Baby Boomer Insights

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.

Boomer Pierce Brosnan finds mid-life liberating: out of the tux and into the spandex

When I picked up the paper from the driveway the morning, one of the first things I noticed was a promo for today's Parade Magazine. It said Pierce Brosnan had been dumped as James Bond, agent 007 for being "too old."

"That can't be!" I declared to myself. "He's not much older than I am!" (Just as quickly, I felt ashamed for thinking that I could see why a 50-something Bond woman probably wouldn't do, but that was different.) How is it possible Pierce Brosnan, at 55, is too old to play Bond? As far as I'm concerned, he's just getting old enough. I had always assumed he decided to quit playing Bond because he tired of the role.

Anyway, I made my way to the article on Brosnan, whom I consider one of the most handsome men in Hollywood. I've had a crush on him since he was Remington Steele in the 80's. Sure enough, there was his gorgeous face on the cover of Parade, and on the inside was an article in which he described his shock and disappointment over being told the Bond movie roles were going to a younger man, Daniel Craig. (BTW, I saw Craig as Bond and he didn't even come close to filling those big shoes, in my opinion. "Bond, James Bond," just shouldn't come from the mouth of a blond surfer dude.)

It's the rest of the article that bears the most attention, though. Brosnan talks about his willingness to try something different, to get out of the tuxedo and into bad clothes and platform shoes to play a role in the upcoming film version of Mama Mia! He sings! He dances! He acts goofy! And he loved doing it.

"You have to be able to make fun of your own dignity. You've got to let the movie make fun of your dignity. To let it rip is brilliantly exhilarating," declares Brosnan.

He's onto something. Research shows that Boomers like Brosnan are willing to try new things, seek adventure and not care much about what other people think. After all, according to the Edelman/Strategy One Boomer Insights Study, boomers don't even think someone is old until they're 74. And 75 percent of them feel no pressure to be or act a certain way. Another 88 percent said that doing new things "makes me feel good about myself."

Despite the fact that Mama Mia! is based on the music of ABBA, I'll go see it, just to see Brosnan in this unexpected role.

Meanwhile, I'd love to know if you boomers agree with Brosnan that mid-life is very liberating and something to be celebrated?

Sex and the City movie furthers the notion that gray is the new black

My almost-19-year-old daughter, Sydney, and I went to see the Sex and the City movie last night. When it was a TV series I watched it only on occasion and was never a big fan. But I knew it would be all the rage at the water cooler this week and I wanted to know enough to talk about it.

The first observation I made was that the audience was 90% boomer women. They clapped, laughed heartily, and squealed like the delighted girlfriends they were. Clearly, this crowd loved catching up on the foursome that made TV history talking about things women supposedly really talk about when they're together, out of the earshot of men.

While it was incredibly predictable, even to someone not intimately familiar with the characters, I found it pretty enjoyable nonetheless. I liked that three of the four women characters - Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte are in their 40s  - and Samantha is 50, yet they were portrayed as still stylish, full of life and still interested in talking to death various angles of relationships. The underlying theme of the movie was about forgiveness, something one typically understands and knows more about in her 40s and 50s, for sure. I loved that the actresses were playing their "real" ages and it seemed perfectly natural for them to have many of the same interests in "mid-life" as they did in their 20s and 30s.

In a way, this movie is a continuation of the "gray as the new black" phenomenon we've seen sweeping the country recently. From  "Cougars 4 Cook" on American Idol, to Dancing With the Stars having a devoted boomer audience, to the top three movies featuring "mature" actors (Harrison Ford in the new Indiana Jones movie, Robert Downey Jr. in "IronMan") Boomers are redefining what makes good pop culture. Just as we wanted all the focus on us when we were twenty-something, now we want it on us despite having a little gray around the temples.

Even Neil Diamond has made a big comeback after appearing on American Idol recently. (BTW, I got his new album for Mothers Day and just love it!) And Lord knows we're not done yet hearing all about Madonna turning 50 this year. In other words, Boomers are showing up everywhere, even in places traditionally thought to belong to the "young people."

(It says something, dontcha think when you have to insert a twenty-something star like Jennifer Hudson into the Sex and the City movie to help make it more relevant for that age group!)

Advertisers and marketers need to pay attention because Boomers are in the drivers' seat again, proclaiming what they believe is sexy and sellable. We see ourselves as younger than we really are and we want to remain vital (not necessarily young) for a long time yet, so we'll plop down our dollars if we believe you embrace us.

Rendering authenticity in boomer marketing

Today at the JWTBoom Livewire: A Summit, I had the great privilege to hear Joseph Pine, author of Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want (2007). He's an energetic speaker who, well,  oozes authenticity.

He offered this definition of authenticity: "conformance to self image." In other words, something is authentic if we see it, interact with it, and can see ourselves as a part of it. He noted that when we encounter something we consider authentic, we respond by saying "I LIKE that." Shortly, we switch to "I like that" (with the emphasis on I.) So there's no such thing as a brand declaring itself as authentic; rather, that's a designation a brand earns because it is awarded by consumers.

Pine said there are three rules to do business by:

If you ARE authentic, you don't have to say you're authentic.
If you SAY you're authentic, you better BE authentic.
It's easier to BE authentic if you don't say you're authentic.

He asked audience members to name brands they connected to because they believed the brands were authentic. Some of the answers: REI, Target, LL Bean, Harley Davidson, Lexus, Ben and Jerry's, Nike, Cheerios, North Face and Birkenstock.

Pine then shared the five genres of authenticity:

Natural -  such as organic food
Original - Apple isn't always the first with an idea, but their design is always original
Exceptional - Ritz Carlton's customer service. They track all your preferences and cater to you.
Referential - taps into shared memories. The Venetian Hotel in Vegas.
Influential - exerts influence: example given was Starbucks telling stories of how it helps farmers

BTW, I especially liked one story he told about the Ritz Carlton. He said that when the Ritz in Naples, FL, switched from door knobs to a plastic card key system, they contacted their regular customers and offered to give them one of the original door knobs in exchange for their going online and sharing a story about their Ritz Carlton experience. What a clever idea!

Pine also shared a quadrant drawing called "Rendering Authenticity." On one axis It showed brands that are what they say they are and those that are not what they say they are... on another axis were brands that are NOT true to themselves and those that ARE true to themselves. This results in four flavors: Real/Fake; Real/Real; Fake/Fake; and Fake/Real.

His point was that it is possible for a brand to move from Fake/Fake to authentic by acknowledging their position and taking corrective action. Best comment: "Fake is what we call something we don't like. If we like it but it's not real, we call it Faux."

There was a lot of discussion around the need for brands to offer experiences to consumers so they can decide for themselves how authentic the brand is.His best examples included the American Girl stores, where the average visit is four hours long and people pay just to experience the brand (and that's before they spend a dime on products). He offered up ING as a brand that offers an especially unique experience: baristas who are also financial planners. Even if it's gimmicky, there's no denying the tactic works. The baristas have been instrumental in getting over $200 million moved into ING accounts in the first year!

He noted The Gap is an example of a company that has great advertising but has failed to translate that into experiences in their stores that make people want to come back over and over.

The overarching point of his entire presentation was that authenticity is what all brands should try to achieve. It's not  always easy, but it is possible. And when your brand achieves it, you'll have a distinct competitive advantage.

JWTBoom Livewire conference offers marketers insights into boomers' online habits

Forget what you think you know about Boomers and their online activities. That's just one headline of the day.

I am in San Francisco at the invitation of JWTBoom, sponsor of the JWTBoom Livewire: A Summit. Today's summit was full of one great presentation after another. In fact, there was so much content, I'm going to write multiple entries, rather than try to summarize it all here.

Sharon Whiteley, CEO of ThirdAge, kicked off the morning with a sneak peak at some research that's so new, it just came out of the oven and was surrounded by steam. Seriously, she emphasized that the final data cuts weren't even complete, but it was already obvious some interesting trends were emerging, so she shared them with those of us at the media breakfast. By the way, ThirdAge teamed up with JWTBoom to conduct the research, which involved surveying 1,800 respondents, Here's the topline:

What's in: work-of-mouth sharing; experts and credible authorities; trusted brands; product research and online shopping; e-mail; broadband; privacy; health and wellness information.

What's out: social networking; blogs; podcasts; downloading and listening to music; group gaming,

She argues that what we hear and read about boomers embracing social networking and blogs is mostly hype. The survey showed that boomers use more traditional tools such as e-mail to keep in touch with friends, where they share everything from photos to life experiences. So while we boomers often have MySpace and Facebook accounts, it's not our preferred way to communicate. She also noted that boomers aren't at all turning away from blogs and podcasts, btw. It's just that they don't use that kind of language. When asked if they're interested in reading and hearing the opinions and insights of people like them, they indicated they were very interested. So the lesson for us all is that language is important when dealing with boomers.

Boomers embrace online marketing - selectively: they're open to marketing messages online but first they must trust the brand (so those that have been around a long time offline definitely have an advantage). The survey showed that 75% of respondents that have received promotional emails about products and services clicked through to the site being promoted. More than 55% have purchased a product or service promoted.

Not surprisingly, boomers most trust the content of web sites of brands they already trust offline. Some 83% said the content had to be attributed to experts, authorities or authoirities with subject matter crediblity.And when boomers do trust your brand, they're as likely, if not more so, than younger people to share product news with their friends. So, keep in mind the importance of using consumer product reviews on your site!

One thing we see confirmed in many studies also came out here: boomers are a powerful bunch. Today, the 78 million boomers control 83% of consumer spendng, And boomer spending will increase $800 billion to over $4.6 trillion by 2015.

Stay tuned for more information from this study. Meanwhile, visit the recently revamped ThirdAge web site. It's great!  

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!

Boomers as entrepreneurs: we'll rule the future of business

On Friday, I got the opportunity to speak at one of my all-time favorite conferences, the annual meeting of the Women Presidents' Organization. The impressive group is made up of women entrepreneurs around the U.S. and Canada who run companies that collectively generate $8.3 billion in annual revenue. These aren't hobbyists - they're serious, smart business executives who really know their stuff. To the person, everyone I met was very impressive  and inquisitive.

The theme of the conference was innovation and my presentation was about how to generate great ideas that drive innovation. I argued that the best ideas often come from process and explained the seven steps Edelman uses to arrive at some of the ideas behind our best campaigns. (We call it the Pioneer Thinking Roadmap and it is a very thorough, facilitated process that works regardless of the size of the company.)

Attendees also heard from one of my all-time favorite authors and big thinkers, Malcolm Gladwell, who introduced the world to the concept of the tipping point.

One thing I especially enjoyed about this particular conference is that most of the women are boomers who are very enthusiastic about their companies and very willing to share their best practices with one another. I learned, btw, that 68% of WPO members do business with one another.

Maybe part of the kinship I felt was driven by the fact that my own company, Edelman, is a privately-held boomer-led company. Sure, we have our share of Gen Y and Gen X, as all agencies do, but for the most part, the senior management is made up of boomers who have extensive experience in business and a thirst for independence and creativity. Even the folks who run our digital practice are boomers, a fact that surprises those who assume only the "kids" understand or care about the digital revolution.

Boomers play a very important role in  business growth and will continue to do so for the next couple of decades. Already, 50-year-olds make up a quarter of the workforce and a full 40 percent of the self-employed. Look for this trend to grow in the coming years as boomers retire from Corporate America to start their own businesses. Perhaps you've heard it said we don't retire, we rewire.

So what are the implications of this rewiring? It is significant and includes, among other things:

> Companies with a large boomer employee population need to have strategies in place  to tap into this brain trust in a way that ensures skills transfers before the "brain drain" occurs;

> Companies that service small and medium businesses need to understand that these businesses will increasingly be run by smart, experienced boomers who will be demanding, creative and very inquisitive. They'll want to do business with people they believe are as smart as they are.

Perhaps the most important insight of all is that no one in any generation should assume retirement looks a certain way or that boomers are eager to abandon the corporate workforce just to travel and watch the grandchildren. We're just as likely to start travel companies that specialize in multi-generational travel!

In other words, what I witnessed at WPO is a glimpse into the future, one that includes independent thinkers who will run the economic engine and be very choosy about where they buy their fuel. Are you ready for them?