Baby Boomers: Should Business be Targeting this Generation?

Does your business have products or services of interest to customers classified in the baby boomers market?  If so, you should be targeting baby boomers with your marketing campaign … it is a significant business opportunity and growth for the next 20 years.

Check out our thoughts on customer focus.

Related: 11 Steps to Media Framing Messages for Optimum Engagement

Baby boomer years … relevant facts about baby boomers

Why a significant market opportunity, you say? Consider these facts (Statistics source: Tom Peter’s blog) about the baby boomers market segment:

One USA boomer is turning 65 every 8 seconds…that rate will continue for the next 20 years.

USA adult population will have grown by 23 million in the 10 years between 2006 and 2016.

Ages 18-49 will have grown by 1 million … age 50+ will have grown by 22 million.

At age 50, we effectively have … a full 50% of our healthy adult life ahead of us.

An average American will buy 13 cars in the course of a lifetime …7 after age 50.

Age 55-plusers are … more active in online finance, shopping, and entertainment than those under 55.

Boomers inherit $8.4 trillion in the next few years; 70% of boomers will inherit on average $300K.

 The net wealth of households headed by 65+ is 47 times greater than the net wealth of households headed by someone <35; 20 years ago the ratio was 10:1.

The traditional approach

 Have you noticed that almost no advertisers or marketers target the boomer segment? It is as if they didn’t exist, isn’t it? These guys are living in the past.

Previously generations selected a brand between the ages of 18 and 25 and rarely switched. And that became the target age for advertisers and the myth of today.

Baby boomers … the truth about this segment

 According to an August 2012 Nielsen study, Baby Boomers account for nearly half of consumer packaged goods spending and will control 70 percent of disposable income within five years.

And in addition, a Gallup poll found that as people enter their 50s, their attitudes about their finances start an upward climb.

Americans entering their 50s and older are:

• More likely to say they “feel good about the amount of money they have to spend”

• Less likely to worry that they’re spending too much money

• More likely to say they have the ability to “make a major purchase, such as a car, appliance or significant home repair”

• More likely to say they have enough money to “do what they want to do”

So it’s surprising that less than 5 percent of business marketing and advertising targets this “most valuable generation”.

Business examples … of those who get it

Some innovative companies like Apple understand the importance of the Boomer target segmentation. Boomers account for 41 percent of people who buy Apple computers notes a Nielsen report. Just notice the commercials for the Apple iPad, if you doubt this. The message is timeless and ageless.

Many recent marketing campaigns are starting to get it. To celebrate its birthday, the shoe company commissioned portraits featuring people born in 1928, when the company was founded. And Dodge marked its 100^th year in business with a commercial whose snippets of wisdom featured centenarians. The message? You learn a lot in 100 years.

Business example … and those who don’t

Many businesses are always in an obsessive search for a fountain of youthful consumers. A major business in the packaged goods industry worried that targeting boomers would make its brand look old. That despite data that its consumer base was between 47 and 70.

Related post: Marketing Branding … 9 Secrets to a Continuous Improvement Strategy

The bottom line

Baby boomers – the demographic of 76 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 – are a golden market for businesses.

Have you added this target segment to your business strategy yet? What are you waiting for?

Do you have an experience on your team’s business’s market segment targeting to share with this community? Have any comments or questions to add below?

Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?

Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. 

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Target Market … How to Target for Best Marketing Campaigns