Boomeropia

There’s a new site targeting Baby Boomers and travel: Boomeropia. Here's a little piece in USA Today about it.

In the original edition of my book, published in 2005 (it’s also in the updated paperback) I spend a few pages imagining the perfect travel web site for Boomers. Boomeropia isn’t it – but it does have a few of the ingredients I’d suggested. It’s definitely a smorgasbord of vacation ideas. That’s good.

The name Boomeropia is abominable. In my book I warn against calling Boomers Boomers and naming anything “Boomer-whatever”. But they’ll find out soon enough. When I see “Boomeropia” I think of those neologism contests, mostly blends. Boomeropia sounds to me like a blend of boomer and myopia - a term boomer-bashers (a neoligism! as is 'baby boomers') might come up with:

Boomeropia: A psychological disorder prevalent in Baby Boomers who have convinced themselves that they are the only generation of any importance. In advanced stages of the disease, patients believe that there is only one generation - Baby Boomers. All other generations are merely cohorts and wannabes. Also known as “The Me Generation”.)

Perhaps they were trying to blend “Boomer” and “Utopia” - but that domain (Boomertopia) was taken. Who knows.

For the record: This blog and my book are B2B, not B2C. I use the term “Baby Boomers” because it’s a common sociological and business/marketing term.

At the moment, Boomeropia is simply a vacation aggregator – a collection of descriptions and links to other sites. Clicking around, I found some interesting ones – including a handful of top-notch suggestions in their excellent section for grandparents/grandchildren (a big market). The handicap section (again, not really the appropriate or smart term to use) is sparse - and if they'd done their research it would've included the top blog in the world on this subject: Rolling Rains. Although Dr. Rains is anything but handicapped. I'd have trouble keeping up with him. (Actually, I don't think I could. He'd leave me out of breath in hotel rooms to recover - as he again headed out the door to do things I'd never do.)

There’s also a meager but pretty good for beginners travel tips section (where they use another word you don’t want to use: Seniors) and a simple bulletin board.

Site Design: Nobody paid any attention at all to colors and color contrasts, wishy-washy type over pictures, fonts and size, etc. – and the headache-inducing effects these have on older eyes. Too bad. However, Boomeropia is clean, a breeze to navigate, and the simple hierarchy is refreshing.

All in all, it's not a bad site to zip through if you're planning a vacation. You'll probably pick up a few ideas and tips.

New Edition Creeping Into Libraries

I receive emails regularly from college students and professors. Thanks to The Advertising Educational Foundation selecting my book as a Classroom Resource – it has ended up as just that. The original edition (2005) is in hundreds of college and university libraries worldwide. Here’s a partial list.

Now the updated, revised edition is creeping into libraries. At the moment, copies can be found here:

Penn State - University Park, PA
DePaul University - Chicago, IL
Kent State University - Kent, OH
University of Illinois - Chicago, IL
Menlo College - Atherton, CA
Regis University - Denver, CO
Texas A&M University - College Station,TX
Fashion Institute of Tech Library - New York, NY
University of Alberta - Edmonton, Canada
Northern Illinois University - Dekalb, IL
College of Dupage Library - Glen Ellyn, IL
Eastern Illinois University - Charleston, IL
Ferris State University - Big Rapids, MI
Governors State University - University Park, IL
Bellevue Community College - Bellevue, WA
Miami University Libraries - Oxford, OH
Wright State University - Dayton, OH
Morehead State University - Morehead, KY
RIT Library - Rochester, NY
University of N Carolina - Greensboro, NC
Quinnipiac University - Hamden, CT
Broward Community College - Ft Lauderdale, FL
California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo, CA

When students or teachers ask me if they should buy my book, I tell them, "Why don't you go to your library and request it. They'll probably order it for you." Most business and educational book authors don’t make a living from royalties – so we’re more interested in people reading our books than simply selling copies. Excuse the convoluted conceit involved here – but admittedly I get a big kick out of the fact that twenty or thirty students are taking turns, pouring over the same copy.

IMMN and New Members

It's become a mad rush - joining IMMN (The International Mature Marketing Network).

I'll probably get in a ton of trouble for blurting it all out before any official announcements - but here goes:

Carol Orsborn of Fleishman-Hillard (FH BOOM) is now a Board Member. Also joining is Lori Bitter of JWT BOOM.

So … a top PR firm and a top ad agency - and though the names are similar, they're not related. Fleishman-Hillard is with Omnicom, JWT with WPP. (Now they're related.)

New Honorary Board Members: Florian Kohlbacher of The German Institute for Japanese Studies, David Wolfe of Ageless Marketing, Richard Adler of The Institute of The Future.

A welcome to all.

Love At Any Age

It's a bit off-topic. Let's call it a 'focus group' - that way I can get away with blogging it.

My friend Susan Silver got in some great ones on The Today Show today:

Love At Any Age (If that arrow in the video below doesn't work.)



Here's something about Susan. Why she's not writing sitcoms anymore, why ad agencies aren't banging on her door to create spots targeting women in their fifties, sixties ...

Me vs. We

Last week I read a piece of marketing advice:

"Baby boomers have always been considered the 'me-generation,' and that doesn't change with age."

It's this type of reckless gibberish that is useless to marketers, and ultimately harmful to their clients. I wrote a chapter about it in my book. Here's a bit of it:

Baby Boomers were stigmatized when we were in and around our twenties, early thirties. Sure, we were ‘me’ back then. Barring tragedies like war and all sorts of catastrophes similarly horrifying, most young adults are me, me, me. Self-obsessed to the nth degree. They have to be. It’s the period for figuring out who you are, making something of yourself, being mostly selfish, mostly self-obsessed. Not such a bad path to take when you’re young and getting your bearings. If you don’t, you might not survive. Some of us went a bit overboard and didn’t survive – but it was a small percentage.

What happened is that there were so many of us in the 1970s when the term ‘me generation’ was coined that it ended up being the zeitgeist of the industrialized world. This image followed us. As we hit our late thirties, forties, fifties, and now some of us banging into our sixties, we were too busy to bother about this silly ‘branding’ of ourselves.

Today, Baby Boomers are two or three times removed from being a “me” generation. What constitutes self-actualization when you are twenty-five is different than when you are fifty-five. In your twenties a person thinks they are the picture. As you get older, you see yourself more and more as a picture that is part of a bigger picture.

Talk to some folks in their twenties, thirties. They are now in that ‘me’ stage. It’s healthy, smart for them to be so. I was just like them thirty years ago, get a big bang out of them, admire their boundless creativity, energy – and self-obsession. These ‘me generation’ twentysomethings today will become a ‘we generation’ in thirty years.

(page 171, Advertising to Baby Boomers)
(c) 2004, 2007 by Paramount Market Publishing

I could go deep into all sorts of profound stuff, like Shakespeare's The Seven Ages of Man and Maslow's Hierarchy, but that would take scores of screen scrolls. So this'll be short ...

Here's a piece I blogged about in 2006:

'Me Generation' becomes 'We Generation' in USA Today:
Will boomers really give something back? They already are. Nationally, boomers (33%) have higher volunteer rates than either seniors (24%) or young adults (24%), reports the Corporation for National and Community Service. This is the most schooled and traveled generation in history. It has much to offer by the giving of its time. The number of American volunteers rose to 65.4 million last year from 59.5 million in 2002. It is projected to reach 70 million by 2010, driven by aging boomers who want to make a difference.

Recently the New York Times weighed in on the subject. Sounds like my book:

Generation Me vs. You Revisited
Yet despite exhibiting some signs of self-obsession, young Americans are not more self-absorbed than earlier generations, according to new research challenging the prevailing wisdom.

And today Mark Miller (a one-day colleague and every day intelligent, nice guy) talks a bit about this stereotyping silliness in his Chicago Sun-Times column:

Boomers give plenty of financial help to kids, parents
Baby boomers often are stereotyped as self-indulgent -- a generation endlessly fascinated with its own needs and interests.

Then there's this:

Selfless baby boomers switch careers

Back to that quote:

"Baby boomers have always been considered the 'me-generation,' and that doesn't change with age."

A quote from Yours Truly:

"When a marketing, advertising, or PR person starts talking about Baby Boomers in sound bites and clichés, he/she is treating you like a baby. Don't listen. Simply put on your iPod, and smile and nod."