Think the Baby Boomer demographic is simple to reach effectively? Think again. Last Friday, a workshop entitled “Marketing to Boomers and Beyond: How to Build Your Business with the Mature Consumer,” was held in New York City to address this and other related mature marketing issues, including the latest demographic trends, research findings, and how to effectively reach and resonate with the 50 plus population. The conference, full of surveys and statistics, provided both insight and warning into the opportunities and pitfalls of marketing to Baby Boomers. Speakers (most of which who were marketers) provided plenty of ideas on reaching Boomers and young Grandparents. The big take away from the conference is that while the Baby Boomer demographic is huge(both in dollars, people and opportunity), the real success in marketing and advertising to the audience will depend greatly on segmenting and reaching the early, middle and late-stage boomers and the various subsets within those categories.
“For you to succeed in marketing to boomers, be relevant to younger boomers and middle age boomers, as middle age will become the norm,” said Jerry Shereshewsky during his keynote presentation. “You need to further segment within the boomer demographics and then deliver that message to those segments through exceptional media.”
“The boomer and beyond generations are the most written-about age segment,” said author Dr. Leslie Harris. “However, marketers continue to undervalue boomer and beyond consumers and, therefore, allow these consumers to make buying decisions with few marketing or advertising programs to gain their loyalty or favorable brand attitudes.”
