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Why Your Marketing to Baby Boomers Doesn’t Resonate

Most advertisers realize the value in marketing to Baby Boomers. They are a massive market with the most spending power – accounting for more than 70% of the disposable income in the U.S. But this very lucrative segment is more than just another generational marketing target audience. Baby Boomers are a complex blend of people who have lived through dramatically …

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Think Reciprocity to Meet Aspirational Needs of Baby Boomers

Contemporary theories of marketing are increasingly defined in the context of collaborative relationships between a marketer and consumers that operate on behalf of meeting needs of the latter. But honoring this idea, especially in Baby Boomer markets, is often problematic because a continuing focus on sales quotas pressure marketing and sales staff to concentrate more on making deals than on …

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Why Your Marketing Isn’t Resonating With Baby Boomers

Most marketers these days have realized the value in targeting Baby Boomer audiences. They are a massive market with the most spending power – accounting for more than 70% of the disposable income in the U.S. But this very lucrative segment is more than just another target audience. Baby Boomers are a complex blend of people who have lived through …

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Boomer Girls Still Just Want To Have Fun

by Barry Robertson – Who says Boomers aren’t adaptable? For sure, not the defunct music cassette industry… Back in 1980, when Donna Summer rocked our disco world, vinyl records were at the peak of their popularity – we just called them “records” in those days, the traditional term handed down from our parents and grandparents. However, cassette sales were already …

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Want To Connect With Baby Boomers? Get Your Messages Creatively Right

By Jim Gilmartin – Contrary to the perception that aging brings a calcification of shopping habits, many over-50 consumers diversify their spending habits as they grow older. That diversification, plus the narrower tactics of contemporary marketing practices, makes them much tougher to reach through advertising. As older consumers and the Baby Boomer cluster move from the crowd-think of their youth …

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People Make All Purchase Decisions

“All purchase decisions are made by people.” Gavin Finn, CEO of Kaon Interactive, wrote in a recent article. “While data science and analytics have become an essential element of every modern marketing arsenal, it is wise to remember that people make all purchase decisions.” He goes on to say, “Even in business purchases, the individual decision-makers are subject to the same …

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Baby Boomers Clearly Into The Fall And Winter Of Life Stages

Today, the oldest Boomers are 70+. The core needs and maturational changes in values, views and behaviors of 70-year-old Boomers are not materially different from those of 70-year-olds in the past. Boomers’ differences from previous generations are more differences of style than of substance. The core needs that are part of what defines us as human beings, such as self-actualization …

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To Connect With Baby Boomers, Be A Servant Marketer

By Jim Gilmartin – Contemporary theories of marketing are increasingly defined in the context of collaborative relationships between a marketer and customers that operate on behalf of meeting needs of the latter. But honoring this idea is often problematic because a continuing focus on sales quotas pressure marketing and sales staff to concentrate more on making deals than on helping …

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Experiential Segmentation: Allowing Boomers To Personally Define Value

By Jim Gilmartin – Greater individuation brought into the marketplace by Baby Boomers lessens the usefulness of traditional customer segmentation for reasons of simple economics. The greater the degree of individuation (the older we get, the less alike we become), the smaller the sub-groups; the smaller the sub-groups, the less cost-effective it is to tailor marketing programs to such groups. …

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Do You Ever Wonder Why Baby Boomers Are Not Loyal To Your Brand?

By Jim Gilmartin – Companies, often encouraged by legal counsel, regularly resist expressing vulnerability, sometimes at great expense. A classic example took place in the early 1980s. The Audi 5000 was reported to accelerate spontaneously from a stand-still without driver involvement. Audi responded with not even a token amount of compassion and vulnerability. It said simply that drivers were at …