By Diana Beyer
When you find yourself on the side of the majority it’s time to pause and reflect. — Mark Twain
It’s a simple rule in marketing.
If you find yourself targeting the same crowd as everybody else, you’re probably losing out.
After all, the more money is being slung at a specific group, the less effective the money you’re personally throwing into the race is going to have.
And right now everybody and your Uncle Tom is aiming their marketing guns at the Millennials.
And that’s not even the only reason not to aim at this group.
Millennials are far less materialistic than previous generations and even if they were just as materialistic, together with the Gen Xers they control only 30 percent of the disposable income, with Baby Boomers controlling the other 70 percent.
Though I have no numbers to back this up, I personally suspect this is a trend in digital marketing because modern society is so obsessed with youth and being young.
They’re in our ads, on our TV shows, the focus of our programs, and on the glossy of nearly every magazine.
And because everybody focuses on them, we end up focusing (should I say obsessing?) on them, as well.
But that, I hope I’ve demonstrated, is a mistake, which means there’s a chance to disrupt the industry.
Target Baby Boomers
Most of our stereotypes of Baby Boomers couldn’t be further out of whack with reality.
They are not half as brand loyal as we seem to think, with many working hard to stay caught up with the latest technological trends and changing modes.
In fact, they:
- Spend more money on technology than other generations
- Nearly all of them own a computer
- More than half are on Facebook
- Seventy-one percent go online every day
- Eighty percent purchase luxury travel
- They purchase nearly two-thirds of new cars.
(Statistics are taken from this Forbes article.)
Oh yes, and 80 percent say marketers are making mistakes in approaching them, while nearly half say stereotypes about them are wrong.
In other words, there is a huge opportunity here that, for some reason, everybody else is neglecting.
And that while you can even use the Baby Boomers to reach the Millennials (after all, Baby Boomers love to spend money on their grandkids).
How to Approach Them
It’s not actually that hard.
First of all, perhaps take a page out of the 90s marketing book (or perhaps not).
Secondly, there is actually a marketing channel open to you where you can reach the Baby Boomers while excluding Millennials.
What am I talking about?
Snail mail!
While most of us don’t even bother checking the mailbox, Baby Boomers still read the post.
That means this is a fantastic way to target them and nobody else.
And when you’re targeting there, what do you do?
Offer coupons? Maybe not.
Instead, remember that most Baby Boomers are quite tech savvy.
What’s more, they want to look with it.
Therefore, there is a real opportunity to market the same product to both Millennials and Baby Boomers with only small tweaks.
All you have to do to include the latter group is offer opportunities for them to get to grips with the new technology so they can show off their expertise.
This could be online videos which explain things in a manner they will understand (without belittling them) or including workshops with product purchases they can attend.
As a lot of Baby Boomers want to splurge on the next generation but want to splurge responsibly, it might be worth considering promoting some kind of educational content to whatever you’re selling when you approach them.
This way they’ll feel far more comfortable buying your product and gifting it to the Millennials.
Generation Gap
Yes, it’s a great idea to get the Millennials on board, as if you get them now you’ll still have them 20 years from now, while the Baby Boomers might be long gone by then (hopefully retired to Hawaii, but possibly retiring in the ground).
Still, the time you’re selling your product isn’t 20 years from now.
It’s today. And today the people with the most income are being largely neglected.
That means there’s a fantastic opportunity to expand your market and increase your sales.
And once you’re swimming in it, you can always figure out how to corner more of the Millennial market.
Hey, at least you’ll have the marketing budget to do so.
Nothing wrong with that, right?
image credit: shutterstock
