Ignore cash-flush Boomers at own peril

Boomers represent the biggest market share of disposable income, but according to an article in AARP's Bulletin, advertisers are mostly ignoring them. What gives?

The percentage of consumers in the 50-plus market is enormous. According to a 2012 Nielsen study, 50 percent of the U.S. population in 2017 will be 50 or older. In just over a year they'll represent 70 percent of the country's disposable income. In the travel market, they already represent 80 percent of spending. So what percentage of U.S. advertising dollars targets people aged 35 to 65?

Five percent, says Nielsen. Actually, less than 5 percent. Worse, 49 is the "cutoff" when most big advertisers stop targeted age group marketing. Another 2005 study cited by AARP found that two-thirds of companies had no specific marketing, advertising, or product development plan regarding consumers 50 or older.

Why do advertisers still ignore the largest group holding most of the nation's free spending dollars? Outdated ideas seem to be the only explanation. Maybe their parents and grandparents had more brand loyalty, but boomers are very different.

They try new things. This is the generation which experimented with free love and drug enhanced "visions." Peace protests and landmark discrimination laws. They've proved open to change.

They were also born into relative affluence compared to their parents, and they like to spend it (and indebt). They are not as brand-loyal in products as they are in services and people, according to a 2007 study by Focalyst of 35,000 older consumers. While 60 to 72 percent of boomers would stick with their banks and health, auto, and medical insurance agents, 70 to 80 percent also regularly switch TV, computers, home appliances, and clothing brands.

This applies to big products, too. Consumers over 50 buy (and insure) five times more new cars than do younger consumers, and neither group sticks to one make for life as they once did. Nevertheless, these ads tend to target 18- to 34-year-olds, sometimes insulting older consumers as being tech-dumb.

The latter makes even less sense. According to Forrester Research, consumers over 55 are active on marketing-heavy social media and buy twice as much online as do younger counterparts, so why insult your biggest purchasers? At least the insulting ads are in the minority. Most advertisers of ageless products just ignore seniors.

Perhaps this is in part due to the American cultural obsession with youth, a notion foolish in more ways than one. Being youthful is not the same as wanting to be or act young; today's person in the second half of life is active, interested, and life-engaged - happy as they are. They actively seek new experiences, the selection and management of which are made better by a wealth of prior experience. Today's senior is youthful at heart, not trying to act or think the part.

With a marketplace of worldwide reach, advertisers would do well to recognize the difference in their biggest consumer base.

Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Contact her at Sholeh@cdapress.com.