65 Reasons Why Baby Boomers Remain a Powerful Target For Marketers.

From their diaper days onward, Boomers have reinvented every stage of life they’ve passed through. And as the first wave of 78 million Boomers turns 65 in 2011, there’s no reason to believe they’ll stop now. In the process, this will transform the way people think about everything from retirement to health care to aging in general. To celebrate this milestone, over the next few weeks, Gen-Sights will offer 65 reasons why businesses of every kind would be wise to keep Boomers in mind when designing and marketing products.

posted by Lynn Schweikart, Tom Gorski, Laura Willis

Boomers: Hungering for Health and Wellness

As I get up and meet my girlfriend at the gym for a workout at 7:00am, the body doesn't always want to cooperate. Or when there are more aches and pains than there used to be, sometimes, I wonder if it's worth it. Then I shake off the doubts and feel good that my body is keeping up with my girlfriend, who is more than 10 years my junior. Of course, I feel even better on those days when she's trying to keep up with me. I’m thankful we have each other to stay motivated! I also hate to think about what kind of issues I might have if I wasn’t.

Most statistics showing the rise in diabetes, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and many other diseases, indicate these are exacerbated by diet and lifestyle. Being a Boomer, I'm hoping to be as healthy as I can for as long as possible and, hopefully live a good quality of life—maybe even for as long as the elders in my life—since my Dad's still around at age 90.

I went to a nutritionist a couple of years back after I turned 49, because I wanted to feel good about myself when I turned 50. I'm not perfect yet by any means, but it really helped me be more aware of the foods I was eating and how they made my body feel once I ate them, including what my mood was like and even how my brain functioned. The result? I’ve tried some new dishes that I probably wouldn't have tried on my own, and have come to love and even crave some incredibly healthy foods.

I found it amazing that when I cut way back on sugar, how naturally sweet fruits and vegetables taste!  And how some of those sugary things I used to crave, now taste so cloyingly sweet, I don't really desire them very often any more. Best of all, now, when I really feel like having something that's a little decadent, I have it and truly enjoy it, with no guilt (well, mostly no guilt, I said I wasn't perfect!), and trust that I'll be craving a salad the next day. With fresh vegetables from our garden during the summer months, it's easier to stay motivated.

I’ve also noticed that, more and more, there seem to be definite correlations between nutrition and brain health. I probably have more concerns about my brain giving out than my body. Especially on the days when I feel as forgetful as my dad—though thankfully, he's still pretty with it. Some facilities, including my father's, the Compass on the Bay, are working with specialists from Boston University to incorporate changes to their food preparation to build in brain-healthy ingredients that have been shown to boost memory and cognitive abilities.

Last year, Compass invited family members to a seminar given by Dr. Nancy Emerson Lombardo who spoke about Memory Preservation Nutrition® and told us about anti-oxidants, whole grains, and other helpful foods that Boomers could actually be eating now to prevent memory issues, instead of waiting until we're in a facility. Talk about an incredible opportunity for the health and wellness industry!

Currently, I’m working with a client whose target audience is primarily female Boomers. The challenge she's finding is that some people just don't take the time to think about their health. Small wonder! With caring for our elders, along with our spouses and children—all the while handling demanding jobs—who has time? This is a real challenge, but I’m gratified that Boomers are starting to realize a shift is necessary.

Of course, too often, people want to make a change, but find there are too many confusing choices. Though if anyone else is like me, the quick-fix plans are having less appeal—“been there, done that”. Boomers are starting to be more skeptical about unrealistic promises and may be coming to the realization that it really does come down to the basics of eating healthier foods and working in exercise in whatever little pockets of time we can.

Food marketers would be wise to address the life-stage shifts happening with Boomers. We've talked before about the opportunity for food companies to contribute to overall wellness by adjusting ingredients such as salt and fat to make their products healthier choices. With the Boomers at a critical stage in their lives, and being the largest segment of the population, I’d say it's definitely about time.  

– posted by Laura Willis

Boomers are Hip. Again!

Who says there are no second acts in American lives? Okay, F. Scott Fitzgerald did, but he didn’t know bupkiss about Boomers. In case you haven’t heard the news that’s been all over Twitter and the blogosphere in recent days, the venerable Nielsen Company has spoken: in their obsession with youth, i.e. consumers ages 18 to 34, “advertisers and consumer goods manufacturers have been overlooking a group that has tremendous buying power: the 78 million Baby Boomers in the U.S. today.” The prescient few who found their pronouncements on this very topic ridiculed or ignored—where have you gone, JWT Boom?—are justifiably saying, “we told you so.” 

Why the sea change in opinion? Sure, Baby Boomers are a huge generation – always have been; still will be for quite a while. But I think a major reason is that at the same time that Boomers reached the age where a generation would previously have been considered old, the goal line was moved considerably. What I mean is that people who are 60-65 today just don’t behave the way people of that age did in the past, (nor do the current crop of 70- and 80-year olds, for that matter.)

The conventional wisdom? People over 60 spend little; are stuck in their ways, technologically challenged, and winding down. The facts?  Boomers are open to new things and new brands. They are active; typically participating in ten or more activities on a regular basis. They are comfortable with technology because they’ve grown up with it. Heck, many of them are not even thinking about retirement – and those who are, are in the process of completely redefining it. Hence the term, encore careers.
If you’re still skeptical about the value of advertisers targeting the Boomer market, consider these Nielsen facts about Boomers
• Dominate 1,023 out of 1,083 consumer packaged goods categories
• Watch the most video: 9:34 hours per day
• Comprise 1/3 of all TV viewers, online users, social media users and Twitter users
• Time shift TV more than 18-24s (2:32 vs. 1:32)
• Are significantly more likely to own a DVD player
• More likely to have broadband Internet access at home

Not only are Boomers an excellent target for marketers’ existing products, they also provide an opportunity for new product designers who are able to respond to both the needs and desires of a population that’s still hip, after all these years. In a recent article on the blog Disruptive Demographics, Joseph Coughlin, Director of MIT’s Age Lab suggested that Boomer consumers are as captivated by fashion and fun as their younger cohorts, it’s just that Boomers demand function and value as well.

This has huge implications for businesses across a wide range of industries, from technology to housing, to healthcare. Personally, I think that any product that combines fun, fashion, function, and value would be of interest to all consumers. But then, I’m a Boomer.

– posted by Lynn Schweikart

Aging in Place……are you ready?

We Boomers have always been a generation on the move. We went from childhood homes to college dorms; from first apartments, to starter homes, to family-size homes. Ultimately, some of us upgraded to even bigger homes. We’ve moved for jobs, to accommodate growing families, or changes in marital status; sometimes, we moved simply for a change of scenery. Compare this with our parents’ experience. Those members of “The Silent Generation” likely moved from their parents’ home to their first home as a married couple, put down roots and pretty much stayed there. I know this first hand: my 82-year-old mother, now a widow, has lived in the same house for 59 years—which isn’t too unusual among her circle of family and friends.

Recently, I attended a house party with 30 or so Boomer friends. To my surprise, the conversation strayed to a topic I never thought we Boomers would find ourselves discussing: retirement and downsizing. We talked about watching our parents struggle with living in homes that no longer suited them—whether it meant coping with stairs, dealing with getting into and out of bathtubs, or even having to get on ladders (or chairs!) to change light bulbs. When I mentioned “aging in place,” I found the term was not unfamiliar to my Boomer friends.  We all agreed: unlike our parents, we want to plan ahead and “age in place” in a home that’s convenient and suitable to our needs. We especially don’t want the physical challenges of a home to make us feel old. 

With the first wave of 78 million Boomers reaching 65 in 2011, helping Boomers adapt their existing homes or finding housing suitable for “aging in place” will become critical. Taking into consideration the uncertainty of retirement funds, Social Security, and healthcare costs, Boomers are realizing the importance of getting their “ducks in a row” now, in order to plan for an aging process that is seamless and carefree. With 89% of today’s seniors saying they want to “age in place” and live independently, you can bet it won’t be any different for Boomers, who have always prided themselves on their active, independent lifestyle. 

That means there will be a plethora of opportunities for companies that market and sell lifestyle-enhancing home products, as cited in Marilynn Mobley’s Blog, BABY BOOMER INSIGHTS. The challenges will be for marketers to position these products in such a way that doesn’t insult the Boomer audience. We don’t mind change, after all we’ve moved enough over the years; we just don’t want the change to remind us we’re aging. Whether we downsize, upsize, remodel, adapt, retrofit or whatever you want to call it, we’re going to think of it as enhancing our lifestyle.


– posted by Tom Gorski