In case you didn't get the memo, the big news about
Boomers so far in 2007 is their need to exercise
their brains.
From The Wall Street Journal and The New
York Times to the Today program and blogs on
the
Web, everyone is reporting on the latest trend for
Boomers, brain exercises. We'll tell you all you need
to know about it in this month's Jumpin Jack
Flash.
We'll also update you on Detroit's new awareness
that Boomers over 50 can and do buy cars.
If you haven't seen the TV commercial for Jeff
Taylor's Eons.com, well, let's just say it is
interesting in a curious way.
We'll update you on activity at the Boomer Project,
including our latest national study of Boomers as
employees and their attitudes towards their
employers, co-workers and younger subordinates.
In this month's BoomerMarketingNews, available
January 15th to paid subscribers, we share findings
from
that Boomer Employee Study, as well as explain the
importance of personal relevance when marketing to
Boomers. We also review and explain The Mature
Mind, Dr. Gene Cohen's insightful book
about "The
positive power of the aging brain."
Don't forget, subscribers to this newsletter can save
$60 off the first year's subscription price to
BoomerMarketingNews by using coupon
code "bab00m" at this link.
Boomers on the Brain
Two years ago we started telling clients and
audiences that Boomers will undertake an endless
quest over
the next 40 years to maintain "vitality" in five key
areas: financial, physical, mental, social
and spiritual. We predicted that the generation that
followed Jane Fonda's advice to "feel the burn"
would soon be doing real mental gymnastics to keep
those neurons firing on all cylinders.
Last year, studies by HSBC
and Merrill Lynch found
that Boomers say "staying mentally active" and
"mental stimulation" are key benefits they seek from
work. But what happens once Boomers stop working?
Where will that mental stimulation come from?
Nintendo, for one, with Brain Age. And Mattel
soon
with Brain Games.
And apparently lots of other places, like
MyBrainTrainer.com,
for about $10 a month ("You'll never think the same
way again.").
The emerging science behind this "use it or lose it"
approach to an older brain suggests this is going
to be a huge business:
"There is mounting evidence that
cognitive exercise may protect our brains," said Dr.
Gary
W. Small, a professor of geriatric psychiatry and
director of the UCLA Center on Aging and the
Memory &
Aging Research Center.
"We know specific exercises in certain brain functions
definitely have an effect. The question is, if
you do your mental aerobics, will brain exercise stave
off Alzheimer's? There is softer evidence that it
does."
Boomers have invested billions in other fitness
routines on a lot less science than that.
Here are some of the recent media stories if you
want to learn more about this trend:
Further proof it's hot, the top search term in 2006 on
Eons.com's cRANKy
age-based search engine was for "Brain
Builders."
For Eons or Ego?
Speaking of Eons, we recently came across Jeff
Taylor's TV commercials, airing on cable, telling
Boomers
all about Eons.com, the new social networking site
launched last summer.
Watch it for yourself and send
us a
comment.
Our initial reaction was "at least they didn't use
Wilfred Brimley."
Egads. Or should we say "Boom!"
Recreational Pharmaceuticals
On the one hand Boomers will invest billions to
exercise their brains to keep them sharp. On the
other
hand, they are still a big part of the illegal drug
culture. And the ultimate cost to society will be
staggering.
According to an opinion piece originally in
The
New York Times, "the fastest-growing population
of drug abusers is white, middle-aged Americans.
This is a powerful mainstream constituency, and
unlike
with teenagers or urban minorities, it is hard for the
government or the news media to present these
drug users as a grave threat to the nation.
"Among Americans in their 40s and 50s, deaths from
illicit-drug overdoses have risen by 800 percent
since 1980, including 300 percent in the last decade.
In 2004, American hospital emergency rooms treated
400,000 patients between the ages 35 and 64 for
abusing heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine,
marijuana,
hallucinogens and club drugs like ecstasy."
Hey, we saw "Little Miss Sunshine," we know
drugs can kill older people.
The point of the piece is that national drug policy
needs to target the problem populations, and
surprisingly, it isn't teens as much as it is Boomers.
We Boomers know the drug culture was a part of our
past (among those who can remember the Sixties),
but
apparently it is still a part of our present and could
be a costly part of our future.
Big Wheels Keep on Turning
Apparently over the holidays automakers woke up to
the fact that Boomers still buy and drive cars. At this
week's Detroit
International Auto Show, car makers
are unveiling car after car designed for today's
Boomer Consumer.
The most interesting concept car for Boomers is
Nissan's new Bevel. It's
a "UV" (no "S" anymore, since
Boomers no longer take their kids to "sports") for
older
Boomers who have stuff they need to
haul around in style for all those hobbies. At the very
least, it's cool looking.
Perhaps Nissan heard about all the 50+ buyers of
Honda's Element.
With great fanfare, Chrysler introduced their 2008 minivans with Boomers
as a key target purchaser
because minivans are "people movers" and Boomers
will need to haul around ... grandchildren!
The big innovation to draw Boomers back to
minivans? "Swivel 'N Go" seating. It's when the
second row of seats can swivel 180 degrees towards
the third row, a table can be inserted, and all sorts
of fun and games can begin. What's next, shag
carpeting?
We don't think Boomers will re-embrace the minivan
just because they have some grandkids to haul
around on occasion. Our memory is that Boomer
Moms reluctantly bought minivans in the first place,
then ultimately ditched them for big SUVs. Now that
the Mom lifestage has been replaced by the
Grandmom lifestage, we don't think "Swivel 'N Go"
seats will attract many Boomers back to minivans.
Chrysler is hedging its bet with the
introduction of the Nassau, a concept four-
door
luxury coupe with lots of cool bells and whistles, and
a new, exciting look.
The big news here is that all automakers are back
thinking about Boomers again as a viable
and
important segment. Ford announced changes to the
500 to make it more appealing to Boomers. And
practically everyone announced "crossover" vehicles
designed for Boomers.
We predict the advertising will soon begin reflecting
this renewed interest in the over 50 set. Let's hope
they demonstrate that they understand today's
Boomer and don't bring back Harley Earl again, or
even Led Zeppelin. Let's move on together, please.
Driving Miss Daisy Crazy
Since we're clearly thematic this month, check out
this headline about the growing concerns that aging
Boomers with dementia will be hard to keep off the
highways:
Docs asked to keep
demented baby boomers off our
roads
Time to rant.
First, this article is nothing but a reprint of a news release from the Alzheimer's
Disease Research Center (ADRC) of Washington
University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Except the
editor decided they needed a more intriguing headline
and changed "demented drivers" into "demented
Boomers."
Talk about ageism. Good grief. Plus, it's absurd to
take
78 million 42-to-60 year-olds and imply they are
all
on the brink of age-related dementia (remember
Rainman: "I'm an excellent driver.").
But it gets worse. The actual news release starts
with this quote "We don't want to give the
message that older drivers are always unsafe,
because that's just not the case," says Thomas
Meuser, Ph.D., research associate professor of
neurology at Washington University.
So what exactly is the point?
Spend a minute Googling and you'll learn that there
are
good reporters out there discovering different
predictions about the impact of dementia on
Boomers (read the first story again), based on
other studies and experts.
According to
this article, if we just get off our
duffs
and walk more, we may not suffer from as much
dementia.
Hey, that ought to keep us off the highways. And
maybe
if we do sodoku while we're walking...
Blog This
The interest in Boomers on the Internet continues to
increase.
New launches include:
- Boomer
Girl -- a blog/community from a media
company in Kansas. First blush it looks promising, but
it could be hard to break out of a Kansasian mindset.
- LLA50.com -
- new social networking site
for "Loving Life After 50" set. At the start looks too
home grown to be taken seriously by members or
marketers.
-
The Boomer Blog -- a house organ from PR giant
Fleishman-Hillard, run by Carol Osborn, co-author
of Boom! about Boomer women. Nicest feature is a
daily report on Boomer news from around the globe.
Worth a bookmark.
-
Boomers Making a Difference -- blog by
a "coach"
looking to make a difference for her clients. Not
different.
Plus, Eons has launched their age-based search
engine, cRANKy.com as
a stand-alone site.
Our skepticism persists about Boomers and social
networking and blogging. It isn't that we aren't online
doing it. It's that being a "Boomer" isn't
enough to bind us together in the virtual world.
There needs to be much more to the connections,
like similar interests, hobbies, political beliefs, life
stages, religious orientation, and so forth. And yes,
we know Eons says they have 1,000 groups of
like-minded 50+ networkers, but from our own
clicking
around on the site, most of those groups have less
than five participants. That's not a network, but a
couple of friends.
Don't misunderstand: We think the generational bond
is important for
marketers so they can understand how
Boomers are behaving at this
stage of life. But being a Boomer it isn't a bond that
Boomers share
among themselves. It's just the result of their shared
time and place in history.
Perhaps over time being a Boomer by itself will
become more binding and all of these Web efforts will
succeed. We're going to wait and see.
In This Month's BoomerMarketingNews
We feature stories on:
- Boomers and Relevance -- Perhaps the most
important component of any marketing message you
put in front of Boomers is whether or not it is
relevant to them individually.
- A discussion of Dr. Gene Cohen's insightful book
The Mature Mind, and how aging minds are
improving not fading away.
- The New Wall Street Journal -- Smaller, but
redesigned for their readers, who predominantly are
Boomers. We'll tell you why.
- Commentary on current Boomer-targeted
advertising.
Available only by subscription online here. Remember to use your coupon code
of “bab00m” (that’s the numeral zero for the
two “o’s”).
Upcoming Events
The Boomer Project is presenting at the International
Builders Show in Orlando in February, as well as
private seminars and events for a variety of
companies and organizations.
Recently we've completed projects for Pfizer
Consumer Healthcare, as well as the Listerine brand.
Plus we're working on a project for Home Instead
Senior Care, trying to better understand how adult
Boomer children interact with their aging parents.
If you know of a group or organization that would
benefit from learning more about how to market to
today’s Boomer Consumer, contact Jocelyn
Tice or call 804-358-8981.
Also, if you have any comments or questions
about any of the information presented here, please
let us know at
comments@boomerproject.com.
Matt Thornhill
The Boomer Project
