Baby Boomers: A Force to Reckon With

From ADWEEK:

Baby Boomers: A Force to Reckon With
Households with baby boomer members -- born between 1946 and 1964 -- account for nearly $230 billion in sales of consumer packaged-goods (CPG) products and represent 55 percent of total CPG sales, a new study by Nielsen and Hallmark Channel reports.

Not too many ad/marketing trade mags were paying much attention to Boomer buying power three or four years ago.  Now they are. 

However, ADWEEK did.  Something I’d forgotten all about: Over three years ago ADWEEK offered my book as a subscription renewal premium.

No News News

A few news stories popped up in my Google alerts:

Baby Boomers are Largest Group of U.S. Internet Users
eMarketer estimates that ‘baby boomers’ - people born between 1945 and 1965 - constitute the largest group of United States Internet users.

News???  Here’s an excerpt from my book, first published in early 2005 (the quote is about a commercial for a hotel reservations service):

 
While this study was done in Europe, it applies here:

Older people can be disenfranchised by celebrity-fronted ads
The research carried out by YouGov on behalf of Senioragency … discovered that 46% of older consumers are actively turned off by celebrities fronting ad campaigns while only 11% thought more positively.

I talk about this in an online PowerPoint.  And in my book:

   
I’m a big supporter of web-based news and information – but sometimes print is years ahead of anything you’ll find in the ether.  Here’s a catalog brimming with books about marketing - all with ahead-of-the-curve insights that you won’t find on the web:

Shake Rattle Showtime

I had a spirited chat the other day with Joanne Hewitt, Marketing Director for the MPG Radio Network.  They produce Shake Rattle Showtime, a syndicated oldies-based show hosted by Jim Parsons.

Joanne has the numbers to prove that Shake Rattle Showtime spikes ratings and is true appointment listening.

A popular segment of the show – and a smart move by MPG:

“Walking Along encourages listeners to get out and get moving. Health is an area of high interest for our audience, and we're responding to that. Walking Along is introduced by a "Walking Song Of The Week" ie. Walking Along - Diamonds, I'm Walkin' - Ricky Nelson, etc.  A sponsor message follows within the segment.”

Boomers/Health. Pulling in sponsors for Walking Along shouldn’t be too difficult.

In January Shake Rattle will be in over forty markets.  My guess is that by this time next year it’ll be in over one hundred.

Home Appliances & Boomers

I’ve been harping on a certain subject. I’ve harped twice. 

But I have to do it again.  This WSJ article is surreal:

Home Appliances to Soothe the Aches of Aging Boomers by Paul Glader

At GE's consumer and industrial headquarters in Louisville, Ky., designers use "empathy sessions" to help develop new refrigerators, stoves and dishwashers. Industrial-design intern Joanie Jochamowitz, 22, wraps her knuckles with athletic tape and wears blue rubber gloves to simulate arthritis. She shoves cotton balls in her ears to simulate hearing loss, dons special glasses to simulate macular degeneration and puts dried corn kernels in her loafers to simulate aches and pains. She grabs a walker. Then she tries to peel potatoes.

So will advertising agencies tape, plug, bind and blind their twenty-something creatives so they’ll be able to fashion campaigns for these products?

Even better than the article are the comments:

“ … I wonder why the GE product development team seems to only be staffed by people in their 20s and 30s -- is there a shortage of designers in their 50s, who've experienced the shortcomings of various appliances for decades first-hand and don't need tape, gloves and corn kernels to simulate physical change? Foolishly, most industrial design seems to have been dominated by men and youth, giving us car doors that rip off our fingernails, seat belts that slice into our necks, and clothes dryers that require Cirque du Soleil dexterity to retrieve anything from. Why not have more women designers in their 50s and 60s working on product development teams?”

“Didn't it occur to you how stupid it was for GE and others to put these "old" suits on 25 year olds when there are real baby boomers 62 and younger as well as some very sharp 70 year old people who have not only decades of experience, a ton of degrees that actually were hard to get and are sharp as a tack who would still love to work but because of ageism can't even get a job at Taco Bell with a PhD (?)”

Is technology rewiring our brains?

A piece by AP Science Writer Malcolm Ritter:

Your brain on Google: Scientists examining whether digital age rewiring young people's minds

When the brain spends more time on technology-related tasks and less time exposed to other people, it drifts away from fundamental social skills like reading facial expressions during conversation … So brain circuits involved in face-to-face contact can become weaker … That may lead to social awkwardness, an inability to interpret nonverbal messages, isolation and less interest in traditional classroom learning.

I’ve written about this before: Advertising Gone Wrong

But put aside any qualitative judgments about the damages or benefits of a (mostly) virtual life.  What about the creation of advertising and marketing?  If a certain age/lifestyle demo sees and hears differently, relates differently to the world, if it is in many ways a different world for them – don’t you think that it would behoove ad agencies to hire a more diverse creative workforce?  Shouldn’t clients insist on this?  

It looks like they’re having the same problems in New Zealand – and not much in the article points to the obvious solution.