Baby Boomers: "It Took Us (60) Years To Look This Great-It's The Boomer Curse!"
As millions approach retirement, Madison Avenue is getting ready-Anne Thompson, Chief Financial Correspondent, NBC News,03-17-05. They were America's first mass market and an advertisers' dream: 77 million baby boomers who came of age with television. As kids, they were consumers of baby foods and breakfast cereals. As adults, they were trend setters. But as they outgrow the desired 18- to 49-year-old demographic, they are creating a new frontier for marketers.
“If you're a marketer and you want to grow your business, the pie that's going to get bigger is the over-50 pie,” says Matt Thornhill, with The Boomer Project, a research group that helps ad agencies better understand the mindset of people over the age of 50.
That demographic is filled with consumers like Steve and Joan Delott of Chicago, who are aging in years but not attitude. “When I look at myself in the mirror, I don't see a 50-year-old. I see a 35-year-old,” says Joan. “I probably feel like I'm in my 30s,” agrees Steve. “I feel good, fortunately. Behaving, well, Joan says a lot of times I'm immature.” And most of all, they are still spending money. One estimate is a whopping $2.3 trillion by consumers 45 years and older. But, as they were in their younger days, these older consumers are non-conformist. “They're not one homogenous group. It's a very diverse group,” says Thornhill. “They could be starting a new family. Or they could be retired.” At 55, Steve Delott is still working, but 51-year-old Joan is retired and recalculating what it means to be old. “If the 50 is the new 30, then in my mind, the 80 is going to be the new 60,” she says. “You know, I would say well into my 80s. I mean, I hope to have another strong 30 years, at least.” Call it the new math — that savvy marketers hope will mean money in the bank.
Financial Hurdles that Baby Boomer Women will face
Unless there is a dramatic policy shift, a great number of baby boomer women will fall below the poverty line and experience poorer health in their later years. Women typically work for fewer years than men and, when they’re working, earn less than men do. They live longer than their spouses and they live alone. This trend has not just a social cost but also an economic one.
Widowed women are more likely to live with half their prior income. The fact that many pensions aren’t indexed to inflation is another potential hurdle for boomer women anticipating retirement since their purchasing power may be cut dramatically as they age. We need to be instituting national policies to facilitate capital accumulation, retention and growth by baby boomer women. Boomer women should proactively lead in any reforms of the Social Security systems which is presently gender biased towards men. Why not start taking control of your own future-Right Now-before it's too late. This is what I am doing and why I built this website-my niche market is directed to my favorite group of people the Early Baby-Boomer Generation
How will aging baby boomers use technology-specifically, the internet?
Social Expert Hodges says that: "Tech-savvy baby boomers, who grew up with television and radio and adopted cell phones, VCRs, microwave ovens, and computers as they aged, are set to put their stamp on the Internet as they gray and move on to a wired retirement."
Boomers will be far better connected than retirees today. Only 17.7 percent of households with members over 50 have Internet access, about half the rate of society at large. Boomers, by contrast, have about the same Internet usage as Generation Xers who follow them. Boomers tend to be wealthier and better educated than generations before them thus leading to a higher Internet usage.
Other potential factors enhancing boomer technology usage include age-related disability, staying connected to family, loved ones, children, grandchildren and institutional factors such as the trend to move government, health care and other services online. Changes in private institutions such as banks and other commercial services will most likely have a greater enhancing affect on boomer internet use than any government-sponsored initiatives.
Boomers are using Internet Technologies at a rate of 2:1 to the younger generations.
If you have lost your pension, been downsized, or like yours truly, never found my "round-to-it" for retirement savings, Internet Marketing can be the answer to maintain you Standard of Living so that you don't have to adjust to 50% less income, once your spouse is gone. What better product to market than a product that will help others to protect themselves from CyberCriminals?
We Boomers Can Embrace Internet Marketing Strategies To Keep Our Financial Independence And Working Years Lifestyle
One Retiree's Glowing Face: Why Is He So Happy?
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