Baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, represent a significant consumer force with over 76 million individuals and considerable spending power, accounting for nearly $230 billion in sales for consumer packaged goods. Marketers often overlook this age group in favor of younger consumers, despite research indicating that boomers are comparably active shoppers who prefer personalized, relatable marketing approaches without being patronized. To effectively engage with baby boomers, brands should prioritize excellent customer service, informative online resources, and an integrated approach to digital and traditional marketing.

1. The Post-World War II Generation -
What Baby Boomers Want Now
ConversionFanatics.com

2. Baby boomers: they know their worth, they know their strength, and they know their
significance. After all, they represent the generation "that witnessed and participated in some of
the greatest social changes in the country’s history," including the Civil Rights Movement, the
Women's Movement, and the Vietnam War—not to mention beholding the "age of the
computer, mobile communications, and the World Wide Web."
And with over 76 million baby boomers in the United States, the considerable spending
power of the post-World War II generation has lead to their coronation as "marketing's
most valuable generation," states Nielsen research.
But why then do so many marketers overlook the buying potential of this age group,
excluding them in favor of the 25-49 cohort? Research shows that this is a habit that
marketers need to break. According to Neilsen research, by 2017 "50 percent of the U.S.
population will be 50+. These consumers spend close to 50 percent of all CPG dollars
yet less than 5 percent of advertising is geared towards them."

3. Baby boomers are not the thrifty, penny-pinchers of the Silent and Great Generations.
Au contraire. They were raised on consumerism and "currently account for nearly $230
billion in sales for consumer packaged goods, out-buying age groups in products like
coffee, magazines, and diet soda," reports the Huff/Post50.
So marketers take note. Baby boomers are a buying force to be reckoned with and your
ecommerce strategies should reflect that.

4. Who Are Baby Boomers And What
Makes Them Unique?
The baby boomer generation is comprised of anyone born during the "demographic
post–World War II baby boom," (hence the name), occurring between 1946 and 1964,
making boomers between 52 and 70-years-old in 2016. These dates and corresponding
ages are not set in stone, however, as the U.S. Census Bureau also uses the term "baby
boomer" in a cultural context.
Some scholars argue that the baby boomer generation should be divided in two:
boomers I, the true baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1954) and boomers II,
Generation Jones (born between 1955 and 1965), as the life experiences, attitudes,
behaviors, and societal influences would have been very different for boomers born
closer to 1946 compared to those born on the other end of the generation spectrum.
And while there may be noteworthy differences between boomers I and boomers II, for
simplicity's sake, we are going to discuss the two groups of boomers as one unit here.

5. Baby Boomers Have Money To Burn
Unlike the preceding generation, which grew up during the Great Depression, baby
boomers have money and they're not afraid to spend it. The common fallacy is that
spending declines for people in the 55+ age group. But this simply isn't the case.
Research shows that baby boomers have comparable purchasing rates to people in the
25-54-year-old age bracket, spending slightly more than their younger cohorts on
health and beauty care, alcoholic beverages, and fresh produce.
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6. According to Steve Olenski, baby boomers "make up 70% of the nation's disposable
income," and thanks to having decades of saving and investing under their belts, they
are the overall "biggest spenders," reports Sucharita Mulpuru of Forrester Research.
Plus, "They're also the only consumer segment that has made gains in real income since
the 1970s."
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7. How Baby Boomers Shop
• Baby boomers, like other generations, love coupons, bargains, and sales.
• Baby boomers feel mostly at ease when researching, browsing, and shopping
online.
• Retail websites are the strongest influence on baby boomers, followed by
advertising and sales people; word-of-mouth from friends, family, and social
media doesn't have as big of an effect.
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• Female baby boomers are more likely than males to talk about their shopping
experiences via social media.
• While tech-savvy, baby boomers are less likely to use devices like smart phones
and tablets as shopping tools.
• They watch fewer online videos than younger generations watch.
• Baby boomers don't care as much about pricing as millennials do; baby boomers
are more loyal to their favorite brands and styles but still not exclusively so.

8. They Use Social Media But Not The Same
Way As Millennials
"Boomers are the fastest growing group on Facebook with an 80% surge in users
between 2010 and 2014," reports David Weigelt. And according to an online survey of
1,000 people between the ages of 60 and 69 conducted by DMN3, "An overwhelming
82.3% of Boomers belong to at least once social networking site," with Facebook being
the most popular, followed by LinkedIn.
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9. And while baby boomers are definitely active on social media, they do tend to use it less
than younger generations. Based on the aforementioned survey, respondents indicated
that they typically spend between one and two hours a week on social media. However,
it should also be noted that a significant percentage (15.5%) did say they spend eleven
or more hours a week on Facebook.
And what about how baby boomers are influenced by social media?

10. Pamela Lockard: "Baby Boomers take action based on what they see
on social media, and most of the time it’s focused on finding more
information.
More than half of Leading-Edge Boomers will visit a company website
or continue the search on a search engine after seeing something on
a social networking site."
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11. They Think For Themselves And Don't
Appreciate Condescension
One of the characteristics of the baby boomer generation, which has also been coined
the "me" generation by writer Tom Wolfe, is that as baby boomers were growing up,
they had cultural aspirations of "self-realization" and "self-fulfillment," resulting from
coming of age during a time of introspection and experimentation with a variety of
cultural foundations, including sexuality and new age spirituality.
It was a time of hot tub parties, discos, lifestyle products, and EST (Erhard Seminars
Training)—oh, and don't forget about Woodstock.
Baby boomers differ significantly from their parents' generation, whose values of self-
sacrifice, hard work, and thrift, resulted from growing up during the Great Depression.
And generally speaking, the generation preceding the baby boomers expresses a
stronger loyalty to institutions and traditional religious beliefs—values that baby
boomers gradually moved away from.

12. Steve Olenski: "The Woodstock Festival was much more than a
concert featuring the likes of Joan Baez, Janis Joplin, the Grateful
Dead and Jimi Hendrix; it was a counter-cultural event which
symbolized, among other things, that the baby boomers were
not going to be trussed up by their parent’s morals and lifestyle.
They would think and act for themselves—and they still want to
be thought of that way. The least hint of patronizing the baby boomers will flatten any
marketing campaign, just as Wile E. Coyote was flattened by the Road Runner."
"Woodstock cover couple still together 40 years later"
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13. Baby boomers may not be in their 20s or 30s anymore, but that doesn't mean they no
longer possess the same spirit they had when they were younger. So actively engage
with them and use a personalized approach to garner their attention. "Remember this
when targeting the Boomers: create content that will make them feel like they earned or
deserved the product or service you are offering," adds Kimberly Grimms on Social
Media Today.

14. How To Customize Your Digital
Marketing To Appeal To Baby Boomers

15. Baby Boomers Don't Want To Feel "Old"
"Senior," "elderly," "old," "aged," these are all anti-buzz words that baby boomers hate
to hear and understandably so. Baby boomers resent being perceived as "over the hill,"
especially since the description doesn't even fit. Baby boomers have money, they are
active, and they want to live the good life, bucket-listing their way through their
retirement years.

16. And even though changes may occur in their lives, it's all about how you spin it, even if
one of those changes involves needing to wear Depends, which are now marketed as an
alternative type of underwear versus "adult diapers." Also, Aliza Gans writes, "Depends
uses actors in their 40s and 50s to target consumers who are typically in their 60s and
beyond," thus removing even more of the stigma and the implication that wearing
Depends equals nursing-home-ready.
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17. Aliza Gans: "According to [Ann Fishman, founder of Generational
Targeted Marketing], the AARP also meets the gold standard of
brands that know how to market to those in their golden years.
The site has tailored its interface for older people new to the
web, and has launched its TEK program (Technology, Education,
Knowledge) with bold-colored, user-friendly tutorials, including
lessons on how to use hashtags and even “Cyberproof Your
Phone.”
Still, nowhere does the AARP mention that its patrons are senior citizens. Instead, it uses
phrases such as 'life re-imagined,' 'real possibilities,' and 'you’ve still got it.'
'AARP did an excellent job of redesigning itself to become a good vehicle of something
people are attracted to,' Fishman says. 'They put movie stars on the cover of their
magazines—they have Goldie Hawn.…If they aren’t afraid to be on AARP, then it’s okay
for us to be on AARP.'"

18. The key is to bridge the gap "between retirement and the hip online trends of today,"
Gans continues. And how you can achieve this with your business is to create content,
instructions, and sales copy that allows your customers to use your products or services
in a progressive but accessible way rather than using restricting labels that pigeonhole
them to particular age groups.

19. Mesh Digital Marketing With Traditional
Media
Merritt Graphics Print Solutions: "These days it’s easier than ever to integrate your
digital marketing campaigns with more traditional media like direct mail, and boomers
are likely to be more comfortable engaging with a brand if they’re introduced to it via
the traditional channels they grew up with.
Digital and variable data printing make it possible to create personalized mailers and
catalogs that appeal to the same sense of individualism as custom landing pages and
PURLs. Custom URLs, QR codes, and promo codes can be included in printed
promotions to build online traffic and engagement. The idea here is to bring your digital
presence to the consumer, rather than hoping they’ll find it on their own."

20. Be Relatable And Avoid The Hard Sell
Baby boomers want to feel cared about, they value honesty, and they don't want to feel
like they are being pushed or coerced into making a purchase. In other words, they
don't want to be "sold."
In a CIO article, Sandra Powers of LawyerReviews.com is quoted as saying, "Strive to be
honest and upfront and factual about your product offerings...We frequently display
pictures of baby boomers in our newsletters and other marketing materials. Baby
boomers better identify with your products if the marketing materials include pictures of
people that look like them."
Similarly, in the same article Danielle Kunkle of Boomer Benefits suggests, "have a rich
About Us page [on your website] that shows [boomers] who they are buying from—and
include pictures of your staff [if appropriate]," adding that boomers "value businesses
that care about their community."

21. So try incorporating a touch of philanthropy in your business and see how it boosts your
appeal to baby boomers. For instance, Danielle's company "funds a scholarship for baby
boomers who return to school as an adult," providing her potential clients with another
reason to feel good about engaging with Boomer Benefits.
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Moreover, Jennifer Lonoff Schiff says, "Explain what it is you are offering, and the value
of your product or service, without being pushy or patronizing." Baby boomers like to
do research beforehand to ensure they are making informed decisions, and they also
like to ask questions. This generation isn't trigger happy when it comes to buying online
so tone down the hard sells and keep it honest.

22. Make Sure Your Customer Service Is Top-
Notch
Providing excellent customer service (which you should be doing anyway) is one of the
key ways that you can win the hearts of baby boomers, who get a lot of value out of
one-on-one interactions—whether they occur in person at a brick-and-mortar store,
over the phone, or online in a chat session.
Baby boomers also love user-friendly websites that enable them to easily navigate to
areas where they can find answers to their questions and ways to contact you directly.
According to Merritt Graphics Print Solutions, "More than any other demographic
boomers tend to want to actually interact with someone before they make a purchase or
other financial decision."
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23. And don't discredit the power of the telephone. Be sure to list a phone number as one
of the ways that people can get in touch with you. Having an abundance of information
and support available online is great, but "it's almost always worth it to make it easy for
someone to pick up the phone and call you to help complete a transaction,"
says Edward Nevraumont, CMO, A Place for Mom. Even travel websites like Expedia still
complete a quarter of their bookings over the phone.

24. Offer Plenty Of Online Resources
Valerie Guglielmi of Harp Advertising + Interactive: "Instead
of assuming that anyone over 50 isn’t all that tech savvy, think
again. According to ImmersionActive.com, this age group is
actually the fastest growing demographic online. They spend
more time per week online than they spend watching TV.
Immersion Active also shared that, 'the Internet is the most
important source of information for Boomers when they make
purchasing decisions.' That being said, it’s extremely important to create and post
informative sources about your products or services online, hopefully on your website or
company blog. Explain the benefits of the offerings your company provides as a way to
convince baby boomers to make a purchase."

25. Don't Assume All Baby Boomers Are Alike
As previously mentioned, there are a ton of baby boomers out there. And so, you don't
want to cast too wide of a net when you're marketing to them. You want to narrow your
focus to the boomer segment that's most likely going to be interested in what you have
to offer and then identify the communication channels they use most and craft copy
that specifically targets that segment. If you recall, some sources do break up the baby
boomer generation into segments I and II based on when they were born.
So keep that in mind when coming up with your marketing plan, as older boomers may
be less likely to use social media or shop online than younger boomers who use social
media, especially Facebook, and shop online regularly.

26. Conclusion
The marketing industry typically spotlights millennials, concerning itself primarily with
what millennials want, how they shop and interact online, and how to appeal to them.
And while millennials are most definitely a buying demographic that wields significant
power to influence and shape trends, they do not possess anywhere near the purchasing
clout of their predecessors, the baby boomers, whose "spending power...is predicted to
be $15 trillion worldwide by the end of 2019."

27. Justin Christianson: "The 'baby boomer' marketing is a big one,
with over 76 million people having been born in that 19-year
window called the 'baby boom.' The sheer size makes it an
attractive audience in itself. This audience typically has a bit
more dispensable income, most are online shoppers, and as they
age, they have a load of other problems that need additional
solutions.
To market to this demographic, you need to really focus on their main problem areas—a
good example is possibly a heart health supplement or something for joint pain. You
will typically find that baby booms are watching less video, they're spending money,
they're living longer, and they are brand loyal for the most part."
And to quote Jody Holtzman, head of AARP's Thought Leadership unit, "You’d have to
be an idiot to turn your back on this humongous growth market."