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.

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.

Disclaimer: I haven’t bought Nora Ephron’s book about women and aging: I Feel Bad About My Neck. But I’ve read it, the way I read all books that I think I need to know about, but don’t want to contribute to raising up on the bestseller lists: standing up at the bookstore high volume sales 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:

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...

This is the season for bridal magazines. At last count, rushing to the biggest magazine stand at the airport to make my much-anticipated purchase, there were five or six top choose from. Big, glossy, glamorous, eye-catching—and missing out on a huge market of potential purchasers.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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…

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Did you hear that?

That was the sound of Feminism -- baby boomer-style – roaring back to life.

In a new book called The Feminine Mistake: Are Women Giving Up Too Much?, Vanity Fair journalist and baby boomer Leslie Bennetts warns that women experience an unexpected toll when they give up work to raise children, but reap surprising benefits -- beyond just a paycheck -- when they maintain their careers while parenting.

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

‘Tis the season of wedding bell bliss, as young brides and grooms—rewind—as brides and grooms of all ages are gearing up for their big day. Yes, this includes the baby boomers. But you wouldn’t know it when you look at how marketers sell the wedding-industry to the public.

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.

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

We talk a lot about how there is no such thing as “the boomer woman.” That said, I’ve been with two very different slices of the demographic this past couple of weeks, and if my eyes were closed, I wouldn’t have known which was which.

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

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.)

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

Wow! Grab your (red) hat and join in on the fun! Eileen and I just got back from the annual gathering of The Red Hat Society, this year at Nashville’s Opryland Hotel, and I must admit, that I’m suddenly a believer!

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

“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.

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

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.

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

As a participatory anthropologist, I traveled to a warehouse in the wilds of West Oakland to observe the female boomer in situ. The occasion was the annual sale of an as-yet whispered woman-to-woman fashion designer’s who’s got our number samples sale.

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

While we’re dishing fashion (see my recent blog “Observing the Female Boomer”), let’s take this opportunity to lay one urban myth to rest. Forth and Towne, Gap’s high-profile ill-fated effort to start up a retail store dedicated to selling fashion to boomer women, did not pass away because boomer women don’t want to be catered to as a special segment of the retail marketplace. There is the persistent rumor afoot that the last thing a women of a certain age wants to be is “ghettoized.”

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

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.

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

I am reminded by Beverly Mahone, bestselling author, blogger, speaker and regular reader of TheBoomerBlog.com that this headline is, in fact, a trick question. As we know, boomer women come from multiple ethnicities, religions, geographies, economic strata and so on and on.

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

We marketers have done a terrific job segmenting the boomer demographic. There’s leading edge (born 1946-1954) versus trailing edge (1955-1964), there’s economic class, ethnic and religious orientations, life stage and even psychosocial motivators. In fact, there are so many niches, combos and variations within the generation, it is easy for a marketer to feel overwhelmed by the possibilities. As one of my professors—an expert in postmodernism once described—it’s kind of like one of those newspaper photos that when viewed at too close a range goes all to dots.

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

Where's my grey hair? Everybody knows that grey is the new blond, if you're over 40. Sporting grey hair gives you an aura of defiant independence, touched with wisdom-what a cool combo! Grey is Taylor Hicks and whoever those hip older models are who have the athletic builds of a 20-year-old, wrinkleless faces and bushy grey spikes on their heads. I want that!

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

Recently, a Gen X marketer from a major company called to ask if FH Boom does “senior marketing.” We had to pause for a moment. No self-respecting boomer—the core of our target demographic—would identify with the term “senior,” and it’s been awhile since anybody other than a retirement community or diaper manufacturer has used the terminology.

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

Where's my grey hair? Everybody knows that grey is the new blond, if you're over 40. Sporting grey hair gives you an aura of defiant independence, touched with wisdom-what a cool combo! Grey is Taylor Hicks and whoever those hip older models are who have the athletic builds of a 20-year-old, wrinkleless faces and bushy grey spikes on their heads. I want that!

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

Kudos to Enablex, for the most creative, effective marketing at the recent AARP convention in Boston (Life@50+). (More on the convention in a subsequent blog…)

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

In “Behind the Veil”, I discuss that the next revolution for boomer women (after the marketing movement that is already underway, that is) will be a resurgence of spirituality.

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

In “Behind the Veil”, I discuss that the next revolution for boomer women (after the marketing movement that is already underway, that is) will be a resurgence of spirituality.

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

Last week, we suggested that marketers hoping to reach boomer women on their own turf consider sponsoring an event put on by an organization to which she belongs, or cultural attraction she is attending anyway. The boomer gal likes to experience things first-hand. She wants to know you personally care about her and what she cares about. She wants to sample your product. She wants to shake your hand.

For the rest of today's blog, continue at TheBoomerBlog.com.

With the Democratic nomination in Obama’s presumptive hands, it’s high time we revisit the impact of Hillary Clinton’s status as role model for boomer women—and implications for marketers. Hint: it’s all good.

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

When queried about their financial safety net for the future, an alarming number of boomer women volunteer that “the church community” will save them—and they’re not just talking about their souls.

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

“Despite knowing the size, spending power and influence of the Boomer generation, many marketers and advertisers have yet to realize the major business opportunity this market represents.” So writes the Focalyst Executive Forum in their e-blast invite to their 2008 gathering (October 2-3 in NYC.)

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

I went to a new t’ai chi class, and now my teeth are whiter, my hair is fuller and my legs smoother.

This is not to tout the benefits of t’ai chi (although they are equally impressive) but rather, a smart marketing effort that has figured out that people who do things like t’ai chi and yoga are likely to buy certain products.

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

On the very day IndyMac went belly up, stock prices went down (again) and a recent study on how gloomy boomers are got yet more ink, I was on another planet.

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It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to learn that boomers buy about 1 in every 7 books sold each year - this according to Sara Nelson, editor in chief of Publisher’s Weekly, who was recently interviewed online by a blogger on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Web site (blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com).

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

There are those amongst the leading-edge boomers who remember the late 1960’s, when a young male wearing long hair, a young woman wearing a peasant skirt, made them automatic members of the same tribe. The same thing is happening today, in a new millennium edition, and marketers who want to reach the boomer demographic should definitely pay heed.

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

There’s a lot of money spent on fashion by boomers, so it behooves the fashion retail industry to understand boomer mentality and tastes. But when a boomer man throws on an aloha shirt and calls it a day; and a boomer woman does all her shopping at Chico’s and thinks that staying on the cutting edge means buying a new piece of bling, it’s perhaps time for fashion marketers to show some leadership, as well.

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

In part two of this blog series, we addressed the lack of transition from the hippie fashion freedom of the leading edge of the generation’s formative years to the “dress for success” rules of their passage into the workforce. For many boomers, this represented a leap into the fashion abyss, from which they’ve never quite recovered.

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

Insurance is bliss. The reason I know that insurance is bliss is that I read it on a giant billboard on a major thoroughfare in Los Angeles, riding past at 55 mph in my insured Saturn. In truth, my car insurance company is not State Farm (sponsors of the moment of curbside inspiration cited above) but nevertheless, I not only noticed the billboard and duly counted my blessings, but was inspired to revisit the relationship between spirituality and marketing, particularly as applied to the men and women of the boomer generation.

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

In our exploration of the intersection between meaning and marketing in relation to the boomer generation, it is important to understand that spirituality and religion come in various stripes and colors. In my next blog, I’ll discuss the distinct religio-spiritual archetypes and how they relate to the stages of adult development. Marketers should pay heed lest they get on the divine express only to discover that a transcendently-grounded message perfect for one spiritual type ineffectively or even disastrously lands on the door stoop of another.

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

In the previous blog, we exposed the spiritual underpinnings of the leading edge of boomer women, the group that has a history of influencing the culture as a whole. But hers is but one voice amongst many in search of meaning in their personal lives, work lives and, of special note to marketers, even in their role as consumers of products and services.

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

Despite all the books, white papers and boomer stats floating around on the Internet, it seems we cannot get enough data on the 78 million baby boomer cohort that is shaking up and waking up today's retirement experience. For those senior marketers and executives who seek to get their hands on cutting-edge research, you may want to check out today's Focalyst Executive Forum in NYC, where some of the nation's leading boomer experts will gather to discuss and debate emerging trends about this demographic powerhouse. Learning how to appeal to a mature market that spends over $3 trillion annually may be helpful in these turbulent economic times. This year's theme, The Changing Boomer Equation, will shed light on the latest boomer trends and research, as well as how consumer needs are impacting the marketplace across generations.

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

Yes! Yes! Yes! I do want to get rid of my second home, my Range Rover, all the trappings of my super rich life. Oh, wait a minute … I don’t have any of those things. But still the recent Harvard Business Online posting by John Quelch makes a point. There’s a new consumer out there he terms the middle-aged Simplifier. She (and he does say she) is ready to toss out the tangible conspicuous consumption lifestyle and embrace the ephemeral and experiential.

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

It seems despite all the newly baked books and freshly sprung boomer-focused marketing tips, people continue to raise one question: how do we really reach the boomers, particularly boomer women, who make many of their household’s purchasing decisions? Words like “touch points” and “psychographics” are casually thrown about in brainstorms, but often with little headway. For many, the breadth of this demographic is just too daunting.

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

Source: MarketingSherpa

SUMMARY: More than 70 million American grandparents spend about $50 billion a year on their grandchildren. That’s quite a healthy market!

Find out how to get the attention of these well-to-do grandparents. Three marketers answer questions and share tips, tactics and results on creative, email marketing, and more.
Baby Boomers make an impact at every stage of their lives, says Jerry Shereshewsky, CEO, Grandparents.com. As they approach 60, more boomers than ever are also grandparents.

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

By guest blogger Christine Owens, a senior associate at BCC & Associates and adjunct professor at Columbia University, teaching in the graduate program of Non-Profit Management.

Not surprisingly, there are gender differences for why people give. Typically, women give for very personal reasons – they want to make a difference. Men, on the other hand, make contributions often for business and recognition purposes. Now that women have a commanding presence in the workforce, it would be interesting to know if they too view charitable work within a business framework.

By Stephen Reily, VibrantNation.com Founder

While marketers acknowledge the buying power of Baby Boomers, they continue to define them as a demographic niche from the 1960s. Can you accurately identify the brands that Vibrant Boomer women love the most?

Last week Ad Age columnist Judann Pollack ran an entertaining and thought-provoking column called "The 15 Biggest Baby Boomer Brands."

Here are the 15 brands Pollack listed:

1) Levi's
2) Harley-Davidson
3) Volkswagen
4) Slinky
5) Noxzema
6) The Beatles
7) L'Eggs
8) Pepsi
9) Absolut Vodka
10) Saturday Night Live
11) Facebook
12) Frye Boots
13) Coach Bags
14) Clairol
15) Club Med

Lists like this are meant to provoke debate, of course, but my own reading suggested that something else was going on in this list, something that confirmed ongoing misconceptions about Boomers.