DISCLOSURE: I am not a baby boomer, I don't like the term and I think too many marketers place too much emphasis on it. I have nothing against Boomer's. I just don't like the label.
I read the blog posting BoomerCafé … the Next 10 Years several times and I couldn't figure out why, but something about it bothered me. Most of the article pontificates about how unique, affluent, diverse, and active the Boomer generation is and how difficult they are to market to because they hate to be pushed and are suspicious of everything. I guess there were no Boomers who fell for the Madoff ponzi scheme.
Anyway.
Then I figured out why the post bothered me. This one line sums up my problem with the post.
[In order to effectively market to Boomers] you’ve got to win their respect to get their support".
How is this different than marketing to any other individual, group, culture, generation, etc?
It's not.
But leave it to the Boomers to think they are the first generation whereby companies must earn their respect first. And this is why I don't like the term "Boomer" as a marketing term. It does not mean anything beyond the fact that they were the post WW2 generation that included a lot of people. And by the way, is it me or does the Boomer generation seem to keep expanding? Now it's people born between 1946 and 1964. When I was a kid, we were told it was people born between the 1943-60. What happened?
Ahh, but wait. This generation, relatively speaking, has a lot of affluent people. And this, and this alone, is why marketers make such a big deal about the Boomer generation. Because everyone is trying to figure out how to sell more stuff to the Boomers.
Ok. But again, what's the big deal?
As a marketer, you want to carefully identify your target market, learn as much about them as possible (demographics, buying habits, needs, purchasing behavior, etc.), and figure out how to reach them, engage them, establish trust with them and motivate them to buy more of your stuff. (And I don't mean hard sells. If you truly have a valued solution and earn the buyer's trust you'll sell your stuff. How to do that is a whole different discussion but the Internet has changed everything - think social media/networking).
But this is not unique to the Boomer generation. It's called good marketing.
In the Boomer Cafe's blog post it says:
"AARP and few other organizations have made attempts … but have never quite succeeded at reaching the 77-million baby boomers in America, most likely because they are not subtle at either pushing or winning trust. Neither have marketers".
I would rewrite this as:
"COMPANY has made attempts … but has never quite succeeded at reaching X market because they have not fully understood the market's needs, have not built trust with the buyer and have not delivered a valued solution".
It has nothing to do with "Boomers".
And how many marketer's would define their target market as an entire generation? It does not work like this. Cruise line vacation marketers like Carnival have a product for every budget, lifestyle and age group. I don't think the marketers at Carnival approach marketing differently when trying to figure out how to sell to someone age 25, age 65 or age 80.
Marketing is marketing.
So, how does AARP "reach all 77-million Boomers?"
Not by thinking their target market is an entire generation that shares any single common trait. That's foolish. And not with one product. Impossible. Unless they figure out a replacement to the iPod. How about brand extension such as offering different AARP memberships and magazines for different age/demographic groups?
Again, it's not about reaching the "Boomer" it's about good marketing - identifying your target market, learning as much about them as possible (demographics, needs, buying habits, purchasing behavior, etc.), and figuring out how to reach them, engage them, establish trust with them and motivate them to buy more of your stuff.
By the way, I agree 100% with what David Henderson (the author of Boomer Cafe) writes in his blog post: "I think it’s the hardest thing for any marketer or PR person to comprehend. In today’s world, pushing products and services is far more expensive and far less effective than connecting, listening and engaging audiences in conversation. The latter is today’s style of the Internet Era."
I couldn't agree more. Regardless of generation.
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