Boomers on a spiritual journey. One More Reason Why Marketers Still Need to Target Boomers

Boomers attitudes towards organized religion and the role it plays in their lives has changed over the decades.  Similar to their parents and even their grandparents, they are seeking out meaning in their lives as they age, but unlike those before them, it is in a more individualistic way. Today there seems to be a trend among Boomers as describing themselves as more spiritual and less religious. This is supported by an AARP study that found 85% of Boomers considering themselves as either “somewhat spiritual” to “very spiritual.”

Professor Wade Clark Roof, PhD, Department of Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, explores the subject of spiritually in this book Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion. In his book he charts the growth of five subcultures of Boomers: dogmatists, Born-again Christians, mainstream believers, metaphysical believers and seekers, and secularists. According to Professor Roof, Boomers have found multiple and complex ways to be spiritual without being religious.

Source: BNET – The CBS Interactive Business Network

(On January 1, 2011, the first of the Baby Boom generation begins to turn 65. While marketers have traditionally viewed anyone over 49 as over the hill, there are compelling reasons why overlooking Boomers isn’t smart for business. During the course of the next few weeks, we’ll be highlighting 65 of those reasons.)