It seems that the word most often associated with Baby Boomers this day is “aging.” As a Boomer on the tail end of my generation, I don’t like to think of myself as aging even though it is a matter of fact. Matthew Boyle’s recent article on Bloomberg.com, Aging Boomers Befuddle Marketers Aching for $15 Trillion Prize, speaks directly to this notion, that we (and I know this is true for me) do not want to be marketed to as an aging segment of the population. For me personally, I feel like I’m in better physical shape now than I was ten years ago and I’m working hard each day to be in even better shape by the time I turn 65. On the other hand, I don’t want to be treated like a teen or twenty-something either when it comes to marketing and messaging.
Finding the balance of treating Boomers as the mature adults we are without making us feel old is the marketer’s challenge. That’s a real problem, as a lot of us can’t articulate exactly what that is. In fact, at this point in our lives, we’re probably a lot better at telling you what it is we don’t want than what it is we do want.
However, I know that a lot of people work better visually, so why not give it a go with Boomers? Using different approaches such as indirect, more creative methods have proven successful at eliciting more expressive responses. Therefore, tapping into emotions by way of imagery and projective techniques seams like the winning ticket for those Boomers that have a hard time telling researchers what they want.
