If you want to see how important baby boomers are to companies, pay close attention next time you see Toyota’s commercials promoting its Venza crossover vehicle.
The ads open with 20-somethings lamenting the boring lives of their baby boomer parents.
One young woman says she read “the majority of an article” on how “older people are becoming more and more anti-social.”
“So I was really aggressive with my parents about joining Facebook,” she said. “My parents are up to 19 friends now.”
That compares with her 687 friends.
“This is living,” she said.
That’s a matter of generational perspective. Cut to her boomer parents, who are happily mountain-biking with their friends, and you quickly realize that they’re anything but anti-social and socially deprived.
Now 77 million strong, boomers are a demographic force to be reckoned with, and savvy companies know it.
“One of the things they recognize about the boomer population is they are a fantastic market,” said Maddy Dychtwald, co-founder of Age Wave, a consulting firm that specializes in helping companies market products and services to baby boomers.
“The reason they’ve had the spotlight of America on them is that they buy things,” she said. “Especially today, the older population has more discretionary income than the younger population. They’re not retiring the way their parents did.”
The numbers bear that out.
In the past 12 months, 47 percent of consumer goods and services were purchased by people 50 and older, to the tune of $2.7 trillion, said Patricia Lippe Davis, vice president of AARP’s Media Sales Group.
“The 50-plus demographic is only going to get bigger as the boomers finish moving into the demographic,” Davis said.
Boomers are also attractive to companies because they’re not brand-loyal, Dychtwald said.
“Their brand loyalty is almost nonexistent,” she said. “Older adults like to try new things. In fact, that’s one of the things that boomers pride themselves on is trying new things.”
They’re the ideal consumer, Dychtwald said.
“They have money, they consume lots of products and they’re very positive,” she said.
Experts said that to reach 50-plus consumers, companies must tread carefully and follow these rules:
• DON’T CALL US OLD: Chronologically, boomers might be over 50, but still young at heart and active.
“They don’t want to feel like they’re on the decline of life,” Dychtwald said. “The boomers — especially when they hit these hallmark ages of 50, of 65, of 70 — they’re not thinking it’s over. They’re thinking of what’s next.”
Toyota officials said they designed the Venza with boomers in mind. But as they talked with boomers, the company realized that there was also an important underlying message to convey.
“So we played on that nugget of information and used that as a tongue-in-cheek way of saying we realize that boomers are still very active,” said Russ Koble, advertising and planning manager at Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc.
• DEPICT US ACCURATELY: Inclusion of realistic and “age-appropriate” portrayals of boomers in advertising is important to that generation, said Paul Flowers, president of Circa 46, a Dallas advertising firm.
“The Chico’s advertising campaign with Diane Keaton (for the retailer’s 2011 holiday collection) is one example of advertising that will appeal to boomer women who don’t want to wear grandma’s clothes, but also want to be fashion-forward yet age-appropriate,” he said.
“The Ellen DeGeneres campaign for Cover Girl/Olay clearly uses someone, albeit a celebrity, who doesn’t fit the stereotypes of traditional glamour. Authenticity and honesty are critical in talking to boomers,” Flowers said.
• SHOW US THE BENEFITS: “When you reach a new life stage, there’s an opportunity for new products and services,” said Davis, herself a boomer. “When you hit 50-plus, you’re moving into a new life stage. For me, when I was younger, I used to use Clinique products. My skin is different now. What is the brand out there that’s going to tell me [what’s right] for my skin as it is today?”
• DON’T ALIENATE US: Because the 50-plus demographic spans so widely, companies have to be adept in designing marketing campaigns, said Jim O’ Rourke, vice president of media services at Slingshot, Circa 46’s parent company.
“We’re not developing ads where we say, ‘This specifically only appeals to an older boomer and this only appeals to younger boomers,’ ’’ he said. “The advertising has to have enough appeal across generations. We have to be careful that our advertising isn’t doing something that would alienate one group or the other.”