Baby Boomer Insights

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!

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!

Tornadoes hit Atlanta: Boomers turn to local news for coverage

By now you have seen the countless videos, pictures and stories about the tornado that touched down in downtown Atlanta Friday night. How did you find out? Chances are, the generation you're in made some difference in how you learned about the news and how you've kept up with the aftermath.

Tornadoes rarely hit metropolitan areas, especially on densely populated streets full of high-rise buildings, but this one was a doozy and left downtown Atlanta a mess. Thankfully, Edelman's offices on the 29th floor of Centennial Tower overlooking the trashed Centennial Olympic Park made out OK under the circumstances.

My husband and I learned the news from WSB TV. We kept the TV on  - tuned to local stations, rather than CNN or the Weather Channel -  almost around the clock through this morning, watching for updates and learning all kinds of new things from meteorologists armed with the latest in 3D technology.

Meanwhile, my youngest daughter (18) learned the news about the tornado when someone texted her on her cell phone, then sent some video. My oldest daughter (22) heard about it from a friend she was visiting, who got an email on her Blackberry from a friend whose mother had called her. To my knowledge, none of these young people have turned to television for their ongoing news. Instead, they've relied on radio, the Internet, text messages and voice messages from their universities.

While I want to know every last detail (and have been very frustrated by the lack of TV footage of my office building), my Gen Y daughters are satisfied to know just enough to be in the know at a surface level. If they want an update, they'll seek it out, usually by going to CNN.com. Tuning into the 11:00  p.m. news for updates ranks right up there with sliding down the dinosaur's tail when the bird whistle blows.

None of this surprises me, especially after seeing the results of the 2007 Boomer Insights Study by Edelman and Strategy One. In it, we learned that Boomer men prefer local evening news while Boomer women want to catch the morning shows. Boomer women seek the feature-type stories that tell about a rescued baby or how a handicapped person was cared for during the tornado, while Boomer men want to know what's being done, how long will it take and what's the likelihood of this happening again.

In other words, the classic "give me the information and I'll draw my own conclusions" is the male perspective. Females want to feel good and reassured that all is well. We both want to get the news from sources we trust, such as local papers, news anchors and "people like me." We like knowing we can find out more if we want by going online, but for the most part, we're more interested in hearing news from the same people who have been delivering it for years.

Think about the implications of this. It's risky to think you can get your messages to Boomers by putting all your efforts into courting the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek. Sure, we read them, but not as consistently nor as thoroughly as we consume local news. So don't blow off that local paper with a circulation of only 50,000 or a news station whose signal doesn't extend past four counties. You just may be missing your best opportunity to reach your target audience!

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 and technology: we love our gadgets and gizmos!

My husband, Ralph, turned 52 last week and we celebrated in the usual way - a family dinner out, followed by a coconut cake dessert at home and the presentation of gifts. He's easy to buy for. For almost every gift-giving occasion he wants either some new techno-gadget or a power tool. Like many Boomer men, he loves to stay up on the latest technology and like most little boys, he loves to tear down and build up things. (For the record, he excels at both.)

This year he got a Garmin portable GPS. Mind you, he's an excellent map reader and has a great sense of direction. No matter. Having something electronic tell him what he already knows still appeals to him. The day he got it, he rode around in his Mustang convertible trying to get lost and confuse the little dashboard nagger. He was downright pleased with himself when he discovered a small glitch. The system didn't recognize that a road nearby doesn't have as many turns as the voice indicated.

The way Ralph got from wanting a GPS to actually having one is typical of how a typical Core Boomer (those between 46 and 51 - that's 51% of all Boomers) makes the journey. He talked with others (offline) who own a GPS, including a work colleague and our friends Bart and Pat. Then he went online and researched various types of GPS units, noting also where they could be purchased and whether there were any sales going on.

I suspect he purposely did this research the weekend before President's Day knowing there would be a better chance of a sale, plus counting on the fact I had that day off as a company holiday. All of his assumptions were right. I bought the unit at Circuit City on President's Day.

I love gadgets as much as Ralph does, so shopping in an electronics store to me is more fun than, say, shoe shopping. It takes me forever. I want to see the newest digital cameras, the shiny laptops and check out anything I think I can justify as a way to make me more productive or efficient.

See, that's the thing about Boomers that marketers need to understand. We easily justify our spending and most of aren't afraid of technology. In fact, Boomers embrace technology and are usually the first to buy the big ticket items like HDTV, laptops with bells and whistles, etc.

My birthday is in March and I'm also starting to research my next gadget gift - a new digital camera. It has been a few years since I bought one. You can bet I'll have a whole different set of requirements and expectations for this one (starting with a screen I can actually read!).

There is one difference between Boomer Ralph and Boomer Marilynn, though. I'll be among the 98% of Bull's-Eye Boomers (tm) who will share everything I know and think about it!

Eons causes uproar by lowering the age of memership: Boomers resent younger members

I can remember when Eons first came online in August 2006. Touted as a place for Boomers to chat, swap ideas, stories and opinions, it seemed to be a great idea whose time had come. Apparently, it came and went pretty quickly.  For many, myself included, it has been a terrible disappointment.

In what many of its members now see as a "bait and switch" tactic, Eons has opened up its membership to allow pre-Boomers to join. We're not talking about letting a few Gen Xers in the back door either. No siree... now you can join Eons if you're the ripe old age of 13!  It's a last-ditch effort to stop the bleeding. After all, membership on the site has plummeted from 1.2 million in May 2007 to just 400,000  last month, according to Comscore. Despite the drop, Eons has still managed to secure venture capital money, apparently by insuring investors that membership will rise as soon as the kids get in the door.

The argument is seriously flawed. Yes, Boomers are on MySpace and Facebook, but the content on those sites crosses generations. Boomers went there because the kids invited them. Those sites have evolved over time as "catch-all" sites where the content is of interest to all age groups all the time. In fact, I'll bet there are more 50+ folks on MySpace and Facebook than on Eons.

The content on the Eons site is specifically for Boomers and up. I can't imagine any teenager wanting to be a member. 

From the comments I've seen at Eons, it looks like a lot of members agree with me. They want a space where they can interact with others like them. Boomers traditionally don't go online to just hang out, flirt, poke one another (and others) and just chit-chat. Their online time is spent more purposefully, according to research conducted by my company, Edelman, and Strategy One, our marketing research arm.

I hope this major boo-boo by Eons doesn't get interpreted as proof that Boomers aren't interested in social networking because that simply isn't true. On the contrary, Boomers see social networking as an opportunity to share their opinions and expertise. But, we want to do it on our terms - and that means choosing when and where to share information.

It's not unlike "active adult communities" where the residents have to be at least 55. It may seem silly - even foolish - to those who aren't in that age group, but what matters is what the people buying into the communities want. And just as people should be able to choose their neighbors, so too should they be able to live in a gated online community, so to speak.

Stay tuned. This situation will provide many lessons for us all.

Boomer research finds women go online for health information, share with others

My left heel has been bothering me a lot lately, so I did what most Boomer women do: I turned to the Internet to try and diagnose the problem.  Using only the term "heel pain," I learned from www.FootPhysicians.com that my problem could be anything from arthritis to Plantar Fasciitis, to a stress fracture or even a nerve problem.

The point is, it wasn't that long ago that I would have just called and made an appointment to see a doctor as soon as I experienced pain. Now, I do what most Boomer women do when it comes to health issues: I research the Internet first, ask my husband and friends what they think, then seek a doctor's help.

I thought maybe my research habits were unique to me until I saw the results of the Boomer Insights and Implications Study,  recently conducted by Edelman and Strategy One. Turns out that women Boomers say that when it comes to health issues,  they actively seek out advice from an extended social network.

Some 77% reported consulting experts, such as doctors. But 88% consult family members (a spouse, children, parents, siblings). Almost half (48%) consult friends and acquaintances for advice. A majority - 63% of us -- turn to the Internet for help.

So what do we do with all this information? Share, share, share. The study showed that a whopping 86% of females share health information face-to-face or on the phone, and 42% share our knowledge online and via e-mail.

By the way, we don't just do all this for our own conditions. We're looking for health information on behalf of our parents, spouses and kids as well. In other words, Boomer women are a huge target simply because of our tremendous influence across generations.

What does this mean to you? If your company offers a health  product or service for Boomers, understand that we are turning to you for information, not a sales message. We want web sites that are thorough, with links to related sources, are easy to read and understand, and are easy to navigate.

Also consider linking visitors to chat rooms or discussion forums where we can talk with others about our concerns and questions. In other words, think of us as information warriors who can help drive traffic to your site... because if you can satisfy us, we'll tell everyone we know about it!

Marketing to Boomers: I wanna hold your hand

I got a package in the mail today that has managed to tickle me and offend me all in one envelope! It's a direct mail piece promoting "Your PC Made Easy" (for Windows XP). I'm guessing the company that sent it, unsolicited, assumed I needed their help because I'm over whatever age they decided was too stupid or old to know how to use a PC.

I have no idea where IMP got my contact information, but they sure made some incorrect assumptions. According to the introduction letter, "Your PC Made Easy is made for people like you and me. No jargon. No complicated instructions. No fancy tasks you don't want." It goes on to extol the virtues of learning how to stay in touch with my grandkids (which I don't have) while also saving on phone bills by being able to chat online. (Psst... you can do that with Skype too!)

I'm guessing it'll be a few weeks before this course gets to texting, IMing and Twittering, if at all. And I won't hold my breath waiting for the information on Second Life.

Enclosed were four product cards to get me started. One explains what e-mail is (did you know that it has replaced personal letters for some people?); another walks me through how to write and print a letter using something called word processing software; still another is almost giddy in its description of the "drag and drop" function of moving files. The cards are colorful and just chock full of graphs and pictures, apparently to distract me from the nine point type. Needless to say, the photographs show happy silver-haired Boomers and Seniors, apparently delighted in their decision to get aboard the clue train.

Anyway, if I hurry and sign up within 10 days, I can start receiving valuable tips like "remember that while you're connected to the internet, your telephone line will be in use." And these pearls will  arrive on a CD, along with a binder where I can file each card for easy reference (magnifying glass not included). And what a deal! Only $12.95 every three weeks, plus shipping! Ironically, I can also sign up online at their web site to get the ball rolling. (Of course, I wouldn't do that... how would I possibly know how?)

I'm going to make some assumptions of my own now - about the company promoting this new offering. I assume they don't know that Boomers and Seniors are among the fastest growing group online today. In fact, according to a recent study conducted by Edelman and Strategy One, our company's market research company, 75% of Boomers have gone online in the past year to research an issue.

Another 48% signed an electronic petition and 44% contacted a politician online. And, by the way, we also have tremendous influence online because we love to share with family and friends information we have found on the 'net. Some 35% of us share through social networks, such as MySpace.com. In other words, we aren't luddites. 

As for our parents, the Seniors, don't count them out either. Many are asking their Boomer kids and Gen Y grandchildren to show then how to use  today's technology. I've certainly spent time bringing my 79-year-old mom up to date. One of the first things she did was go online and fill out the necessary forms to stop junk mail!

Boomers once again defy conventional wisdom by downloading podcasts

If  you think podcasting is for only the young turks with ear buds, think again. According to a comScore study, sponsored by Ad Infuse, consumers 35-54 make up about half of the audience that embraces podcasts.

That doesn't surprise me much, perhaps because I fit into this demographic perfectly. I'm 50 and download podcasts weekly. I plug my iPod into the sound system in my car and use my commute time to listen to commercal-free music, lectures, interviews and educational programs.

comScore research indicates that the more education and money a consumer has, the most likely s/he is to tune into podcasts. In fact, "individuals in households making at least $100,000 were 28 percent more likely than average to download podcasts, while college graduates were 25 percent more likely."

In short, podcasting may just be a better target for companies that want to reach out to Boomers than more traditional forms of advertising. In general, we have more money, more education, more time and more incentive to listen than we've been given credit for. I like to call us the Boom-mores.

Expect advertisers to grab onto this trend and pour bucks into reaching Boomers by sponsoring podcasts because they realize we're out there listening. What's more, since downloading requires interactivity, advertisers have a greater chance of reaching a very targeted audience simply because of the self-selection process we went through to get the podcast in the first place.

(Are you listening, car manufacturers???? Quit just screaming at us on TV and get inside our heads through our ear buds!)