A Boomer's Advice to Marketers: Go Ahead, Make My Day
I still can’t believe that I'm 65 years old. Half a century has passed since I was in high school; it feels like a decade ago. In my mind the images of the ‘60s are still vivid – the assassination of a President, a man walking the moon, a war in southeast Asia, the civil rights movement, a band from Liverpool, a California girl, the discovery of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll. I am one of 80 million born between 1946 and 1964 in Canada and the United States. I am a baby boomer.
My generation changed the modern world. Our values refused to accept injustice. We protested against war, discrimination, and censorship. Without us, America would never have elected a black-skinned President with a foreign name. England and Germany would never have elected female Prime Ministers. Canada would not have welcomed all creeds and colors to their land of liberty. Encouraged by parents who suffered the hardships of a world war, we worked hard to do better, to make a success of ourselves. 'Doing better' meant making a good living. So, making money became our modus operandi. But along the way, we contemplated that notion and others; we grew independent and blazed our own trail of social change.
Today, we represent a marvelous business opportunity. We dig in our heels and fight the advance of old age every inch of the way. We operate by the mantra of “use it or you lose it.” Sure, we have our insecurities. “Aha,” say the savvy marketers. The theme is familiar. As a young Brand Manager, I pounced on consumer insecurities to pump products that solved bad breath, armpit odor, yellow teeth and bad skin. Those were the heyday of problem/solution brands such as Scope Mouthwash, Ban Deodorant, Ultra Brite Toothpaste and Clearasil Cream. Our insecurities of today are thinning hair, droopy skin, wrinkles around the eyes and dysfunction below the belt. The world’s best marketers are on to us. Harley-Davidson wants us to relive the two-wheel freedom of the sixties on their iconic Fat Boy. They know we can well afford it. So do Pfizer and Eli Lilly, the makers of Viagra and Cialis.
So here's my advice to marketers. Go ahead, make a boomer's day. Help us fulfill our lifestyle aspirations. Give us the ways and means and you will have a loyal customer keen to pay premium prices for your products and services. But never, ever, mention old age in your persuasion.
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Jun '10
Re: A Boomer's Advice to Marketers: Go Ahead, Make My Day
The Boomers opposed what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. opposed--racism, but they didn't love what King loved--God. They opposed the Vietnam War, but they forgot to love the soldier. It seems, they always got things half right. I am a Boomer myself, but I'm not a big fan of Boomers. They brought us a lot of new technology, but they (including me) weren't very good at controlling their debt. Again, they got things half right.
Re: A Boomer's Advice to Marketers: Go Ahead, Make My Day
Guess I was looking at a glass that was half-full. What generation would you tout as "getting it right?" And don't you think the concept of boomers as a marketing opportunity remains valid?
Feb '11
Re: A Boomer's Advice to Marketers: Go Ahead, Make My Day
John Bell, Guest Contributor
And don't you think the concept of boomers as a marketing opportunity remains valid? · 9 minutes ago
Everyone is a marketing opportunity.
Nov '11
Re: A Boomer's Advice to Marketers: Go Ahead, Make My Day
John Bell, Guest Contributor
Guess I was looking at a glass that was half-full. What generation would you tout as "getting it right?" And don't you think the concept of boomers as a marketing opportunity remains valid? · 9 minutes ago
Boomers are a fabulous target demographic, particularly given the culture's general disdain for the old - anything that successfully markets towards them looking and being able to act young will probably wildly succeed because there's a whole new set of, as you put it, problem/solution products that can be sold to wider market.
As far as generations getting it right, the history of human progress is largely that no generation gets it right: the best generations take what the previous ones learned and build on it. The great Boomer folly was to tear down the previous generations to try and build anew certain that they could do better than before.
Jun '10
Re: A Boomer's Advice to Marketers: Go Ahead, Make My Day
John Bell, Guest Contributor
Guess I was looking at a glass that was half-full. What generation would you tout as "getting it right?" And don't you think the concept of boomers as a marketing opportunity remains valid?
I'd say the generation before the Boomers got it right, but they raised the Boomers...so you got me there. :) As for marketing, isn't entering retirement the time when you cut back on the luxuries and simplify? That brings up another mistake the Boomers made. They didn't have enough children.
Edited on May 22, 2012 at 4:37pmJul '11
Re: A Boomer's Advice to Marketers: Go Ahead, Make My Day
You got that right. I separate the boomers from their money by offering high access health care but I do it relatively cheap and ethically. Many boomers operate under the fallacy they will live forever and multiple not so ethical business take advantage of this seemingly silly misconception, let the buyer beware. My worry is that the boomers on Medicare will expect the government, and therefore me, to pay for all the medical items of anti-aging. Your generation will need it's health care rationed and curtailed or you might as well just be drinking the blood of the youth in our country. Be a leader by understanding the financial debacle of Medicare and not kicking the can down the road. Our status quo is unacceptable and while the democrats gave us pile of garbage, the GOP offered little else and seniors put out ads saying gimmee gimmee gimmee.
Jul '11
Re: A Boomer's Advice to Marketers: Go Ahead, Make My Day
As far as direct marketing to boomers, just listen the commercials. They're everywhere. I like to take a shot of whiskey every time I hear," you deserve". Wow do I get loaded. I'm waiting for the 50 something man in his cool old SS and partially damaged radiator to look at the camera, halt the sexy yet confidence building music, and say,"Viagra, for the erection you deserve".
May '12
Re: A Boomer's Advice to Marketers: Go Ahead, Make My Day
I wish I could top DocJay's note, but not a chance. I would add to the Boomer generation that while all the work for justice and equality is and was admirable. Extending that to attempting achieve socio economic justice aka equal outcomes through the massive programs of the Great Society and then paying for it with debt passed down to later generations - you could've kept that. Unfortunately, my generation learned from yours and kept right on piling on the debt - something for nothing.
Re: A Boomer's Advice to Marketers: Go Ahead, Make My Day
The conversation raises this thought - when the boomers are gone, the magnitude of the inheritance they leave will be staggering. What will the post-boomer generation do with this windfall? What will be the social and economic ramifications?
Jun '10
Re: A Boomer's Advice to Marketers: Go Ahead, Make My Day
DocJay,
Boomers on the left may end up not liking the soft-socialism they created. Their grandchildren will likely be treating their illnesses more on the basis of an actuarial chart than on their individual medical chart. Here's your hearse, what's your hurry? "We have a bed opening up..."
Aug '10
Re: A Boomer's Advice to Marketers: Go Ahead, Make My Day
Define inheritance. Do you mean cultural inheritance?
As for the literal inheritance that my family expects from our boomer parents, well, we're just hoping we don't inherit debt.
May '11
Re: A Boomer's Advice to Marketers: Go Ahead, Make My Day
Gives one pause. Our generation piled on debt and entitlements. Maybe the inheritance tax is the appropriate way to pay that back?
I'll be under my desk for the next couple hours to avoid the flak and shrapnel.
Jul '11
Re: A Boomer's Advice to Marketers: Go Ahead, Make My Day
Etoiledunord. Perhaps a cart operator screaming, " bring out your dead" is in order. "I'm not dead yet". "You're not fooling anyone".
Re: A Boomer's Advice to Marketers: Go Ahead, Make My Day
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
Define inheritance. Do you mean cultural inheritance?
As for the literal inheritance that my family expects from our boomer parents, well, we're just hoping we don't inherit debt. · 2 minutes ago
I'm talking literal inheritance. None of us like the current debt situation, but to place blame on the boomers, in my view, is a generalization. Our parents came out of the war with little and we (the boomers) enjoyed the opportunities created by a post-war economy. Make no mistake, we worked hard for it. We did not feel "entitled" and maybe that is what separates us from the younger generations.
May '12
Re: A Boomer's Advice to Marketers: Go Ahead, Make My Day
It will go to pay down a portion of the trillions of debt passed down to fund 'justice'. There may be tremendous wealth passed on in the form of assets, but a balance sheet has two sides: assets and liabilities.
Re: A Boomer's Advice to Marketers: Go Ahead, Make My Day
Paul Erickson
Gives one pause. Our generation piled on debt and entitlements. Maybe the inheritance taxisthe appropriate way to pay that back?
I'll be under my desk for the next couple hours to avoid the flak and shrapnel. · 6 minutes ago
Come on out from that desk, Paul. You've raised an interesting point.
May '12
Re: A Boomer's Advice to Marketers: Go Ahead, Make My Day
Boomers did have an impact, how could we not? Our size as a demographic bulge insisted on that. And we did help to move the ball forward in some cases: especially, IMHO, on race.
But pointing to the election of a "black guy with an odd name", given who that black guy is, and his beliefs about America, is hardly a cause for joy. And we gave all kinds of folks a license to bear children out of wedlock, fall into drug use, and generally louse things up.
I am not proud to be a Boomer, we are not nearly the men our fathers were.
Aug '10
Re: A Boomer's Advice to Marketers: Go Ahead, Make My Day
John Bell, Guest Contributor
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
Define inheritance. Do you mean cultural inheritance?
As for the literal inheritance that my family expects from our boomer parents, well, we're just hoping we don't inherit debt. · 2 minutes ago
I'm talking literal inheritance. None of us like the current debt situation, but to place blame on the boomers, in my view, is a generalization.
Yes, but I wasn't talking about the current debt situation. I was talking about my particular family's inheritance situation. Which is that the children do not expect to get anything from their parent's estate, and will be happy to simply not inherit debt.
I expect we're hardly the only children of boomer parents in this situation. But I'm no actuary. You say that, on average, there's a big windfall coming. How big? Do you know?
Sep '10
Re: A Boomer's Advice to Marketers: Go Ahead, Make My Day
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008/06/05/spendthrift-boomers-face-perilous-retirement-mckinsey/
Aug '10
Re: A Boomer's Advice to Marketers: Go Ahead, Make My Day
My parents are early boomers who had their kids quite late (they lived together for 15 years before tying the knot). So, despite us kids being under thirty, our parents are already pretty old.
So, over the course of the last few years, I've become involved in the whole elder care scene. While it's true that there's lots of estate planning going on to shelter assets, it's also true that there are a lot of reverse mortgages, and families worried about how to pay for Mum and Dad's end of life care. It is not abnormal to expect end-of-life care to wipe out an estate.
Won't these problems become more common as the bulge of the boom reaches the end of life?