Marketing to Baby Boomers is Not What You Think
If you've ever stood in line behind a group of baby boomers at a variety of shops and malls, you may have been amazed at the number of phones that get scanned at the checkout for coupons.
Baby boomers are mobile in a big way, and smart companies are reaching out to the baby boomer market via SMS messages and mobile websites.
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Each year, 8,000 baby boomers turn 65 years old. And for every 65 year old, there are tons of products designed to appeal especially to them. The tip of the iceberg for products marketed to retirement-age baby boomers includes cruises, convertibles, condos and Cartiers.
Why all the big ticket items?
Because baby boomers have more than $3 trillion dollars to spend, according to a recent Bloomberg report. Baby boomers were the last generation to be able to take advantage of the golden age of pensions, high interest CDs and matching 401Ks.
If you're in a younger generation and you've unearthed a job that offers any of the above, hang on to it because they're going out of style the same way albums and record players did.
Discretionary Spending Luring Companies
So baby boomers have been and are taking a lot of loot with them into their golden years. That means more discretionary spending power is luring companies into wooing the baby boomer demographic. But why the interest in the mobile market?
Baby Boomers Know What They Are Doing
The baby boomers are old enough to understand the convenience of going mobile, and young enough to know how to use it.
They jumped on the Facebook bandwagon and just a few years ago there was an 80 percent surge in Facebook users aged 55 and above.
It's a slippery slope from Facebook to LinkedIn and Pinterest, where baby boomers are also ganging up on earlier teen users. It seems that the baby boomers are not planning to go gently into that good night anytime soon.
As the following article shows, the baby boomer time for the mobile market is now, and the edgiest companies are making sure their advertising dollars are being used for instant messaging, coupon download, and link building via SMS.
With money to spend and the power of the masses behind them, baby boomers can look forward to even more products marketed for their needs and interests.
And if the spending patterns of last year's holiday season are any indication, even more mobile devices are going to fly off the store shelves and land in grandma and grandpa's lap.
About the Author: Kate Supino writes about best business practices.
