BouncingBabyBoomer.com

Pitch Points That Work (and Not) for Boomer Consumers

As both a journalist and a marketing vet, I spend some time watching sales pitches lobbed at people my age. At the same time, I am watching our evolving sense of identity as the gray on our heads grows more dense.

 

A recent piece aimed at ad pros by Robin Raff at MediaPost explores selling health care to Boomers. I found this angle a bit ironic since the larger question in Boomer health today is how the almost-aging can access decent service at decent rates, not what it takes to make us want it. But it was interesting to see what she thinks will be motivational, since ad types still seem conflicted about how to sell into the Boomer niche.

Below is my own rendition of some of the"pitch points" on which she and I agree along with some added thoughts from me:

• Self-Reliance
  Boomers may like hearing advice, but they don't want to be told what to do, Robin and her sources suggest.

This gets a "bingo" from me. Boomers don't like to feel like sheep, even when they appear to be moving in herds.

Cost and Convenience
Show Boomers how you will save them time and/or money, the author offers next.

As both a journalist and a marketing vet, I spend some time watching sales pitches lobbed at people my age. At the same time, I am watching our evolving sense of identity as the gray on our heads grows more dense.

 

A recent piece aimed at ad pros by Robin Raff at MediaPost explores selling health care to Boomers. I found this angle a bit ironic since the larger question in Boomer health today is how the almost-aging can access decent service at decent rates, not what it takes to make us want it. But it was interesting to see what she thinks will be motivational, since ad types still seem conflicted about how to sell into the Boomer niche.

Below is my own rendition of some of the"pitch points" on which she and I agree along with some added thoughts from me:

• Self-Reliance
  Boomers may like hearing advice, but they don't want to be told what to do, Robin and her sources suggest.

This gets a "bingo" from me. Boomers don't like to feel like sheep, even when they appear to be moving in herds.

As both a journalist and a marketing vet, I spend some time watching sales pitches lobbed at people my age. At the same time, I am watching our evolving sense of identity as the gray on our heads grows more dense.

 

A recent piece aimed at ad pros by Robin Raff at MediaPost explores selling health care to Boomers. I found this angle a bit ironic since the larger question in Boomer health today is how the almost-aging can access decent service at decent rates, not what it takes to make us want it. But it was interesting to see what she thinks will be motivational, since ad types still seem conflicted about how to sell into the Boomer niche.

Below is my own rendition of some of the"pitch points" on which she and I agree along with some added thoughts from me:

• Self-Reliance
  Boomers may like hearing advice, but they don't want to be told what to do, Robin and her sources suggest.

This gets a "bingo" from me. Boomers don't like to feel like sheep, even when they appear to be moving in herds.

That also gets a big "aye" from me. Most Boomers love a good bargain, especially today.

But note to any merchant tempted to bait and switch: We will take the time to verify the bargain is real. (See also next item.)

My First Thought for Today (11/5/08)

Happy New Era to US all!!!! (she said while tagging this post to every category on this blog where I now feel more optimistic than I did yesterday)

Fritos With Feet

/ from the foodie files

"They are walking corn chips with feet," said an expert on NPR I heard during a road trip a few years back. As I recall, he was speaking about excess corn in the diet, using Latin Americans as an example. Whatever the details, the end result included extra weight, clogged arteries and higher rates of diabetes in these corn-eating cultures.

 

According to science journalist, Michael Pollan, the same might now be said of us in the States, and not because we eat too many corn flakes.

 

Our own hidden "corn toll" arises largely because so much of what we consume is laced with corn syrup and other corn derivatives. (If you doubt it, start checking how often the words "high fructose" or "corn" appear at or near the top of your ingredient labels.)

 

It's no big mystery why food makers love the syrup or we as a nation slurp it up. As Pollan points out, it makes things taste sweet. It makes things look golden. It sates the gluttonous, craving parts of the primal brain. And best of all, it is cheap, accessible, and it makes hay for farms in the heartland (how many of those farms are still family-owned we won't discuss at the moment).

 

There is so much "hidden" corn in our food chain now, tests show its distinctive molecule has become the most plentiful foreign substance in the blood of many Americans. Apparently we have become walking corn chips ourselves.

Update from the moshpit of my mind

Just back from a much-needed break in which I made myself read, relax and not write after an intense few days of conferencing and communing with Silicon Valley experts in future think. Now my head is overflowing with things I want to share, not just from the conference [prior posts below], but from the bulging digital folder of clips I have been saving for this space.

Bottom line, it has become clear that now is the time for this blog to divide, so that the tech-geek-cyber-surfing-future-musing content has its own place to live and its own room to grow. Meanwhile, this space will return to its regular programming about how to live long, lively and well in rapidly changing times.

On that latter front, my next multi-part series will be about the "e-patient" movement that is building momentum between self-helping patients and their growing cadre of physician allies online, all of whom want to increase quality (and reduce errors) in medical care. For that information I will be building upon my time as an "Osler Fellow" consulting with faculty at a nearby medical school and sharing tips colected from the growing community of doctor and patient pundits online. Between those posts I will be sharing updates on our other continuing themes, including Boomer health, employment, finances, entrepreneuring, lifelong learning and (un-) retirement.

 

But for that promised glimpse of the future as seen through the eyes of the pundits present at "The Singularity" conference in San Jose look for a live link in the far right sidebar next week to bouncingboomergirlgeek, the sister blog which I am also prepping to launch as we speak.

"Un-Retirement" Means More Than One Thing

from the Evolving Jargon Dept./

The term "Un-retirement" appeared in an AP press release I covered this AM on the topic of people deferring retirement. Coincidentally, I happened to use the same phrase when I set up the tag cloud of categories for this blog, but my own use of the term had a slightly different twist.

Lest anyone wonder how I intended it, let me compare the two meanings and then amplify my own.

In my first posting today (Survey Sez), I mentioned a study that ran in both the AP wire and in Newseek.  The authors of that study titled their data an "Un-Retirement Index." In their terms, this meant '"working at least 20 hours per week after 67, the age at which a U.S. worker is eligible for full Social Security benefits."

My own intended use of this still-evolving term is a more general reference to "still working."

They're Selling Us Daddy's Car After All

The leading edge of the Boomers are becoming linked to their parents in ways they haven't seen since Detroit gave up on selling us Daddy's Oldsmobile. Whatever the specifics of our own needs and interests, we begin being herded back into our parents' marketing niche as soon as we sign on for AARP at 50.

It's no small irony for the generation who perhaps worked the hardest to separate.

As a group, we probably made the biggest leap ever away from the 'rents when we pushed back around the draft and Viet Nam, then insisted that Nixon not skate on Watergate. Later, we led the leap in to the digital age and on to the Internet, leaving a number of elders feeling out of the swim and pressed to catch up.

By combining those larger leaps with a lot of smaller shifts, we may have become more autonomous and self-defined than any generation before us. But today as they approach their own retirement phase, the leading wedge of 50+ Boomers find themselves lumped into their parent's demo anyway.

The leading edge of the Boomers are becoming linked to their parents in ways they haven't seen since Detroit gave up on selling us Daddy's Oldsmobile. Whatever the specifics of our own needs and interests, we begin being herded back into our parents' marketing niche as soon as we sign on for AARP at 50.

It's no small irony for the generation who perhaps worked the hardest to separate.

As a group, we probably made the biggest leap ever away from the 'rents when we pushed back around the draft and Viet Nam, then insisted that Nixon not skate on Watergate. Later, we led the leap in to the digital age and on to the Internet, leaving a number of elders feeling out of the swim and pressed to catch up.

By combining those larger leaps with a lot of smaller shifts, we may have become more autonomous and self-defined than any generation before us. But today as they approach their own retirement phase, the leading wedge of 50+ Boomers find themselves lumped into their parent's demo anyway.

It's the same 'ole low wherever you go

for the jr. boomer department...

If you're around 45 and feeling low, you've got lots of cohorts around the globe. So says Scientific American in one of its 60 Second Science podcasts, reporting on a study in the journal Science and Medicine. People from Bangalore or Boston all say they hit the pits for a stretch in between the peaks of well-being and optimism you feel in your 20s and should feel again after 55. They found this same U-curve wherever they went; culture, affluence, marital status all made no difference.(For text of this podcast, click here.)

I think I am going to file this snip in the bulging folder I've labeled "science confirms common sense."

BBB Quickie: Seeking Boomer Job Stories

A writer who's on an email list I frequent is seeking Boomer stories, specifically Boomer stories relating to a too-common plot among those past 40:

"Looking for Baby boomer, formerly retired, takes job for which the company's younger workers lack management background."

If this sounds like you or someone you know, drop a line (call it "Job Story") to editor@ bouncingboomers.com. In the note, give a very brief synopsis (such as "Boomer accountant is best qualified, but last hired and first fired"). We'll forward your notes  to Dr. C. who may contact you for the rest of your story (she will see your address and write you directly). And if it isn't a fit for her article, we may follow up with you for a future employment story ourselves. 

(Rest assured, our policy is not to share your email address with any third party unless you give us permission by responding to an item such as this.)

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

(placeholder)