USATODAY and Boomers

You may have seen part of this week's five part series on Boomers at age 62 in USATODAY.

Overall, it contains lots of useful information and insights about Boomers and money at this phase of life. Most of the helpful hints about preparing for retirement are way too late for someone at age 62, but if younger Boomers take heed, that would be a good thing.

As members of the second half of the Boomer cohort (both of us born in 1959), we were especially interested in Wednesday's cover piece on how the leading edge Boomer got all the breaks in terms of timing. Check out the chart on the left.

A while back we covered it in our paid newsletter in an article about The Ass Ceiling.

The USATODAY article has generated comments in the blogosphere, understandably. What are yours?

Boomers and Technology

Great post at Yahoo! Tech about the products and technologies promoted at the recent Consumer Electronics Show as "boomer-worthy."

Robin Raskin, the Boomer blogger, points out that most of the products marketed to Boomers are products to help with some sort of impairment -- vision, hearing, smarts. While leading edge Boomers are now in their 60's and showing some wear and tear, most Boomers are still younger than age 52, and years away from a Clapper.

What's really interesting is the second comment about her posting, which says:

Because boomers don't purchase technology, they don't get technology geared towards them. The boomers suffer from the "we don't know how to use this." problem. As if operating a consumer electronic device is the equilivant of running a 747. Technology companies and actual consumers tuned these complaints out and we are moving towards sleek, fun, cool devices that are as much about function and they are about asthetitics. Get Lasik and/or reading contacts heaven knows most of you boomers can afford it.

How about that? Wonder how old that poster is?

Boomers: Enough Already

We didn't mean to be so quiet this month, and we'll try to do better in 2008.

The best end to the year isn't another list looking back on the Boomer Moments of 2007, or a list of predictions about 2008 (other than it's ahead of us).

How about simply a link to perhaps the funniest blog entry -- and accompanying artwork -- we've seen about Boomers in a long, long time.

Decide for yourself here.

If you want some additional perspective (and invectives), read these comments on the original news story about Boomers reaching retirement age (which one is the Boomer in the photo?). Anyone who doesn't think we're entering the "age wars" years clearly isn't paying attention.

Thanks for visiting this year and we'll be posting more frequently in 2008.

Cheers.

Will Boomers Make 60 the New 60?

As we mentioned earlier this month, The Boomer Project is now writing a regular Op/Ed column about Boomers and their quest for the Fountain of Vitality.

Here is this week's piece on Boomers and health (of lack thereof).

Finally, Some Marketing to Boomers from Tech Giants

Cover story in the Money section of today's USATODAY reports on how technology companies are starting to realize Boomers and older adults have money to spend and will spend it.

The tide is starting to turn towards marketing to Boomers, again, finally.

Why Market to Today's Boomers?

Because that's where the money is, stupid.

According to a new study by The Conference Board:

• Baby Boomers (1946 and 1964) have 43.7 million households, and more than two-thirds of Boomers have discretionary income, with the highest average discretionary income, at $29,754.
• Two-thirds of Gen X-ers(1965 and 1981) have discretionary income, and the second-highest average discretionary income, at $22,562.

"Discretionary income" is defined as "those households whose spendable income exceeds that held by households with similar demographic features."

When we do the math, that means while there are only 29% more Boomer households than Gen X households, the average Boomer household has 32% more discretionary income than the average Gen X household. Or, put another way, for every $1.00 a Gen X household has in extra money to spend, a Boomer household has $1.32.

Wait a minute, you say. There are more Boomer households and they have more money per household to spend?

And now you know why we wrote the book. Class dismissed.

Getting Boomers to Volunteer

The good news is that Boomers already volunteer at a higher rate than older generations, according to data from the National Corporation for Community & Public Service. The bad news is that they want completely different experiences from their volunteering efforts.

This short article explains what to do to attract and retain more Boomers. Here's the bottom line:

"Although accommodating, attracting, and retaining baby boomer volunteers may initially require reorganizing and rethinking current systems, these investments will reap huge rewards. If organizations will allow it, the generation that took social activism and industry to new heights will do the same for volunteerism."

If you're a non-profit, take a minute and read the piece.

The New Language of Boomers and Retirement

We'll make a bet with you. You aren't going to retire at age 65.

We're not the only ones who know it. Here's what the government predicts:

Reflecting the rising age of the boomers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that by the year 2014 the number of people in the labor force ages 55 to 64 will increase by seven million. The number of people in the labor force age 65 and older will increase seven times as fast as the total labor force due, in part, to workers postponing retirement.

Given that stat, why then do companies try to scare Boomers into retirement planning use language like this in their marketing materials:

For today's boomers who are fast approaching retirement...

Boomers may be approaching retirement age, but they aren't approaching retirement. And they aren't doing it quickly -- the median aged Boomer is only 51. Heck, this sentence makes it sound like "retirement" isn't an optional step in life.

The question to the room is this: how can the government know it and businesses not?

Ameriprise and Boomers and Money

Ameriprise Financial released a new study called Money Across Generations (SM), trying to make the case that now is the time Boomers need to talk to their own adult children about the family money, retirement plans, and other financial issues.

Like most corporate research, this is a case of the study findings supporting the business goals of the sponsor. Ameriprise wants Boomers to come to them for financial planning. The findings here suggest those who plan are better off than those who don't (what a surprise).

This week, social networking site for 50+, Eons.com, released another self-serving "study" of Boomers. This time about Boomers and sex. Of course, the press release positions the findings as representative of all Boomers, when in fact the study was only done among those Eons members. Whether you talk to 100 or 10,000 Eons members, you're not talking to a random representative sample of all Boomers. That's marketing research 101 stuff and Eons ought be be ashamed of themselves for misrepresenting their study.

Our caution to anyone out there getting excited about "national studies" is to be sure to take into consideration who is behind it. Many times, their agenda is showing.

Boomers and Positive Messaging

In the book and in our sessions with companies and organizations, we talk at length about the need to "Be Positive" when developing marketing programs targeting older consumers. The reason is that older consumers will ignore negative images and messages -- they have essentially trained their brains over time to skip over things they know they won't want to retain for later use.

We didn't make this up. It's based on the academic and peer-reviewed work by Dr. Laura Carstensen, Professor of Psychology and founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity. For more than twenty years her research has been supported by the National Institute on Aging, so she knows of what she speaks.

Our point with marketers is that since the first rule in marketing is to "get someone's attention," if you're trying to connect with older consumers you better avoid stay negative images, words and concepts. But every day we come across examples of marketers that don't yet get it.

Here are two.

First, this print ad from Merck targeting older consumers ran recently in Parade Magazine. The headline reads (ominously): "I didn't know shingles had the potential to be serious. More importantly, I didn't know I was at risk."

This line, coupled with the photo of Mr. Happy Face, staring out at us, with a somber and serious color scheme, is exactly opposite of being positive. Based on Dr. Carstensen's research, we suspect Merck turned off more people than it attracted.

Another example is this TV spot from Australia for a hearing aid. The tone isn't quite as negative or scary as the Merck ad, but the approach is identical to most hearing aid advertisements -- let's focus on the problem, hearing loss.



Poor man, he can't hear, sits idly by during conversations, has a disappointed wife, and feels like a schmuck. Then he gets a hearing aid and his life is changed. (Odd aspect of the commercial: his voice-over is almost lost over the last scene with the crowd of people all talking at once -- if anyone watching has a hearing problem, they'll miss the call-to-action. It's enough to make you wonder).

Compare that hearing aid spot to the opening video at Phonak's Audeo "personal communication assistant" Web site. It's all about the positives of hearing, not the negatives of hearing loss. Very compelling, interesting and provocative. In fact, at no point in the video do they talk about hearing loss.

To us, the lesson is simple -- cast the message in the positive and you'll catch more fish. Maybe it is too simple a lesson to ever get learned.

New Boomer Project Column in Print

We were recently asked by Media General's Richmond Times-Dispatch to contribute a bi-weekly Opinion column.

The first one ran 11/1/07 and can be downloaded here.

The column is called "Viva the Vital" and will focus over time on how Boomers are in search of the fountain of vitality, not the fountain of youth.

We'll post the other columns the day after they are published.

Let us know what you think of it.

Animated Boomers

Time to take a break from thinking about how to market to today's Boomer Consumer and enjoy some humor and a little Steppenwolf.

What makes it so funny is that for many of us, it's true.

Any comments?

Baby Boomer TV Network Relies on Babies of Baby Boomers

This is one of those things we'd like to hear what you think.

AmericanLife TV network, a relatively small cable network targeting Boomers, has just launched a new advertising and promotion effort to attract viewers, advertisers and cable operators.

The campaign, developed by ad legend George Lois, features children of "famous" Baby Boomers talking about their parents. Lois gave us "I want my MTV" so he obviously knows how to enlist Boomers for creating demand for a cable network.

We haven't seen the spots yet, but wonder if other Boomers will find it interesting to hear the kids of Joe Namath or Susan Sarandon talk about their parents.

More importantly, why would that make us interested in watching another rerun of "Mission Impossible?"

Tell us what you think.

Helping Those Boomers Who Can't Help Themselves

Article today in The New York Times about a new educational advertising campaign targeting Baby Boomers from FINRA, the non-profit Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

The campaign, from the description, is apparently for all those Boomers (about a third) who haven't saved dime one for "retirement."

One small beef with the press release about the new campaign -- it starts with two false presumptions in one paragraph:

With 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day over the next quarter century, FINRA believes it is crucial to reach out to baby boomers now, as they approach retirement. Recent FINRA Investor Education Foundation-sponsored research showed that seniors are targeted more frequently by investment fraudsters than younger investors.

Here's what is wrong. There's no way 10,000 boomers will be retiring every day over the next 25 years. First, that math doesn't even work -- there aren't 91 million Boomers, only 78 million. And second, Boomers aren't going to "retire" the day they reach age 62 or 65. If they had said "With 10,000 boomers reaching retirement age every day for the next 20 years," we might have let it go without a comment.

Maybe it's a nit, but we're big believers in knowing your audience.

The other presumption is that Boomers will be like previous generations of older citizens and get swindled by "fraudsters." That's annoying because it smacks of agesim -- that is, apparently when you get old you also get stupid. Boomers have been stupid about money and saving for a long, long time.

A more accurate assessment of Boomers and their money is that the greatest threat to a Boomer's retirement nest egg isn't a swindler, but a Boomer himself or herself. The number of Boomers who have drained their 401(k) accounts to buy a boat, RV or vacation home is staggering.

Hey, we're not saying educating Boomers about money is a bad thing. We want all Boomers to know what they are doing with their money. We just wish FINRA or their ad agency had asked for a little help in getting their own messaging on target with today's Boomer Consumer. We're available.

Boomer Women and Apparel Retailing

An article in last week's The Wall Street Journal about retailing to older women (and Boomer women), generated this discussion at RetailWire.com.

Essentially the debate is whether it is possible to create and market retail apparel brands to women over 35 today. Reading the various comments and you may come away with the same conclusions we did.

First, the people participating at RetailWire.com are smart. Most comments ring true and offer sound marketing advice (in summary, don't treat everyone over 35 the same -- segment, segment, segment).

Second, this isn't easy and boomer women are a moving target. That means consumer research is probably worth the investment.

Third, when it comes to fashion and apparel, the older a consumer gets, the more inner-directed they become. It's less about what others think and more about what you yourself think.

We're not the first to realize this (see David Wolfe's book, Ageless Marketing). But we're not the last either, judging by the mistakes already made by retailers in this category.

Brands and retailers in all categories that understand that the underlying motivation for older consumers is satisfying the inner self will succeed.

Boomer Grandparents and Halloween

Here's one we know you don't know:

Among Boomers who are Grandparents, one out of three plan to go "trick or treating" on Wedneday night, according to our analysis of BIGresearch's Consumer Intentions and Actions Study, September 2007.

Who do you suspect they are going out with? Their grandkids, of course.

Marketing to Boomers who are grandparents (some 36% of all Boomers, and increasing every day), is going to be a big trend in the coming years. Sites like Grandparents.com and publications like GRAND Magazine are just the tip of the iceburg.

You'll need to decide how your company or organization can tap into the Grandparent life stage as a way to reach Boomers.

As we like to say, being a Grandparent isn't a rational description, it's an emotional badge of honor and distinction. And once a Grandparent, always a Grandparent.

Boomers: Just What Kind of Sandwich Generation Are We?

Two stories from over the weekend that typify why it is so difficult to peg the Boomer Consumer into one overall classification.

First up is an op/ed piece from a younger Boomer, Mary Sanchez, of The Modesto Bee. Thinking about her older mother, she is worried about the impact Boomers growing older will have on Social Security, Medicare and everything else.

She writes:

"Soon the boomers will face their own mortality. Like my mother, everyone who reaches their "golden years" deserves to live them in dignity. But for that to happen, boomers need to begin seriously considering how they will live out their last years and, yes, how they will die."

Pretty grim stuff and something obviously on the minds of many Boomers.

But then there's this piece from Kristy Gray of the Jackson Hole Star Tribune, that portrays another side of today's Boomer: kicking butt. She writes about her bald-headed 50-year-old boss showing her up at a Kick Boxing class at the local health club.

The boss doesn't sound like a Boomer contemplating how he will die. In fact, he's doing what he can to keep on living, and living healthy.

This "Middlesence" for Boomers comes with a range of emotions and motivations. Marketers need to identify the mind-set of their Boomer Consumers and segment their marketing efforts accordingly, in order to best connect with them.

The Boomer Brain

Brilliant piece by David Brooks in today's New York Times about how he's "outsourced" his brain. The point, in a nutshell, is that he no longer has to use brain cells to remember stuff like directions, phone numbers, even how to do things, because he's got a GPS system, a Blackberry and Wikipedia.

While insightful on its own merits, it also raise two issues for marketers and for Boomers.

First, with all the technology and tools we Boomers are using so we don't have to use our own memories to retain information, what exactly will we be using our brains for as we grow older?

These days, with modern medicine, the body and most of its parts can be kept in working order longer and longer. But the brain seems to lose steam and ability, no matter how many Red Bulls we drink. Knowing that future, how will using our brains less and less now, during Middle Age, do to hurt our brain functionality? Or will it actually help us?

In our work, we've identified Mental Vitality as a key driver of Boomer behavior going forward. Boomers want to make sure their brains stay fully functioning until their last breath, and will invest time, money and effort into making that the case.

So Brooks' observation could create opportunities for marketers that can tap into that extra capacity. There is a business here, we think.

The second issue comes from this in Brook's piece:

"I read in a piece by Clive Thompson in Wired that a third of the people under 30 can’t remember their own phone number. Their smartphones are smart, so they don’t need to be. Today’s young people are forgoing memory before they even have a chance to lose it."

How indeed will today's young people use the "Free Space" now available in their brain due to outsourced tasks?

Initially, we got all giddy thinking about the potential advancement of mankind. Then we realized what will probably happen is what happens when we get new computers or devices with double the gigabytes of storage. Before we know it, the extra gigabytes are gone, used up by who-knows-what we've stored.

Still, though, this could create opportunities for marketers and businesses to figure out how to leverage this brain power now available.

Or, we'll discover years from now that it provided no major advancement for mankind. Just a place for different information to be put into long-term storage.

The First First Boomer Cartoon

We told you the "avalanche" of articles and columns about Baby Boomers and the impending bankruptcy of Social Security was just starting.

The number of articles in the past week alone (551) are enough to swamp most inboxes.

Now we've seen the first cartoon about the first Boomer and Social Security.

(click here to view)

Mike Keefe Denver Post Oct 21, 2007 EditorialCartoonists.com

We bring this to your attention only because it makes us a little crazy. On the one hand it is a good thing that this event of the first Boomer reaching age 62 might start generating some political willpower to do something about the inevitable collapse of Social Security and Medicare (read this editorial in yesterday's Newsday in NY for an example).

But on the other hand, the real impact of Boomers on Social Security is still some years off. We are really only talking about a trickle right now, and yet we are innundated with these Chicken Little headlines.

Rather than being clever or metaphor-filled, we'd encourage more articles like the Newsday one. At least it talks about what needs to be done.

Now it is the Boomer "Stampede"

The stories begin.

"First Boomer applies for Social Security" is out on the AP wire tonight.

Woe is us.

We hope Ms. Casey-Kirschling never goes out and buys incontinent products, or denture cream. Can you imagine the use of "avalanche" and "tsunami" in those articles?

The truth is that virtually every survey we see about Boomers and retirement finds that the majority of Boomers don't plan on retiring. Oh, they'll collect those Social Security checks, but they'll keep earning and spending money, too.

The system will need to be changed to accommodate America's largest generation. But there isn't going to be a stampede, avalanche or tsunami in the next few years.

Except for articles like this one.