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.
What does ‘old’ mean? The (Dove) campaign, promoted on giant billboards in big cities, is said to have added $1.2 billion to the value of the brand. But has it added anything to the value of age?
Almost certainly not …. Charles Saatchi, 63, will still race around Hoxton looking for young talent, women will still get Botoxed, and men will continue to apply Grecian 2000.
I got a kick out of Mr. Appleyard's musings, and agree with most of what he says. I could nitpick, but I'm getting too old to nitpick. Too tired to.
But not too tired to link to a post of mine from a year and a half ago:
It's okay to be gray. As everyone knows, thanks to so many astute media pundits and marketing/advertising gurus, Baby Boomers think they're still teenagers and are horrified when they look in the mirror and see some hoary stranger in their forties or fifties. (And in a few months, many of these malicious apparitions will take the form of normal human beings in their sixties.)Botox! Hair coloring! These are the answers to that creepy, disingenuous image staring back at them.
And now there's more:
Hooray for gray! Once upon a time, women would curse their gray hair and reach for the dye to cover it up. Or they'd eventually cave in and drench themselves in that ghastly purplish-blue rinse - the one that turns the shade of the Rocky Mountains at dusk. It was like the mark of the old age beast. But with salt falling on their heads like a blizzard, baby boomers are, as usual, opting to do it their way. So long, stigma, hello gray.
Of course, I've yet to "apply Grecian 2000." That's because don't have any gray hair. All those streaks and patches of white are simply bleached by the sun.
In fact, in the dead of winter in Seattle it grows bleached. Very strange phenomenon.
Blogging for dollars raises questions of online ethics Thousands of bloggers are writing sponsored posts touting such diverse topics as diamonds, digital cameras and drug clinics. The bloggers are spurred by new marketing middlemen such as PayPerPost Inc. that connect advertisers with mom-and-pop webmasters.
Regarding Baby Boomers – at this point, it’s really not much of an issue because newfangled word-of-mouth marketing techniques – good/bad, ethical/unethical – really don’t have much impact:
Boomer communications are personal in nature. Eighty-four percent of boomer recommendations are made face-to-face and 82 percent by phone, as opposed to 45 percent that are made online.
What should the PR/WOMM standard be for Baby Boomers? Like I’ve said, make it simple, direct, and (an overused phrase, I know) transparent:
So your product or service is getting some sort of positive response from users/consumers? Maybe a cult is forming. Or something. People are talking.
Take advantage of this. You'd be stupid not to. Bring in the PR professionals, the marketing people. Reference it in advertising campaigns. Support this grass roots excitement.
But trying to create buzz out of nothing? Paying shills to hand out lipstick and gum, paying bloggers for their so-called objective opinions?
Reaching Baby Boomers (and, I bet, most other demos): Good ol’ fashioned advertising, marketing, PR. And good web sites. Sure, pay attention to these fresh WOMM techniques – but if you think any of it is new, any of it will somehow replace advertising and marketing ...
Then I have the proverbial bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell. Could you get the word out for me?
One ad, for instance, shows a couple with the husband talking about putting his retirement savings through a "rollover, turnover, whatever."
"The more people talk about their finances, the more successful they are," said Claire Huang, Fidelity's executive vice president for marketing, describing the research.
"The normal financial-services ads show babies, brides, and super-boomers who surf or skydive. We're about just regular people trying to engage in conversations."
In the updated 2nd Edition of my book there is a huge chunk of a chapter where, as an exercise, I put together a viable campaign for a financial planning company - and it looks and feels a lot like this one.
Actually, my idea takes their idea to the next level. It'll be interesting (at least for me) to see if this campaign will eventually end up being more or less what I came up with.
I’ve been doing a lot of consulting for magazines/magazine web sites lately. When I present at a public or private conference and the attendees are involved in print, included is a large chunk about positioning magazines for Baby Boomers. And I’m informally asked about this subject on a regular basis. Here’s a quick version of what I say:
Take a look at this classic commercial from the early 1980s ...
That was before desktop computers, cell phones, IM, BlackBerrys, Twitter, etc. If done today the spot might still be funny and persuasive, but would reflect a different ethos - because for many of us life is like that. I know a big chunk of mine is. (We have a new, cute term for it: multitasking.)
There are active and passive parts of our day. Without getting into too much psychobabble, as you get older the passive side needs more nourishment. It’s not really passive. It’s focused absorption. At some point you have to climb out of your frenetic digital nest and concentrate on one thing. It might be reading a book, watching a TV show or movie, listening to music, looking out the window.
Or immersing yourself in a magazine.
This isn’t ‘down time’ (that would be sleeping), but nourishing your psyche by absorbing and not actively being involved in what you’re doing.
When radios became must-haves in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the doomsayers said that this would be the end of magazines and newspapers. When television became popular in the late 1940s and early 1950s the doomsayers said that this would be the end of radio. When the WWW became popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s the doomsayers said that this would be the end of everything. They’re still saying it.
I think not. (Although I do wonder about the fate of daily newspapers.)
Magazines do not compete with the various offerings slithering and exploding in a digital nest. If you fashion a web site for your magazine it would be wise to make it a different experience – because it will be whether you like it or not. It’s a web site, not a magazine. Certainly a bit of cross-promotion, a bit of cross-branding should be a part of the experience. I might suggest the same logo but a different layout and color palette. Certainly different content.
To position the magazine in a promotional campaign place it far away from the interactive frenzy. It’s like a pleasant dinner, a walk, a good movie, a good book – to be singularly appreciated. Too often, I see magazines desperately trying to compete with and within the digital nest. This nest is here to stay – but for a big part of their day Baby Boomers are happy to fly far from all the chaos and into another nest – one that is warm and nourishing. That’s where they will find, among other delectable items, your magazine.
The marketing industry heats up more every day, with advanced technologies, privacy concerns, and an increasingly fickle audience. Never fear! With 16 sessions to choose from, you're sure to find the topics that concern you most in these turbulent times.
Lots of interesting folks are involved, including one of my favorite bloggers Robert Scoble. He blogs about blogging – also used to work for Microsoft and wrote a lot about it.
I am a Portuguese sociologist that recently founded an event planning company to the 50+ market. Well, I always liked marketing and communications subjects, so now I feel I need to have deeper knowledge. I'm researching on the best way to communicate with the 50+ market in Portugal. I am reading Dick Stroud's book, and it as been very useful to me, as well as his blog. Then I found your blog too and it really has been very interesting. Let me congratulate you for your work and site! Thank you so much for all the help you are indirectly giving me in this very beginning of my business venture! Wish you all the best and hope to keep in touch with you!
Here's a fun piece from England by Bryan Appleyard:The (Dove) campaign, promoted on giant billboards in big cities, is said to have added $1.2 billion to the value of the brand. But has it added anything to the value of age?
As everyone knows, thanks to so many astute media pundits and marketing/advertising gurus, Baby Boomers think they're still teenagers and are horrified when they look in the mirror and see some hoary stranger in their forties or fifties. (And in a few months, many of these malicious apparitions will take the form of normal human beings in their sixties.) Botox! Hair coloring! These are the answers to that creepy, disingenuous image staring back at them.
Once upon a time, women would curse their gray hair and reach for the dye to cover it up. Or they'd eventually cave in and drench themselves in that ghastly purplish-blue rinse - the one that turns the shade of the Rocky Mountains at dusk. It was like the mark of the old age beast. But with salt falling on their heads like a blizzard, baby boomers are, as usual, opting to do it their way. So long, stigma, hello gray.
