Baby Boomer Insights

Boomers and Gen Y: when it comes to shopping, their habits tend to be exact opposites

In just a couple of weeks, my youngest daughter Sydney, who is about to turn 19, is moving into her first apartment as she enters her sophomore year at Georgia College and State University. In the process of shopping for this new place, I discovered that we have exact opposite online habits.

Sydney goes online and checks out everything from Ikea to Target to Wal-Mart and even small boutique shops. She already has a good idea of how she wants to decorate her bedroom and bath in particular, so to her the hunt is about finding what she has in her head, then going to the store to buy it. Some things she's willing to buy online, but mostly she sees the Internet as a huge catalog that helps her save gas by showing her exactly what's where. Then, there's the hybrid. Some items she ordered online but requested they be shipped to the store for pickup.

I'm the opposite. While I like to use the Internet too, I find a lot of value in just going to the stores and getting ideas by walking around, looking at suggested designs (which Ikea excels at showcasing). Then, when I see what I like, I want to find it cheaper online and order it. Often, of course, I actually order from the online site of the store I visited, but if price is a key driver, I'll focus on the best deal. And I want it to come to me - either at my office or home. I don't fetch.

Well, I just learned that my method is actually becoming the standard for Boomers. A recent study by the US Annenberg Center for the Digital future revealed that two-thirds of consumers between 50 and 60 prefer to research items inside a store, but buy online. And over half of consumers 70+ followed this pattern.

So what's the lesson for retailers? First, understand the importance of providing multiple channels for doing business with you.  No matter the age, people expect your online store to be  a rich resource, easy to navigate and easy  to make a secure purchase.

Given the expected uptick in the number of 50+ users on the internet, also take into account the wisdom of using a larger typefont and lots of images.

But don't stop there: make sure your sales people literally think outside the box they're standing in and suggest that customers also check out your store's web site too.

Warning! Retire too soon and you may outlive your savings!

If you're planning to retire, yet still maintain your current lifestyle, you may want to rethink that strategy, based on the results of a new study released this week. According to Ernst & Young, Boomers need to get a better grip on reality. Few will be able to live in retirement like they do today without depleting their savings completely.

You can read the details of the study here from Sunday's Washington Post. Here's the net, net: longer life spans plus poor saving habits plus the lack of a robust employee pension plan equals potential disaster. According to this study, commissioned by Americans for Secure Retirement, the average middle-class Boomer now retiring will have to cut back on his/her standard of living by 24 percent. Boomers who plan to retire in seven years should plan a 37 percent cutback in spending.

Several potential solutions are offered (none of which work alone). But the most intriguing to me is the notion that Congress can help fix the problem. The ASR coalition recommends that Boomers buy annuities (essentially, an investment made now that provides you with an income beyond Social Security in retirement). To stimulate this strategy, they want Congress to pass legislation that would make annuities easier to obtain and reduce the tax burden at payout time. ASR suggests taxes be eliminated completely on 50 percent of the annuity payout, up to $20,000 per year. (BTW, many ASR members are insurance companies that sell annuities.)

I personally think annuities are a great option and Lord knows I'm all for reducing my tax liability at every turn, but it seems to me this solution won't affect enough Boomers for it to make a significant dent. After all, the "mass affluent" - Boomers who have $100k+ to invest - make up only 30 percent of the Boomer population. Some 67 percent have less than $100k to invest, according to Forrester. So while a legislative solution on the surface seems to be a good one, I'm suggesting it's only a piece of the puzzle and shouldn't be viewed as, "That's the ticket!"

For instance, what the study doesn't take into account is that a majority of Boomers don't intend to retire at the standard retirement age of 62; instead, they plan to work several more years, perhaps by re-careering completely or by working part-time. I don't know about you, but I don't have a single retired friend who hasn't cut back on his/her lifestyle or standard of living once they retired. Moreover, most prepared for their retirement by gradually cutting back their lifestyles.

Here's what marketers need to take away from this: Boomers first and foremost want control. So if you have a financial service or product to offer them, especially in their pre-retirement and retirement years, you need to be able to show them how it will help them gain control over their destinies.

Don't try scare tactics such as "You're in danger of outliving your savings!" It turns them off. Instead, evoke a positive emotion and response by guiding them to a proactive solution. Leave the OMG-style headlines to the guys who are trying to sell more newspapers. 

Is your Boomer marketing boat about to run aground?

Ralph and I were on the boat riding around Lake Sinclair yesterday when I was suddenly reminded of just how marketers find themselves wondering how they "missed the boat" when it comes to Boomers.

We were on a part of the lake we've been to countless times, which just makes this story all the more embarrassing. We saw a cove where four new houses have recently been completed and put up for sale. So we headed toward them full speed ahead. Suddenly, the boat made an awful noise and nearly stopped cold. Turns out we had run up on a sandbar. We managed to get off safely with no major damage, except his bruised ego.

Well, $200 and a few hours later, Ralph had installed a new propeller and had a laugh over how he managed to chew up the other one.

So what's this have to do with marketing to Boomers? Everything. It's easy to run up on a sandbar when you're focusing just on the destination. In a boat, you have to pay attention to the depth finder, which lets you know if the water is deep enough to keep going. If Ralph had been watching the depth finder instead of the houses, he'd have noticed the severe drop in water depth.

That's the equivalent of what marketers often do when it comes to Boomers. They focus so much on the fact that there's a vast pool of 78 million of us, they forget that it's not as easy as just "aim in that direction" and you'll get what you want. Marketing to Boomers goes much deeper than that.

We know from the Edelman/Strategy One Boomer Insights and Implications Study, 2007, that some 28 percent of Boomers don't even identify with the term, so they've already self-selected OUT of the pool of 78 million. They might be the sandbar you run aground on your way to reaching the ones who are really your target.

Finding your brand's "Bull's Eye Boomer" (tm) is critical to ensuring you don't run aground. It takes research and patience, but it's worth doing before investing in a Boomer marketing strategy. It's simply not enough the say, "Our target is women 50+." Really?

Two 50-year-old women could be as different as night and day. I'm a great example of that. I have a twin sister. We're 51 and couldn't be more different. I live in a city, she's in rural Georgia. My kids are 22 and 18, one a college graduate, the other a college sophomore. Her three children are 32, 22, and 21. And she has three grandchildren. She's a nurse. I have no patience for patients. I read all the time, love to blog and have to have the latest gadget. She's prefers to watch TV and is happy with a working cell phone.Get the picture? We're only 15 minutes apart in age (I"m the oldest - she has always told people I got out with the brains and she stayed behind for the looks!) but we clearly have very different lifestyles and interact with brands in very different ways.

On the surface, my sister and I are like those new houses in the distance (well, actually more like worn cottages). It may seem all you have to do is aim for us all standing side by side and call it a day. But let me just caution you that you could also find yourself grinding to a halt before you get to shore if you aren't careful.