Boomer Consumer - A New Book for Marketing to Us!
by Nancy Fernandez Mills
Matt Thornhill has been sending out red alerts to corporate marketers for several years now. His message: You are failing to target 78 million consumers who have plenty of money and are willing to spend a lot of it! (Billions? Trillions?) Today, thanks to Matt and his colleagues like marketing gurus Brent Green and Marti Barletta, some companies are beginning to figure out how to talk to, sell to and profit from serving the Boomers.
Matt and his business partner John Martin have written a very convincing book called Boomer Consumer, Ten New Rules for Marketing to America's Largest, Wealthiest and Most Influential Group. If ad execs can read this book and still not revamp their campaigns to target Baby Boomers, they are more stuck in their 18-49 year old "desirable demographic" thinking that I would have thought possible!
When the Boomers TV team went to ad agencies in 2005 looking for sponsors to underwrite our 13 part television series Boomers! Redefining Life After Fifty, we were almost always sent into a conference room to talk to creatives and account execs who were in their 20's. They really couldn't relate to a show for a "demo" older than 35! Today, some agencies and the media in general are beginning to change, thanks to Boomers with power and name recognition who are talking about being over 50 as OK, even cool. The influence of people like Katie Couric and Dave Letterman are noted by Matt and John in their book.
Boomer Consumer is an interesting read, even if you don't have a lot of toothpaste or cars or trips to sell. The authors' psycho-social approach and their reminders that there are many kinds of Boomers with many different goals, dreams and lifestyles are valuable. But their conclusion that almost all Boomers will be looking for ways to stay vital in five key areas of life also rings true. They predict Boomers will seek financial vitality, physical vitality, mental vitality, social vitality, and spiritual vitality for at least another 40 years.
The authors also provide a reality check for those who think all of us are getting ready to retire next year...the median age of Boomers is just 51. And the halfway point of Boomers reaching age 65 won't be here until 2022. So Boomers are still young enough to have to keep earning money and to spend it, often on brands that we didn't grow up loyal to because they just weren't around in the 50's, 60's or 70's. (Boomers, show us your iPods!)
For more, visit www.boomerconsumer.com.
Matt Thornhill has been sending out red alerts to corporate marketers for several years now. His message: You are failing to target 78 million consumers who have plenty of money and are willing to spend a lot of it! (Billions? Trillions?) Today, thanks to Matt and his colleagues like marketing gurus Brent Green and Marti Barletta, some companies are beginning to figure out how to talk to, sell to and profit from serving the Boomers.
Matt and his business partner John Martin have written a very convincing book called Boomer Consumer, Ten New Rules for Marketing to America's Largest, Wealthiest and Most Influential Group. If ad execs can read this book and still not revamp their campaigns to target Baby Boomers, they are more stuck in their 18-49 year old "desirable demographic" thinking that I would have thought possible!
When the Boomers TV team went to ad agencies in 2005 looking for sponsors to underwrite our 13 part television series Boomers! Redefining Life After Fifty, we were almost always sent into a conference room to talk to creatives and account execs who were in their 20's. They really couldn't relate to a show for a "demo" older than 35! Today, some agencies and the media in general are beginning to change, thanks to Boomers with power and name recognition who are talking about being over 50 as OK, even cool. The influence of people like Katie Couric and Dave Letterman are noted by Matt and John in their book.
Boomer Consumer is an interesting read, even if you don't have a lot of toothpaste or cars or trips to sell. The authors' psycho-social approach and their reminders that there are many kinds of Boomers with many different goals, dreams and lifestyles are valuable. But their conclusion that almost all Boomers will be looking for ways to stay vital in five key areas of life also rings true. They predict Boomers will seek financial vitality, physical vitality, mental vitality, social vitality, and spiritual vitality for at least another 40 years.
The authors also provide a reality check for those who think all of us are getting ready to retire next year...the median age of Boomers is just 51. And the halfway point of Boomers reaching age 65 won't be here until 2022. So Boomers are still young enough to have to keep earning money and to spend it, often on brands that we didn't grow up loyal to because they just weren't around in the 50's, 60's or 70's. (Boomers, show us your iPods!)
For more, visit www.boomerconsumer.com.
posted at 3:22 PM
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