The Business of Aging

U-Boomers? Yet Another Baby Boomer Marketing Segment.

In their commentary "Make Way For The U-Boomers" McKinsey consultants David Court and Diana Farrell discuss U-Boomers - the largest segment of the baby boomer generation, sandwiched between 10 million very wealthy boomer households and 11 million disadvantaged households.

According to McKinsey research, u-boomers share the optimism of their wealthier counterparts but cannot afford a "Lexus lifestyle". 

Some excerpts from the commentary (read in its entirety):

- As the economic clout of the cash-constrained, highly discriminating u-boomers grows, companies will need to rethink how they deliver services while keeping prices down. Web-based tools that lower delivery costs while retaining a sense of personalization and high-end service are part of the solution.

- For retailers, meeting u-boomer needs means jettisoning the idea that older people prefer smaller specialty stores. Our research indicates that two-thirds of u-boomers prefer to shop at bigger stores. 

- Given this group's high expectations for service, retailers should avoid over-investing in small-store formats and focus instead on keeping prices down while innovating around convenience and service.

This is very interesting information - McKinsey always produces great information - but is this really news to anyone in marketing?

The McKinsey consultants write "in contrast to the stereotype of older consumers as thrifty and unadventurous with entrenched brand loyalties, this group is technology-savvy, open-minded and willing to experiment."

As a result, they suggest that "companies need to think about repositioning their brands".

We are inundated with information about how we should market to Boomers. And it is my personal belief that a lot of so-called marketing 'experts" - usually Boomers themselves who feel the need to remind us just how special their generation is - underestimate corporate marketing departments.
 
I think most marketing departments get it.

All generations have unique characteristics that shape how we as marketers position, price, package and distribute the products or services we market to the respective generation.

Sorry Boomers but your generation is no more unique than any other generation. All generations have interesting nuances that challenge marketing departments as they try to influence and move consumers through the purchasing cycle.

What makes Boomers unique - radically distinctive and without equal - is their size.  This, and this alone, is why marketers make such a big deal about the Boomer generation.

Everyone is trying to figure out how to sell more stuff to the Boomers, a generation that will account for roughly 40 percent of total U.S. spending by 2015!!

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. 

This is not unique to the Boomer generation.  It's called good marketing.

And I believe most marketing departments get this.

Very few major brands that I am aware of are making the assumption that older consumers are thrifty and unadventurous - unless of course their segmentation research shows that their target market is in fact thrifty and unadventurous.  After all, in this economy some of those 24 million households must be a little thrifty and unadventurous.

Carefully Consider What Ads You Place on Your Web Site and Blog

The quickest way to kill your blog's credibility (for me at least) is to place random and uncontrolled advertisements like Google Adsense on your blog. Unfortunately, increasing numbers of blogs and other content publishers in the senior care space seem to be doing this.

I cannot tell you how many times I get notified by my news aggregation software of what appears to be a great article on an interesting Boomer or senior care topic only to click through to the article and find AdSense dominating the page (see image below as an example).

And when I see these I immediately leave the site - and my guess many other people do as well.

Don't get me wrong - there is nothing wrong with placing ads on your web pages and blogs but you must understand that the types of ads you choose to place impact your company and brand credibility. And I believe AdSense kills credibility because (a) anyone can place these ads on their site and (b) you have no control over what types of ads show up and (c ) too many sites have abused AdSense by creating a bunch of junk sites for the sole purpose of making a small commission each time one of these ads is clicked. So by participating in this game you are guilty (of no credibility) by association.

Marketer's Placing Too Much Emphasis on "Boomers".

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.

Joe Paterno Coffin Comment and Other Rants About How We Treat Older American's

Some of you may have heard about the Texas A&M male cheerleader who during a pep rally in preparation for playing Penn State in the Alamo Bowl said Joe Paterno (the 81 year-old Penn State coach) was on his death bed and needed a coffin . It got some national media attention but the story quickly faded, mainly because Paterno shrugged off the comments and because Texas A&M sent the cheerleader home and issued numerous apologies.  And BTW, how irresponsible was ESPN in actually replaying the tape of the incident during the nationally televised bowl game?

Anyway, this incident got me thinking about how our culture treat's the elderly.  In a word, pretty badly.  There are many theories on why American's attitudes toward the elderly are somewhat negative.     I was personally never aware of this until I started caring for my aging mom.  And now I see examples of it every day. Here are a few: 

• I witnessed an older woman ordering bacon at a diner and trying to explain to the waitress how she liked it cooked (crispy :-), but the diner was crowded and noisy so the waitress got very impatient with the woman and simply walked away saying it comes only one way. 

• I was behind an elderly man at a Shop Rite pharmacy the other day who had just received his prescription but was confused about the price and medications he had received. He was obviosuly hard of hearing so he was speaking loudly to the woman behind the register about his concerns - but he was not being rude, just voicing his frustration over some apparent errors in his prescription refills. The woman behind the register got very upset with the man and angrily replied "don't yell at me". The man quietly walked away.

As America ages, we will all need to get better at understanding and communicating with the elderly. Especially businesses.  As we age, we are not as sharp and we can get easily confused.  These pharmacies and other service businesses need to train their employees on the importance of patience and understanding toward seniors. With the massive increase in our senior population this is good business, and just good period.  It's the right thing to do. These "seniors" helped build the society we now enjoy and a little respect is due. Service is bad enough to everyone but cut the senior a break - you'd want the same treatment when your that age.