There’s a lot of bad advice out there. And old advice. And old bad advice.

Every few years a menagerie of marketing mavens, with no knowledge of history, have epiphanies:

“Hey, we should target Baby Boomers!”

All sorts of revelatory recommendations are bandied about.  The problem: bad advice is often mixed with the parroting.

From a major media outlet:

This market is outpacing younger cohorts when it comes to adopting new technologies and online media, so don’t discount digital advertising, social media and mobile content.

The first part is true.  I’ve been screaming about it for years.  But that doesn’t mean the second part follows:

The Social Media - WOMM - Web Advertising Posts

• 02 May 2011
  Click this ad. 0.051% do.
• 06 March 2012
  Digital Distractions
• 12 March 2012
  Digital Distractions II
• 17 July 2012
  Banner Ads = Happy Meal Toys…???

From a major business magazine (online article):

The marketing business is obsessed with youth, and figures the Baby Boomers (who do like to consider themselves still 25 years old) will respond, too.

Again, the first part is true.  You can read the Intro and 1st chapter of my book ©2005/2007 for that info.  But the second part…

Culled from the book:

Contrary to popular myth, Baby Boomers do not believe that they are still teenagers or young adults. (Some probably do, but they need therapy.) Boomers are slyly redefining what it means to be the ages they are. Included in this new definition are some youthful attitudes - but the real change is that instead of winding down, many are winding up. We're not 'looking forward to retirement,' we're looking forward to new lives, new challenges.

Posts from 2008:

Most Inane Commercial of The Year Award
Category: Targeting Baby Boomers
… I bet it'll also make a lot of people from other generations cringe. (Or thrilled that we're being portrayed as such nincompoops.)

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.

In this age of digital ephemera, where things zoom by, just as quickly zoom into oblivion, are forgotten, or even worse, never seen, when these same things zoom by again and again and again, they’re all, all of a sudden, brand new.

More:

21 November 2010
There’s a lot of bad advice out there.
Even a jaded, grizzled fellow like yours truly is often amazed at the poop on the web, along with what passes as cutting-edge thought.

07 February 2012
There’s still a lot of bad advice out there.
Recently I’ve stumbled on more weird opinions and advice.  I’ll share some, but no linking because I’m too nice a guy.

The Latest Miscellany

Golly gee, there’s no one big news story I can find to write about.  Or I’m too frazzled to concentrate, or senescently scatterbrained, or to put a positive spin on it all, expertly multitasking since that’s what people do nowadays because it’s impossible to focus on one thing what with all the tech chattering going on all around you.

Baby Boomers are wonderful:

Baby boomers have lots more to contribute
Baby boomers have earned the right not to be forgotten for their contributions by the new generations…The national conversation will only be a success if it does not forget to engage the baby boomers.

Focus on the right things, and baby boomers are a model.
I would suggest that the perseverance we used to end a war, and to move the country forward using myriad of social, humanitarian and political actions -- could likely be the kind of leadership that is in such short supply today, both here in Minnesota and elsewhere.

Baby Boomers are horrible:

Elderly go from being perceived as capable consumer to ‘old person’
“Abbie,” an 89-year-old woman from Texas, told Barnhart when she went to her doctor with her daughters, the physician would only talk to her children.

“If younger people bring you in, they think it’s because you’re not, I guess, lucid enough to understand what they’re saying,” Abbie said.

That seems to be the Doctor’s fault. But what do I know.

As Entrepreneurs:

The Baby Boomer Entrepreneur
Tech startup founders in their 20s and 30s make all the headlines, but when it comes to entrepreneurship, increasingly it’s baby boomers who are more likely to be in business for themselves — and creating jobs in the process.

Why baby boomers take the entrepreneurship plunge
The end of World War II begot a generation of Americans that’s starting to make waves in the entrepreneurship scene.

This all sounds vaguely familiar:

ADVERTISING TO BABY BOOMERS
Targets Clients and Entrepreneurs
Paramount Market Publishing, Ithaca, N.Y.
… Chuck Nyren's egalitarian approach to advertising and the creation of campaigns is all-inclusive. A large section of the book is dedicated to helping Baby Boomer entrepreneurs get their marketing and advertising up and running. The author as well gives advice and guidance to the small businessperson on how to fashion a handmade campaign.

Entrepreneurs & Baby Boomers: Part I
All of a sudden every other news article about Baby Boomers is focused on business and entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs & Baby Boomers II
I’ve found that there are two mistakes made by almost every entrepreneur targeting this unwieldy, diverse market.

Entrepreneurs & Baby Boomers III
Lessons for entrepreneurs? Due Diligence, of course. But not everybody is out to steal your your money with promises of fortunes with their marketing/advertising prowess.

Entrepreneurs & Baby Boomers IV
It's counter-intuitive, but the forever work life of older Americans may turn out to be a good thing for young workers.

Entrepreneurs & Baby Boomers V
The theme contemplated in this session is the enormous opportunity and challenge created by the aging demographics of the United States and Europe.

Friend Kevin Lavery tweeted this today:

No kidding.  I can’t keep up with them all.  I tried to years ago:

Sleepy Baby Boomer Internet Villages

Invasion of the Baby Boomer Pod People

A Bit Of Social Networking Site Research
Six sites featured were Social Networking sites.  Of those six, four (BoomJ.com, BoomerTowne.com, TeeBeeDee.com, Boomer411.com) failed miserably and no longer exist.  Millions of dollars wasted.
Update: Make that five out of six.

Advertising to Baby Boomers Can Be Tricky Business
“Here are six slogans, corporate tags, mission statements, whatever you want to call them, for six web sites targeting Boomers.”

You’d better start searching for all these new ones Kevin is talking about because they’ll vanish into the unity before long.

The Costco Connection

That behemoth barn Costco does a pretty good job serving Baby Boomers. 

The catalog/magazine Costco Connection likewise does a pretty good job.  Take a look at recent covers and you’ll figure out fast what age demo is not being ignored.  Advertisers everywhere, pay attention.

A bulkier-than-normal issue arrived the other day.  The holiday issue.  As always, I drifted through it.  Celeb profiles included Neil Young and Rod Stewart.  Sure, these fellows are pushing stuff (an autobiography, a Christmas album), but two Boomer music icons in one issue?  Smart for Costco.

I’ll make a wild guess and assume Costco is not directly responsible for ads from other sources.  It is responsible for store brands (Kirkland) and any promotional fodder. Most of these are okay for older eyes, but not great.  The designers seem to like white typeface, sometimes on light backgrounds.  I noticed a few with white on blue – the worst combo for people over fifty. 

The layout is busy, but what else could it be with such a jam-packed issue?  Black on white for articles is ideal, although I’d bump up the font a whit or more.  I don’t like to squint.

Recently, Costco has implemented two marketing strategies, one good (with reservations) and one not so good (yet):

• It’s pumping millions into its website.
• Promos are trying to convince folks to give up their print mag and access it virtually.

Some moldy posts, still relevant:

15 April 2007
Positioning Magazines for Baby Boomers
… This (digital) 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.

01 May 2010
Foretellings
That silly retronym “traditional advertising” will remain the premiere force for introducing people to a product or service, along with sustaining its shelf life. Television, print, radio, and billboard ads will continue to have the visceral power they’ve always had – if only for their sheer size, simplicity, and cutting-edge audio/visual qualities.  Advertising on smartphones will be considered an annoyance, invasive, and rather dinky – while marketing/search (coupons on steroids, and more) will flourish and dominate.

06 March 2012
Digital Distractions
Digital interruptions are headache-inducing.  Not so with magazines. Advertisements are welcomed and appreciated.  They are integral, seamless extensions of the magazine  experience.

27 April 2009
Is roiling ether the best place for advertising?
For the umpteenth time … The Most Effective Marketing/Advertising Model For Reaching Baby Boomers: What is now called traditional advertising pushing you to an age-friendly, informative product/services web site.

Costco’s investment in their online site is a good thing – but it’ll take their print mag promos and ads to get customers there.  And it always will.

Big mistake: Convincing people to forgo the print mag for the electronic version.  As it is, the e-version is a klutzy, unreadable mess, forcing you to zoom in and out to read anything.  Even when you do you can’t really read much.  Give it a gander.  It’s a simple PDF, clumsily widgetized.  The best way to solve this is by downloading the actual PDF so the graphics and text are truly accessible. But that’s too many steps, and still awkward, time-consuming.  People won’t bother.

And they won’t even know it’s available unless force-fed an email or text or some sort of announcement, again requiring too many steps. 

An attractive magazine arriving in the mail gets your attention.  It hangs out on the table, inviting you to do some easy, restful leafing – at least until recycle day rolls around.

Are tablets taking over?  Maybe.  Someday.

From a few weeks ago:

23 October 2012
The Future Of Consumer Doodad Technology
… You should stop thinking about the next big thingamabob and whose will be best.  In five or ten years there will be all sorts of thingamabobs for just about everything.  You’ll have two or three or ten thingamabobs.  Tablets/Smartphones will be big, small, thin, simple, complex, active, passive, out the door in your purse or pocket, lost in your couch cushions…

I’ll wait for the model that won’t shatter when you drop it and can be rolled up to swat flies.

We have a way to go before tablets are big, thin, light, unbreakable, maybe flexible to some degree, super-easy to read – and super-easy to access your magazine.  For now, for at least five or ten years, don’t count on tablets or smartphones to do everything.  They’ll eventually do more, but may never do it all.

NostraChuckus Predicts The Future Again: Crest 50+ Toothpaste

Famed Soothsayer and advertising gadfly NostraChuckus has been startling the world for years with his mundane prognostications.

Culled from a 2005 book review in The Journal of Consumer Marketing:

One more quote from the book ©2005:

Here’s an alternative universe you might consider:

“Hmmm. What’s this toothpaste? I think I’ve heard about it. Saw a commercial, read an ad about it. The person in the ad was around my age. She talked a bit about dental care, a bit about gums, about teeth, how to keep them healthy and strong. She had a nice smile, but not one that blinded me, sending me stumbling, feeling my way to the bathroom for the Visine. And the box doesn’t look like it’s an ornament for a science fiction Christmas tree. Maybe I’ll buy it.”

Seven years later (isn’t ‘seven’ some sort of magikal number?), a toothpaste company finally pays attention to NostraChuckus’ pesky presaging:

Crest 50+

Not the greatest spot, a bit hokey, perhaps a bit patronizing, perhaps the product is awkwardly positioned - however, all the  key selling points are there. 

Enough of NostraChuckus and his Crystal Ball of Common Sense. 

But … if this ad campaign had been produced  years ago, Crest would now be way ahead of the game.

The Future Of Consumer Doodad Technology

I’m stepping outside of my pundit-zone to babble about the future of  consumer doodad technology. 

What got me going:

It's Stupid and Insulting to Pitch 'Baby Boomers' As Tech Novices
Larry Magid, Contributor
… I was rather amused and a bit insulted when I got an email today from a PR person, offering  a”great idea for baby boomer and senior first time computer buyers looking to be a little bit more tech savvy.”

What an insult. If anything, it’s younger users who are already accustomed to easy-t0-use touch screen devices like the iPad that don’t ever require you to know how to use a mouse.

Ripping into flack confetti.  I’ve done that already so let’s skip it.

Tech genius kids.  I’ve done that already so let’s skip it...or, here’s a bit of it (July, 2007):

… On NPR recently there was a report about students who were given laptops instead of textbooks. While these kids certainly knew how to download music, hang out at Facebook, and play video games – they had real problems opening up and using a word processing program. Many had no idea how to save a document. And when they did save it, they couldn’t find it again to open and work on it – or figure out how to print it.

There’s also good news.

Back to the tech gizmos.  Getting our bearings:

01 May 2010
Foretellings
… With the exception of the workplace, smartphones (along with iPads and Kindles or something like them) might just make desktops and laptops and the web as we know it obsolete.

06 April 2010
The Obligatory iPad Post
I’ll wait for the model that won’t shatter when you drop it and can be rolled up to swat flies.

Everybody is talking about mobile … but what’s mobile?  Is a laptop mobile?  What if you have a tablet, and after carrying it around for awhile mostly to be really cool, you now leave it at home and use it there.  Is it still mobile?

I blabbed about this a year ago:

29 November 2011
Magazines Pull Back on Tablet Bells and Whistles
… The business world is too hung up on the operating systems and branding of smartphones and tablets, that within the next five years there will be all sorts of smartphones and tablets in all shapes and sizes, all with different functions and capabilities.

At first, folks carried around their iPads as status symbols.  Now, no one cares – so they’re left at home.  Tablets will become much bigger, lighter, and will be on your coffee table.

My point: You should stop thinking about the next big thingamabob and whose will be best.  In five or ten years there will be all sorts of thingamabobs for just about everything.  You’ll have two or three or ten thingamabobs.  Tablets/Smartphones will be big, small, thin, simple, complex, active, passive, out the door in your purse or pocket, lost in your couch cushions. 

Sure, I’m as insulted as Mr. Magid is.  There will always be a need for simple technology – but not in all cases and not based on the age of the user.  Some technology I want simple, some I want complex.  I can handle either.  So can most people.  But if you want complex only or simple only, no problem.

My comment posted to the Forbes’ piece:

Good points. I’ve been screaming about this for years in a book, numerous articles, my blog, and speaking/consulting gigs around the world.

The only issue is universal design and making technology easier for Boomers when it comes to font/graphic size, color contrasts, and tactile design. An ergonomic handle on a spatula is not ‘dumbing down’.

And some people are eschewing their thingamabobs for big chunks of the day.  I even know a few kids who are sick of it all,  in tech rebellion (except for smartphones), aren’t even futzing with Facebook or diddling with video games. For some misguided reason, they’re avoiding the norms and wondering if there might be more to life. 

That sounds a bit like another generation that came of age in the 1960s.