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Marketing to boomers: some facts
Today in America, the average car buyer is 56- a boomer, the average head of the household is 52- boomer, MAC user 54- boomer, American Express credit card holder 57, 57 is also the age of the average business owner.
Real money is in the hand of boomers and so is decision making.
Definition of Boomers according to Wikipedia: A baby boomer is a person who was born during the demographic Post-World War II baby boom and who grew up during the period between 1946 and 1964.
In general, baby boomers are associated with a rejection or redefinition of traditional values; however, many commentators have disputed the extent of that rejection, noting the widespread continuity of values with older and younger generations. In Europe and North America boomers are widely associated with privilege, as many grew up in a time of affluence.[3] As a group, they were the healthiest, and wealthiest generation to that time, and amongst the first to grow up genuinely expecting the world to improve with time.
One feature of Boomers was that they tended to think of themselves as a special generation, very different from those that had come before. In the 1960s, as the relatively large numbers of young people became teenagers and young adults, they, and those around them, created a very specific rhetoric around their cohort, and the change they were bringing about.[5] This rhetoric had an important impact in the self perceptions of the boomers, as well as their tendency to define the world in terms of generations, which was a relatively new phenomenon.
Do you know your ideal client from an emotional level? What he/she cares about, what she/he values?
If you are marketing to boomers, you should.
Marketing to boomers: Are you missing the mark?
Are you mimicking old dumb marketing agencies and ignoring your best potential customers?
Smart businesses should develop marketing programs to reach baby boomers and do it in an intelligent way.
Are you asking why?
Well more than 30% of Americans are over 50 and the influential over-50 segment has $2.3 trillion in annual spending power and today controls 50% of all discretionary income. That is 2.5 times the spending power of 18-24 age group.
Did you see that the word influential is highlighted?
This is a generation that has disposable income to spend and invest even in though economic times.
The boomer generation likes to invest in products and services that are aligned with their deeper value. ( This is why it is really important for businesses to work with an irresistible promise like we show in the magnetic influence system). And boomers do pay attention how companies market to them
On the other side it looks like companies don’t care to pay attention to them.
Here some examples:
People 50+ buy 60% of all carbonated beverages but Coke The Heart Truth for Women campaign, which is a great campaign, uses a spokesperson that is 36 years old- Heidi Klum. Can’t they find anyone gorgeous after 50?
Pepsi uses psychedelic logos with Barry Whites tunes. Do we need nostalgia?
By the way, nostalgia is really the wrong approach with boomers. This is a generation proud to have changed the way things were done and some of the things they did, they don’t want to remember. Hair color spots tend to use this approach too.
Even worse is AARP that portraits 50+ as frightened and unintelligent in their commercials.
Honda spots for hybrid cars don’t include boomers while more than half of the 90 million 50+ consumers in America say they want to buy green.
People over 50 account for 80% of all leisure travel in this country including luxury travel. Do you think the spot “Travelocity Travel Wish #9: Jump on the bed in a fancy hotel” has anything to do with boomers?
There are many more examples of poor marketing to boomers. Just think about sex related commercials with couples in separate bathtubs.
Boomers can talk and make sex, why can’t the people that create these type of commercials do the same?
If your product or service is a good match for boomers, pay attention how you are promoting it, and include boomers in a tasteful, intelligent manner.
We appreciate and we like the attention. Missing the mark here can cost you a lot.
Small Business lessons I learned while doing bird photography
Nashlah and I got cool photo cameras for Christmas with cool telephoto lenses. I haven’t touched a professional camera for over 20 years. I used to be a professional photographer when Nashlah was a baby. I used to work for a pet magazine but with my divorce I lost some of my equipment and never touched a professional camera until now.
We decided to do some bird photography and used the holidays for a photo expedition. The first thing I learned was how important it is to invest in self-improvement. Being from the “film age” dealing with a digital camera was not as easy as i thought, especially the automated focus part. I got some magazines to help me with that and this week I’m heading to a photo club to be able to update myself. Same applies to having a business, self-improvement is crucial and no, we don’t have all the answers and we have to adapt to new times.Also good is to create relationships with people that can help you get to the next level.
Right on the first day we saw a bald eagle. It was my first bald eagle in the wild. How thrilling that moment was! The impressive bird was far and I messed up the focus again so the pictures were not too good, but the excitement was still there. We decided to come back the next day to try again. Persistence in life and in business is crucial. We can never forget that.
The next day the eagle was there and the pictures came out a lot nicer. I noticed a funny thing. Nashlah would take a picture, get excited about it and would keep looking for the pictures in the camera, while the bird was there, waiting for her. She got excited with the result and chose to pass the real moment in order to focus on her achievement. Well, it is a good thing to praise ourselves but you cannot let a shiny thing take you away from the real moment and the real work that needs to be done. That moment will never come back again. It is so precious and cannot be wasted with things that can be done later.
We then decided to focus on finding more eagles and big birds and that is what we did for the next 3 days.
We saw on the map that there were some bird refuges close by and some water fowl management areas so we headed there.
It was a holiday and when we got to the first water fowl area, the place was empty. We had no idea what a water fowl management area was and it looked a little scary riding our brand new car in a very small strip of land surrounded by water on both sides, plus the silence and the fact you could not see an end on the road.
My heart started racing and I was a bit scared. The situation was new to me, with a lot of unanswered questions and I a feeling that I could not control the outcome. Then I realized I had made the commitment to try something new everyday in order to face my own fear and limitations and to show myself there are new possibilities, opportunities and I don’t have to be in control of every outcome. At that moment I really started enjoying the experience. Yes, same thing should be done in our businesses.
We didn’t see many birds there, since it was a very cold day in winter, not the best time to start bird photography. We shot pictures of some birds we didn’t know and some flying hawks. That night before heading to the hotel we got some western bird’s books. We needed some self-improvement in that area as well. We also had a little talk about the fact that we started taking the pictures not in the best time of the year and with little planning and preparation. Isn’t this typical of entrepreneurs? It was good but it could have been better. The fact is, we would go on no matter what but next weekend, believe me we will be better prepared.
The next day was just fantastic! We spotted a bald eagle right at the beginning. Well, now we knew what to look for, we had learned to see and due to the books, we knew a little about their habits.
She was on a tree not too far. We stopped the car and started walking with the equipment. We were really close when she flew away. We learned a few things. Disappointment happens no matter how excited you are and some “thinking through the end” before acting helps. Why we though that the eagle would stand still seeing two voluptuous girls walking with big equipment, very colorful clothes and chatting at full lungs is beyond me. That lesson sank in really fast. This week we are out to buy some camouflaged clothes and we are training in keeping our mouth shut.
Entrepreneurs should live by the motto “fall seven times, stand up eight”, so we decided to go after that eagle and find her again. Using our best judgement we started going around until we finally saw her again. Standing on a tree on a farm ground. There we went. Almost quiet this time. It was so exciting! We had to do a minor trespassing, but we could not loose that opportunity.
We got a lot closer this time. The lens could be a little longer, the light a little better I kept thinking but my finger could not stop taking the pictures. Then I noticed that I should take care of composition, different exposure times etc. Things I should take care in order to get a good picture. So I remember one thing my photography professor taught me many years ago. He would say every time we were shooting. “Cut your anxiety in half and go closer”. I finally took a deep breadth, corrected what needed to be corrected and took another step, and another one.
The eagle was looking at us the whole time and at some point decided to fly away, but this time it flew towards us. I kept shooting, it is so much easier to shoot several pictures now than before! It flew right above our heads, really close. I don’t know if eagles attack humans but I couldn’t care less. We were jumping up and down for at least half an hour. I got a very good picture and Nash got several.
Now we went looking for more bald eagles, we felt unstoppable. Not a big deal that there are not that many bald eagles flying around, we knew we could do it. After a few hours we spotted another one. She flew, we chased and we got a few more pictures. We were able to fulfill our challenge and the feeling was great. That night we were exhausted but had a hard time falling asleep. That feeling was so exciting! Knowing that you are able to reach your goals and go after challenges is great. I made a side note to start doing some exercise. If I need to keep doing this, I need to be in good shape. Changes are necessary and good.
Next day we headed to some other bird refugees and water fowl management areas. Now we decided to get as many western birds documented as possible. We like challenges just like most entrepreneurs. Last year we took a geocaching challenge of finding one cache in each page of the Utah atlas and we did it. We covered the whole state of Utah. Could tell you a lot more about planning ahead before venturing into deserts with that story. (We thought deserts would have gas stations and restaurants).
I had to deal with another little problem in the water fowl management area. These places have a lot of hunters. I respect their right they have to kill but have a very hard time with this, especially with the sound of fire arms. My brother was killed some years ago and every shot would bring that memory back. I had to keep telling myself that this was another thing I needed to be able to face and force to think that instead of his death, each shot would remind me that he loved life and his hobbies too. Need to work more on this one.
We were reminded again that planning ahead of time would have been a good strategy, since we were freezing in the low temperatures. Funny thing is that when you are shooting the pictures, you don’t feel cold at all, but waiting for the birds can be painful. We got some interesting pictures of cool birds, a lot of birds butts flying away. There are many more bad pictures than good ones but the good ones make up for all others. Can’t refrain from saying that in business we all have more failures than successes but the few successes make up for all the work and frustration.
Besides all things we learned with this experience, one was clear: It is really necessary to take a break every now and then. Not only to release stress but also because with trying new things not related to business gives you the opportunity to find another side of yourself and see different ways to deal with different challenges and to challenge yourself is to find in you a strength you probably didn’t know you had.
How To Advertise Your Online Business
Learning the best ways how to advertise your business can be a real chore to say the least. There is
certainly no shortage of companies trying to convince you that you need to subscribe to their marketing
or advertising approach to gain clients. So, the real question is, “What’s the best form of advertising for
your business?” Well, research indicates that online advertising is not only far more cost-effective than
traditional off-line forms of advertising, but online advertising is also fairly easy to set up.
First of all, let me say, that there are really two forms of online advertising; there’s the paid method
known as pay-per-click advertising, and the “free” method known as SEO or search engine optimization.
For the purposes of this post, we’ll be talking about the paid method because it’s the easiest and
quickest way to implement a successful online advertising campaign.
For our purposes, I’m only going to refer to the Google search engine since Google dominates the
internet world. Google’s form of pay-per-click advertising is called Google Adwords. It’s referred to as
pay-per-click advertising because while your ads can appear for any number of targeted search terms,
you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad. Starting a Google Adwords campaign only
costs $5 to start and your ads can be up in a matter of minutes. Do a Google search for “$75 Adwords
voucher”, and if you’re a new advertiser to Adwords, Google will pay for the first $75 of your ad spend.
There are several components to Adwords that makes it the best way how to advertise your business
online. First of all, you have complete control over what you spend. Adwords allows you to set a daily
budget, so if you only want to spend, say, $300 per month, then you would set your daily budget at $10.
Once you spend $10 for the day, Google will pause your ads and turn them back on the following day.
Another thing I love about Adwords is the ability for what’s known as geo-targeting. Geo-targeting
allows you ads to only be visible to people in a certain geographic area or areas. If you only want to
attract clients in Houston, Texas and Baltimore, Maryland, you can do that.
Furthermore, you have the ability to select as many keywords as you want to trigger your ads allowing
you to reach the maximum amount of targeted leads to your site. Finally, what I love most about
Adwords is the ability to see what’s working and not working. By viewing the historical data in your
account, you can see how many people viewed your ads and how many of those viewers clicked on your
ads. This allows you to make necessary changes to better optimize your account for maximum ROI.
Guest post by: Brandon Jones
Senior Marketing Advisor
My Marketing Team
How to have a remarkable business in 2012
I just uploaded a presentation on how to have a remarkable business. It gives you some specific points to improve your small business marketing and make 2012 your best business year.
Enjoy!
See the How to have a remarkable business presentation here.
How to make your business outrageously irresistible to buyers
We talk quite a bit on how to make your small business irresistible to your market. You can even listen to a full hours where we go step by step on our Magnetic Influence system. Just sign-up in the box at the side of this post.
This time however we decided to put into an infographic so you can memorize, post on your wall and share with your friends.
Here is the key to How to make your business outrageously irresistible to buyers
Sales Strategies for the New Economy
I don’t need to tell you that things have changed a lot. Markets have changed and the way the consumer buys has changed a lot in the last few years.
There is extreme importance in revisiting your sales strategies and align them with this new consumer. As a small business owner you need to understand that creating a structured sales process and improving your negotiation skills is crucial in your small business marketing strategy.
Most of the time you are more resistant to sell than the client to buy.
It is a lot about psychology and not about sales tricks.
There needs to be a design of the sale you can apply anywhere and become a master negotiator.
I want to share with you a system I’ve created to increase conversion in any type of selling. It is based on psychology and consumer behavior and I’ve tested several times in one on one negotiations, over teleseminars and on stage.
It goes through 5 steps where you can choreograph your negotiation:
1.Find the broken windows: This principle comes from the New York police where they look for homes with broken window because they show there is a problem there. We need to allow prospects to unveil their problems. This step decreases anxiety, shows where the problems are so we can pin point the core points.
2. Join and conduct the Tango: Prospects already have a conversation going inside their minds. This conversation tends to carry a lot of drama and fear. It is up to the negotiator to join this conversation, create rapport and conduct the dance.
3. Incorporate mystery and rituals: (we need some level of tension around their needs). Remember that the brain cannot cope with an unanswered question, this creates traction. Rituals like simple things as having them fill a questionnaire before talking to you not only inverts the relationship, where you are not the sales person anymore, it also shows there is structure.
4. Extract the Wow: show the possibilities. If you have ever watched a n infomercial; you know what I’m talking about. Any sales negotiation needs to have its wow moment where the prospect thinks “I need this guy” “How did I survived without this product?”
5 Tie the knot: Don’t forget to propose. close. partnership from the beginning regardless the amount. They ask you to marry: Now it is the time to ask: how do we work together?
Having a structured sales and negotiation process is part of a smart small business marketing strategies. No one wants a person that talks non stop and pushes a product or service.
It is up to you to have these steps in mind, get a pen and paper and outline in your case how you would incorporate them when you are negotiating.
Think that you are building a graph in the process where the WOW factor is on top and from there you just keep the dialogue going and conduct them to ask to buy.
Embrace the weird to be unique
I had the opportunity to visit the store of Little Miss Matched at Disney some weeks ago and decided to do a short video on this company that is very unique in their approach.
The death of Steve Jobs
Just heard the news about Steve Jobs death and I’m really sorry to see him go.
I’m not an Apple user (well, I have an ipod), but I greatly admire its founder as being an example of a true entrepreneur, master creator and brilliant marketer.
Few people understood consumer psychology like he did and how to incorporate mystery and create desire when promoting a product. More than most he also understood the power of a community and is an example to any one.
He was a true example of how we need to be as entrepreneurs and how crucial it is in business to innovate and be fast to put products in the market, even when they are not perfect, how important it is to create a community linked to a higher purpose around our business and have them advocate and fight for you.
We need more people like Steve Jobs and we need to pay more attention to cancer research. Make a donation today to a cancer research institution like
http://www.cancer.org/