Medicare products are expected to be the fastest growing insurance sector over the next 10-years. At the same time, Boomers are transforming care delivery, from aging-at-home services to convenience-driven alternate sites of care such as retail clinics, telemedicine and wearables to anti-aging nutraceuticals.
Opportunity abounds. What’s clear is the need to understand Boomers – what’s important to them, what truly matters to them, and why they do what they do – has never been more important.
For marketers this means a shift in orientation from brand promotion to individual inspiration, from features and functions to emotional appeals that move people to act and engage. It’s about connecting with Boomers around personal, relevant motivations and deep, sometimes even unconscious desires, like freedom, happiness, renewed goals, or simply the ability to enjoy life.
A quick snapshot of 75+ million Boomers ages 51 to 69:
FINANCIAL
Boomers control 70% percent of U.S. disposable income
- 87% of Boomers want to age in-place
- 50% of Boomers have a retirement ‘nest egg’ of less than $100,000
DIGITAL
Boomers spend more time online than millennials
- 82% belong to at least one social network
- 51% are online 15-hours per week, spending $7 billion annually
HEALTHCARE
Boomers will more than double Medicare and Medicaid costs by 2020
- 80% of Boomers have at least one chronic disease and take at least one drug
- 70% of Boomers consider health and wellness a ‘life’ priority
To know me is to move me.
Attracting new Boomer customers and keeping existing ones means communicating on their terms and through media they prefer. Marketing used to be easy, start with a brand or product and see who buys it. Today, success starts with the customer and knowing how they want to engage.
Insights and attributes of different Boomer customers are at the core of better informed, data-driven direct-to-consumer marketing decisions. For example, here are a few sub-segment descriptions marketers are using to speak to Boomers: American Bedrocks, Classic Rockers, Urban Transitionals, Suburban Mainstreamers, and Empty Nest Caregivers. For each sub-segment answers to these questions can be very different:
- Where are they and what’s important to them?
- Where do they get information and how do you get their attention?
- How do they shop and what motivates them to buy?
- Who do they share with and what are they saying about you?
Taking time to leverage data to produce insights that inform your Boomer marketing strategy has huge payoff. The deeper the insight the better the result: accuracy of audience targeting, personalization of communication (content & channel), and relevancy of engagement and loyalty.
Boomers, the original ‘ME’ generation.
They value individual choice, ownership, prosperity, convenience, and a ‘forever young’ outlook on life. They are turning age-65 at a rate of 10,000 a day. Baselines for them are the Vietnam War, hippies, rock music, women’s and civil rights, and parenting. The Boomerquake isn’t the culmination of this group’s life journey, they see it just the beginning as they keep learning, doing and living!
Here’s a 3-point roadmap to marketing inside the Boomerquake:
- Boomers are vital. They proactively invest in their health to maximize their lives. It’s how they want to live.
- Boomers don’t settle. They define ‘new normal’ through active aging. It’s how they see themselves.
- Boomers are wired. They may be digital immigrants, but they’re purpose driven embracing innovation, convenience and curiosity. It’s how they connect to the world.
At 75 million strong the Boomerquake is big, and it has a huge payoff. Boomers own “aging”. It’s an exciting, earned lifestage. A time when they want to be valued and respected. Marketers need to solicit their opinions and insights, listen to their wants and needs…and personalize their customer experiences. Make sure content is tailored, conversations are personalized, and media mix reflects their preferences. And most of all, brands must build and nurture relationships of trust using emotional and rational drivers that motivate and influence each Boomer customer throughout the active aging journey.