Deep Digging Your Target Market

Although crossing over on occasion, I don't consider myself a journalist—or certainly not a professional one. Usually I'm interviewed by journalists.

But if it gets me a press pass to some fun event, I tell them I'm one.

Even so, if you're in advertising and marketing you'd better be aware of what's happening out there in NewspaperMagazineInternetMediaLand.

And if you're targeting the 50+ Market, a good way of keeping up is by reading Aging Today - a bi-monthly report put out by the American Society on Aging. Here's an issue (and if you dig deep enough, you might find an article written by Yours Truly).

But what you should really do is dig even deeper. Paul Kleyman, the editor of Aging Today, also publishes Age Beat Online - a newsletter specifically for journalists. This is the grit, the insider news. Read the May 27th, 2008 issue.

May: Unused Ether

There were a lot of posts this month. I don't know why. It just happened. So you'll have to make due with only a few juicy leftovers:

Appliance makers have designs on boomers

Schweppes puts the "soft" in soft drinks advertising

Swelled Head

Boomers May Keep Economy Going

Sonic Boomers

Slightly Swelled Head

Boomer social networking sites languishing in traffic

Boomers contribute to nation's wealth

Mine Is Longer than Yours
___

Unused Ether: February

Unused Ether: March

Unused Ether: April

Sex, Sex, and Sex

Let's Talk About Sex (Newsweek)

BOOMER LOVE (San Francisco Chronicle)

Putting The 'Boom' In Boomer (CBS News Online)

How well I remember the media all over us when we were teenagers because we were having sex. Now they're all over us again because we're still having sex.

I wish they'd shut up and go away so we can have sex.

Thanks, MarketingSherpa

For your generous review:

Baby boomers make up 25% of the US population, hold 70% of US assets and spend $2 trillion annually. It's time we discovered opportunities for infomercials, Internet ads and branding catered to the young-at-heart. 'Advertising to Baby Boomers' uses straightforward, jargon-free language to guide advertisers, business owners and agencies on how to craft campaigns successfully.

The author, Chuck Nyren, a veteran creative strategist, explains how to approach this important demographic. This second edition update is divided into three sections. The first part helps us understand boomers' self-image and desires; the second suggests how to market to them; and the third offers practical resources.

Nyren employs wit, helpful asides and experts' citations to refute stereotypes that damage campaigns. He reinstates respect for the demographic that's often insulted by well-intentioned- but-flawed advertising. Some of his suggestions include abstaining from poking fun of boomers' age (i.e., targeting them for cliché products). He also advises showing facts instead of using elaborate illustrations to explain why boomers need something.

So, if you want to avoid pigeonholing baby boomers and confusing or angering the demographic with your humor, check out this readable 182-page foundation for reaching them. We promise it will be filled with underlines.

MarketingSherpa

Baby boomers are smarter than you think

It seems as if I’m smarter than I think I am:

Baby boomers are smarter than you think
Researchers have confirmed what many mature people already know – intelligence actually gets sharper with age.

Yeah? Then how come I didn’t know this already?

… Oh, that’s right. Baby Boomers aren’t ‘mature.’ We think we’re still youngsters.

Wisdom increases with age, research says
Scientists have discovered that intelligence, instead of peaking in our youth, remains stable and in some respects gets sharper as we grow older.

And the New York Times is weighing in. When we think we're losing it, we're actually gaining it:

Older Brain Really May Be a Wiser Brain
When older people can no longer remember names at a cocktail party, they tend to think that their brainpower is declining. But a growing number of studies suggest that this assumption is often wrong. Instead, the research finds, the aging brain is simply taking in more data and trying to sift through a clutter of information, often to its long-term benefit ...

"...Older adults, because they’ve retained all this extra data, they’re now suddenly the better problem solvers. They can transfer the information they’ve soaked up from one situation to another."

Hmmm. I keep hearing that 50 is the new 30. Now I’ll be hearing that 50 is the new 70.