Despite the well-publicized fact that baby boomers are sliding inevitably
into middle age and beyond, companies’ attempts to market to them are having
only limited success.
Every seven seconds marks one more American’s 50th birthday, according to
current estimates, but boomers say they’re being ignored in large part by
corporate America. And, despite the occasional cursory nod such as Cadillac’s
Led Zeppelin-laced ads, most marketing attention is directed at either a much
older or younger crowd, according to a new survey.
Sixty-six percent of boomers age 50 and older said more ads target younger
people, and 64 percent of those age 39 to 49 agreed, according to a survey of
450 boomers by The Boomer Project, a joint effort by Richmond, Va.-based ad
agency Boisseau Partners and Southeastern Institute of Research.
And 35 percent of boomers 50 and older said advertisements target people older
than them, while 30 percent of those 39 to 49 said the same thing, the survey
found.
"They’re in this never-never land," said Matt Thornhill, founder of The Boomer
Project and chief marketing officer at Boisseau Partners. "They don’t relate to
the lifestyle of a senior senior, and they’re not young anymore."
While it’s a group that spends an estimated $2 trillion a year on consumer
goods and services, Thornhill said, "traditional marketers target the ideal
demographic as 18 to 49, and everybody else is lumped into the 50-and-over
group," he said.
The marketers are "not interested or they lump them in with the gray-haired
folks who are 65 or 70. Bruce Springsteen is 54, Kim Basinger just turned 50,
Robin Williams is 51. Are you going to call them seniors? Those aged 50 to 57
are at the peak of their earning years. They’ve got the kids out of college.
They’ve got time and disposable income."
Shallow attempts
And the cursory commercial nod does not always appeal. Boomers gave the Cadillac
ad low points in the survey, Led Zeppelin soundtrack and all.
That indicates a deeper problem: Attempts to address this cohort are often laden
with stereotypes, easy references to a peace sign, a Woodstock image or the idea
of boomers as a selfish lot. That will only prove detrimental to companies over
the long term, marketing experts say.
"The issue isn’t just throw a few people who are 50 into our commercial, or
let’s be sure to throw Jimi Hendrix into this commercial," said Brent Green, a
marketing consultant and author of "Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers,"
published earlier this year.
"We’re not a bunch of lemmings. Just because we hear Led Zeppelin doesn’t mean
that product and company resonate with me," he said.
For instance, one recent Pepsi ad shows young boys at a rock concert staring
at some gray-haired rock fans. Then they turn to each other and one expresses
the hope that their elders "don’t go skinny-dipping again." To Green, that kind
of boomer reference is a disparagement that’s likely to backfire.
"Does that build relationships? It sure didn’t in my mind," he said. "Does it
affect sales? Probably not. But a brand is not just about next month’s sales.
It’s about building a relationship, and is that relationship going to be based
on the denunciation of others and ridicule?"
Harley-Davidson, Disney lead the way
By all accounts, Harley Davidson and Disney are companies that succeed where
others have so far failed. Advertisements for Disney’s recent anniversary
suggested "come back and see it again without your kids," Thornhill said. "They
showed a mid-fifties couple coming back."
Harley-Davidson has also managed to strike a hit. "Most Harley-Davidson
motorcycles are being sold to people over 40 and 50," Green said. "It isn’t
about creating clichéd images of people. They’re talking to broader themes about
living life to its fullest."
Also, they’ve tapped the idea of community and connection. "Harley groups are
very, very involved in civic engagement and fundraising … it’s tapping into
people’s later-life needs to make a difference, to have relevance, to leave a
legacy. Those are the themes that (companies) need to be marketing to, not ‘hey,
man, peace and love,’" Green said.
In companies’ ongoing attempts at marketing to boomers, Green sees ads getting
worse before they get better. "Generational prejudice is the last area where we
can openly be prejudicial and stereotypical and comfortably get away with it in
mixed social situations," he said.
For instance, as a marketing consultant, Green was recently asked by an ad
agency to discuss advertising to boomers. A list of questions he was asked to
answer in preparation for the event was this: "Are boomers relatively set in
their eating habits, or are they open to new types and forms of food?"
Said Green: "Set in their ways’ is associated with the traditional American
stereotype of aging. It’s a ridiculous question. But it came from someone in
marketing whose job it is to be successful at marketing new products to
boomers."
Younger than I look
The survey touched on another tricky point for marketers: Boomers who are 54
years old consider themselves 41 and, for those earning $75,000 or more a year,
that psychological age dives to 39.
Most marketing agencies assume anyone in his fifties is about 54, but given
this survey’s findings, any such ads are likely to miss their target, Thornhill
said.
However, that doesn’t mean companies can simply resort to using 30-somethings in
ads, Thornhill said. A 57-year-old boomer, for instance, may not relate to an ad
featuring parents with very young kids. "You have to find a way to match up that
youthful attitude with the reality of their life," Thornhill said.
Like it or not, marketers will be forced to address the complex needs of this
generation, he said.
"Boomers have controlled the economic engine and everything else in America
for so long," he said, "they’re not going to be lumped into the terms and
expressions used to describe previous generations. Marketers are slow to figure
out this is a new segment that they need to target."
Andrea Coombes is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com in San Francisco.
SOURCE: Marketwatch.com