BusinessWeek has just put up a great cover story on the Boomer market.
For previous generations, age 50 meant, bluntly put, the beginning of the end. But today’s 50-plus crowd is far more likely to see the two or three decades ahead as a second life. – BusinessWeek
A number of great bits in the article on how companies are starting to clue-in on marketing, taking into account the realities of boomer generation and connecting with customers who don’t at all act like their parents did at the same age. Example: Dove gets it.
Dove turned industry tradition on its head last October with print ads using ordinary looking women instead of glamorous models. Two of the six shots in the ad exult in advancing age. One shows a 46-year-old woman with deep lines around her jaw and eyes and a full mane of gray hair….The payoff so far: In the nine months following the launch of the campaign, sales of Dove rose 3.4% from a year ago. That uptick sounds small, but it’s huge for the static soap category, and it exceeds the growth in soap sales as a whole.
The key line:
“As you get older, fantasy and idealization are out, and reality and authenticity are in,” says James J. Gilmartin, president of ad agency Coming of Age Inc. in Lombard, Ill.
Now tie this to Tom Portante’s post…hmmm…
To this end, one of conversations we’ve started over at the Cerado BoomerTech Community site is a discussion around how tech-savvy boomers will take advantage of innovation as they age. Swing on by if you get a chance if you have any thoughts…
