Targeting Boomers and "Beyond" - Jerry Shereshewsky - MediaBizBloggers

I find it amazing that the marketing and media communities have such a primitive view of the baby boomer marketplace despite the plethora of books, conferences, experts and consultants out there.

For reasons I don't understand both the community of marketing services firms focused on the boomers and the marketers themselves seem strangely focused on expanding the already enormous audience by referring to it as "boomers and beyond". The majority of conferences on boomer marketing tend to have names like "Boomers and Beyond" too, conflating two very different groups into a single one easily categorized as "old(er)". In other words, these conferences tell their audience that there is fundamentally no difference between a 45-50 year old and a 75-80 year old. They are both, after all, definable as "boomers and beyond".

Eventually, of course, all the boomers (or at least those who survive) will be 'beyond', but by then beyond will be another way of saying boomer.

Let's be clear…the 'beyond' group are about receiving care throughout their last 15-25 years, reorienting things to enable them to live in their own homes if possible, and squeezing the last drops of pleasure out of life. The boomer group is about enjoying their peak earning years, their maturing families and, in many cases, giving care to their 'beyond' parents as well as their struggling kids.

My oldest daughter, now 25, was describing someone she had recently met. She began by saying he was "old". When pressed she narrowed that down to "about your age" (I am 64). I just met that person, and he is perhaps 50. This is exactly how too many marketers think today. Because they are in their late 20's, anyone much past 40 is "old", with little or no differentiation made between 40 and 80 (or beyond). Hence we get "boomers and beyond".

The really important part of all this is that every one of us has a birthday once a year. And every birthday makes everyone of us one year older. With a 19 or 20 year span, the baby boom has always crossed many boundaries; the oldest had graduated high school as the youngest were being born. And eventually the oldest boomers will be very much 'beyond' while the youngest are just beginning to retire. But for now most boomers are still working full time, most have their families organized and most have children who are not little kids anymore. For perhaps the first time in their history, this cohort has a set of commonalities that makes it easy for a marketer to target. So let's focus on them while we can and not confuse the issue with 'beyond'.

Jerry Shereshewsky has formed a new marketing consultant firm, GrownUpMarketing, to help agencies and marketing companies strategically understand the 45+ market and the relevance to their particular brands. Jerry can be reached at jerry@grownupmarketing.com

Read all Jerry’s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Rants & Raves from the Heart of Advertising - MediaBizBloggers.

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