Happy New Year!

Regular readers will recall that last year we declared September 1st as the start of 2005. Here it is September 13th and we're already two weeks into 2006. Hope you're keeping those resolutions.

The month's newsletter is 180 degrees from last month's summer "quick hits." Instead of lots of quickies, we're presenting one longer thought-piece called "Start Me Up."

It's insight from the Boomer Project/Survey Sampling International Boomer Marketing Report on how to tap into the "Me" mind-set that is unique to Boomers. It’s a mind-set that still comes in to play even though Boomers are 25 years beyond the self-absorbed "Me Generation" of the 1970's.

Here’s a tease: Apple sells iPods because Boomers want myPods.

Before we launch into it, here's some Boomer Project news:

The upcoming White House Conference on Aging, held every ten years at the request of the president, has selected the Boomer Project's own Matt Thornhill (hey, that's me) as an "At-Large" delegate. Only a handful of Boomer business and marketing people have been asked to attend, including Brent Green, author of "Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers."

It's an honor to be selected, especially since the theme is "The Booming Dynamics of Aging: From Awareness to Action." Expect a report in next January's newsletter. I'll be sure to tell W. that you asked after him.

Lastly, we've been delighted with all the requests to speak at your events.

We suspected there were audiences out there who want to know more about how to market to older Boomers, and we're happy to prepare a customized presentation for your audience at your event. Just contact us to learn more about our various presentations sharing our insights on the Boomer segment.

Let us know if you have a rant or a rave.

Because no two iPods are the same. All 21 million that Apple has sold are all “myPods,” with individual music for each individual owner.

The perfect Boomer product (even though it isn't targeted to them).

We know this because in our Boomer Project research we've heard time and time again from Boomers that they need to feel that products and services are relevant to them.

Not "them" as a group, but them as individuals.

At first, we wondered why that was the case. And then, it hit us.

Boomers have grown up as part of a crowd -- crowded school rooms, crowded lecture halls in college, crowded rock concerts, crowded DMV offices, crowded bars, crowded sporting events, crowded cubicles, crowded highways, crowded everywhere (except Montana).

Living 50 years as being a member of an inevitable crowd has fed the need for individual Boomers to express themselves as, well, individuals. It first popped up in the 1970's, when author Tom Wolfe identified Boomers as the "Me Generation." Of course, Wolfe was commenting on the self-absorbed nature of twentysomething Boomers, but he could have also been describing a mind-set that Boomers have had to master in order to feel special or unique.

Think about it, how can you feel special when there are 10,000 of you sharing the same birthday?

Over the years some marketers figured out how to tap into that Boomer mind-set that everyone is unique (I'm reminded of the line from the Pixar movie "The Incredibles" when Bob Parr, the former superhero, observed that "if everyone is special, then no one is").

Often cited is clothing retailer GAP, who starting using famous celebrities in TV spots ten years ago. The celebrities would talk about individual expression and their own uniqueness while wearing GAP clothes. So Boomers wanting to feel their own uniqueness bought GAP khakis.

The result: everyone wears GAP khakis, everyone looks the same, yet everyone feels like an individual.

Brilliant.

More recently, Apple has hit gold with their iPod product line. Last quarter they sold 6.2 million units (costing well over $200) While we haven’t been able to find hard data on the age of purchasers, based on observational data, 6.1 million must have been sold to Boomers between 40 and 60 years old.

What can other marketers learn from the success of Apple and GAP? Three things:

1. Nothing you sell is for "everyone." Claims like that will fall on deaf ears. Boomers today will buy products and services that they think are relevant to them individually -- if everyone else also happens to buy the same product or service, so be it.
2. The "me" isn't self-absorbed, but self- fulfilled. At this stage of life, Boomers are less driven by social needs and more inner-focused. They do things and buy things to satisfy their own wants and needs, not to keep up with the Joneses.
3. Let Boomers find themselves in your message, don't force fit them. The best creative approach is to portray specific individuals using your product or service, ideally telling a story about them and your product or service. The Boomer audience will determine if the story portrayed is relevant to them and how the product or service might then be relevant to their individual needs. Showing "everyone" using the product is a turn-off to Boomers. Make it personal.