Virtual Professor Chuck

It all started around 1999 when I was writing on the web about Baby Boomers.  My articles were getting hits from a University of Southern California intranet site.  I thought for sure that some professor of English or Literature or an artsy subject like that had made my online scribblings mandatory reading. 

Then I found out the truth: the course was about Gerontology.

Skip ahead a few years, and yours truly pens a book about advertising to baby boomers.  I was floored when it was selected as a Classroom Resource by The Advertising Educational Foundation.  I still get emails from students and professors around the world.  The book is in the libraries of many colleges and universities.

Professor Chuck.  Funny.  At least to me.

Now I’m getting oodles of whacks from another college intranet site – and it seems as if one of my PowerPoint presentations is required watching. 

The hits are coming from Southern Oregon University’s Blackboard System.

Those poor kids … having to listen to some old guy ramble on and on …

A Quick Peek at Retirement Homes of Tomorrow

From MarketWatch:

Rough outlines
By Steve Kerch
… When it comes to retirement living, golf courses are out … Bike paths and walking trails are the new greens and fairways.

As usual, that sounds familiar.  Years ago you could’ve had a ‘quick peek’ at this MarketWatch piece. From my book ©2005:

Read the chapter (PDF):

Chapter 4:
Give Boomers Room for Choices

No News News: Super Bowl Ads Highly Effective

I’m one of the few bloggers to take pride in bringing you no news news. I’ve been offering my readers no news news for years.

With the Death of Television, today I offer you this new no news news:

Super Bowl Ads Still Sell
by Steve Hall/AdRants
Despite the uncertain economy, three out of four Americans are still more likely to research or buy a product after seeing it advertised during the Super Bowl … 64% would be disappointed if advertising during the game disappeared … 66% still remember their favorite brand advertiser from last year's Super Bowl while only 39% remember who won the game.

Feel free to ‘tweet’ or ‘facebook’ this no news news – so a half dozen more people can be enlightened. But please do it before the Super Bowl. Afterwards, hundreds of millions of people will be too busy researching and buying products they saw advertised, and my very important ‘social marketing/viral’ advertising message might get lost in the ethereal vortex.

The most vibrant and exciting consumer group in the world.

Advertising to Baby Boomers is #1 on my publisher’s bestsellers list.

Paramount Market Publishing

Not too long ago it was #3:

My best guess why: I’d love to say it’s the book, the reviews, the word of mouth in marketing circles – but I bet it’s simply the subject matter. Marketing professionals are finally getting the message from various sources around the world that advertising to Baby Boomers is the smartest business strategy for almost all products and services – and will be for the next fifteen to twenty years.

A quote from the book (©2005, 2007):

It’s going to be up to companies to be proactive when dealing with advertising agencies. Quality control of your product doesn’t stop at the entrances of Madison Avenue’s finest, or at the doors of small local or regional advertising agencies. If companies put pressure on agencies, and demand 45-plus creatives for products aimed at the 45-plus market, then they will find out that Baby Boomers are still “the single most vibrant and exciting consumer group in the world.”

Say what?

NostraChuckus strikes again.

In 2007 I critiqued some ads for Selling To Seniors.  Pulls from one:

Hearing problems as one gets older have affected humankind for eons. For this recent crop of folks over 50, listening to loud music when they were young has had a negligible effect on their hearing loss.

Certainly, a handful of professional rock musicians playing every night for years and years while plopped in front of amplifiers now have some serious hearing problems.

But for 99% of baby boomers, going to a rock concert every so often (even often) has made them deaf? I think not. And even if I’m wrong, why would you want to make your target market feel guilty? Why would you want to beat it over their heads that it’s their fault that they can’t hear their "grandchild’s giggle"?

What about people who did protect their ears, who did "listen" by not listening—and still have hearing loss? This ad makes them feel worse about their predicament. You’re either guilty because you did—or cruelly cheated by fate if you didn’t. While the leading causes of hearing loss are genetic and simply getting older, most studies confirm that everyday life in metropolitan areas is a recent contributor. So lay the blame elsewhere ..

Now there’s this:

Say what? Baby boomers not losing hearing as much as parents did
By John Fauber
While everyday life may be getting noisier, actual hearing loss from one generation to the next has declined, said Weihai Zhan, lead author of the study, which was published Friday in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Overall, the baby boomers had 31% less hearing loss than their parents.

I knew Mom & Dad weren’t playing those Benny Goodman records loud enough.