An Interactive Guide

to
Baby Boomer Marketing/Advertising
News & Resources
Chuck Nyren

After numerous articles, a book, an updated

edition of same, a blog, dozens of media
interviews, dozens of speaking/consulting
engagements worldwide, and a fair amount of
actual work, I thought it was time to put together
a concise, organized, interactive compendium of
news articles, opinions, and resources.

But ‗concise‘ and ‗organized‘ are not in my

lexicon. It‘s ended up being more a colorful
cornucopia whirling and bursting every which
way, less a pocket dictionary. I think that‘s for
the better.

What fascinated me while gathering: the

fascinating people I met – virtually and in the
flesh. Not only marketing/advertising folks
– but artists, writers, creators of clever and
profound business concepts and products,
sociologists and educators, doctors,
historians, even philosophers.

Thanks to hypertext and the magic of the

Web, what you‘ll really be doing is wending
your way through a lively and unwieldy
social network populated by pundits,
researchers, journalists, and the cream of
advertising/marketing creative.

That‘s what I‘ve been doing for the last six years.
 Baby Boomers Burst Online

Tessa Wegert's piece on Click Z about a Burst!

Media study is a good one - although there's
nothing much new here if you've been keeping up with the Baby Boomer
online demographic curve:

Three of five adults 55 years and older, known to be the

heaviest consumers of offline media such as newspapers and
TV network news, say they use the Internet more today than
they did a year ago. This data is supported by com Score
Media Metrix research, which finds the number of online
adults aged 55 and older grew by 20 percent to reach over 27
million in 2005.

Tessa is an entertaining business writer. Not surprisingly, I found her

anecdotal research more compelling than the numbers. She tells a story
about her mother-in-law giving the 20 and 30-something youngsters in her
family Logitech video WebCams for Christmas, then announcing:

"Now we can all iChat together and see each other wherever we are …
Later, I'll show you all how to set it up."

Those Humdrum Empty Nesters

Stuck in their ways. Refuse to try new things, change brands. Why target
them???

From The Mature Market web site:

On average, 54% of European and American Empty Nesters claim that in the
past year they have tried new types of food and drinks. European and
American Empty Nesters do however show different propensities to
experiment, with 49% and 58% respectively claiming to have experimented
with new foods over the past year.
There has never been a more experimental generation than Baby Boomers.
Have something new and exciting in the marketplace? Don't let us know
about it. You might improve your sales by 50%.

Selfless baby boomers switch careers

Study shows majority of boomers looking to make a difference:

Kevin Corke of NBC News has put

together a short piece about Baby
Boomers wanting the second acts of
their lives to be more meaningful by finding jobs that are socially
responsible. It was prompted by a Princeton Survey Research Associates
International study.

The findings:

 78 percent wanted to help the poor and elderly.

 56 percent wanted to work in health care.
 55 percent wanted to work in education.

I guess I've just hung out with too many friends who've always had altruistic
goals, altruistic lives, and didn't pile up the dough: teachers, social workers,
government employees, artists. The 'me generation' tag I always thought was
lots of B.S.

If you are interested in finding a more meaningful vocation, check out Civic
Ventures.

All this, of course, has and will have an extreme impact on advertising and
marketing to Baby Boomers. David Wolfe, Brent Green and others
(including Yours Truly) talk about this in our books, blogs, and when we do
business consulting. We all have different takes on how to advertise and
market to Baby Boomers, but there is a common through-line: Baby
Boomers are not a bunch of age-deluded, self-obsessed hedonists.
Digital Agencies Hunt for Video Talent

Kevin Newcomb of ClickZ reports:

With more advertisers looking to enhance their
online ads and Web sites with video, more agencies
are looking both inside and out to find talent to
bridge the gap between offline video and online
rich media.

"The challenge with finding the right people is on a conceptual level," Troy
Young, VP of interactive strategy at Omnicom's Organic, told ClickZ News.
"This is really hard stuff, creating content that people want to share. The
goal is to find storytellers that understand the medium."

Hmmm. I wonder if digital media agencies should take a look at the two
chapters in my book that The Advertising Educational Foundation has on
their web site.

Those Selfish, Money-Grubbing Baby Boomers

Andrea Coombes of MarketWatch has put

together a trenchant article about Baby
Boomers and their value systems. In this case, it has to do with inheritances:

Bequests of another kind

Money is low on the list of what boomers hope to inherit
Seventy-seven percent of boomers said understanding their
parents' values is very important, 65% said enacting their
parents' last wishes is key and 34% felt receiving their parents'
sentimental treasures is very important, according to a …
survey of about 1,200 boomers, conducted for Allianz, the
insurance company, by Harris Interactive. For this study,
boomers are those 40 to 59 years old.

But just 10% of boomers said it was very important their

parents bequeath financial assets or real estate.
No surprise to me. Probably a big surprise to many media pundits who trash
this generation.

And according to Carol Goar of The Toronto Star, Baby Boomers north of
here are just as self-obsessed and money-grubbing:

Boomers look past bottom line

Marketplace: Marketing to Boomers

American Public Media's Marketplace has a feature worth listening to. How
interesting that the last line is one of the
major themes of my book. Good to hear that
other folks are on the same wavelength.
This time it's a professor of
television/advertising at Syracuse
University.

Boomer Marketing Basics

Brent Green, marketing/advertising creative director, consultant,

and author of Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers offers
this crash course in Boomer Marketing Basics. An excerpt:

Boomers resonate with marketing messages that help them

process their lives. Although they still maintain youthful
idealism and verve in many ways, they are now middle-aged adults
with middle-aged value frameworks.

Brent calls it the 'cliff notes' version of his book. I think it's more like a
script for one of those minute-long versions of famous plays. The characters
and dialogue go whizzing by, it's frenetic and fun, but...

Absorb it, get your bearings - then tackle the unexpurgated folio. You'll be
thoroughly engrossed and enlightened. (And if you have a consumer product
or service, you might even learn how to make a lot more money.)

710 KIRO CLOSE-UP: BABY BOOMERS

I had a spirited chat with Pete Gammell,

Editor/Producer for Seattle's KIRO 710. He fashioned
my ramblings into something worth listening to (along
with adding his own astute comments).
My segment is here.

Boomer Century

Here's a pretty good cover story from American Heritage

by Joshua Zeitz.

Younger audience near its use-by date.

Simply put, they are ahead of us. Us meaning the U.S.,

they meaning the U.K., Australia, France, Canada.
Here's a piece by Paul McIntyre in The Sydney
Morning Herald. Excerpt:

It's a funny game, advertising. Few want to get serious about targeting those
with the money - the older age brackets - which gives the network with the
young guns a handy position.

But it will change when the advertising herd does start a meaningful
migration to older folks.
They used to follow our leads in marketing, ape our advertising. Now, we'd
be in better shape economically if we started following and aping them.

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.

But according to an article by Jack Neff in Ad Age, "AGING

POPULATION BRUSHES OFF COLORING," the hair coloring and salon
industries are in the doldrums — all thanks to Baby Boomers eschewing
these phony ways of attempting to look younger:

"The graying of America is at the root of the problem for the $1 billion-plus
mass-market hair-coloring business. The category has cooled from double-
digit growth the past two decades to more than 4% declines the past two
years..."

Another article by Colette Bancroft of the St. Petersburg Times:

… Diana Lewis Jewell is the author of Going Gray, Looking Great! The
Modern Woman's Guide to Unfading Glory (Fireside, 2004) and a former
marketing director of Vogue.

"Look at this generation, our generation," says Jewell,

who is in her 50s. "We always wanted to be ourselves."

The number of gray heads is growing, she says, because

of "that boomer individualistic attitude: It's okay to be gray."

In her book she cites a poll commissioned by the AARP that shows 53
percent of boomer women and 6 percent of men in that age group color their
hair.

"That means 47 percent of women and 94 percent of men don't."

Also check out the adjunct article with quotes from a bunch of old, creaky,
silver-haired geezers.

The Most Famous Advertising Man in the World

While bantering with Ray & Brad on The

Advertising Show, we started to talk about
the history of advertising—and (no
surprise) David Ogilvy's name came up. I
think I stumped the stars - asking them
how old they thought Mr. Ogilvy was
when he wrote his first ad.

Answer: Thirty-nine.

The ads/campaigns that David Ogilvy is most famous for were created when
he was in his forties and fifties. Advertising agencies today don't like to hear
this.

Here is an entertaining (and revealing) speech given by Kenneth Roman last

year about David Ogilvy. Excerpt:

When he began to make his mark on Madison Avenue, Fortune

described him. ―At fifty-three, Ogilvy is a remarkable young-looking
man, with wavy, dark-blond hair (cut rather long), blue eyes, and a
fair complexion, who might easily be mistaken for a successful British
actor. He smokes a pipe, his speech is that of an English gentleman,
and he wears tweed to the office, where he is served tea every
afternoon by a maid named Bridey Murphy. His vests have lapels.‖
Mr. Roman is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Ogilvy &
Mather Worldwide - and was also a guest on The Advertising Show. He‘s
written a book: The King of Madison Avenue. Guess who it‘s about.

For Mature Audiences

By Mary Tannen in New York Times
Magazine:

Nice as it would be to believe that older women in high places (and a few
enlightened men) are at last recognizing the allure of the post-Edenic Eve,
that is, a woman with experience who knows what she wants and how to get
it, some hard economics may also be wooing the cosmetic and fashion
industries away from their long love affair with youth.

THE VOICE OF AMERICA SPEAKS

It doesn't quite carry the gravitas it once

did, but VOA is still one of the top news
sources around the world. So you'd
better read (and watch) their generic
report on marketing to Baby Boomers:

Melanie Ulricksen is 53. She says she's fed up with

products that try to make her look younger. "I don't
want to be 55 trying to look like I'm 35. Give me
something that makes what I have look nicer."

Nothing much new here, although it's worth

listening to the sensible advice of Revlon's CMO,
Stephanie Peponis:

"We want to make her look her best today. That's different from turning
back the clock."
On second thought - this report, though not the most arousing piece of
reportage, probably should be rammed down the throats of every advertising
agency power-that-be. Of course, only clients can do that.

And I wonder when they will. Clients had better wise up fast and demand
intelligent creative when targeting Baby Boomers.

Boomers, Vacation, Travel

Mirroring a chapter in my book about vacations and travel, add this trend:

Exotic cruises profit from baby boomers

Affluent cruise passengers are eschewing placid days on a sun lounger for
exotic trips to middle-eastern archaeological sites and night clubs.

Volunteering travel is a big success with the 50-plus

Over-5Os make excellent volunteers as they bring with them different life
skills and a different outlook to younger volunteers. They tend to be more
patient and have very good communication and people skills. Older
volunteers sometimes take on a role as an unofficial group leader when
placed with younger volunteers which seems to work well. All the skills
complement each other.

Now in its eleventh year, i-to-i

is an award-winning
organization providing unique
travel and work experiences to people of all ages, from all backgrounds.

I stumbled upon Zac Bissonnette's take on it

all at Bloggingstocks.com. He's one smart
fellow:

Is the commercialization of the sixties something to

mourn?

Should the baby boomers -- or at least those who were

part of this movement -- be upset? I think so. What
 was supposed to be a powerful force for change has been reduced to
nostalgia -- in the middle of a war in Iraq that bears striking
similarities to the one hippies worked so hard to end. It's as if
corporate America has forgotten the substance of the message and
used the pretty flowers to sell insurance ... what's really happened is
that the controversial elements are now long and forgotten, and we're
left with what is essentially a sanitized white bread version of a
movement that was supposed to go against all that.

Another déjà vu …

Aside from the obvious reasons (anybody wanna buy a CDO?), 2009 has
been a strange year so far.

For me, the strangest episodes are happening while reading news articles
about Baby Boomers and realizing that I‘ve read them all before – usually in
my book.

And they‘ve given me excuses to have tongue-

in-cheek fun with my alter-ego
NostraChuckus. But recently it‘s been
spooky. I‘m starting to believe my own goofy
hype – hype I made up myself. (Or maybe I‘m
still having tongue-in-cheek fun ...)
Another déjà vu:

This is not your father's old folks

home
Boomers' active lifestyles redefining
55-plus housing
By John Handley
"Over-55" housing has changed. Choices have expanded. Starting in
the 1960s, the traditional model was the large, age-restricted Sun Belt
communities. Now Sun City-style developments are being built in the
Snow Belt.
From my book:

Give Boomers Room for Choices

Aging in Place
I‘ve heard this term defined a few ways. The simplest definition:
people staying put in their condos or houses for the rest of their lives.
Others refer to ―aging in place‖ as remodeling current residences with
Universal Design as the blueprint. Still others use the term to describe
Baby Boomers moving into condos or active adult communities not
far from where they are now—so they can still be
near work, family, and friends.

… As Baby Boomers retire, they will put their

special stamp on retirement … maybe with large
multi-generational communities.

There‘s more, but I‘m too lazy to cherry-pick. Take a look

yourself: Give Boomers Room for Choices (PDF)

Small World: I referenced a 2004 Chicago Tribune article by John Handley

in my book.

Positioning Magazines for Baby Boomers

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,
Facebook, 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.

My Favorite Cyber-Myth

How I snicker and roll my eyes whenever I read

about Baby Boomers fumbling around on
computers, scratching their heads, totally
flummoxed. Sure, there is a percentage of any
age group that's technologically challenged -
but Boomers as a whole have embraced the
internet and aren't afraid to plunge into the
ether brain first.

Remember that commercial for an online travel

company where a twenty-something woman is searching for a vacation and
hotel for her bumbling parents? Implied: moron mom and moron dad
couldn't do it themselves.

Read this article by Jeffrey Grau in iMedia Connection:

Forrester Research also found that very few online travelers start searches
using the new breed of travel search engines — most likely because they are
not aware of their existence … Hitwise found that visitors to the top travel
search engines were by far likely to be over 55 years of age. Hitwise
attributed this to baby boomers …

Madison Avenue doesn't think that anybody over forty-five can even turn on
a computer. And when some youngster flips it on for them, all they probably
do is stare at the virtual desktop until they nod off.
Love At Any Age

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

My friend Susan Silver on The Today Show:

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 ...

Click to watch.

How Ads Affect Our Memory

Some common sense - one of those things

lacking in the wacky world of online
marketing:

How Ads Affect Our Memory

A new study suggests that marketers shouldn't fixate on the number of
people who click on ads. According to the research, just seeing
an ad on a Web page can impact memory. The findings
could have a significant impact on the way online advertising
is made and metered.

Typically, to be considered effective, an online

advertisement has to elicit a response--usually a click of the
mouse--from a potential customer. But Chan Yun Yoo, an
assistant professor at the University of Kentucky's School of
Journalism and Telecommunications, found that when people
view Web advertisements, they store information in two
different types of memory: explicit and implicit.
I'm often asked about media planning and Baby Boomers. My glib answer:
"Who needs media planners. The 50+ Demo is the only one that soaks up all
media - TV, Radio, The Web, Magazines, Newspapers, Direct Marketing,
etc. Take your pick. You can't miss them."

Of course it's more complicated than that. But not that much more
complicated.

Seeing a banner ad on a web site is good marketing, good branding. If there

is no click-through, so what? It does not mean that the impression hasn't left
an impression. If the product interests you, you'll remember to read more
about it somewhere else. And really internet-savvy folks will bypass the
banner altogether and do some googling.

Subjects who paid attention to a banner advertisement were more

likely than those who didn't to recall whole words and facts from the
ad--facts stored in explicit memory. All ads had the same level of
impact in the unconscious explicit memory, however, whether or not
they'd been clicked. Yoo's findings are relevant because they
challenge the assumption that online advertising is only effective
when it gets a direct response from the viewer.

Not a big surprise - but sometimes you have to do a hoity-toity study to

convince people that common sense is common sense.

The Media & Baby Boomers: Joined At The Hip

Professor Douglas Gomery answers a handful of questions about Baby

Boomers and Media:

Gomery says the boomers will continue to drive the media into the
next two decades. As the largest demographic group, he says, "there is
no historical model for the impact a group of people like the boomers
(from 1946 to 64) have had and will have though 2020 or so."

Don't embarrass yourself by asking the reigning media and marketing

mavens and moguls about Baby Boomers watching TV, listening to radio.
Their eyes will glaze over, their lips will move slowly, mechanically, as they
repeat The Mantra - a spooky, zombie-like drivel oozing with brain-washed
rhetoric about the all-powerful 18-34 demographic.

Just as informative and even more fun: The Library of American

Broadcasting. I spent too much time there clicking around.

Zoomers

Media mogul Moses Znaimer seems to have taken over

all things Boomer in Canada. He‘s even renamed them.
They‘re now Zoomers.

The number of business and media outlets that are

Znaimer/Zoomer-centric is quite impressive, and worth
visiting. There‘s a classical music station, a magazine, a
Zoomer social network, a Zoomer university, a Zoomer
consumer show ……. oh, I‘m getting tired. Just click the pull-down menu on
top of this page for the complete list.

Would a Boomer/Zoomer media empire play here in The States? Maybe

not. We‘re too diverse, unwieldy, eclectic. However, if someone wants to
bankroll me for ten or twenty mil, I‘ll be happy to put one together.
I‘ll even change my name to Chuck Znyren.

Brent Green has a good take on it all.

Don't Forget The Zwischen Kids und Senioren

I have no idea what I say in this article—but whatever it is, no doubt it's very
profound and important:
 Don't forget them! Zwischen Kids und Senioren gibt es
noch eine Zielgruppe:

Was sie für Werbetreibende außerdem so attraktiv macht, ist ihre

unerwartete Flexibilität. "Zugegeben, ich habe eine
Lieblingszahnpasta, aber sonst bin ich allem
Neuen gegenüber aufgeschlossen", versichert
Chuck Nyren, Autor von "Advertising to Baby
Boomer", und fragt verwundert: "Wie kommen
Werbeprofis bloß darauf, dass unser Geschmack
bereits festgefahren ist?"

And as with Oprah - anytime I can help boost the careers of stragglers and
wannabes like Susan and Julianne (and Paul) by simply having their names
associated with mine - it's fine with me. I'm the beneficent type.

Cookie-Cutter Cavalcades

Lots of ethereal ink lately about nuts ‗n bolts travel:

Retired? Hit the road, help your brain

by Rick Spratling
So you‘ve escaped middle age and are ready for the long calm of
retirement. What next? If you spend too much time rocking on the
front porch, will your brain droop into autopilot? One antidote for this
is educational travel …

Elderhostel holds Baby Boomer travel appeal

by Paul Briand
"The study said travel programs
should be shorter in order to fit busy
schedules and keep prices affordable.
It said Boomers will want to travel in small groups, with a mix of free
time, hands-on learning and behind-the-scenes activities rather than
ordinary tourist fare …‖

Sounds a bit like my book, first published in early 2005 (now in an updated
paperback). An excerpt:
Discovering What Matters

Following the fun and insightful Ecologies of Risk

report, The MetLife Mature Market Institute has
released a new study:

Discovering What Matters: Balancing Money,

Medicine and Meaning

1. Myth: The Good Life = material

wealth. When asked to select from a list
of 13 activities that contribute to living a
purposeful life, respondents were most
likely to select spending time with
friends/family (86%) and taking care of their physical self (63%).
2. Myth: Happiness = the absence of misfortune.
3. Myth: The Good Life = more (more friends, more money, more
health, more activity).

Download The Discovering What Matters Study

My Brain, Your Brain, iBrain

I read iBrain a few weeks ago, and it keeps roiling and bubbling in my
noggin, like a good brain book should.

It‘s mostly about Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants –

terms apparently coined by educational consultant Marc
Prensky. In iBrain, Dr. Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan consider
the psychological and neurological traits of these evolving
archetypes:

Today's young people in their teens and twenties, who have been
dubbed Digital Natives, have never known a world without
computers, twenty-four-hour TV news, Internet, and cell phones—
with their video, music, cameras, and text messaging. Many of these
Natives rarely enter a library, let alone look something up in a
traditional encyclopedia; they use Google, Yahoo, and other online
search engines. The neural networks in the brains of these Digital
Natives differ dramatically from those of Digital Immigrants:
people—including all baby boomers—who came to the digital-
computer age as adults but whose basic brain wiring was laid down
during a time when direct social interaction was the norm. The extent
of their early technological communication and entertainment
involved the radio, telephone, and TV.

As a consequence of this overwhelming and early high-tech

stimulation of the Digital Native's brain, we are witnessing the
beginning of a deeply divided brain gap between younger and older
minds—in just one generation.

How does this affect advertising creative? More fuel for the idea of a diverse
workforce. Younger folks ingest and digest the world differently than older
folks. So you‘d better have the right guts around to trust. If you don‘t
believe me, believe Rance Crain.

More from iBrain:

The current explosion of digital technology not only is

changing the way we live and communicate but is rapidly
and profoundly altering our brains. Daily exposure to high
 technology—computers, smart phones, video games, search engines
like Google and Yahoo—stimulates brain cell alteration and
neurotransmitter release, gradually strengthening new neuralpathways
in our brains while weakening old ones. Because of the current
technological revolution, our brains are evolving right now—at a
speed like never before.

Besides influencing how we think, digital technology is altering how

we feel, how we behave, and the way in which our brains function.
Although we are unaware of these changes in our neural circuitry or
brain wiring, these alterations can become permanent with repetition.
This evolutionary brain process has rapidly emerged over a single
generation and may represent one of the most unexpected yet pivotal
advances in human history. Perhaps not since Early Man first
discovered how to use a tool has the human brain been affected so
quickly and so dramatically.

Dr. Small @ Google: Click Here

The list goes on and on…

Lina Ko of Boomerwatch.ca rounds up examples of mature women in

campaigns:

Model Boomers
… 52-year-old Jerry Hall is the new face of Chanel; 59-year-old
Twiggy is the model for Marks & Spencer; Helena Christensen,
in her late 40s, is modeling underwear for Agent Provocateur.
The list goes on and on …

My favorite link Lina provides:

Who says supermodels have to be 14 years old? Former French
runway model Inès de La Fressange, 51, walked Jean Paul Gaultier's
 haute couture runway on Wednesday and stole the show from her
younger colleagues.

I‘ve blogged this topic a few times:

Demand For Older Models Grows

London & Marks & Spencer
What happens if you don‘t use age-appropriate models.

People generally get better.

I‘m … umm … sitting somewhere, leafing through AARP

Magazine.

There‘s a wonderful, down-to-earth interview with Toni

Morrison. A bit of it is perfect for this compendium. I
convince myself that it‘s worth doing something I never do
anymore: actually type-in a chunk of a magazine. (My rule:
if I can‘t copy and paste it, forget it.)
The magazine is carried to my office, the page gets dog-eared, marked up,
plopped and propped - and I almost start banging away.

Then I decide to do something smart. I go to the AARP site and there‘s the
interview, ready for ethereal snatching.

What got me all hot ‗n bothered:

Q: Do you find you‘ve become more

creative as you‘ve gotten older? Oh,
yes. I‘m much, much better with
creative things—people generally get
better. They just know more.
Q: Your mind certainly seems to
have stayed fertile. Yes, but what‘s
really important is humor—the way
you see through things. And I don‘t mean just ―Ho, ho, ho!‖ but real
irony about the diabolical nature of things. If you don‘t have that, you
just collapse.
 Wiser, smarter, funnier, more creative. Even if only half-true, only
partially true - think of all the talent out there not being used in
advertising (and hundreds of other creative industries).

Again (and again and again): Diversity = Productivity.

Boomers power up by aging in place

Aging In Place and Universal Design expert and consultant Louis

Tenenbaum is liberally quoted in this piece from The Washington Times:

Cover story: Boomers power up by aging in place

Carisa Chappell
The aging-in-place movement has
become big with 89 percent of
people older than age 50 wanting to remain in their own homes
indefinitely, according to a recent AARP survey.

"One of the issues with older clients is getting into

and out of a house," Mr. Tenenbaum said. "There
are a number of ways to achieve the no-step entry,
including integrating a lift into the landscaping …
Mr. Tenenbaum said the bathroom can become a
scary place for elderly people because it often is wet and has hard
surfaces. He said such features as a no-step shower and tub and toilet
grab handles are important.

Check out Louis‘ AGING IN PLACE GUIDE blog.

More: a sample chapter from The Silver Market Phenomenon:

Universal Design – Innovations for All Ages by Oliver
Gassmann and Gerrit Reepmeyer (PDF)
Television Still Shines

Interesting stats and a news story …

The Stats:
In a Nielsen survey … people of all ages said they
spent vastly more time watching television than they
did using the Internet … In a Multichannel News
article, Starz Entertainment executive director of marketing, sales and
corporate research Neil Massey said, ―There is no evidence that
people are abandoning television for other platforms.‖ He continued
to note that ―the universe of people who watch no television but watch
long-form video online is about 1%.‖

The News Story:

Why Television Still Shines in a World of

Screens
by Randall Stross
… Television stands out as the one old-media
business with surprising resilience. Though we are
spending a record amount of time online, including
a record amount of time watching video, we are also
watching record amounts of very old-fashioned
television …
As enamored as advertisers are with the interactive potential of digital
advertising, they know that online is a complement to offline, not its
replacement … the typical American watched 142 hours of television
monthly, up about five hours from the same quarter the previous year.
Internet use averaged more than 27 hours monthly, an increase of an
hour and a half …

I talk about this in my presentations and consulting. The web is a boon for
most traditional media, not competition. With Baby Boomers, advertising
should push them to web sites:

89% typically visit a Web site after

seeing a print ad, and 83% visit a site
after seeing a television ad.
Advertising/Marketing to Baby Boomers: A PowerPoint

Profiling three campaigns/websites that offer diabetic products and services.

I could‘ve picked another niche industry – travel planners, financial
planners, health, active adult communities – but these three outfits were
perfect marketing and advertising archetypes: Liberty Medical presenting
itself as down-to-earth and accessible, Bayer obviously targeting Boomers
with a resonating message and very mannered, professional branding, and
OneTouch positioning itself as the happy-face company.

The presentation is basic marketing/advertising to Baby Boomers. If you‘ve

been involved with this market for awhile don‘t expect too many surprises. It
runs about 45 minutes.

Click here to view the presentation.

If you have any problems viewing the presentation,

here is an alternate URL.

Commercials are good for you.

Good for clients/advertisers? Good for ad agencies? Or … you be the judge:

Liked the Show? Maybe It Was the

Commercials.
By Benedict Carey
So why is it that commercial interruptions always ruin TV programs?
Maybe they don‘t. In two new studies, researchers who study
consumer behavior argue that interrupting an experience, whether
dreary or pleasant, can make it significantly more intense.

―The punch line is that commercials make TV

programs more enjoyable to watch. Even bad
commercials,‖ said Leif Nelson, an assistant professor
of marketing at the University of California …
All true for most TV programs. Scripts are structured around commercials,
much like acts in a play. The writers, directors, and editors take great pains
to make sure you‘re ready for a break – and ready to return after the cluster
of commercials. With dramatic pacing, they ease you in and out of the
story. If you watch a program without commercials, rhythm goes haywire,
the half-dozen (non) transitions creating cognitive dissonance.
With sports programming there are inherent transitions: innings, quarters,
first downs, etc. Just like the teams, you‘re ready for a break.

More from The New York Times piece:

In one of their papers, the authors even propose that commercial

television evolved culturally to maximize enjoyment. The millions of
Americans who record their favorite shows on TV may scoff; but
they, too, often stop the shows to get a drink, make a call or talk. This
kind of controlled interruption may represent a kind of ideal, Dr.
Nelson said.

My Barbie!

What‘s more Boomer than Barbie?

She‘s been through all the cultural upheavals and

survived.

She‘s created controversy.

She‘s been embraced and banned by parents.

She has her own syndrome.

And she‘s still causing trouble.

Even though Barbie was born grown up, it was her fiftieth birthday on
March 9, 2009:

Happy 50th to Baby Boomer Barbie

Paul Briand/Baby Boomer Examiner
 Her age makes her a Baby Boomer and -- in a way, despite the
ditsiness often applied to her and especially her
name -- she is somewhat representative of how
Baby Boomers have reshaped, refined and
redefined who they are over the years.

Appropriate: Forbes is throwing the biggest media bash

for Barbie …

Barbie Turns 50
Edited By Anna Vander Broek and Michael Noer

She is an American icon, a business phenomenon and a

real doll. Since her introduction on March 9, 1959, Mattel
has sold more than 1 billion Barbie dolls, nearly 100
million of those last year alone.

Back in the dark ages of the WWW, before there were blogs, before there
were social networking sites – I blogged on a social networking site and
wrote about Baby Boomers. Here‘s a link to my January 1998 ‗post‘
celebrating Barbie‘s fortieth birthday:

My Barbie!
It was (and still is) a phenomenon rivaling the one
surrounding the Beatles: A doll not to be fed, cuddled or
nurtured -- but a fantasy representation of you in the
future!

Here‘s how Madison Avenue did it in 1961:

Click Here To Watch

What cultural upheavals?

Click Here To Watch

A Barbie Poem by Amy Sterling Casil.

AdRants‘ Angela Natividad posts some great Barbie links – including a

video history of Barbie commercials.

The Three Ages of Advertising Slavery

Hugh MacCleod's cartoon cracks me up.

And Steve Hall's AdRants take on it

reminds me of a major theme in a book
someone wrote recently...

AdRants: "There's no 50's or 60's cause,

you know, after 49, all those ad people
seem to disappear into other endeavors courtesy of ageism."

Gaping Void. Very funny, outrageous blog. But not for the faint-hearted.

Madison Avenue Fever

This documentary doesn't have anything to do with

advertising to Baby Boomers today — but if you're a
Baby Boomer and/or in advertising, it should be fun:
Madison Avenue Fever is an entertaining and
informative look at the birth and development of
television commercials in the 50's and 60's, the period
known as the ―golden age of television.‖
 Remember the Ajax knight on horseback, the
happy kid who learns he has no cavities after
brushing with Crest, and so many other
commercials that have become a part of
American heritage and imbedded in the
memories of baby boomers?
More on this "Comic Documentary About the
Early Days of TV Advertising."

No News News

If any of this surprises you.....

Culled from a report by Jupiter Research, Internet

Retailer reports Baby Boomers spend more online
than other age groups:

37% of online baby boomers who bought products or services on the

web said they spent more than $250 in the prior three months. That
compares with 32% of online users in all age groups, Jupiter said.
76% of baby boomers have made online purchases of products or
services.

Imagine if a company decided to truly target Baby Boomers, if their site was
truly boomer-friendly, if Baby Boomer creatives actually designed the site,
wrote the copy... imagine how this product or service would break away
from the pack...

Selling Online to the Older Shopper

Writing for ecommerce-guide.com, James McGuire focuses his piece on

Selling to the Older Shopper. What does the article say about Baby
Boomers? A whole bunch, including his unsurprising but ignored fact:
 Today's seniors are reluctant to buy online from a
site they haven't heard of; if they don't know a
business offline it won't get their dollars online.
But with the age 50-64 group, there's a mentality of wanting to try
new things and being adventurous. The fact that an online vendor is
newly launched is no deterrent for them. Have browser, will travel.

Marketing and Age and Everything in 324

Words

Well, I wish they were my words - but I'm too much of

a slobbering gusher. So here's Dick Stroud's simple,
concise Theory of Everything (The UK version, at
least). He wraps it up pretty well.

For another Theory of Everything from New Zealand,

read this article.

Baby Boomers and Universal Design

Megan Kamerick's article on Bankrate.com, Boomers push interest in

Universal Design homes, is worth a read:

"The idea is simple: a home that is accommodating and convenient to

all users at all stages of life. Universal Design principles have been
around since the 1970s when the phrase was coined by architect
Ronald Mace, who became director of the Center for Universal
Design at The University of North Carolina."
Marketers are Taking Note of Baby Boomers

The press release says, "The University of Maryland

continues its series on the Baby Boom Generation."

This interview is a good one:

"The reality of the marketing opportunity presented by the

aging of the Baby Boomers is beginning to be recognized by
the advertising industry, at least. I'm beginning to see more ads targeted at
Baby Boomers," says Associate Professor of Business Janet Wagner at
Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Forbes Magazine Weighs in on Baby Boomers

How To Play: The Upcoming Boomer Boom by Tom Van Riper

has some juicy quotes from Brent Green and others - along with
perceptive (but not surprising) statements such as:

Despite conventional wisdom, which keeps many

major advertisers focused on younger consumers,
the boomer generation is not set in its ways when it
comes to product choices, according to studies by
MarketResearch.com. In fact, their studies show boomers are more
receptive to advertising than their Gen X and Gen Y counterparts,
who tend to reject marketing claims out of hand.

Old news for a lot of us - but I'm glad the Big Boys are catching on.

Ads target empty nests, full wallets

Here's a good piece by Bob Moos of The Dallas Morning

News:
Though marketers still covet the 18-to-49 age group in this
youth-obsessed culture, a growing number of companies
realize that fiftysomething consumers offer a lucrative
business opportunity they can't afford to overlook.
I don't agree with everything everybody says in the article (well…I agree
with everything I say, of course) — but overall it's on the money.

Something I don't completely agree with:

Marketing experts say companies need to know how to tug at the

heartstrings of Americans over 50, because emotional appeals work
better with that generation than a recitation of facts.

Yes and no. If you do want to 'tug on the heartstrings' you'd better have
people creating the campaigns who know which ones to tug at.

In today's wacky world of branding it's almost better to focus more on the
product, the facts. Boomers have been pitched to their whole lives. They can
see a shill coming a mile away. This has less to do with being a Baby
Boomer and more to do with being older and wiser to the ways of Madison
Avenue. Make sure they don't have to dig through too much vapid, brand-
driven, emotionally ingratiating silliness to find out exactly what a product
or service is.

Baby Boomers Housing Market Primer

Here's the perfect primer for the Baby Boomer housing market:
an article by Harold Bubil of the Sarasota Herald Tribune about
The International Builders Show in Orlando:

The standard retirement community concept -- a cluster of senior

housing out in the countryside, often behind gates -- is being altered. The
emerging trend in 50-plus housing is to build it in business hubs and
commercial centers. These consumers "want to be connected to life outside
their own communities and don't want to have to drive to get to shopping
and entertainment. Connection to the larger community is essential,"
according to an NAHB report.
My Warm Milk and Nap

Thanks to the staff of Axcess News for

this inspiring piece about Baby Boomers:

Baby boomers are a generation like no other. Socially conscious,

revolutionary and taboo-shattering, these Americans continue to
challenge the status quo, even as the first wave enters their "golden
years." The Boomer legacy will leave behind a distinct set of values,
but most notably inspiring, inviting, informing and spirited lives. For
them and generations to follow, a new life begins at 50. Boomers are
showing America how to live without restraints, armed with the
confidence to look into the future and to continue building fulfilling
lives.

NBC4.com has a revealing piece about what Baby Boomers plan on doing
with the rest of their lives:

"Our studies show that one in four boomers indicated that they want
to do something completely different," she (Emily Allen, AARP) said.
"We're certainly seeing trends, particularly as we begin to look at
different industries. We are seeing people are taking a look at kind of
nontraditional industries, such as the transportation industry, changing
from the corporate world in to a nonprofit world, going from
corporate world in to education."

Another survey reveals Baby Boomers are planning to live, not retire:

"Money is not the sole motivating factor behind Baby Boomers working into
retirement. They instead see work as a way to stay challenged and mentally
active and sustain a link to the community they have been a part of for most
of their lives…"

Leading the way are Boomer women - this according to recent research by
AARP:

Many of those interviewed for this study say growing older is not only better
than expected, but can be a positive time of life with new rewards. They
report being happier now, experiencing freedom to be themselves, pursue
dreams and do things they have always wanted to do.
I'm getting tired just reading about all this stuff. So media and advertisers,
please go away. Don't bother me. Time for my warm milk and nap.

Across the pond…

David Yelland of Webber Shandwick talks to Joe Lepper of Brand Republic:

Over-50s need to be better targeted says baby boomers report.

Active Lives Defy Aging

I received an email from Bill Glauber of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

"... A Marquette University professor mentioned your book with its

intriguing title. I'm working on a piece (about) Baby Boomers feeling
young…"

Bill and I chatted for thirty minutes or so. And he talked to a bunch of others
— all with insightful comments:

Active Lives Defy Aging

Generation redefines society's expectations for growing
older.

SportsBusiness Journal's Bill King: Trying To Catch The

Wave

SportsBusiness Journal's Bill King penned the

trade magazine's feature report this week - and
it's all about Baby Boomers:

Trying To Catch The Wave

"In the past, marketers have thought of age 50 the way
the explorers used to think of the horizon: Sail beyond it
and you tumble from the face of the earth. Older
 consumers were seen as set in their ways. Since they wouldn't change
brands or try new ones, there was no point in spending money
advertising to them."

Boomers in Candyland

Here's a comprehensive piece by Renee M. Covino in

the June, 2006 issue of Confectioner Magazine:

The problem is that prior to the Boomers, "many

advertisers felt that the over-50 market is not worth
pursuing. They focused on the 18- to 49-year-old
marketplace; now, many are beginning to realize the
spending power of Boomers," explains Peter Koeppel,
founder and president of Koeppel Direct…

And you'll find a few quotes by guess who:

"In England, they've done a lot of studies about 'wrap rage,' and it
goes much deeper than not being able to open a bottle of medicine, for
instance. It's anything, any consumer goods packaging that people
have trouble opening, and as Baby Boomers are starting to age, they
are very sensitive to this," says Chuck Nyren, who just happens to be
another Baby Boomer and also creative strategist and consultant, as
well as author of "Advertising to Baby Boomers." According to him,
"bad packaging can make Baby Boomers feel incompetent; as
marketers, you don't want to remind this group of people that they
don't have the physical skills they had when they were younger."

Of course, the above has nothing to do with me. I can rip open any dumb,
stupid candy wrapper with my bare hands ... as long as one of my bare hands
is holding a pair of pliers.

Judge Judy: "You're still relevant!"

Judge Judy is on a rampage (as if she ever isn't):

 During a recent appearance on "Larry King Live," outspoken
television court Judge Judy Sheindlin sounded the coming battle cry
of her Baby Boomer generation: "I am still relevant!" … The judge
scolded Madison Avenue marketers for ignoring legions of aging
Boomers like her.

Kevin Lavery: Why we should be marketing to the over-50s

The Mature Market has a piece by Kevin Lavery,
Executive Creative Director of Millennium:

Why we should be marketing to the over-50s

"I don't think it is a deliberate ploy by marketing and

advertising agencies to ignore the over 50s, rather that these
agencies are made up of young people who almost
subconsciously target who and what they know."

Managing Age Diversity in the Advertising Industry

Paula Sartini penned an excellent piece

about diversity on MARKETINGWEB.
A few quotes:

"The advertising industry is notoriously associated with young people,

crazy ideas, wild parties, and general excessiveness. The average age
in the industry is way below 30 …"

"During the last few years the industry has been under
tremendous pressure to reflect a more diverse workforce, and
although not substantial enough, some inroads have been
made into the issue of racial mix …"

"Advertising agencies are in the business of creativity. They

are also in the business of managing human perceptions. It's
therefore interesting that although many tactics are employed to
ensure creativity, agencies have traditionally not cottoned on to the
 fact that a more diverse workforce, inclusive of non-discriminatory
age policies, poses the potential for greater competitive advantage."

Her article echoes major themes in my book, Advertising to Baby Boomers.

And if you think diversity is a problem only in places like South Africa, read
this piece by Dianne Cardwell and Stuart Elliott of the New York Times:

Finding that just 2 percent of the upper echelon of the advertising

industry is black, New York City officials said yesterday that they had
reached agreements with several of the nation's biggest ad firms
forcing them to bring more black managers into this crucial sector of
the city's economy.

What's A Baby Boomer?

Thanks to Food Navigator USA, we have
a bit of insight into the recent IRI Report
on Baby Boomers:

Published by market researcher Information Resources Inc (IRI), the

report separates baby boomers into three groups: Kennedy Boomers
(born between 1956-1964), Truman Boomers (1946-1955) and FDR
60s (1936-1945).

I'm someone who isn't particularly anal about defining the term Baby
Boomers. The above doesn't quite work for me, but what I do like about it is
this: the report recognizes that culturally (and it's an unwieldy, diverse
culture) the term Baby Boomers includes people born before 1946.

The "baby boom" actually began in 1943 when birth rates began to rise,
dipping slightly in 1944 and 1945. I like to include people born a few years
before that when I talk about Baby Boomers. And if you press me, I'll admit
that the "baby boom generation" ended in 1957 - and people born between
1958 and 1964 are another generation.

In other words, I believe people born in the years 1939-1957 have more in
common than people born in the years 1946-1964.

Just one snooty pundit's opinion.

MIT AgeLab

While on a private day-long consult for a major

pharma company and their marketing agency, I
met Dr. Joseph Coughlin, founding Director of the
MIT AgeLab:

Our work is "use-inspired basic research." It seeks to be profoundly

practical in everyday living -- transportation, health, communications,
business, work & retirement, planning & decision making, play &
recreation, and caregiving, while seeking to advance basic
understanding of how aging impacts and is impacted by social,
economic and technological systems.

Our research is motivated by a shared belief that the

appropriate use of technology, along with innovations in
delivery, can have a significant impact on the quality of life
for older adults, their families and caregivers.

Our activities involve an array of disciplines including

engineering, computer science, human factors, health and medical
science, design, management, marketing, and the social and
behavioral sciences.

As you can imagine, I've 'seen'em all' when it comes to presenters and
pundits specializing in age-related issues. Dr. Coughlin's presentation was
nothing I'd ever heard or seen before. Mind-boggling technological advances
are already here or down the road apiece. Every company focusing on the
50+ market should grab him for a private consultation, every Baby Boomer
marketing conference should book him.

The day was productive and fun. The three 'experts' were Dr. Coughlin, John
Page from Yankelovich, and you-know-who. The numbers-cruncher wore a
very conservative, gray suit, the academic a dark pinstripe and loud bow tie,
and the ad guy a mock turtleneck and over-the-top orangey sport coat.

We were straight from central casting.

The History Channel's "Our Generation"

I'm back from a grueling but productive and fun road trip.

One stop was in Atlantic City for a talking head gig on

The History Channel's 13-part series Our Generation
with Steve Gillon.

It was taped at an antique show, the crew was bouncing

around, wending its way in and around booths hawking
toys from the 1940s, 50s, 60s. It's a big business, these
Baby Boomer toys.

I brought in my pal John Migliaccio - and Steve, John, and Yours Truly
huddled alongside a hectic aisle, chatting about the advertising and
marketing back then. And the TV shows. And the toys. My diarrhea of the
mouth included bloviations on Howdy Doody, Wyatt Earp, Mr. Potato Head,
our disposable childhoods, and who knows what else — and who knows
what'll be left in and what'll be left on the virtual cutting-room floor.

John talked about his Slinky.

I didn't know it at the time, but AARP is the sponsor of the

show:

AARP is proud to be the exclusive sponsor

of Our Generation, The History Channel's
new series that takes you on a journey to visit
the places, people and events that have
shaped the largest and most vocal generation
in American history: the baby boomers. The History Channel's
resident historian, Steve Gillon, tells the stories of the unforgettable
events that defined this generation and changed the world. This
generation rocked at Woodstock, rocked an administration during
Watergate, watched America put a man on the moon, and helped
create our digital world. From politics to pop culture, this is the story
of the iconic moments that defined America's most iconic generation
and is told by the people who witnessed these events and made them
history.
Not Getting Older, Just More Scrutinized

Here's a bland, generic piece in the New York Times

about marketing/advertising to Baby Boomers.

Except for one excellent insight:

They have no use for nostalgia, yet they relate wonderfully to the
icons of their past. Marketers say, for example, that Aleve hit a home
run when it showed Leonard Nimoy, Mr. Spock of Star Trek, having
trouble making the "Live Long and Prosper" sign with arthritic hands.
Why? "It wasn't a trip down nostalgia lane," Mr. (Matt) Thornhill
said. "It was using a boomer icon talking about a present and future
problem."

TV's youth obsession backfiring

By AP's television and entertainment writer David

Bauder:

Study: TV's youth obsession backfiring

Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they believe that most TV
programming and advertising is targeted toward people under 40, the
survey said. More than 80 percent of adults over 40 say they have a
hard time finding TV shows that reflect their lives.

Mr. Bauder does an excellent job of reporting all sides of the issue. (It's not
surprising, because I read him regularly and he always does top-notch
reporting by highlighting various viewpoints.) However, for me there's not
much new here. That's because I'm knee-deep in this mess. What is said can
be found in my book, this blog, and other books and blogs about
advertising/media and Baby Boomers.

If you're new to all this, the article will be illuminating. And there are fresh
numbers to crunch:
 Advertisers will pay a premium for young viewers: $335 for every
thousand people in the 18-to-24 age range that a network delivers, for
example. Viewers aged 55-to-64 are worth only $119 for every
thousand, according to Nielsen Media Research.

What I do find fascinating has less to do with the article and more to do with
its syndication. When a news outlet picks up an AP story it can change the
headline, the lede, and has the right to edit the piece for space consideration.
Most editors simply leave it alone - but often they feel as if they have to
justify their existence - and play around with the headlines.

From "TV's youth obsession backfiring" we get these anti-boomer, ageist

variations:

Television's new obsession with youth irritates boomers

TV industry's irritating baby boomers
Baby boomers piqued at TV's youth obsession
Boomers disdain TV's youth mania

And the winner is … MSNBC:

Baby boomers upset TV isn't all about them

In the spirit of fun and games with the news, I've come up with a few of my
own reasonable, moderate, neutral headlines for Mr. Bauder's article:

Youthful TV Execs Live in Bubble, Will Bring Down Network

Television

Message to Television Advertisers: Don't Trust Anyone Under

Thirty

Really Dumb Twenty-Something Media Planners Clueless, Should

Be Fired

Myopic TV Execs Think It's All About Them

Oh, how I love to be 'fair and balanced'…

A Conversation with Dr. Robert N. Butler

I hope you can take a peek at this New York Times piece by
Claudia Dreifus. It's an interview with Dr. Robert N. Butler of
The International Longevity Center. Dr. Butler is quite the
mythbuster, the troublemaker:

"Now, the boomers could become a strong public group by

virtue of their size. They have political experience and they may
use it to create change. If they are able to, it will mostly benefit
Generations X and Y."

Not exactly conventional wisdom, is it? But there's also a non-conventional

wisdom downside:

"I think they're (Baby Boomers) in for a hell of time, because society
is not prepared for them. And I don‘t think they‘re a bit prepared for
old age. They are often fat, unhealthy, and they haven‘t been saving
money — though a small percentage of them will receive
inheritances."

Dr. Butler also discusses pharmaceutical testing, ageism (a word he coined),

and the real meaning of the word 'retired.'

Boomers Break the Mold

Many marketers and advertisers are ignoring the largest and potentially the
most productive consumer group in the U.S. - Baby Boomers (40-59 year-
olds) - The 82 million Baby Boomers currently make up 39% of the
population … it's clear that Baby Boomers are just as likely as Millennials
and Gen Xers to purchase and use many advanced technologies … Baby
Boomers are more likely than others groups to be absorbed in different
forms of media and can be reached through a variety of advertising efforts.
Psychological Neoteny

In a recent issue of Medical Hypotheses, (Dr. Bruce) Charlton argues

that unlike previous, more settled societies that could afford to honor a
narrow and well-defined worldview (that is, a "mature" one), modern
life is tumultuous and ever-changing.

Accordingly, it rewards those who retain a certain plasticity of mind

and personality. "In a psychological sense, some contemporary
individuals never actually become adults," he writes … Furthermore,
he argues, social roles have become less fixed in modern society. We
are expected to adapt to change throughout our lives, both in our
personal relationships and in our careers, and immaturity, as Charlton
added, is "especially helpful in making the best out of enforced job
changes, the need for geographic mobility and the requirement to
make new social networks." In fact, he speculates, the ability to retain
youthful qualities, now often seen as folly, may someday be
recognized as a prized trait.

Sounds like what everybody says about Baby Boomers, doesn't it? How
immature we all are. We never grew up. This may or may not be true - but if
true, it's obviously for good reasons.

Which reminds me of the big catch phrase of the year: 50 is the new 30,
and/or 60 is the new 40, or some rubbish like that. Again, I talk about this at
length in my book (before the phrase became popular), saying something
along these lines: Baby Boomers do not think they are still in their twenties
or thirties. They are redefining the ages they are.

And I'm not happy that someone put it better than I did (or at least more
memorably and succinctly) — No, 60 isn't the new 40:

"60 is the new 60." - Gail Sheehy

The Blogging Boomers Carnival

Lifetwo.com has an interesting project going - a
handpicked selection of blogs by Baby Boomers:
 BloggingBoomers

A collection of leading baby boomer blogs are coming together to

create a weekly blogging "carnival" to promote important and relevant
information, advice, and community for baby boomers. ―One of the
reasons baby boomers are under-represented in the blogging world is
the shortage of blogs of interest to them -- as well as the difficulty of
finding them. "We created BloggingBoomers to fix both of these
problems," says Wesley Hein of LifeTwo.

It wouldn't be a bad bookmark for anybody marketing to Baby Boomers.

The steady glow of the Boom tube

Eric Deggans has a top-notch piece in The St. Petersburg Times:

"… A mountain of assumptions: Older consumers don't change

brands easily. Older consumers are too savvy to be swayed by
peer pressure or fads. Older people aren't interested in consumer
items such as fast food, fashionable clothing, electronics or
entertainment. Older consumers will watch advertising messages
targeted to young people, but young people won't reciprocate."

"Such presumptions led major advertisers to target young people

decades ago, building a media establishment that valued, over all
others, consumers ages 18 to 49. And nowhere was this disparity
worse than in the TV industry, where older adults spend more time
watching television, but still are valued less."

All echoing themes in my book, my presentations. Here's one more:

"Researchers always asked 'When will the boomers become old and
start acting like their parents'" said Sarah Zapolski, of the Knowledge
Management research division at AARP. "But we were asking the
wrong question. In many ways, boomers are behaving the way they've
always behaved: They've always been less conservative about
shopping and entertainment and fashion."
But it was the lede that really hit home:

It's something Linda Ellerbee can feel, like a cold breeze on the
back of her neck, every time she meets with somebody from
Madison Avenue.

No kidding. Wait until you start preaching to Madison Avenue about this
stuff. It's less like a cold breeze and more like being dumped headfirst into a
cryogenic freezer...

Neighborhood Design, Universal

Design
Bob Moos of the Dallas Morning News has
been on a housing tear:

The first one is about Baby Boomers fashioning their own neighborhood
communities:

Cohousing catching on in U.S.

Cohousing communities aren't cookie-cutter projects. Each
is unique. Prospective residents are intimately involved in
the planning, though they may rely on an architect and
developer to handle the technical aspects of design and
construction. Projects usually consist of 20 to 30 households
… The latest twist to the nascent trend is cohousing exclusively for
people 55 and older. And it's a twist on what Brent Green talks about
in Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers. But I'm not getting into
it here. Read the book or track him down and ask him.

The second article is about universal design and aging in place:

Couple's house is home for good

Incorporating universal design in a home under construction is far less
expensive than modifying it later … "Why not spend a few thousand
more to build an age-friendly bath now and save yourself the $20,000
to retrofit it later?"
This is a big issue with just about everybody in the housing industry. I wrote
something about it not too long ago - and spoke about universal design at the
NAHB convention.

UD is coming. It's just too early for most Baby Boomers to consider it.
However, many are missing the boat now if they happen to be designing
their forever dream house. Without some serious nods to universal design, in
ten years they might find themselves living in their forever nightmare house.

What does ‘old’ mean?

Here's a fun piece from England by Bryan
Appleyard:

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.

More on the subject: Hooray for gray!

UD, Aging in Place, and My Dumb Noggin

Wesley Hein at LifeTwo.com has a good piece about universal design and
aging in place:

In the post war years, the big market was in small affordable homes
that could be bought on a GI bill and were suitable for raising a
family. Sixty years later, the children of those GI's are looking ahead a
few decades and don't want to be moved into a retirement community.

And he points you to a good piece by June Fletcher of the Wall Street
Journal:
 Traditionally, the market for these products has been the elderly and
handicapped, but builders and manufacturers see a bigger prize:
middle-aged homeowners who don't need them yet. The
beleaguered housing industry is hoping it can attract these buyers
with more stylish, less institutional fare such as "smart" kitchen
faucets and dishwashers …

Like the typical Baby Boomer, I‘ll probably wait until I slip in
the bathtub and crack my dumb noggin before I get the hint to do
some retrofitting.

Boomers Opt To Keep It Real

Here's a piece by David Graham of

The Toronto Star that mirrors a lot of
what I tell clients:

Boomers come of age and opt to keep it real

Fad diets are for losers. Bulging biceps are passé. And
cosmetic surgery just doesn't cut it anymore … As
(Baby Boomers) prepare for retirement, they are
quietly reflecting on their obsessive struggles to stay young. And after
decades of marathon workouts, killer diets and extreme makeovers,
boomers are realizing - it's a sucker's game.

There are huge chunks about this in my book. Here's one:

And this doesn't surprise me:

What's more, trend watchers are predicting this relaxed attitude among
boomers is infecting younger generations … This new common sense
revolution is extolling the aging process as a good thing, wrinkles and
all.

Good to know that most Boomers would rather spend their time and money
so they can feel, look, and be healthy - instead of self-consciously walking
around like pod people wrapped in cellophane.

Baby boomers contemplate a variety of work options

A piece by James E. Challenger:

Retirement Can Wait - Baby Boomers contemplate a variety of

work options

According to a recent survey, eight in ten baby

boomers plan to continue working in their
retirement years. That's about 76 million fifty-
something workers with no intention of quitting
anytime soon ... Baby boomers are likely to be
extremely adept at industry switching because of their diverse
backgrounds and the fact that they are better educated than previous
generations. The first step will be getting over the anxiety associated
with change. After that, the opportunities for further career
development are endless.

Not quite endless. Here's an email from someone who ...

Let's just say that if I mentioned the campaigns he worked on in the 1970s
and 1980s, you'd be very impressed:

Chuck,
I know you are onto something regarding the Baby Boomer business
… I wonder if there is a way for existing ad agencies to embrace this
potential …There are a lot of other boomers who a) see age
discrimination and/or b) wonder why the largest advertisers or
 agencies are not "getting it" ...

I have submitted my resume to the top 100 ad agencies and have

received not a word. The people I know basically tell me that the
agencies are looking only for young people. - Former Art Director,
Grey Advertising

So what's the alternative? Here's another (expurgated) email:

Hi Chuck.
I'll try to keep this as short as possible ... Like you, I'm a
copywriter/creative director/baby boomer.

I started my career at Doyle Dane Bernbach (when Bill Bernbach was

still there), and have worked at Chiat/Day, BBDO, Ogilvy, FCB, and
Dentsu. (During a phone chat a few days later, he mentioned that at
his last job he was 'let go' when he turned fifty.) I was talking about it
with my friend/art director/business partner, and found myself
thinking that it would be interesting to start an "agency" that
exclusively targeted baby boomers … At any rate, we recently got our
first account … and I'm excitedly thinking we're on to something.
Your company and book certainly help confirm that.

Sounds good to me. Of course, he has no other options.

And what about all those big agencies telling their clients that they are
prepared to target the 50+ demographic? Should the advertisers believe
them? And if they do - should the agencies, when creating campaigns, trust
their guts?

Being a lightning rod for all things Boomer and Advertising, I'm forever
amazed at the backwardness of the advertising industry.

The Same Old, Same Old Redux

As usual, nothing new in the news about marketing to Baby Boomers:

Tech giants target older buyers - and their cash
 "Today's older generation is primed to buy and consume new
technologies like no previous group of seniors," says David Kelly,
president of technology research company Upside Research.

What fresh insight. Here's the pull-quote on the cover of the first edition of
my book:

That's from late 2004.

Even my friend Matt, quoted in the USA Today piece, must be getting tired
of saying:

"Any company wanting to grow their business in the next 10 years

better have a strategy for marketing to those 50-plus," warns Matt
Thornhill, founder of baby-boomer-focused market research company
Boomer Project.

Me vs. We

Recently I read a piece of marketing advice:

"Baby boomers have always been considered the 'me-generation,' and

that doesn't change with age."

This is thetype of reckless gibberish that is useless to marketers, and

ultimately harmful to their clients. I wrote a chapter about it in my book.
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 let‘s make just two more scrolls ...

'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.

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.

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."

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.

 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.
A Deep, Download-Worthy Report on Global Branding

BrandZ and Millward-Brown have released a deep, download-worthy report

on worldwide Brands:

Top 100 Most Powerful Brands (PDF)

The BrandZ Ranking is the result of Millward Brown
Optimor‘s robust brand valuation methodology. Ours is the
first brand ranking to combine analysis of financial data with
primary research findings. We do this because brand value
depends on consumer sentiment as well as on a company‘s
ability to translate that sentiment into shareholder value.

Nigel Hollis unpacks it on his blog:

What do McDonald‘s, Colgate, and Tide have in common?

To my mind, while the numbers may sound less impressive, the
performance of brands like McDonald‘s, Colgate and Tide is
even more compelling. They are a testimony to the fact that
innovation and adaptation are the lifeblood of successful global
brands.
I have a thick, lumpy chapter about branding in my book. It‘s not anti-
branding, but warns readers about so-called branding experts who
give you the impression that they wield some sort of wizardly
'branding wand' and can brand your new product out of thin air.

This report shows you that with few exceptions it‘s hard work – requiring
research, advertising, marketing, PR. All the grubby stuff. For example,
McDonald‘s has slowly and meticulously branded their restaurants.
Different marketing/advertising techniques are used in different parts of the
world. While every so often, as if by magic, a brand appears – as in the case
of Google, of Starbucks. The real story is that they had unique products –
and these two brands built themselves with very little input from branding
‗experts‘. Down the line they refined and molded their brands using
standard branding techniques.
'Elderbloggers' Shy Away From Money Talk

Here's a revealing piece in U.S. News and World Report by Candice

Novak:

'Elderbloggers' Shy Away From Money Talk

A Weber Shandwick study found that
"despite their extensive dialogue on
other topics, [baby] boomers follow a
'code of silence' when it comes to
financial services." Only 5 percent of those surveyed had made a
recommendation in the past year about financial services.

Ronni Bennett was certainly the 'go-to' person for this article. She's the
expert on all things elderblogger:

Bennett knows there's a need for more money talk among

her peers ... When it comes to finances, she says, "We're
going to go to our grave not being as open and loose as
the younger generation."

My quote in the article refers to the sleaziness of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

- and some of the silly financial planning ad campaigns and websites.

Ergonomic Design: Booming Business

Here's a good piece in The Las Vegas Review Journal:

Ergonomic Design: Booming

Business
By JACK BULAVSKY
To help homeowners remain in their homes as they age and their
mobility becomes more limited, manufacturers such as JACLO offer
conveniences such as decorative grab bars.

I talked about this, had a slightly different take on it, in 2006 at the NAHB
Building for Boomers 50+ Housing Symposium - and wrote an article about
it around the same time:
 Selling Universal Design to Baby Boomers
ERGONOMICS. That‘s not such a
negative word to Baby Boomers.
We‘ve been the fodder for the
ergonomic revolution. We almost feel as if we invented it. The
concept resonates.

But an ‗ergonomically designed home‘ sounds rather cheesy. Using

the word sparingly (but using it) in any marketing/advertising
collateral is a good idea.

Inter-ActiveAge

ActiveAge.org is a virtual think tank and

consortium of organizations involved with
aging issues in The U.K. - specifically
Scotland.

My book Advertising to Baby Boomers has been selected as a reference. It's

in heady company.

Read about ActiveAge - and it's connection to the work and philosophy of
Dr. Joseph Coughlin.

While much of the content is password protected, click around the site.
There are a dozen or so PDFs available to the public.

An interview with Dr. Coughlin on The Boston

Globe web site:

Answers on Aging
Generation BUY

You probably should skim a recent Viacom press release. There's not much
new – but what made me chuckle was that they admit that there's not much
new. Nothing like a press release about nothing new:

Breadwinning Boomers Responsible for Multi-Generational Brand

Decisions, TV Land's 'Generation BUY' Study Finds

It's all tied to a survey commissioned by TV Land. They learned that there's
nothing new. So, I guess that's new.

Mostly it's stuff I've been saying for years (as have others). I did choke over
their slicing and dicing of Boomer cohorts:

Study Reveals Three Boomer Spending Traits: "Promiscuous

Purchasers," "Free Agent Shoppers" and "Savvy Switchers"

Reminding me of this old, moldy blog post:

It seems that every time a marketing firm decides to specialize in Baby

Boomers, we get more "strange tribal groups." It's quite an odd
phenomenon. With tongue firmly in cheek, I warned about this in my book -
predicting that eventually they'd come up with 76 million cohorts.
And their old, new survey reminded me of this new, old
survey.

I guess it's like the old saying, "If you don't have anything
new to say, say it over and over again."

World’s Largest Event For Active ‘50 plussers’

In 2007 Iwas on a speaking/consulting tour in Europe. One of the stops was
Utrecht, The Netherlands at a private
business symposium coinciding with
the annual 50PlusBeurs.
The symposium was running late. Very late. Just before I was to go on (an
hour and a half after I was scheduled) they asked me to do a twenty-minute
presentation instead of my usual fifty. I did (and wasn't happy with the way
it went), then headed out of the conference room with Brent Green, Carol
Orsborn, and my More-Significant-Than-I-Am Other to look around.

We'd never seen anything like it. I'd

heard what it was, but was nowhere
near prepared. Ninety-five thousand
people in five days. Over twenty
thousand the day we were there. Six
huge halls. Five hundred and eighty
exhibits. The sheer immensity was
overwhelming. AARP puts on an
Expo every year – but it‘s one-quarter
the size.

And with only an hour and a half to goof off we only saw about one-quarter
of the exhibits, maybe. The four of us were racing around. That‘s how big
it was. Nobody could see it all in one day.

For example, there must‘ve been fifteen bicycle exhibitors with at least one
hundred bikes to check out - and room to ride them in a demo area. Next, I
climbed in and out of about twenty motor-homes – but never made it to the
automobiles or motorcycles. No time.

I never even entered four of the six halls. One I just glanced in. It looked
something like this:

Almost every exhibit was over the top, a show in itself. Click here to watch
a Windows Media Video that gives you a good idea of the quality and
variety of offerings.
What‘s really amazing about this event is the return rate for exhibitors: 85%.
They make money, they know it‘s a great investment, great promotion. They
know it's a great market segment.

The average age of 50PlusBeurs attendees is sixty-one. So the

entertainment and general feel is for a slightly older
demographic than Baby Boomers. My guess is that this will
change over the next five or so years.

Time was up. We had to fly to Munich. I was working, not

playing (I kept telling myself – for practically the whole two-
week tour).

I want to get back to 50PlusBeurs someday so I can really

soak it in.

If you are involved in the European 50+ Market, 50PlusBeurs is something

you should see. And don't worry about waiting a year or two if you can't
make it next month. It'll just get bigger and bigger. This year they'll break
100,000 in attendance. My guess is that the turnout won't plateau for a
decade.

Forgotten Consumers

I was interviewed by Jennifer Mann of The Kansas City Star

for an article about advertising and marketing to Baby
Boomers. It ran, and I linked to it in the left column of this
blog under In The Media.

Now the piece has gone wide in many of the McClatchy Newspapers,
including The Monterey County Herald, The Olympian (Washington), and
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Here's the piece in on the AARP website.

There are almost 100 million consumers in the United States who are
age 50-plus. They control more than $8 trillion in assets, more than 70
percent of the disposable dollars in the United States. Yet they barely
get passing notice from American advertisers.
Home Appliances & Boomers

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 (?)‖

A Guide for the Perplexed

Even a lowly advertising creative/author/consultant/speaker can‘t always

keep up with everything said about him on the web. Here‘s something I
missed from 2006 - a book review in a report by The Institute For The
Future‘s Richard Adler for AARP:

Aging Baby Boomers: A Guide for the Perplexed (PDF)

Nyren indicts the advertising industry for remaining

fixated on allure of the ―youth culture‖ and losing
interest in Boomers, even though they still represent
an extremely large and dynamic market.

Thanks, Richard!

Boomers power up by aging in place

Aging In Place and Universal Design expert and consultant Louis

Tenenbaum is liberally quoted in this piece from The Washington Times:

Cover story: Boomers power up by aging in place

Carisa Chappell
The aging-in-place movement has
become big with 89 percent of
people older than age 50 wanting to remain in their own homes
indefinitely, according to a recent AARP survey …
"One of the issues with older clients is getting into and out
of a house," Mr. Tenenbaum said. "There are a number of
ways to achieve the no-step entry, including integrating a
lift into the landscaping … Mr. Tenenbaum said the
bathroom can become a scary place for elderly people
because it often is wet and has hard surfaces. He said such features as
a no-step shower and tub and toilet grab handles are important.
Check out Louis‘ AGING IN PLACE GUIDE blog.

More: a sample chapter from The Silver Market Phenomenon:

Universal Design – Innovations for All Ages by Oliver

Gassmann and Gerrit Reepmeyer (PDF)

Who’s gonna buy this car?

David Foot of Boom, Bust & Echo fame has a piece

in Canada‘s Globe & Mail:

BAILOUTS AND BOOMERS

Who's gonna buy this car?
If we rescue the auto industry, it must
be able to build vehicles for an aging population
… Boomers will need different vehicles. Many already have difficulty
getting into low-slung cars, and they increasingly need bigger
dashboard dials. The Japanese companies have a head start in
understanding these trends. It will be necessary for North American
auto companies to get up to speed rapidly if they are to compete
effectively. And quality will be important. Younger buyers are more
willing to trade quality for a better price. This trade-off is proving
increasingly difficult when customers are older.

I‘ve blabbered about this for years. In 2005 on The

Advertising Show yours truly had a spirited
discussion with hosts Brad Forsythe and Ray
Schilens. A chunky segment was about marketing
autos to Boomers. The complete show is here:

Author/Copywriter Champions Advertising to Baby Boomers

And I‘ve tossed up a bunch of posts over the years on this subject:

Coming Boom in Boomer-Friendly Transport

My point … was that Baby Boomers were
buying up those mid-priced boxy cars (even
 though they were being marketed to college kids and twenty-
somethings) because they were easy to get in and out of, easy to see
out of, and some had large dashboards that were easy to read. So why
not build cars with these and more features for older drivers?

Along with ‗green‘ – the auto industry had better retool with an eye
on the 50+ market.

Maybe both eyes.

Henry Stewart Talks: Latest Thinking in Marketing to the

Older Consumer

Henry Stewart Talks publishes animated

audio visual presentations by world leading
experts - advanced content in a user friendly
format. We cover biomedicine, life sciences,
advertising, management, marketing, finance and transnational crime.
It‘s now available:

Latest Thinking in Marketing to the Older Consumer

For all those wishing to gain an understanding of the 50-plus market
and to engage with this large and diverse group as consumers,
including brand owners, marketers and brand managers, media
planners and buyers, advertising agencies, media companies and
academics and students of marketing.

My presentation is part of this section:

How the older market is evolving internationally

TOPICS COVERED
The status of UK 50 plus marketing |
The Australian perspective | Advertising and
Marketing to baby boomers in the USA |
Marketing and advertising to the older consumer in the Netherlands
Watch the first 6 minutes of Dick Stroud‘s presentation.
Why couldn’t it have been…?

A couple of Depend spots – click the picture to view:

The creative is good, actually a surprise.

But what isn‘t a surprise – the creative is good because

they‘re directed by Errol Morris (born 1948):

Kimberly-Clark Launches Largest Campaign Ever

For Its Depend Brand
…One of the key elements of the new campaign is
a certain level of authenticity -- showcasing real people, since this is
such a real issue for so many people…

Sounds like lessons from my book.

But why aren‘t these spots sending you to the web site? There are dozens of
previous posts that talk about this. Here‘s just one:

Snake Oil In Cyberspace

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.

I guess what upsets me about this campaign is not the campaign itself. I like
it. I see people around my age – they‘re entertaining, loose, funny. I‘m
wondering what the payoff will be. What a letdown.

Why couldn‘t it have been a car? Laundry soap? A computer? A razor?

Anything but some age-related malady:

Use only as directed

By Joseph P. Kahn
There were glossy pitches for
Centrum Cardio multivitamins,
AARP supplemental medicare
insurance plans, Visine … Contour
Meter diabetes testers (now available in five vibrant colors!), Dr.
Scholl's Massaging Gel foot insoles, Flomax (for urinary and prostate
 problems), Wal-Mart prescription-drug services, Children's Benadryl
Allergy and Sinus Liquid, Centrum Silver vitamin tablets, Boniva
(Sally Field playing a nimble game of Twister with her granddaughter
this time), Tena Serenity Pads bladder protection, and One-a-Day 50
Plus vitamins.

So the Depend campaign gets an A for creative, C- for marketing.

And looking at the big picture – let‘s hope that ad agencies will see these
spots and realize they‘re missing out not hiring people over fifty to create
campaigns for just about any product or service.

Or should clients put pressure on their agencies?

An excerpt from Advertising to Baby Boomers:

Businesses Fighting For Baby Boomer Dollars

A very good piece by Mary Motzko – and not necessarily because I‘m
quoted. Yours Truly is in heady company:

Businesses Fighting For Baby Boomer

Dollars
Marketing Campaigns Aimed At Boomer
Generation
 While baby boomers are open to advertising, there are certain avenues
companies should avoid as to not turn their targeted audience against
their product.

After being interviewed, I suggested that Ms. Motzko contact

Dr. Harry (Rick) Moody. She did:

When creating an ad aimed at baby boomers, Harry

Moody, the director of academic affairs for AARP, warns
companies to not generalize those over 50 into one group.
Moody said that grouping all baby boomers together as
the same audience "is sure to lead to disaster."

Also interviewed is Mark Bradbury, Research Director at AARP:

According to Bradbury, baby boomers are used to redefining what it

means to be a certain age. They did it when they were young, then
again in their teens and 20s, and now they're trying to redefine what it
means to be 50.

That sounds familiar. From my book:

Or you can hear me scream it over The Who and Led Zeppelin.

New Blogs, Businesses, Resources

50+ marketing is exploding worldwide.

That‘s a cliché-ridden statement I‘ve been wanting to use for years. Finally
I can.
Kim Walker of Silver Group Asia is blogging:

Observations, insights and innovations that connect

with the 50+ market.
We INFORM with unique research, data and insights
… We ADVISE on strategy and increase understanding
through training and speeches …We help CONNECT
to the market through relevant and targeted programs and media

Read an interview with Kim Walker on

Brent Green‘s blog – then download Kim‘s
keynote "The Rise of the Silver Surfers"
presented to the iMedia Brand Summit in
Kota Kinabalu, E Malaysia.

Ad Nauseam‘s Christopher Simpson

(Canada) takes a professorial slant with his
new blog. That‘s because he is a professor. And a seasoned all around
creative:

Editor‘s Sidebar
Dedicated to clarity, one sentence at a time
Perhaps it‘s irrational, but I am tired of people telling me to attain a
state of consciousness the means to which only they can provide.

(Great resource, Kit – And that appraisal is coming from a Bloviating

Pleonast.)

Martin Diano of The Baby Boomer [Knowledge Center] is

collecting experts for his Boomer Authority project:

Boomer Authority
A Question and Answer Resource for the Baby Boomer
Generation - Gain access to a community of professionals and
organizations for free timely advice!

My friends in The Netherlands, Martijn de Haas and Arjan

in't Veld, are involved in a new agency – and a new web
site/blog. Martijn told me that there might be English
language versions soon. Until then, enjoy the pictures.
And Vince Vassolo, gerontologist/ad man and self-proclaimed Head
Boomer, is blogging:

Baby Boomer Marketing Blog

Boomers are bright, opinionated and socially
connected, so they‘ll decide what your brand means
rather than having you or some trendsetter define it
for them.

Evergreen Advertising/Marketing in Australia offers

free PDF downloads of some sterling resources,
including:

 The introduction to Section One of David Wolfe‘s seminal

Ageless Marketing
 Chapter Two of Dick Stroud‘s 50-PLUS MARKET (Yours
Truly contributed a section elsewhere)
 An issue of Prophets Profit magazine focusing on the 50+
market
 A Brochure for The Evergreen Report
Women over 50: Their perspectives on
life and portrayal in advertising
 The Preface and Introduction (The Geritol Syndrome) from my
book Advertising To Baby Boomers

When you get there scroll a bit and click the thumbnails for downloads:

Evergreen Resources
More News Stories:
Baby Boomers Make Largest Positive Impact on Business for U.S. Paint
Contractors
Older Web Users: Online Content, Ads Aimed at Young
TV Will Continue To Dwarf Other Media
Web-Savvy Baby Boomers, Seniors Plumb More Regions of the Brain
During Internet Searches
What Boomers really want in housing

Books:

77 Truths About Marketing to the 50+ Consumer, Kurt Medina and John
Migliaccio

After Sixty, Leslie M. Harris and Michelle Edelman

Ageless Marketing, David B. Wolfe

BOOM: Marketing to the Ultimate Power Consumer, Mary Brown and

Carol Orsborn

Boomer Consumer, Matt Thornhill and John Martin

Brand Busters: Seven Common Mistakes Marketers Make, Chris Wirthwein

Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers, Brent Green

PrimeTime Women, Marti Barletta

The 50-Plus Market, Dick Stroud

The Age Wave, Ken Dychtwald

The Greater Generation, Leonard Steinhorn

The New Old, David Cravit

The Silver Market Phenomenon, Florian Kohlbacher and Cornelius Herstatt

Turning Silver into Gold, Mary Furlong

Blogs & More:
 50+Digital
 50+Fabulous
 Ad Nauseam
 AdRants
 Advertising to Baby
Boomers
 Ageless Marketing
 Age Lessons
 Aging Hipsters
 Aging in Place Guide
 Aging in Place Tech
 Boomer Consumer: The
Blog
 Boomer Diva Nation
 Boomer Lifestyle
 Boomer Marketing News
 BoomerGirl.com
 boomerwatch.ca
 Brand Autopsy
 Brent Green's Boomers Blog
 Carol Orsborn, PHD
 Collective Wisdom
 Dick Stroud's 50 Plus
Marketing
 Driving Sales
 gapingvoid
 Going Like Sixty
 IMMN (International
Mature Marketing Network)
 Lucas Conley
 Mark Miller's Retirement
Revised
 Marti Barletta's TrendSight
Blog
 Marty Davis' chick-a-
boomer
 MetLife Mature Market
Institute
 Michael Winerip/Generation
B
 Retirement Revised
 Nigel Hollis
 Paul Briand‘s Boomer
Examiner
 Peter Himler‘s The Flack
 Rhea Becker's Boomer
Chronicles
 Ronni Bennett's Time Goes
By
 Route 50PLUS
 RRW Consulting's DM Blog
 Senior Care Marketer Blog
 Survive and Thrive Boomer
Guide
 Target 50 (The Netherlands)
 The Ad Contrarian
 The Boomer Blog
 The Boomer Marketing
Blog
 The Mature Market
 The NABBW (Boomer
Women)
 The Savvy Boomer
 Tim Manners: Reveries
 Tungate in Paris
 Updated and Revised
Advertising to Baby Boomers
(now in paperback)

Award-winning advertising copywriter Chuck

Nyren knows a thing or two about baby
boomers. To start with, he is one, but beyond
that he helps companies create advertising that
speaks to this age group.

Nyren believes that many companies are losing

baby boom customers because their advertising
fails to speak to boomers. To remedy this, he
advises, in part, that firms should demand that
their advertising agencies put baby boomers in charge of creating campaigns
for their peer group. Just as he would not feel comfortable creating
advertising for twenty-somethings, he thinks it is a big mistake to expect
twenty-somethings to create advertising campaigns that speak to boomers.

His book is filled with examples and suggestions for industries such as
housing, pharmaceuticals, automotive, travel, and financial planning, all
industries that try to attract customers from the baby boom generation. In
this updated and revised edition, Nyren continues his crusade to get ad
agencies to recognize the importance of using baby boomers to create
advertising targeted to baby boomers. He notes that since his first book came
out in 2005, baby boomers have begun to receive much more press, but
advertisers continue to overlook them as an important and influential market.

Filled with timely examples of both press and advertising campaigns, the
book also explores resources. A new interview with a British firm that is
leading the way in advertising and using direct mail with baby boomers is
included.

The Advertising Educational Foundation has

selected Advertising to Baby Boomers as a
Classroom Resource
Book Reviews

(Email) "I just started reading your book 'Advertising to Baby Boomers'
yesterday and I think it's fantastic - one of the few written about this subject
that tells it how it is in plain language. It's going to be obligatory reading for
the staff in the agency ..... I'd also like to quote from your book at a
forthcoming conference I'm speaking at in Sydney Australia next month..." -
Kevin Lavery, Co-Founder and Creative Director, Millennium Direct

Marketing Sherpa
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 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.
David Cravit, Executive Vice President of ZoomerMedia and author of The
New Old: How the Boomers Are Changing Everything ... Again:

A strong advocate for making sure you nail the product story first and
foremost is Chuck Nyren, whose book Advertising to Baby Boomers is a
must-read.
John Migliaccio, Maturity Mark Services - now Director of Research,
MetLife Mature Market Institute:

I could give the briefest review I've ever done for any book, appropriately
enough by paraphrasing an iconic advertising slogan of years ago: Just buy
it. Think of it as a personal treat for your brain - something like a Good
Humor ice cream, or a Haagen Daz, or a good long jog if you're more health
conscious...whatever it is that gets your endorphins singing. I haven't marked
up a book so much since cramming the night before that last big college
final exam.

I found a lot to like in the book. It‘s not a rant, more like a casual
conversation over cocktails and bar munchies. There are lots of little asides,
and the conversational tone is there throughout, albeit more strongly in the
first and third section. Nyren also scatters tidbits of wisdom from some of
advertising's greatest practitioners, which reflect the legitimacy of what he's
saying.

The Journal of Consumer Marketing (Excerpts)

"Advertising to Baby Boomers is an easy, informative read that will resonate

well with Boomers and will give non-Boomers some useful insights when
advertising to this important market. As a member of the generation myself,
I now know why so many advertisements leave me cold (e.g. either I do not
understand the humor or I don't care enough to work at deciphering the
advertisement). I thought it was just me, but after reading Advertising to
Baby Boomers, I now put the blame squarely where it belongs."

"The second section (of the book) addresses the process of finding the best
marketing or advertising agency. It identifies the myths that traditional ad
agencies hold regarding Boomers and advises business owners who want to
sell to this group to walk away from agencies that think this way."

"The third and last section offers resources, a case study, and final thoughts.
He sharpens some of his earlier points and cautions readers that some of the
recent buzzwords in advertising, such as branding, are not all that they are
cracked up to be." - Dr. Joyce M. Wolburg, Marquette University

More Reviews
Book Blurbs

Straight talk from someone who knows how to do it right, for the right
price. - Laurel Kennedy, President, Age Lessons

For years businesses have been told that Boomers would represent terrific
opportunities as they aged. As Chuck Nyren points out, that strategic advice
was then discouraged by advertising and media types who lived in the world
of the precious 18-49 demo. Finally, the opportunities are being recognized.
Businesses are rapidly developing products and services targeted to
Boomers. Nyren gives sound advice on how to communicate with this
powerful consumer segment. - John McMennamin, McMennamin
Consulting

We recommend Chuck Nyren's Advertising to Baby Boomers to all of our

GRAND Magazine advertisers to help them put together effective print and
online ads to reach our Baby Boomer grandparent readers. - Christine
Crosby, Founder, GRAND Magazine

Chuck's book is refreshing and informative - a creative opinion with real

insights, in-depth understanding, and supported with practical advice in a
highly readable format. - Gill Walker, Director, Evergreen Marketing
Communications, Australia

Chuck Nyren's wit and charm only partially disguise the razor sharp teeth
that he flashes at an industry in denial. - Marc Middleton, Founder and
President, The Growing Bolder Media Group

I bought over 80 books on the subject of Boomers, Advertising, and

Marketing for my M.A. Thesis on Images of Boomer Women. Chuck Nyren
was the only writer who put it all together, brilliantly, in one source. His
book was the mainstay of my citations. Any advertiser who does not
understand his premise that boomers are diverse adults and do not want to be
seen as Steve Martin caricatures of "wild and crazy guys" is going to
alienate this pivotal generation - or, worse yet, miss them all together. -
Mary Duffy, Ford Models, 40+ Fashion and Beauty Author

Nyren has earned the distinction as the go-to guy for the inside dope on what
Boomers want and how advertisers can effectively target this dynamic,
powerful, and flush market. - Marty Davis, Former MSNBC News Anchor
and Washington Correspondent for "Hour Magazine"

Baby Boomers have money and they spend it! But before you target them,
read Chuck Nyren's insightful, entertaining and refreshingly candid book.
You'll avoid common mistakes and find the keys to motivating savvy
boomers. - Todd Harff, President & CEO, Creating Results

Chuck Nyren is one the best writers on 50+ advertising and marketing -
anywhere. He doesn't hide behind jargon, he shoots from the hip and tells it
how it really is. - Martin Smith, Group Managing Director, Millennium UK

about Chuck Nyren

Chuck Nyren is an award-winning advertising video

producer, creative strategist, copywriter, consultant, and
speaker focusing on The Baby Boomer Market.

Chuck has been in advertising since before he was born - a

true 'Madison Avenue Baby.' His grandfather Sid Schwinn
was one of the advertising greats of the Twenties, Thirties,
and Forties. Over fifty years ago Mr. Schwinn penned The
Simple Simon Stories about advertising. It is still on the recommended
reading lists of many college and university advertising and marketing
courses. Chuck's mother was a copywriter, and his father was V.P. of
Programming for a major advertising agency.

Being a true 60s teenager, Chuck at first rebelled against advertising. He has
been in and out of the industry for thirty-five years. Like most lives, his has
been filled with ups and downs, successes and failures, clarities and
ambiguities. Now he has reformed, seen the light, and returned to the fold.
Copywriting, creative strategy, consulting, and penning popular, worldwide
syndicated columns about advertising to Baby Boomers is his calling.

Chuck has been a consultant for advertising and marketing agencies and
companies with products for the 40+ Market, including Mary Furlong &
Associates, AARP, NAHB, Harris Interactive, AstraZeneca, Bayard Presse
(France), Roularta Media Group (Belgium), PLUS Magazine (The
Netherlands), The Seattle Direct Marketing Association, WPP's
Commonhealth, and Omnicom Group. He is a member/consultant
(Advertising to the 40+ Market) with The Faith Popcorn BrainReserve
TalentBank, and is on the Advisory Board of GRAND Magazine.
Mr. Nyren has been a featured speaker and consultant at private and public
international business conferences and seminars in the United States,
Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, and France.

Through the years he has written copy and/or has been a creative strategist
for Microsoft, Mackie Designs and various international professional audio
manufacturers, many small Seattle-based ad agencies and companies, and
numerous television and radio stations from coast to coast. Chuck has won
three International Competition Cindy Awards (Cinema in Industry), two
Gold and one Silver.

He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times,
The Dallas Morning News, The Kansas City Star, The Hartford Courant,
The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, BusinessWeek,
CBS MarketWatch, The Irish Times, Tiempos Del Mundo, CNBC, WNYC-
FM (NPR), KIRO-AM (Seattle), WBIX (Boston), Advertising Age's The
Advertising Show, Selling to Seniors, Counselor and Advantages magazines
(The Advertising Specialty Institute), U.S. News & World Report, The
Franchise Times, Confectioner Magazine, Street & Smith's Sports Business
Journal, and many other newspapers, magazines and radio programs
worldwide. Chuck is a talking head on an episode of The History
Channel/AARP 2006-2007 television series "Our Generation."

Mr. Nyren's fiction has been published in various literary journals, short
story anthologies, and ezines including Grandfathers are Gold (Simon &
Schuster), SpinDrifter, GRAND Magazine, The Satire Quarterly, The Hot
Flash Cafe, Eclectica - and on coffee cans in Portland, Oregon. His one-act
plays are staged nationwide a half-dozen or so times a year.

One of Chuck's favorite activities is writing about himself in the third

person.

Speaking/Presentation/Consulting Information (PDF)

Presentation Video (2007 European Tour)
2009: The First Half+ (Online Presentation)

Contact: nyrenagency@gmail.com © 2009 Chuck Nyren