Thursday, July 12, 2007

More on Boomers and Hearing

This time from The New York Times, in "The Day the Music Died," published today.

Reporter Stephanie Rosenbloom does an effective job of summarizing the issues facing older Boomers who got a little too close to the amplifier at that Bachman Turner Overdrive concert in 1975.

She also reports on Phonak's "personal communications assistant" product, which we covered in this post.

Coincidentally, we got a call from a reporter in Las Vegas doing a piece on marketing "traditional" products for older consumers to Boomers. He was amused by Metamucil's new TV spot that somehow manages not to mention that the primary use is for regularity problems. Instead, the spot is all about "beautifying your insides" and features talent age 35 and under.




The reporter wanted to know if all marketers targeting older Boomers would have to "disguise" their traditional benefit in order to connect with Boomers. Our response in a word: "probably."

And you wonder why we started the Boomer Project and wrote the book? Clearly the rules have changed.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Gee, just as Sunsweet has put prune juice through a "brand extension" and introduced "PlumSmart"

What is it about us boomers that makes us reluctant to call/name/identify familiar (and possibly old things) for what they are? What is it that leads so many boomers, or those marketing to them, down the path of euphemism?

Chuck Nyren said...

Looks to me like P&G is positioning it as a health/beauty product instead of a medical product.

I think they're trying NOT to target Boomers (they already have that demo) - but are pursuing the younger female demo by not associating the product with older people.

It's harmless stuff. Of course, you can sort of get hooked on it.

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