Baby Boomer Insights

How the economy is impacting boomers

Years ago, I used to laugh at my father-in-law, who could tell you on any given day exactly how much gas cost and where you could buy it the cheapest. He'd drive 10 miles out of his way to save two cents a gallon. At the time, gas was well below $2 and I didn't see why someone who was rather well-to-do would bother to be inconvenienced to save less than $1.50. Now I get it.

Even though he retired very comfortably, he had grown up poor and never forgot his roots. Just because he had money that day didn't mean he'd always have it.

Today, I find myself following his lead, only - thanks to the Internet - I don't have to drive around looking for cheaper gas. I can go to www.gasbuddy.com or www.gaspricewatch.com. Better still, I can find out right on my cell phone where to find the cheapest gas. Just go to www.getmobio.com/learn/cheapgas and, like magic, a satellite picks up where you are and can tell you what stations are near you offering what prices. Now, it has become a point of pride to find a way to keep an extra five to eight bucks a month from greedy oil and gas providers. It's no longer about affordability for me. It's more about taking control.

My husband recently told me that when he was in middle and high school,  his brother, who is almost 12 years older, lived several states away. On Sunday, after church, Ralph and his parents would drive to Ralph SR's office to make the weekly call to his brother. Ralph was a high level executive and free long distance personal calls were an executive perk. It was a big deal because phone calls were far more expensive than gas. It was cheaper to drive 10 miles to the office to make a call than to make the call from home. Who'd have guessed then that the exact opposite would be true today? Gas is expensive and phone calls are cheap.

Today, the Ralph JRs of the world - we Boomers - have to make decisions everyday that are increasingly impacting the economy. According to a recent study by AARP, more than a quarter of Boomers are having trouble paying their mortgages and a third have stopped contributing to their retirement plans. Another 27 percent plan to postpone retirement.

If the economy continues its downward spiral, you'll see Boomers postpone major purchases and cut back on travel. So it is no longer a given that marketers can count on Boomers to continue to indulge themselves and spend freely. Marketers will have to work harder to get our attention and loyalty. But if you do, you're golden, because we'll tell everyone we know... and we know a lot of people!

Gotta have my HGTV: Fellow Boomers share my addiction

I'm thinking I may soon need to find a 12-step program for viewers of HGTV. I'm seriously addicted. From Property Virgins to House Hunters International, to Devine Design, I rarely miss an episode about people buying houses, decorating houses, renovating houses, or selling houses. And then, there's the landscape makeovers to see. It's exhausting, yet I can't pull myself away! Last night's show demonstrating new gadgets and home features from the International Homebuilders Show made me want to start replacing fixtures and ripping out bathrooms!

I think subconsciously I believe that just viewing these shows will somehow improve my real estate karma, sort of like thinking that just regularly walking through Office Depot will ensure that I'm a better business professional.  (Just so you know I haven't completely lost it, I do not believe that standing in my garage makes me a sports car.)

It turns out that my addiction (or at least preference for viewing HGTV) is shared by my fellow Boomers. In the Boomer Insights Study, 2007 conducted by Strategy One and Edelman several months ago, we zeroed in on Boomers' media consumption habits and HGTV made the list for both men and women.

Perhaps it's because Boomers aren't following the patterns set by our parents when it comes to deciding how we'll live as we consider retirement. I confess I've waffled some myself on exactly what my next real estate investment will be. When I visited a Del Webb active adult community neighboring Reynolds Plantation at Lake Oconee in middle Georgia, I loved it. (Ironically, just a couple of weeks later, a reporter at the Atanta Journal-Constitution called to ask my perspective on Boomers seeking places like Del Webb as a retirement choice.)

Then a renovation show on HGTV just about convinced me to just change the home I live in today and stay there... until I saw a few shows on Boomers heading to places like Costa Rica and even Panama. I loved the idea of adventure and lower housing costs. But I couldn't stand the idea of being so far from my adult children.

I still haven't ruled out the possibility of trading in a big suburban home for a townhouse in the city, either.

The point is, like many Boomers when it comes to making decisions about how to live out the last quarter of my life, nothing is set in stone. We love adventure, spending time with our families, making new friends, volunteering and trying new things. And where and how we choose to live is a big part of all of that.

This is becoming even more and more evident to me as I have the opportunity to work with many of Edelman's real estate clients, all of whom want to reach Boomers in some way.

If you're a Boomer, what would you tell real estate clients to do to get through to you?

How Boomers have shaped 40 years of political conventions

Today marks 111 days until the 2008 Democratic National Convention.  It may be the most significant meeting of the donkey party since the Chicago convention in 1968. Obviously, it is historic because the two frontrunners are a white woman and a black man. But it's also noteworthy because of the role Boomers played - and continue to play - in shaping elections.

In 1968, as "leading Boomers" were exiting college, the Convention was interrupted by protesters, who used the occasion to loudly register their belief that racism threatened the very democratic process and that the United States' involvement in Vietnam was immoral and wrong in every way. 

They organized sit-ins,  love-ins and protests around the country primarily by word-of-mouth. You might say they created the original social networks.  And their hair and clothing styles, symbols and lifestyles were how they expressed their support of an attitude as much as how they were defined as a generation.

These Boomers believed they could change the world - and they did in many ways.   Thanks in large part to the Boomers of '68, the 2008 Convention will be the realization of a dream - a gathering in which either a white woman or a black man will get the nomination as the Democratic candidate.

But along the way, Boomers have changed too - and that's something a lot of marketers fail to realize. The very ones who carried picket signs, used recreational drugs and rocked out to the Beatles grew up.  Many now look back on those times as  a snapshot in time, rather than what defined them for the rest of their lives.

In fact, according to the Boomer Insights Study conducted by Strategy One and Edelman in 2007, almost a third of Boomers don't even identify themselves as Boomers, in part because they associate the Boomer generation with the folks who eschewed wealth and resented the establishment. But that was before they became the most affluent generation ever, running the most successful companies on the planet.

That doesn't make Boomers hypocrits. It simply means we've discovered other ways to affect change and we've used our education, brainpower and energy to  develop the technology that has made it possible for a white woman and a black man to be truly heard. Blogs, cell phones, web sites, and sophisticated Internet strategies are the electronic version of sit-ins, picket signs, petitions and protests. Tear gas doesn't hold a candle to a Boomer with a computer and an Internet connection!

So, what does this mean to you? If you want to reach Boomers, understand first of all that we aren't a large tribe that thinks and acts alike. On the contrary, we're all about choice and individualism and we expect to be approached with respect for our experience and intelligence.

What definitely hasn't changed since 1968 is that we still want to make a difference in the world and will use whatever means are available and necessary to be heard!