Marketing To Baby Boomers Will Fail If You Assume There Is Only One Demographic

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.

From data supplied by the US Census Bureau, we know that we have a huge population of aging Americans. When we take this group of people and put them all together in a single demographic, we are causing a marketing nightmare. How can you market to “Boomers” as if they are all the same age when the period in history that we refer to spans almost two decades?

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 have searched the term “baby boomers” you will come up with a huge demographic. Unfortunately for the marketer, this group encompasses a vast array of history, trends, tastes, wants, and needs. The 40 year old boomer is buying something entirely different than the 60 year old boomer.

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.

The same thing applies in other areas of marketing. If you have a “beauty product” that you’re marketing to the Boomers, which side of the spectrum are you targeting? If I’m in my 40′s I want anti aging serums… if I’m in my 60′s I want relief from dryness along with sun protection. A lot changes between two decades!

How can you target your products more specifically to the age group you intended them for? To begin with, you may want to drop the “baby boomer” references entirely. It’s perfectly fine to use that term as a general “remember when” reference, but when it comes to a direct sales approach, you’d better know your market better than that.

In other words, use the term “baby boomer” only when waxing nostalgic, not when trying to market a product. If your product is meant for someone in their 40′s, still struggling with kids at home, market to that person, not the person in their 60′s who is downsizing and ready to retire.

Really, if you have a product to help people sort through Medicare Supplement insurance, do you want that product to be targeted at a generic “Baby Boomer” group or a 64 and older group? If you blast a new product out to an age group that doesn’t appreciate it, you may lose that group, permanently. Consider AARP for a moment… you get that letter very close to your 50th birthday, don’t you. Not when you’re 40 and not when you’re 60; when you’re 50.

Many people who write blogs are told to “write to one person” to keep their writing honest and real. The same phrase applies to marketing – “Market to one person.” You know your audience. Don’t try to sell to everyone in some demographic that was chosen through some fluke of history. If you choose your one person and speak directly to that person at that age, your product, and you, will be trusted and believed. You may even get some great customers in the deal!

Now, it’s time for action. Drop your Baby Boomer references from your marketing, replacing them with your real target audience. Don’t lump together the 40 year olds, 50 year olds, and 60 year olds in the same group. If you don’t have the one magic product that appeals to all age groups, then don’t market to all age groups. Treat us Boomers like the individuals we are – you might just find some loyal friends and customers here if you do!

Clearly, the baby boomers marketing strategies you have chosen aren’t going to work if your target audience has a 20 year age span. Learn what makes us Boomers tick, and much more with a visit to RemarkableWrinklies.com.

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