I’m a Baby Boomer. In fact, I’m on the leading edge, having popped into this world in 1946. Although at 12 lbs. exiting a 90-pound mother, it was Iess a pop than a thud. And I’m still causing thuds — the good kind, I hope.
On Wednesday, March 21, CK posted Dreams Don’t Retire. She was inspired by the ad starring one of my movie idols, Dennis Hopper.
For those of you who haven’t seen it, here it is in all its ’60s-ness and doin’-your-own-thing messaging.
No special effects, no screaming or yelling, no shock value, and no grabbing for the entertainment ring. But to us Baby Boomers, this ad is a “gotcha.” Because CK suggested I write about this, and I have learned to pay attention to CK’s ideas, here are a few reasons this marketing effort works from my personal perspective:
First, Dennis Hopper and I have lots in common, from wanting to be “Easy Rider” to sharing the same generation.
Second, the message is sticky and meaningful. At 60, I feel my life is beginning again; at 60, my parents were buying funeral plots.
Third, the music is perfect for the audience (love that B3 sound–for those not instrumentally fluent, that’s a big and bad Hammond Organ.)
And 4th, who the hell wants to retire. I’m having too much fun.
This ain’t my parents’ generation, baby. And we aren’t in that 18 – 35 group either. But we have money to spend and the energy to spend it freely. However, advertisers don’t seem to know we exist. And if they do, their messages and visuals generally miss the mark.
We are the peace, love and flower children; the do-your-own-thing folks; the don’t-trust-the-establishment group, even though we now are the establishment; the make-the-planet-safe for our children and other living things kids; and the rockers and rollers (and dare I say, disco, for the a bit older but in the same generation).
We believe in fun, friends, parties, poetry, books, music and dance. We love NASCAR, baseball, basketball and football and don’t know soccer from rugby. We are good ol’ boys and girls and feminists and red necks and jean-clad professionals, conservatives and liberals who vote and who are sometimes too PC. We are the 400-pound gorilla in America’s living room, wanting to live on, not retire. According to Eileen Marcus, Fleishman-Hillard Senior Partner, we have $2.1 trillion in spending power.
You want us to buy from you. Speak to us in a language we understand, and create messages that are meaningful to us.
We don’t care about Britney; we don’t watch American Idol; and today’s pop culture means nothing to us, including Hip Hop. Still, we buy lots of music, attend tons of concerts, read books, and buy adult toys: not that kind, this kind–cars, boats, RVs, hot tubs, big screen TVs, condos, city apartments, etc. And we travel to far and away places.
But for most of us retirement is not something we dream about nor is going some place to snooze. Nope. Give us Las Vegas, or New York, or LA, or Paris or Rome. Give us the Moody Blues and the Beatles and anybody who can play wired.
And choose spokespeople who represent us. Take me back to my youth, and then bring me forward 35 years to enjoy that youthful energy but recognize I have a 60-year-old mind with aches and pains in places that I didn’t know existed 35 years ago.
We care about consumer packaged goods, the travel industry, media, automobiles, motorcycles and healthcare. We ruminate about beauty and self image. And perhaps most important for marketers, we 78 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 are far more likely to describe ourselves as The “TV Generation” than Baby Boomers, a TV Land study reports.
Here’s a few more things the study, conducted by Latitude, found:
Our top five cultural events were:
? The birth of cable television–45%
? The creation of color television–40%
? The death of John Lennon–37%
? The disco era–33%
? The death of Elvis–29%
The most meaningful historical events were:
? The Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion (1986)–57%
? John F. Kennedy’s assassination–52%
? The war in Vietnam–52%
? Ronald Reagan’s term as President of the U.S–42%
? Nixon’s Resignation/Iran Hostage Crisis/Discovery of AIDS (tie)..38%
And, oh, yeah. Like most Americans, we are individuals and we are diverse. So target your ads to segmented audiences. For example, I want my rock and roll raw and loud and Woodstock would appear in my top 5 cultural events; my wife prefers Elton John and the birth of communes. I’m a Dennis Hopper kind of guy; my wife a Meryl Streep fan.
In other words, one size does not fit all. Get back to the basics of good marketing. Forget the bells and whistles and reach us where we live and work. A Boomer ad placed on shows about young folks going through the throes of dating will never reach us; try Dancing With the Stars. An ad placed in Venus will pass us by; try O; and don’t forget that we love the outdoors and are still working in corporations and as entrepreneurs, so outdoor, professional and trade magazines represent good choices. We love technology and we love to play, so don’t forget grown up web sites, political blogs, and magazines such as Travel & Leisure.
Finally, you will get it wrong if you don’t consider these characteristics when you reach out to us:
1. We are the most indulged generation in history, have taken over the world and fun is a top priority.
2. We have been heavily influenced by movies, TV shows, musicians and sports idols.
3. We wrote the Book of Love and are now rewriting it.
4. And even for those wanting to retire at 65, keep in mind that about 40 percent of us cannot afford to, according to a study by Aon Consulting. We weren’t the greatest generation when saving either.
So, take a cue from Dennis Hopper and get hip to who we are.
Beautifully said, Lewis.
I’m right there, behind you by a year. I don’t feel 59, thank goodness, and I am pretty damn sure I don’t think like 59. Certainly not like the 59 of our parents’ generation. And retire? No way! I like what I do, even after 35 years at it.
The Ameriprise ads are right on target and, from water cooler talk I hear, resonating with us boomers.
Why, then, are so many marketers still chasing those elusive 18-49 demos? WE are the ones with money to spend (finally) on vacations, cars, new furniture, fixing up the house.
The smart ones will throw away the book, just like Dennis Hopper does in that great ad.
I don’t know why advertisers–other than folks with purple pills–don’t spend more dollars reaching out to Baby Boomers. In terms of audience size and total dollars, we should be an ideal target.
Do you suppose it has something to do with, “Well, that just isn’t the way we do it. Our primary audience has always been between 18 and 49.”
David and Lewis, I have a question for you. You both seem to love the Ameriprise ads. A lot. So, did you switch over your financial portfolio to them as a result?
Rock out, Lewis. This is a terrific piece–and inspires this Gen X’er! I enjoyed this ad due to its messaging of “redefining retirement” and “Dreams don’t retire”. I find the “safety net” messaging to be tired and, in many ways, undervalues the smarts and savvy of the boomer segment. Sure, we need to plan for retirement and make wise finanical decisions but, to many who’ve mentored me what I find is that getting older means getting better and actually starting new experiences…not winding down.
It’s time for marketers to stop fueling the negation of older segments and this ad’s messaging is a good starting model (Dove is also using this type of messaging).
As marketer I find the baby boomer segment to be far more rich in opportunity than the youth segment–especially for community-building. I’m going to excerpt a part of an email to me from Peter Bowers from yesterday that really hits on this as he says it far better than I could:
“There has never been a group of 50-60 yr. olds as in touch with technology and trends while possessing the money to enjoy it as we have today. Yet we’re still pushed aside so marketers can target the youth segment, which typically does not have the spending power or the loyalty that most brands wish for. Heck, I still buy some products because I remember them being around the house when I was a kid. Granted, that excludes most things that plug in or are portable, but Ivory soap probably likes the fact that I’ve been buying soap for 50 some years. But I also own a new iMac, 2 ipods, a DVD burner, drive a Honda Element, IM my friends regularly, and can hold my own when chatting about new music with the 20-30 somethings hanging out at the local Starbucks. If only Apple would come out with a tie-dyed DeadPod, filled with bootleg Grateful Dead concerts. Show those U2 kids a thing or two when it sells out.”
Now how can a marketer argue with that? I hope more will follow the terrific advice of you and Peter.
Spike,
Good question. No I haven’t moved my investments over, as I never touch any of them due to my particular investment strategy. But keep in mind, I am in the oldest range of the Baby Boomers. For those in the younger ranges, they are likely just now looking at investments, and if my nieces or nephews asked for my advice, I would recommend Ameriprise as a possibility.
Remember, much of non-retail paid advertising is not designed first and foremost to create sales; it is meant to create buzz and brand recognition. This ad does that. And one has to assume that the ad is but one piece of the Ameriprise marketing plan, which should be designed in total to create sales.
Fact is: Before this ad, I had never heard of Ameriprise because their services are not in focus for me, so I likely had been ignoring them. This ad changed all that. I call that effect a great success.
Spike: Do you find the ad sends the wrong message? I ask because there’s been, it seems, as many who have liked the messaging/ad as those who have not and I’m curious.
.
On a side note, because the ad struck a chord with me, I will remember Ameriprise when I need these services (and I should probably get my act together at this age and start thinking more about it
Great post Lewis. I am a bit older than you and I do watch American Idol, (don’t care about Britney though).
It is often amazing what a difference a couple of years and circumstances make when looking at cultural and historic events.
These are mine:
My top five cultural events were:
? My families first television (1948)
? The VHS Machine
? The Internet
? The personal computer
? Robotics
My most meaningful historical events were:
? US Astronauts walk on the Moon. We had a green cheese party.
? John F. Kennedy’s assassination– I was on duty at a California Air force base. I once saw him in a car (while campaigning) driving down Front Street in North Philadelphia. Someone kid threw an egg at him. Tough neighborhood.
? The war in Vietnam–I was there in 1964 -1966 and married a Vietnamese girl (still together after all these years).
? The Fall of Saigon. It took 10 years before my wife could see her family again. Went back in 1996 and Saigon was transformed. Turns out the Vietnamese commies weren’t all that bad in the long run.
? The 1970 something (I am getting so old I forget) gas crisis. I thought we would have come up with alternative fuels within 10 years. Oh my, was I wrong.
? Polio Vaccine. I was young but the joy coming from my mother was enough to leave an impression.
? The Korean War. I was very young but I remember my brother in-law going off to the Army just after he married my sister.
? The taking down of the Berlin Wall. Turns out the capitalists weren’t all that bad either.
I guess my point is that the boomer generation is every bit as eclectic as the 18-35 year old generation. So marketing to them can not just be based on the flower child message as many (most) were not at Woodstock, living in Haight Asbury or driving motorcycles across country. Also we have so many more memories from life that marketers can catch our attention with messages of not retiring to who will be the next American Idol ( or model, or dancer and so on). What media they do that with is another discussion.
Hopper’s message is true and touches a nerve within all of us in this age bracket. I remember lots of my mother and father’s generation saying they could not wait to retire. I don’t hear that so much from boomers. Maybe it’s because our parent’s generation sacrificed for us to have it better. They endured the depression, WW2 (their brothers and friends dieing), Korea (more friends and family dieing), Vietnam (their children dieing), Gulf War (their grandchildren dieing) lousy working conditions, and so on. It made them different and that made them work harder to make it better for us.
What will our generation leave our children and grand children with?
Harry Hallman
Lewis,
Great post! I’m somewhere in the middle of the boomers myself and often find it aggrevating when advertisers discount us. Happily, as a writer at Deliver Magazine I’m finding that not everyone has written us off yet . Many companies recognize our buying potential… perhaps because of our sheer numbers alone. We’ve done a couple stories on the merit of paying more attention to boomers. The most recent can be found at http://delivermagazine.com/the-magazine/2006/07/01/over-the-hill/
I’m not old yet and don’t plan on getting old…just older. Nice to see that advertisers are starting yo recognize it too.
I’m a boomer and I’m into pop culture and listen to much more new music than old. I get a bit tired of “celebrities” but so do a lot of my friends who are in their 20s and 30s.
Retirement? I got antsy when I was between jobs for two weeks!
Harry,
Thank you for adding so much to this post. No matter the marketing plan required to reach any audience, we must remember that one size does not fit all. That said, to avoid us because we somehow don’t fit within a marketing philosophy based on youth, is a $2 Trillion mistake.
Thank you for serving. I was in the military from ‘65 – ‘72, and have similar memories.
CK,
As always, you add so much to a conversation. I am not surprised that a large audience does not relate to the Hopper ad. The ’60s and ’70s, which most influenced my development was made up of a large number of people, with many different takes on life.
There really is no such thing as the ’60s generation. The war, the peace movement, the anti-nuclear and green movements, the San Francisco Haight scene, the Free Speech movement, and the feminist movement divided us in many ways.
Thank you for sharing Peter’s thoughts, as well.
Nancy,
Great way to put it–not getting old just getting older. And thank you for the article.
Kathi,
I, too, listen to new music, but will never stop listening to the music that shaped my life. Thank you for your comment.
Spike:
Have I switched to Ameriprise? No.
Will I? No.
If I were looking, I might make a call to them. But I think a lot of people make financial planner decisions based on recommendations from friends, relatives, their accountant.
Lewis, David and CK,
I pose the question merely to find out if it was effective. As a Gen Xer, I don’t connect with it, but I’m not the audience. What I really wanted to do is to see if people who really connected with a traditional form of advertising actually converted. Or does it just prove the fact that the ROI on traditional ads is less than 4%?
Spike,
Marketing plans normally aren’t made up only of advertising. In fact, I argue that the best plans use advertising to gain attention and other tools to sell. In other words, marketing plans that succeed are integrated using a variety of tools and strategies to achieve measurable goals.
Therefore, if we determine ROI based on sales generated only by the advertising, we are gaining a false measure of the ad’s success. And if advertising is the only tool used to reach the goals of the marketing plan, I suggest that someone gave bad advice and a client tossed their marketing budget into the toilet.
Again, much of advertising is not capable of or designed to generate sales. Its purpose usually is to increase brand recognition and drive potential customers toward vehicles designed to sell. (As mentioned in my earlier response, there are exceptions where advertising is a primary vehicle for generating sales: retail, cars, appliances, travel and tourism, for example.)
The Ameriprise ad, I am confident, is designed to get boomers’ attention and to gain our awareness of the products and how Ameriprise sees us. What they are saying is that they get us. That is a strong influencer for those in the market to buy and for those who resonate with the message.
Spike, thank you for raising the question. It has added to the conversation.
True, advertising is for awareness. But it’s not for credibility. And, make no mistake about it, all advertising is created to drive sales. Try selling an ad campaign to a CMO without an ROI line in the proposal.
Some of the top brands in their categories have no advertising. It’s not a necessity, although most marketers will make you think it is.
As Andy Sernovitz always says, “Advertising is price you pay for a subpar product or service.”
Spike,
As a marketing consultant, we create and place advertising for more than a few clients. However, we will not sell clients stand-alone advertising that is not part of an integrated marketing plan, except in rare instances.
It is not within our values’ system to sell tools that cannot or will not deliver ROI. Our firm sells results and we guarantee them. Every goal is measurable and measured. Because of that, much of what we do is educating clients about what works and what doesn’t. So we don’t have the problem you suggested, and to be quite frank, I know very few consultants trying to sell something that won’t deliver ROI.
So when you say, “Try selling an ad campaign to a CMO without an ROI line in the proposal,” we wouldn’t be doing that if it could meet agreed-upon goals, including ROI. Everything within our proposals show ROI. To repeat, however, it is unlikely we would ever recommend a stand-alone advertising campaign, because we don’t believe stand-alone tools deliver the best results.
Perhaps, we are weird, but we turn down work and sometimes walk away from it when clients insist on strategies that we believe are failed from the beginning. We are not in business to sell; we are in business to help clients succeed.
Sorry if I am coming on strong, but I think “selling anything without guaranteeing agreed-to results is wrong.”
Spike: One thing I’m hoping that co’s like Ameriprise will do is take it several steps further from trad’l and build community vehicles for this audience in order to connect more like-minded people. I’m hoping the ad messaging is just setting the stage for such ventures (a girl can hope, anyway).
Overall I just see so much value and fun in targeting the BB segment with social media–the youth segment that seems to get the most emphasis with these tools is not nearly as interesting to me. Thanks for a GREAT discussion, Lewis.
Getting back to the topic of marketing to boomers. We supposedly have such strong brand loyalty that we are unmovable as consumers.
I asked my wife if she was loyal to any one brand that she would never switch to another, and without thinking she said Pepsi.
Then I asked her what else and quizzed her about various product categories.
She has no brand loyalty. I have no brand loyalty – even for soft drinks.
I can be had.
Lewis: you are correct- no bells and whistles. Reach use where we are.
Love this discussion! I always questioned why our generation was being so ignored.
I think the Ameriprise spots are bang on. Have you seen the one with the psychedelic images and the Iron Butterfly song, “In-a-gadda-da-vida?” Now that brings back memories.
When you think about it, we are the generation that has lived through a multitude of revolutionary social change: women’s lib, Civil Rights movement, sexual revolution (advent of contraceptives), musical revolution (Beatles, et al), etc. We have had a profound impact on this planet and it’s not over yet!
CK and Mark,
I think we baby boomers are a great target for social media, as we have the tools and the willingness to participate. And, yes, we are loyal to brands and yet can be had, if you talk to us in messages we understand, in places where we are.
Elaine,
I love the way you think! Sounds like Revolution to me. What great fun.
You know, as marketers we should not only be talking about this but helping our clients reach this audience, and to be honest, I for one am guilty of not really doing enough to move my clients in that direction.
Of course, since 99 percent of what I do today is B2B, the opportunities to do so aren’t readily apparent. If anyone can see the light where I cannot, please jump in.
Lewis,
You’re not comin’ on strong, you’re comin’ on Lewis style. I truly appreciate your response and I’m glad that we disagree – the conversation is what makes us all a little better!
I’ll just blame it on the Boomer-Gen X gap, eh?
“I pose the question merely to find out if it was effective. As a Gen Xer, I don’t connect with it, but I’m not the audience. What I really wanted to do is to see if people who really connected with a traditional form of advertising actually converted. Or does it just prove the fact that the ROI on traditional ads is less than 4%?”
As we can see from Lewis’ post and the robust discussion around the ads and how they properly address the boomer mindset, the ads are definitely creating buzz. I can see the post has already picked up a couple of links, and I think I’m going to blog about it as well.
Unless this one post on this blog (which happens to be one of the most popular marketing blogs on the net) is a total abnormality, it seems that the ad and its message is resonating with its target audience, and getting them talking.
So far so good in my book…
Funny, I was born in 1963 and I feel affinity for both generations. I’m technically a boomer but I feel more Gen X. I love that ad with Dennis Hopper. It’s great. Being more of an X’r though I’m a bit of a slacker…perhaps CK is too “and I should probably get my act together at this age and start thinking more about it
.” (That’s just wrong and seriously no way to describe CK. At least she seems like a powerhouse to me!) So, I am a bit of a slacker and I need to get my act together financially.
Lewis, your post reads like a piece from Bill Mahr’s New Rules. It’s passionate. Smart. And it all rings true to me. In fact I have always felt a little pissed about being considered a boomer. But you’ve set me straight. I think I’ll still hang out in the middle cuz I’m a late bloomer. Hey the 38ish-45 year olds should be called bloomers.
Rock on Lewis!
Lewis – Interesting post and commentary. I’m a first wave boomer (I’m 57), so this is right where I live. One thing about our generation: as longevity increases, we’re spending more years in the middle. For the most part, we look, feel, and for better or worse act younger than our parents did at our age. (Let alone our grandparents. My sister and I went through some family pictures the other day and were howling.At 75, my grandmother looked the same way she did at 45. That’s because when she was 45, she looked 75.)
Anyway, you’re right that we’re an economic force – and right that most people don’t see themselves retiring. Doing something else, maybe, but not hanging it up.
And I couldn’t resist googling Dennis Hopper. He’ll be 71 in May. (Love the ads, but never remember who they’re for.)
Mack,
Thank you for your smart take on this. Buzz can be measured, and Spike, who is a WOM expert, can tell us how that is done. Because we should measure everything we do and show ROI, this ad presents a great opportunity to measure the effectiveness of buzz in creating sales.
Tammy,
Bloomer it is! Very funny.
Maureen,
I have some pictures of my grandma in her 40s and 50s, and she never changed to the day she died. It was a hard life, without all the cosmetic advantages and health knowledge that we have today.
I don’t know if any of you in this discussion have been over to Mack Collier’s Viral Garden (http://moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com/) lately. His post yesterday referred to this one, but it also had a link to a website trashing Ameriprise. We all know you can’t believe everything you read on the web (except for our blogs,of course), but if it’s even 50% accurate, it may undo any interest that the great ads have created with some boomers.
Also, to answer yuour question Spike, I like the ads and they resonate with me. For this type of product, though, I’d most likely go to a company based on personal recommendation. What they’re selling isn’t just soap.
Cool ad, great music, but perhaps a bit arrogant and churlish. My folks are very pre-boomer, but upon retirement from the Air Force, my father took up painting and now his work is hung in 6 different countries. My mother raises champion roses and regularly is asked to do artistic flower arrangements for the local museum of fine art.
They drive a Toyota MR2 2-seater sports car.
I’m not sure how much has changed. Maybe the ad works because it keeps telling the boomers what they tell themselves, that they really are special and different and trail blazers and all the rest of that.
I tried to send you a trackback on this post, but Haloscan choked on it. Similarly, it choked on a trackback I tried to throw Andrea on one of her posts. That’s not good for marketing.
http://ktcatspost.blogspot.com/2006/12/barriers-to-entry-in-blog-reading.html
I don’t mean to be an ill-mannered troll, I’m just trying to be helpful.
KT Cat,
Yes, and this is the secret of all marketing: “Maybe the ad works because it keeps telling the boomers what they tell themselves, that they really are special and different and trail blazers and all the rest of that.” Messaging must be about the customer, and it must be true to what customers’ believe, and then the business must follow-through to meet the customer’s expectatioins.
By the way–trackbacks to The Daily Fix never work for me either.
I think businesspeople and advertisers are super-slow to adjust to the coming onslaught of baby boomers’ needs and wants. I am 48, and I DO watch American Idol.
Spike,
I hope the people would not make life changing decisions based on cool music in a commercial. I checked on NASD Broker Check and Ameriprise has 36 regulatory actions against them. They have been disciplined over and over and have paid many millions in fines.
I also took at look at the anti-Ameriprise website and what an eye opener.
I looked further and read a study that says people who do not use Financial Advisors get much better returns:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=616981
I went to the Ameriprise website and found that Ameriprise has conflicts of interest with their clients.
I also learned that Ameriprise Financial Advisors don’t take fiduciary responsibility (responsibility for doing what is in the best interest of the client).
Please, people, do your homework. Or pay the price.
Anne
What a bunch of self indulgent twits these baby boomers are (me included). We don’t deserve to wipe the ass of the generation that came before us. Everytime I see that commercial I want to puke. Our grandchildren will be reading the Koran in spanish because we are too big of pussies to face the evils presently in the world.