The youthful-sounding reporter from a national woman’s magazine called to interview me about life balance issues, chagrined that the cut-off for ages to be addressed in the article is 35. “Please don’t pass this on,” she whispered to me, after reviewing this website. “I’ve got elementary school children in the house so everybody thinks I’m in my thirties, but I’m actually in my late forties.”
Susan, who freelances home with dogs barking in the background not to mention playground sounds and Nintendo bleeps, went on: “And you know what? I’m not the oldest mom at the school gatherings. We’ve got plenty of fifty year olds. Can you imagine what it’s going to be like for them to still be parenting in their sixties?”

Dr. Susan Love, who has written the Bible about breast cancer, makes an interesting point. She notes that to 'sex up' the news, most of the time a journalist does an article on breast cancer--be it a new breakthrough treatment, advice on getting a mammogram, etc.--they show a young woman, often in her 20's or 30's, who is in treatment. The fact that young women get breast cancer is tragic, and needs to be addressed. However, Dr. Love points out that the vast majority of breast cancer patients are over sixty years of age. Because of this discrepancy between the media perception and the reality, many young women are needlessly terrified of getting cancer at their age. This is an ironic turn of events, given that for once, it isn't the women 60 plus, themselves, who are paying the price of invisibility in the media. This time, our daughters are also suffering. And while we're at it, with so many survivors afoot, walking marathons, running governments, and so on, maybe those amongst us who are beyond are 20s and 30s should take the media reports determined to terrify us with a grain of salt, as well. As my spiritual upbringing has taught me, expect the best, trust yourself and life that you'll be able to handle whatever life sends your way.

Carol Orsborn

If you had asked us twenty years ago what we expected we would be doing professionally two decades hence at our current well-seasoned ages, we would never have guessed launching a blog about marketing-to-boomers in our leadership roles with one of the globe’s largest public relations agencies. (Of course, that’s a trick answer, as blogs didn’t exist twenty years ago!)

Mingling with 900 something of the country’s top marketers attending American Marketing Association's MPlanet in Orlando, I’m having trouble shaking Ken Dychtwald’s compelling image of the baby boomers as a pig in a python. Boomer visionary Dychtwald was the first demographer in the country decades ago to popularize the concept that because of the size of the generation, boomers (the pig) would be moving through time (the python) making a huge impact as we go. (http://www.agewave.com/)

Readers of this blog may recall that as of Friday, I swore off the pig in a python as a metaphor for boomers, confronting for the first time the fact that the snake’s tail (and more chilling--the void beyond the snake) was in sight. (See "Tail Spotted")

Is there any doubt that the baby boomer woman is, in fact, "the ultimate power consumer?" You are invited to be a guest—along with about 300 other top marketers and market researchers--at a webcast I'm leading on the subject of marketing to baby boomer women this Tuesday, December 12, 2006. Participants from around the globe are clients of MarketTools, one of the country's top market research firms, and host of the gala event. The one-hour webcast will be moderated by Pam Kramer, MarketTools' Chief Marketing Officer. Both FH Boom and MarketTools, through a Zoomerang Online Survey, have done fresh research related to this hot topic for this webcast, and you can enroll by following the link to the invitation below. But first, let me tell you how this invitation came to be—a story that says more about boomer women and their growing power than any of the statistics (however compelling they may be) we'll be sharing with you next week.

Last week, we invited you to join 300 clients of MarketTools who had signed up to take a webinar on the subject of marketing to baby boomer women. Today, with not just one but two webinars on the topic under our belt, I am forced to make a retraction. It wasn’t 300 clients who signed up to hear me and MarketTools' CMO Pam Kramer address this subject matter. As we approached lift-off, the numbers had swelled to over 500. With interest flooding in from around the globe, we needed the two webinars to handle the multiplicity of time zones. We knew the topic was hot. But this is sizzling hot!

As this evening is the first night of Hanukkah, it is appropriate to light a candle celebrating the possibility of miracles. In the Jewish tradition, the celebration commemorates the victory of the Maccabees and the stage center miracle that while the Maccabees had only had enough oil to burn for one day, the oil burned for eight. In remembrance, Jews light one candle a night for eight nights.

Hummm—something that was supposed to have burned out defied the expectations and kept on going and going and going times eight. Sounds like baby boomers to me. (Okay, it’s a stretch…forgive me…)

Happy Holidays from The Boomer Blog. See you back here January 1, 2007!

2006 was the year that the worlds of marketing and media woke up to the power and potential of the boomer consumer. Whereas a year ago, we were lucky to find a couple of articles a week showing up on our “GOOGLE” searches, now there are multiple offerings daily. They flood into us from virtually every industry and from around the world.

Given the volume of statistics and predictions about this powerhouse generation, who spend $2.1 trillion on consumer goods and services alone, selecting the top trends for ’07 is quite the challenge…one we’re gladly taking on. So without further ado, here’s our top trends about marketing to boomers for 2007.

A year ago January, it was big news when the first baby boomers turned 60. The trailing edge of the 18-year-generational spread simultaneously turned 42—and so we have it emblazoned on the national consciousness that the boomer generation encompasses all those between the ages of 42 and 60. That would be 78 million men and women in the U.S., all those born between the years of 1946 and 1964.

But nah uh. Just as we’re getting used to the idea that the oldest boomers turned 60, it’s time to get out your erasers and white-out. The demographic is still 78 million strong, but the age span is now 43 to 61.

There’s just enough of the sixties left in me to have a big response to one of the gutsiest marketing campaigns ever to hit the cafe table. I’m speaking about the sugar substitute Equal’s protest rally in a dish. Have you seen them? Hard to miss. Each blue packet looks like a mini protest sign. “Do Your Drink Justice” says the one in purple print. “Trust Your Tastebuds” is in green. And “Fight Bland With Blue” is in orange. While sipping iced tea in Napa, I was overwhelmed with the desire to glue them to a toothpick and parade them around the table.

Boomers invisible? Marginalized? Forgeddaboutit. You know all those busy people who said they’d get around to writing their big book “someday”? Well, someday came. The amazing thing is that some of these authors even have “real” publishers (as opposed to “independently published”) who are betting on the market for boomer self-help. This is particularly noteworthy, since self-help is not much of a happening thing for other generations right now. Since whether a book has a publisher or not says less about the quality of the book and more about the marketing, I won’t tell you which is which—just know that here are five “on topic” for your consideration:

Jeff Taylor, mastermind behind Monster.com and now Eons.com, is at it again. This time, he’s started a search engine for boomers 50+, and despite the fact that I’m in his target market, I’m not that interested. Here’s my theory about boomers and technology, and why this one may miss the mark.

Last week, I suggested that 50+ search engine Cranky.com misses the mark with boomers because when it comes to technology, we want what are kids are using—even if we’re a cycle or two behind. But there’s another issue that dampens interest from the get-go: the name.

When I was a marketer in my 20’s and 30’s, the thought never occurred to me (or to any of my similarly-aged clients, for that matter) to target “old” people. That was the 1970’s and 80’s, and there was no discussion by marketers or the media about people 40 plus as a market force. They were off the radar screen—powerless, invisible.

In yesterday’s blog, we addressed that fact that Gen X and Y marketers have noticed something new for western society. Their elders have begun hitting 60—and unlike generations past—are refusing to fade away.

For boomers and generations to come, the implications are enormous, as we all adjust to this new reality. It’s easy to bash boomers as suffering from a character flaw that drives them away from more age-appropriate roles. The truth is much more complex—so here’s part two of my rebuttal...

In my last blog, I discussed a big issue boomers are tackling: caregiving. The boomer caregiver may think she is “Wonder Woman” (or “Wonder Man”), flying a glass jet to her next vital destination, when she realizes that the craft she is on is beginning to lose steam. An oxygen mask has been deployed—does she take it? Too often she does not.

For rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog

This past Sunday, like 40 million other Americans, I curled up on my couch and fell into the Academy Awards trance, moonily gazing at star after star sashaying down the glorious red carpet. I don’t know what it is exactly, but year after year, I never tire of this unabashed parade of fame, fuss and beauty.

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Boomers are:

A: The most selfish generation in history
B: Selflessly concerned about their legacy

You must have an opinion! Everybody we’ve posed this question to thus far has. But before we share our results in a future blog, we’d like to get your opinion on this—and four other key questions.

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Today kicks off the second day of the much anticipated “Fourth Annual What’s Next Boomer Business Summit,” co-produced by the "American Society of Aging Business Forum on Aging and Mary Furlong & Associates. We’ve had a great time at the summit thus far and are looking forward to another wonderful day of interacting with leading marketers and strategist targeting the vast baby boomer demographic. Yesterday, we brought together the top presenters of the Summit to get their take on the top boomer marketing trends in ’07.

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I’ve opted out of commenting on the Dove Pro-Age campaign until now, because of mixed feelings that I could not quite identify. It took More magazine’s 2006 MORE/Wilhelmina 40+ Model Search to put my thoughts into focus.

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When it comes to marketing to boomers and beyond, intuition doesn’t always do the trick. It’s critical that we learn from others. That’s one of the real values of attending an event such as the “What’s Next Boomer Business Summit”, recently concluded in Chicago. The American Society on Aging’s Business Forum on Aging and Mary Furlong and Associates produced the event, while our Fleishman-Hillard’s FH Boom was a sponsor and I had the big fun of sitting on a panel with Gail Sheehy, among others.

For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog.

After much anticipation, the “What Do We Think about Boomers” survey answers have been tabulated and the results are in! Thanks to all who participated! Let’s see what we think…

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If you read the results of our survey earlier this week, you’ll see that the many marketers we surveyed have a surprisingly unified and positive attitude about boomers. In broad strokes, most boomer-savvy marketers think of boomers as optimistic, selflessly concerned about their legacy, a hot target for marketers of technology, increasingly catered to by younger marketers and a major factor in the next election. Of course, marketers who stand to make their fortunes off the $2.1 trillion dollars this newly-rediscovered group of consumers represent, have a vested interest in being hopeful and generous, shall we say, about the boomer generation. We should pay serious heed, for reasons to be cited below—but with caution, for other reasons to be shared later.

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Just as I sat down to write the final word about our survey of top marketers who are savvy about the boomer demographic, USA Today runs a major review of Chris Buckley's biting satire on all things boomer: Boomsday. Buckley sets his morality tale in DC-the very place where Fleishman-Hillard houses our very own FH Boom. In the words of USA Today: "The novel imagines the coming Fiscal Armageddon when 77 million baby boomers start wanting their Social Security checks instead of their MTV. Intergenerational warfare ensues, pitting selfish boomers against their angry offspring."

The other day my husband and I found ourselves doing something we’re trying to cut down on, “flipping,” (a.k.a. “channel surfing”), a habit that leaves us feeling like we gorged on junk food and have only empty calories to show for it. Just as we were about to succumb to one final flip to old, reliable WETA, we landed on an episode of The Brady Bunch. It was the one where sweet Jan Brady turns into a little green-eyed monster because her beautiful sister Marsha is getting all the attention. “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha,” she cries out in a jealous fit. And in one instant, based on sheer nostalgic appeal of those three words and the era that it evoked, we became immersed in the show.

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Anyone who has seen Al Gore’s film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” likely can’t help but be a little convinced that global warming is indeed a real phenomenon (whatever your politics may be). Sunday night’s “60 Minutes” underscored this idea by showcasing a less than happy footed penguin population in Antarctica that had dropped by 60 percent. And if you don’t believe the hype, consider that during a mid-Atlantic winter, 70 degree temps tricked sweet natured trees into full bloom, while this weekend, one forecaster predicted snow.

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Okay, savvy marketers. Get ready to smirk. Of course we all know there is no such thing. Boomers are 42 and 62. They are married forever and just now starting to date. They are rich and poor. They are every ethnicity, region, religion, sexual orientation and so on and on. In fact, speaking through the post-modern lens, you could say that the boomer generation is like a pointillist painting. Get too close to it, and the whole thing goes to dots.

For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog

On the upper right-hand corner of The Boomer Blog, you will see an invitation to subscribe to our eQuarterly, The FH BoomTimes. While we are still a ways out from our first edition, we thought we’d share some of our thought process with you, given that how we are approaching our launch has a great deal of synergy with the advice we give clients who want to reach the boomer market.

For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog

Did you happen to catch the full-page Smith Barney ad that ran in the Wall Street Journal on March 27? (And one assumes elsewhere, as well.) This is an ad that really gets it right.

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You’ve got to love the double-truck, full-color Fidelity Investments ad that ran in USA Today on Thursday, April 26. They obviously did their research about who is the real decision-maker in the family—regardless of who is wearing the pants. (In this case, both the attractive middle-aged woman and the bald-headed husband at her side are wearing pants, by the way.)

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There are very few retail outfits that enable a busy consumer to meticulously pick out an engagement ring, pull a shredder off the shelf, toss fresh king crab legs into the shopping cart, load up on orchids, and buy a flat screen TV—housed all under one roof (oh, and did I mention wash the spending spree down with a slice of pizza and a coke at the end?) This place, in case you’ve never been, is what I consider to be a small Mecca: Costco.

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The other night I was reading a poem by Mary Oliver and stumbled upon the following line, which seemed not only lush, but appropriate as we move into sweet, sweltering June. She writes,"Yes, in summer we all live in the dreamy palace." The 'dreamy palace' is surely a fickle place, as distinct and countless as the readers who conjure it.

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Fresh from hosting an illustrious panel of boomer experts from the publishing world at this year’s Book Expo (BEA) in New York City, I’m delighted to share their cutting-edge intelligence with you. We’ll do it in bite-size pieces for now, while I put together a trend report on the publishing industry’s take on where this generation is heading as consumers of the written word over the next couple of weeks.

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Complete this song lyric from a popular ‘60s sitcom: “Neat. Sweet. ______.”

If you said “Petite,” odds are high that M&M/Mars is looking for you.

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And who better to ask than the market analyst who both birthed and demised what was once the quintessential boomer publication?

You may recall that I hosted a panel on marketing to boomer women at the publishing industry’s premiere event, Book Expo (BEA), in New York on June 1, 2007. On the panel of experts was Thomas R. Troland, Sr. Market Analyst of Meredith Corporation’s Research Solutions Group.

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“Closure.” It’s one of those psychobabble words I’ve grown to dislike over the years, because it implies that one can easily cut away challenging, weepy parts of their past like cookie dough and bury them neatly in a little box…forever. God forbid something pops up after the divine moment when the Closure Fairy flutters down and sprinkles her closure dust—then one may just have to admit they are human.

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Every year and a half or so, from age 35 on, I got to talk to and about whatever boomers were going through in their lives in the public spotlight. My primary communications vehicle was books—15 of them, most written in the self-help genre. Work/life balance issues? I was there. Last child leaving the nest? Call on me. Caregiving an elderly parent? I’m your gal.

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Last week, I began taking the opportunity to lay one urban myth to rest. Forth and Towne did not pass away because boomer women don’t want to be catered to as a special segment of the retail marketplace.

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