Baby Boomer Insights

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.

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?

Boomers want style (even in mundane items) as a part of aging well

My husband and I just returned from a long weekend in the North Georgia mountains, where we took a little getaway to celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary. It was perfect convertible weather and we had a blast driving curvy mountain roads, eating in great restaurants and shopping in unique gift stores.

During our shopping treks, I couldn't help but notice a couple of interesting trends. I saw a lot more items clearly targeted to Boomers and seniors, including nostaligic posters, old tin toys, electronic brain games (right next to the kids' games!) and things like "ageless memories" books. By far, my favorite thing, though, was the countless number of very stylish walking sticks and canes.

Just a couple of years ago, these same shops carried wood carved walking sticks made from native trees and they didn't vary much. They clearly were all about function. This time, though, I saw all kinds of colorful, whimsical walking sticks, some of which carried little tags noting they were specifically for "hikers who seek style." That's code for "I don't want to look like I need this thing." In other words, Boomers and seniors can now hike with the grandchildren (or each other!) and use the walking stick or cane as a fashion accessory as much as for an assistive device.

I'll bet I saw 150 different styles in the course of a day. I even commented to Ralph that these walking sticks in particular would make a fun, interesting thing to collect.

To my way of thinking, these stylish sticks represent so much more than a fun, novelty item in a mountain gift store. They signal an overall trend we're seeing with Boomers. We're traveling more, trying new things and doing both with gusto and an eye toward companies and web sites that recognize that we don't want to defy age so much as we want to age well. We see no reason why we should have to sacrifice style for usability.

That's why you're seeing such a rise in everything from stylish, functional kitchen items to funky reading glasses.

Does your company provide or manufacture a common, functional device for Boomers and seniors? If so, are you keeping it relevant by making it stylish (or at least making the packaging attractive)? Maybe it's the device itself that needs a little spiffing up. Or perhaps you can start with the carrying case.

The point is that Boomers aren't gong to give up style for function as we age. We're still all about customization, personality, fun and above all graceful aging.

How wealthy consumers use social networks online: marketers should pay attention to their specific requests

Recently, I've noticed a huge uptick in the number of sites that let you "opt out" of having your information shared with others. In other words, you have to specifically tell the wizard behind the curtain that s/he CANNOT share your information; otherwise, you've totally lost control over who sees your data and acts on it. Your life is for sale.

Well, listen up, marketers. If you're targeting wealthy consumers, just know that according to a recent WealthSurvey by the Luxury Institute, 65% of wealthy consumers hate having to opt out. What's more, they'll disconnect from a site they believe will use their personal data without their permission.

No big deal, right? It's not like wealthy people (and boomers make up a large portion of this group) hang out in social networks.

Wait! Not so fast! It turns out that these wealthy Americans (those with an average income of $287k and an average net worth of $2.1 million) have membership in 2.8 social networks with an average of 110 connections. That means we've seen a huge increase in the number of wealthy consumers using social networks  -- from 27% in 2007 to 60% in 2008. Moreover, the number of wealthy consumers 55+ using social networks has grown five-fold to 49%.

I've seen evidence of this firsthand. The number of people in these categories who have reached out to me via this blog or through LinkedIn (the second most popular social networking site for the weathy, behind MySpace) has grown tremendously just in the past six months. I'm often pleasantly surprised to learn who's online and wanting to connect.

It seems almost counterintuitive that "rich" people would be online. Someone asked me recently, "Don't they have people who do that for them?" I replied, "Sometimes. But often they have 'their people' doing other things, which frees them up to spend more time online."

Whatever their motivation, marketers need to keep in mind that reaching wealthy consumers isn't all about exclusive events, parties and fancy direct mail. Check out the Luxury Institute site, by the way, to learn even more about the expectations of the wealthy.

Here's the bottom line: you can no longer assume you know how boomers and especially wealthy ones, think and act. That's why my company spends so much effort helping companies identify their Bull's-eye Boomer (tm). After all, why spend a fortune just to hit the outside rings when there's plenty of data now to help hit the bull's-eye every time?

Tracking what you own: why home inventory software appeals to Boomers

I've been thinking about buying a new digital camera, especially after looking through some photo albums I treasure. I have always loved to take pictures, especially of my children, who by coincidence, happen to be the most beautiful girls in the world.

Anyway, I came across one album this weekend that really made me stop and think. It was a huge binder of photos I made years ago of all the big-ticket items in my house. I had done an inventory and had created a list of furniture, china, silver and treasured household itmes, including where they were purchased and their approximate worth. Suddenly, I realized the pictures were 7 years old and didn't include several major purchases we had made since then. They also didn't include many of the beautiful things, including antiques, that Ralph's mother gave us when she moved out of her estate home to a one bedroom apartment at St. George Village two years ago.

I confess I was also a bit red-faced at realizing I had never put the album into a safety vault, so if I had lost everything in a disaster, the album would have been included. Duh.

Then my mind jumped to the awful fire that caused my parents to have to move out of their home of 55 years in 2006 (it took six months to rebuild and they didn't salvage any furniture). Suddenly, I felt a sense of urgency to do something.

Like most Boomers, I turned to the Internet to search for better solutions than taking a video or snapping  pictures and putting them in an album. I was delighted by the number of inventory solutions I found.

KnowYourStuff.org is free downloadable inventory software and is a service of the Insurance Information Institute. There's also MakeLifeEasy.com, a service that guides you through all the steps of what to inventory, how to categorize it and it even lets you scan in receipts and appraisals. I also came across Vault24.com, a Swiss company that enables you - for a small monthly fee - to store all your inventory data online so you can access if on the web from anywhere, just in case you need to file a claim in the case of a natural disaster that requires you to move away quickly (as was the case with so many Katrina victims).  (By the way, for any cynics reading this, let me assure you none of these companies is an Edelman client - I found them randomly.)

This is a great example of the kind of service Boomers love. We like technology that helps us accomplish a specific task as much as we love any service that reduces stress and makes us more efficient.

Inventory software not only helps us keep up with our own things (which is also important when we start to downsize or decide to move) but it's a great way to keep up with our parents' things. Seems to me a web-based inventory with photos could be especially helpful to families scattered about when it comes time to divide up mom and dad's treasures.

My girls are still beautiful and when I buy a new camera I'll still take a lot of pictures of them, but you can bet I'll be all over this web-based inventory system as well. I'd love to hear from people who have used any of these - or other systems. Tell what your experience has been like!

Boomers, rejoice! Custom calling cards are making a comeback!

Today's Wall Street Journal carries an interesting story called, "A Business Card for Your Wild Side."  It's about a new trend in people carrying multiple business/calling cards that reflect different aspects of their life.

The argument is that a more personalized card that contains non-traditional information is more appropriate for social settings and many networking events. Often the multiple-card carrier has a side business, but keeps a day job, or wants to be known for a particular thing, such as a blog s/he writes.

How ironic that as our society gets more and more connected electronically, the good old standby paper card is making a comeback (albeit with perfume and lipstick, so to speak). Some folks are even springing for designer cards that can cost a few dollars per card. All I have to say is, "Thank goodness!" (No matter how much I use technology like LinkedIn, there simply is no substitute for a great card.)

I love business cards. I rarely throw one away. In fact, I have hundreds of them safely stored in ziplock bags. Of course, many are also in my electronic Contacts file, but when you open up an online address book, everyone looks the same. A business card is an opportunity to really express yourself. I notice everything from the weight of the card to the design to the type font. Each design element tells me something about the person who gave me the card. Since I'm a very visual person, I can often remember a person's card even better than their name months after meeting them.

My daughters and I (they're 22 and 18) differ tremendously on this point. When they meet someone they may want to contact later, they instantly put their contact information into their cell phones. "Why write something down or keep up with a card?" they argue. "You can always just delete them if it turns out you don't want to stay in touch. " My approach is the opposite. I decide if they're "keepers," THEN add them to my address book or cell phone.

That's a key difference in Gen Y and baby boomers. We use technology as a tool to accomplish a specific task. Gen Y uses technology as a lifestyle. Here's another example: How many different ring tones do you think the average Boomer has on his/her cell phone? We just want it to ring to let us know someone's calling. Gen Y wants the ring itself to announce who's calling.

Marketers who want to reach Boomers, take heed: even though we love technology and use it, we still like to flip through hard copies of publications, swap real cards and enjoy tactile experiences. So don't go crazy thinking that all you have to do is put your " stuff " online and we'll go find it. Make us feel your brand too!