Marketing to the Baby Boomer Generation is a smart move. This is a much sought after demographic for many reasons. You may already have some success marketing to Baby Boomers, but you could have even more success with a little adjusting. Why? This is a huge demographic encompassing everyone born between 1946 to 1964. With that many age groups, how do you focus your target audience? You need to narrow this group to get real market appeal.
The United States currently has an aging population. We know this from any statistics you care to read at the U.S.Census Bureau. The problem with lumping the Baby Boomers into one marketing group is obvious when you look at the spread of years that are commonly used to describe this period in America’s history; the period post World War II.
Consider that in the year 2010, people born during the baby boom were anywhere from 46 to 64 years old. That difference in age is a difference in life experience – that can be considered an entire generation, and often is.
If you search the term “baby boomer” you will be marketing to a group of people who have been lumped together by an arbitrary measure of time. Can you afford to waste your time marketing to this one, vast group of people with the same product? A 40 year old will buy a different product than a 60 year old.
For instance, if I click on a website that sells products marketed to “baby boomers,” and those products are for retired individuals, I may be turned off immediately if I’m in my 40’s busting my hump every day trying to earn a living. Vacations, cruises, or other luxuries of time may not appeal to the person in their 40’s who is granted only two weeks vacation every year, has kids at home, and possibly are putting kids through college.
Now, say I click on a website for Boomers about beauty products. If I’m 60 plus years old I want moisturizes and sun protection. But if I’m in my 40’s I may be more tempted by products that promise anti-aging and wrinkle reduction. You have to know who you’re talking to!
It’s time to get to know your market. Perhaps you need to drop the whole “baby boomer” reference in your marketing strategy. What target are you trying to sell to? What age group will your product benefit? It’s fine to use the term Boomer when referring to nostalgia, but not when referring to a product. Who is your audience?
So, yes, use the term Baby Boomer Generation when you want to talk about something from your past… a little nostalgia is great. But, when your product will help someone in their 40’s, it may be wrongly marketed to someone in their 60’s.
If you are 46 years old and you receive a product endorsement for Medicare Supplement Insurance how would you feel? I guarantee the name of that product, and your name, would forever be thought of as untrustworthy and an unreliable source. Take a lesson from AARP – that letter comes almost exactly on your 50th birthday. They are not sending them out to a generic Baby Boomer demographic.
It’s often said that when you’re writing something for many people to read, “write for one person.” I must add, “sell to one person.” Know the one person you are marketing to, and not just some arbitrary demographic. Your product, and you, will be rewarded with the trust and esteem of your audience – and, hopefully, customers.
Time for some action! The Baby Boomer Generation references should be dropped from your marketing strategies. We are NOT one age group. This demographic is confusing at best and using this generic term won’t help you market to the so-called baby boomers. People in their 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s don’t want to be lumped together anymore than someone in their 20’s wants to be grouped with someone in their 40’s. You are marketing to a very different group of people, so treat us as individuals. Once you do, you’ll earn the respect of all of us Boomers… of every age!