Beginning in 2003, my business blog for Creative Services, Copywriting, Consulting, and Speaking. You'll find all sorts of information about the current trends in advertising and marketing to this unwieldy, diverse demographic.
Henry Stewart Talks is about to release this online seminar:
Latest Thinking in Marketing to the Older Consumer
For all those wishing to gain an understanding of the 50-plus market and to engage with this large and diverse group as consumers, including brand owners, marketers and brand managers, media planners and buyers, advertising agencies, media companies and academics and students of marketing.
A screen grab:
More when it’s released.
If you’re here you’d better pay attention to what’s happening over there:
InTwoFocus is Europe's first Web video marketing agency specialising in the 50-plus market
Dick Stroud, the 50-plus marketing expert and Gerald
Wortman, the acclaimed photographer and video producer, have come together to form InTwoFocus - a Web video agency that creates video content that transforms the way its clients communicate with older consumers.
I also interviewed Dick and fashioned our chat into another chapter. Both chapters are available on The Advertising Educational Foundation web site.
Probably not. Most advertising agencies on this side of the pond have stuffed-up noses.
BAILOUTS AND BOOMERS
Who's gonna buy this car?
If we rescue the auto industry, it must
be able to build vehicles for an aging population… Boomers will need different vehicles. Many already have difficulty getting into low-slung cars, and they increasingly need bigger dashboard dials. The Japanese companies have a head start in understanding these trends. It will be necessary for North American auto companies to get up to speed rapidly if they are to compete effectively. And quality will be important. Younger buyers are more willing to trade quality for a better price. This trade-off is proving increasingly difficult when customers are older.
Author/Copywriter Champions Advertising to Baby Boomers
Click here. It should start playing.
And I’ve tossed up a bunch of posts over the years on this subject:
Coming Boom in Boomer-Friendly Transport
My point three years ago was that Baby Boomers were buying up those mid-priced boxy cars (even though they were being marketed to college kids and twenty-somethings) because they were easy to get in and out of, easy to see out of, and some had large dashboards that were easy to read. So why not build cars with these and more features for older drivers?
Along with ‘green’ – the auto industry had better retool with an eye on the 50+ market.
Maybe both eyes.
Aside from the obvious reasons (anybody wanna buy a CDO?), it’s been a strange year so far.
For me, the strangest episodes are happening while reading news articles about Baby Boomers and realizing that I’ve read versions of them all before – in my book and blog.
Another déjà vu:
This is not your father's old folks home
Boomers' active lifestyles redefining 55-plus housing
By John Handley
… "Over-55" housing has changed. Choices have expanded. Starting in the 1960s, the traditional model was the large, age-restricted Sun Belt communities. Now Sun City-style developments are being built in the Snow Belt.
From my book:
Give Boomers Room for Choices
Aging in Place
I’ve heard this term defined a few ways. The simplest definition: people staying put in their condos or houses for the rest of their lives. Others refer to “aging in place” as remodeling current residences with Universal Design as the blueprint. Still others use the term to describe Baby Boomers moving into condos or active adult communities not far from where they are now—so they can still be near work, family, and friends.
… As Baby Boomers retire, they will put their special stamp on retirement … maybe with large multi-generational communities.
Chapter 4:
Give Boomers Room for Choices
Small World: I referenced a 2004 Chicago Tribune article by John Handley in my book.
She’s been through all the cultural upheavals and survived.
She’s been embraced and banned by parents.
And she’s still causing trouble.
Even though Barbie was born grown up, it’s her fiftieth birthday today:
Happy 50th to Baby Boomer Barbie
Paul Briand
Baby Boomer Examiner
Her age makes her a Baby Boomer and -- in a way, despite the ditsiness often applied to her andespecially her name -- she is somewhat representative of how Baby Boomers have reshaped, refined and redefined who they are over the years.
Appropriate: Forbes is throwing the biggest media bash for Barbie …
Barbie Turns 50
Edited By Anna Vander Broek and Michael Noer
She is an American icon, a business phenomenon and a real doll. Since her introduction on March 9, 1959, Mattel has sold more than 1 billion Barbie dolls, nearly 100 million of those last year alone.
Back in the dark ages of the WWW, before there were blogs, before there were social networking sites – I blogged on a social networking site and wrote about Baby Boomers. Here’s a link to my 1998 ‘post’ celebrating Barbie’s fortieth birthday:
My Barbie!
It was (and still is) a phenomenon rivaling the one surrounding the Beatles: A doll not to be fed, cuddled or nurtured -- but a fantasy representation of you in the future!
Here’s how Madison Avenue did it in 1961:
What cultural upheavals?
A Barbie Poem by Amy Sterling Casil.
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Update March 10: AdRants’ Angela Natividad posts some great Barbie links – including a video history of Barbie commercials.
