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News for Baby Boomers
Experts Predict Top Trends in Marketing to Baby
Boomers in 2007
Market gets attention due to its size - $2.1 trillion in spending power
 March 6, 2007 – Some of the top speakers at a
conference on marketing to baby boomers pooled their knowledge yesterday
to select the top trends in the boomer business for 2007. Number one is
the need for business to change their management models to keep boomers in the
workforce. The others involved political power, health, women's self
image and changes boomers will make to retirement.
On the first day of the “Fourth Annual What’s Next
Boomer Business Summit” in Chicago, Fleishman-Hillard’s FH Boom polled
some of the conference’s top speakers on their predictions. Their
answers provide unique insights into how companies and organizations can
tap into this 78 million strong powerhouse generation, according to the
company.
Trends were provided by Gail Sheehy, author of
Passages and Sex and the Seasoned Woman: Pursuing the Passionate Life;
Steve French, Managing Partner of The Natural Marketing Institute (NMI);
Myrna Blyth, founder of MORE magazine and author of the New York Times
best seller Spin Sisters and the soon-to-be-published How to
Raise an American; Carol Orsborn, Ph.D., co-chair of FH Boom and
co-author of BOOM: Marketing to the Ultimate Power Consumer – the
Baby Boomer Woman by Mary Brown and Carol Orsborn; and Sandra
Timmermann, Ed.D., Director of the MetLife Mature Market Institute.
“Because of its sheer size and $2.1 trillion in
spending power, more and more companies are waking up to this generation
and adapting their business with an eye towards the boomer demographic,”
said Eileen Marcus, Fleishman-Hillard Senior Partner and FH Boom
co-chair.
“With competition for boomers’ attention
increasing, how can the smartest organizations stay one step ahead of
the rest, reaching boomers quickly and effectively to motivate their
support and maintain their contributions? That’s what we sought to
identify at the Summit.”
The summit is co-produced by the American Society
of Aging Business Forum on Aging and Mary Furlong & Associates and is a
preconference of the 2007 Joint Conference of the American Society on
Aging and the National Council on Aging. FH Boom (www.theboomerblog.com),
the first U.S.-based practice by a global PR firm exclusively dedicated
to helping companies connect with boomers, is a Bronze Sponsor of the
Summit.
“There is no market opportunity larger than the
boomers,” said Mary Furlong, co producer of the What's Next Boomer
Business Summit and author of Turning Silver Into Gold: How to Profit in
the New Boomer Marketplace. “This event showcases the leading
entrepreneurs, corporations and market researchers serving this market.
Attendees are getting an amazing download of the data and connecting
with how to market to the customer with the latest media and interactive
tools.”
The top five trends for boomer business in 2007
include:
1. Work & Management: Gail Sheehy warns
that companies will need to shift their management models to retain
their boomer employees, or risk a dangerous loss of institutional
knowledge and sudden reduction in their work force. She also encourages
boomers to use this situation to create the work experience they
desire.
“There is a hidden brain drain in the American work
force,” she says. “Corporate America is beginning to wake up to a
seismic demographic change. If it lets boomers retire early or drop off
the radar, corporations won’t have the people power to remain
competitive in a global marketplace. The rate of growth in the U.S.
work force will fall drastically over the next 20 years. This change
offers a golden opportunity for skilled boomers to reverse age bias and
transform the corporate model to suit their needs to continue working
for meaning & money.”
2. Products & Services: Based on NMI’s
Healthy Aging/Boomer Database, an annual quantitative study of the U.S.
Boomer population, Steve French predicts that the convergence of health
and wellness, both in terms of personal health and planetary health,
will lead to a plethora of new products and services targeted to
boomers, including consumer packaged goods, the travel industry, media
patterns, the automobile industry, and healthcare, among others.
“The impact of Baby Boomers on cultural trends,
product/service innovation, and economic movements has been well
documented for many years,” said French. “Based on Boomers’ desire to
age gracefully, live a healthy life, and maintain quality of living, the
notion of healthy aging is being transformed across many industries.
Based on the multifaceted challenges faced by Boomers, the unification
of health, wellness, and sustainability creates a plethora of solutions
for this influential portion of the population to embrace. Look for
innovative, new products and services that provide such integration.”
3. Beauty & Self Image: Myrna Blyth sees
boomer women embracing their beauty as they age, rather than fighting
it. “The goal of boomer women will not be to look younger but to feel
better and more accepting about the way they look,” she said.
“That doesn't mean these women want to look dowdy
or out-of-it. Just the opposite. They want to look as good as they can
and they want to celebrate the vitality and the self-confidence their
experience has given them. Think Helen Mirren! Also the Dove beauty
campaign has been very successful because it celebrates women of every
age, shape and ethnicity who look good because they feel good about
themselves. Boomer women who think they look better even as they get
older – and frequently do – are leading the way.”
4. Political Power: Building on her
observations regarding the impact of boomer women in politics, Carol
Orsborn predicts the rise of boomers as a political constituency leading
up to the presidential elections in ’08.
“At 78 million strong, boomers are the single
largest generational cohort of voting age—and they are just now
beginning to flex their social and political muscle,” said Orsborn.
“Boomers have traditionally had a sense of entitlement in the face of
their needs and desires. And heaven knows, these qualities are only
going to increase with age and in the face of increasingly challenging
life situations. Look towards social and economic issues that impact
them or even more immediately, their aging parents, as an indication of
which institutions and policies will feel the heat first.”
5. Retirement: Sandra Timmermann predicts
that, with longer lifespans and changing definitions of their circles of
trust, boomers will revolutionize retirement.
“Boomers may spend twenty, thirty or more years in
retirement – however we define it – and it may turn out to be their
longest lifestage,” said Timmermann. “They will look for two types of
advisors – a life coach to help them think through how they want to
spend the rest of their lives and a financial coach who can help them
figure out how much money they will need to last throughout their
lives. Retirement planning will take on a ‘longevity focus.’ It won't
be just about the bag of cash they need to accumulate, but will instead
be about guaranteeing a steady stream of lifetime income. Many boomers
will work in retirement to bring more money in. And to maximize their
retirement, Boomers will explore new kinds of living arrangements –
think about the Golden Girls – so they can age in place with ‘families
of choice’ to share expenses and to care for one another should they
need assistance some day.”
From these trends, it is clear that boomers’
influence on society will be profound, according to Marcus.
“These predictions represent radical changes to
some of the building blocks of American life,” said Marcus. “Work,
family, politics – none are areas to be taken lightly. This is why
events like the What’s Next Boomer Business Summit are so important – by
bringing together the best minds on boomers, we can collectively prepare
American businesses and citizens for the changes to come.”
“Aging is the most cross cutting challenge and
opportunity facing American society,” said Helen Dennis, Chair of ASA’s
Business Forum on Aging. “Business has a profound role to play in
developing innovative products and services that will support the
longevity revolution. Clearly the boomers are driving the agenda
that ultimately will serve every maturing generation.”
Editor's Notes:
About FH Boom & Fleishman-Hillard
FH Boom is Fleishman-Hillard's
marketing-to-boomers practice, the first American-based practice group
by a global PR firm dedicated to helping companies build powerful
relationships with baby boomers in the U.S. and across the FH
international network. The practice offers research, training, program
assessments, creative strategy and insider intelligence on how to
effectively reach, connect with and motivate the men and women of the
boomer generation. For more information, visit
www.theboomerblog.com.
Fleishman-Hillard Inc., one of the world's
leading public relations firms has built its reputation by using
strategic communications to deliver what its clients value most:
meaningful, positive, and measurable impact on the performance of their
organizations. The firm is widely recognized for excellent client
service and a strong company culture founded on teamwork, integrity, and
personal commitment. Based in St. Louis, the firm operates throughout
North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, Australia, and South Africa
through its 80 owned offices. For more information, visit the Fleishman-Hillard
Web site at www.fleishman.com.
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