are out that the two fastest growing segments of social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) are the 50 to 64 group and those 65 and older.
Pew Internet released new findings from a study done this May and reports that some 47 percent of Boomers ages 50 to 64 who are online regularly use social networking sites (now called SNS in the literature, apparently). Pew also reports that 26 percent of the 65+ group use SNS, too.
Those are big jumps from April last year, when the 50-64 group was only at 25 percent and 65+ was at 13 percent.
Of course, these older SNS users are far from the figures for the younger users. Some 86 percent of 18 to 29 year olds report regular use of social networking sites, and some 61 percent of Gen X (ages 30 to 49 in this report) are into SNS as well. The youngest group jumped from 76 percent to 86, and the Gen Xer went from 48 percent to 61 since last April.
News reports we've seen have focused on the seemingly doubling of the number of Boomers engaged in SNS activities. With great fanfare, reporters and pundits are announcing the arrival of SNS as an 50+ enclave, where advertisers can easily reach older consumers.
We see things a little differently. Perhaps more realistically, and a little less enthusiastically.
First, let's look at year over year growth in terms of straight percentage points:
- Gen Y up 10 percentage points
- Gen X up 13 points
- Boomers up 22 points
- Silents up 13 points
Every group is up considerably year over year and Boomers do indeed lead the increase.
But here's the rub. That's among "those who are online." That means current users of the Internet. How many of each generation regularly use the Internet? Isn't that a factor to consider?
Of course.
From Pew's own "Who's Online" data, the percentages break down as follows (December 2009 latest data):
- Gen Y: 93 percent online
- Gen X: 81 percent
- Boomers: 70 percent
- Silent: 38 percent
Regular readers of Jumpin' Jack Flash know we like to do the math, so we pulled the latest Census Bureau population projections for the age breaks Pew uses and fired up the old Texas Instruments calculator. As a result, we're less enthusiastic about throwing all our money into marketing to the 50+ segment on social networking sites just yet.
Our calculations show about 112 million regular SNS users in 2010, of which 41 million are Gen Y and 41 million are Gen X (each comprising 37 percent of all SNS users). Boomers number around 25 million, and comprise only 22 percent of all SNS users. Silents number only 4 million and are 4 percent.
Together, the 50+ segment is only one out of four regular SNS users.
That's all. Not nothing, but not everyone.
Plus, to date most research we've seen suggests Boomers and older adults use social networking sites in considerably different ways than how the younger generations use the sites. We're not saying don't invest in SNS to reach Boomers. Just don't bet the ranch on it yet.
The Boomer Line: To reach 50+, run a TV spot on "CSI" instead. |
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If You Build It Will They Come?
 Asheville, North Carolina is a picturesque town in the mountains west of Charlotte. It enjoyed in-migration from Boomers and Floridians who built large homes in the surrounding mountains, with endless views and granite countertops.
But the Great Recession has killed off in-migration, and a recent editorial in the local paper issued a call-to-arms to reconsider the priorities in Asheville. The focus for new development should be affordable housing, for those people of all ages still living in Asheville during difficult economic times.
We don't know if other communities and developers are ready to abandon the hope of Boomers flocking to new McMansions in age-restricted developments in the Sun Belt. The signs, though, suggest to us that more modest housing options, within one's means, is the immediate future for the housing industry.
Plus, Boomers themselves are not likely to sell their current McMansions until the real estate market returns, and that is not likely going to happen for at least eight to ten years (recall those "supply and demand" lectures from Econ 101).
In our demographically-based opinion, there are too many Boomer sellers and not enough wealthy-enough Gen X and Gen Y buyers. There will be, eventually. In 2018.
The Boomer Line: Asheville's newspaper sets out a smart agenda for developers for the coming years. The great Boomer move to idyllic retirement homes on mountaintops isn't going to happen any time soon.
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| New Boomer Book
The Boomer Project's Matt Thornhill and John Martin are writing a new book about Boomers called Boomers@65: What's Next for Companies, Organizations, Governments and Boomers Themselves.
To be published by LINX Books on January 1, 2011, the day the first Boomers reach age 65, this book will identify key opportunities across 21 categories for marketers, entrepreneurs, businesses, and even local governments to seize as Boomers start swelling the nation's population of 65+ by 8,000 a day.
Throughout the book we will share comments from Boomers about to reach age 65, so you can hear about their hopes, dreams, priorities and focus as they approach that milestone birthday. Plus, we'll hear from those on the other side of 65, offering a different perspective.
More information about the book will be shared next month. Meanwhile, stay tuned.
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