At a Fourth of July barbecue last week, over buttery corn on the cob and flank steak, sandwiched between critiques of the new flick “A Mighty Heart” and Paris Hilton’s recent tour de-force (yes, I’m referring to those jail diaries), two words came up among the Gen X gathering that I wouldn’t have predicted going into it: “baby boomers.”
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Someone said they worked “in marketing.” Another person chimed in, “Oh, well you must be going after the baby boomers these days. They all have deep pockets.” While I sat quietly munching on my corn, I couldn’t help but think of a recent study conducted by Focalyst, which sheds new light on boomer affluence and dispels a common myth: nearly every baby boomer is an ATM machine, with so much money they don’t know what to do with it. The truth is while many do have more disposable income than other demographics, only a few boomers are “truly affluent.”
In the study of more than 30,000 adults over age 42, only 1 in 10 boomers were classified as “Boomer Elites,” defined as having an annual household pre-tax income of $150,000 (or $100,000) if retired. While the research unearths a lot of what one might expect (they are highly educated, they have savings…), several points are of particular interest for marketers selling luxury products, and/or financial planners who want to capture the richest segment of the 78 million member cohort.
• Boomer Elites like to control their own finances and are less likely to turn to a financial planner. If they do, they want the planner to put them in the driver’s seat, and merely help the boomer read their financial map.
• Boomer Elites like to invest in technology, furniture and appliances and really love their homes, which they see as “an extension of their own image.”
• Boomer Elites are voracious consumers of media (91% watch TV; 87% read a newspaper or magazine; 76% listen to the radio; and 75% tap into the Internet).
Like many of us, the affluent boomers really welcome their independence, and will likely be more responsive to marketers who address this in respective messaging.
Amanda Sobanet