Will The Real Baby Boomers Please Stand Up?
Posted on Tuesday, February 8th, 2011
Marketing To Baby Boomers – Don’t Fall Into This Common Demographic Trap
We baby boomers are a hotly sought after market. Marketers love us! Many of us have time, money, and desires for everything from beauty to traveling to fitness to security to health to comfort to adventure to cooking… well, you name it.
If you are a marketer and have already had success marketing to baby boomers, good for you. However, you could be missing part of the baby boomer demographic. If you are trying to market to a group called “Baby Boomers” you need to take a second look at this market and niche it down, baby!
Why? Because the generally accepted time frame of this demographic is someone born between 1946 and 1964. That is one wide range of ages to target. Think about it; an almost 20 year spread can be an entire generation! Conceivably, you could be marketing to parents AND their children. Try THAT niche on for size!
Currently, people born during the post World War II ‘baby boom’ are in age groups anywhere from late 40’s to mid 60’s. That difference in baby boomers age is a difference in more than years; it’s a difference in life experience.
Can you market to someone in their 40’s AND someone in their 60’s?
I can tell you that the wants and needs of a person in their 40’s are vastly different from someone in their 60’s. If you simply search the term “baby boomer” and market to whoever pops up, you haven’t narrowed your market to a specific audience.
For instance, say I’m in my 40’s busting my hump every day trying to earn a living, and I click on a website that sells products marketed to “baby boomers” and find products for retired individuals, I may be turned off immediately. Vacations, cruises, or other luxuries of time may not appeal to the person in their 40’s who is granted only two weeks vacation every year, and possibly has kids at home or in college.
A marketer selling anti-aging creams and magic serums may use the general term “boomer” in their vernacular, but which age group are they targeting? In my 40’s I may have bought up every anti-aging cream on the market, but folks in their 60’s may not be as interested in anti-aging miracles. They may be more interested in soothing, moisturizing potions that feel good, perhaps with the side benefits of also making you look better, too.
Baby Boomers do NOT want all the same thing
How can you target your products more specifically to the age group you intended them for? Reconsider how you use the term ‘boomer.’ It’s perfectly fine to use that term as a general “remember when” reference, but when it comes to a direct sales approach, you need to know your market better than that.
If your product is meant for someone in their 40’s who is still struggling with kids at home, market to that person. If you use the term ‘boomer’ in your marketing campaign, your money may be ill-spent when your campaign falls on the ears and eyes of a person in their 60’s who is downsizing and ready to retire.
And vice versa. If your product is designed to help someone find Medicare supplement insurance, for instance, don’t accidentally scoop up an audience in their 40’s and 50’s by using a baby boomer marketing strategy. You know if you are selling this sort of product, you are selling to the over 60’s group. Be sure you focus your campaign on that age group and that age group only.
Take a tip from AARP
Why does it matter so much to market only to the age group your product is designed for? Your business, and your integrity, could suffer if you lose credibility with any age group. You only need to look at one example – AARP. That infamous invitation to join their group reaches your door when you turn 50, and not a year before!
An Audience of One
It’s often said that when you’re writing something for many people to read, “write for one person.” I must add, “sell to one person.” Know the one person you are marketing to, and not just an arbitrary demographic. Picture the individual your product will benefit instead of trying to figure out some swooping baby boomers marketing strategies.
Don’t lump us together – we are very different people within one demographic. We’ll respect you and your product when you treat us as individuals. We may even become your best customer, and you will be rewarded with the trust and esteem of a very large audience.
So, unless you have a mythical magical product that appeals to everyone in their 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s, stop marketing to the group called Baby Boomers, and start marketing to Me.
p.s. Baby boomers have shaped our world; from the music we hear to the food we eat and everything in between. This huge demographic took us from post World War II prosperity, to the Kennedy assassination, and right straight to the moon. Is it any wonder the impact this demographic has had on the market? Click on and order your copy of Generation Reinvention: How Boomers Today Are Changing Business, Marketing, Aging and the Future by Brent Green. Learn how to recognize the challenges and opportunities this demographic, especially as it ages, will have on the world and your life.
