Marketers: Are You Ignore Baby Boomers Group?

For the group of people that born between the years 1946-1964, we call them baby boomers, time pass fast, many of the oldest of the Boomers are beginning to retire now. They are an affluent group who adopt technology with enthusiasm, even some of them resist technology and slowly adopt to new products, but think about the number of parents or grandparents who regularly send e-mails or upload photos to Facebook and other sites. This group of people have also shown a willingness to try new brands and products.

When it comes to marketing, as marketers, many of us are like to focusing on Generation X, Y or iGeneration – What are they watching? What’s trendy? What kind of gadgets they like? What type of game can attract more of their attention? etc. By that, we see media companies ads campagin most of time is focus on reaching consumers age 18-34 or 18-49, who spend (or have a key role in spending) billions of dollars every year.

But by solely focusing on these groups, advertisers and consumer goods manufacturers are overlooking a group that has tremendous buying power: the 78 million Baby Boomers in the U.S. today, according to Nielsen recent study.

Here are the some Nielsen facts about Boomers:

* Dominate 1,023 out of 1,083 consumer packaged goods categories
* Watch the most video: 9:34 hours per day
* Comprise 1/3 of all TV viewers, online users, social media users and Twitter users
* Time shift TV more than 18-24s (2:32 vs. 1:32)
* Are significantly more likely to own a DVD player
* More likely to have broadband Internet access at home

Baby Boomers should matter to marketers and consumer products companies because they spend 38.5 percent of CPG dollars, says Nielsen. Yet it’s estimated that less than five percent of advertising dollars are currently targeted towards adults 35-64 years old (which includes the latter half of Generation X in addition to Boomers).

With most marketers generally targeting 18 to 49 year old, more than half of the affluent Boomer demographic is ignored entirely.

So, as marketers, are we missing the boat or know something? Why Marketers Can’t Afford to Ignore Baby Boomers.