Mad 4 Blog

Baby Boomers make up a significant portion of the American population – and they represent an important, niche demographic for marketers. Comprised of about 76 million individuals born after World War II and before 1964, these individuals collectively represent more than half of the nation’s consumer spending.

Granted, that’s a wide margin of ages. The key points are that 30% of Americans are older than 50 and that this segment of the population began retiring as early as 2007. By and large, they have access to significant disposable resources.

What’s also important to note is the fact that Baby Boomers are expected to be the first recent generation to enjoy an extended lifespan, as compared to their predecessors. This means that there are entire additional years of a potential relationship between you and your consumer. It also means that these clients will have an impact on the economy for a long time yet to come, and their choices will leave a mark on future generations of business as well. Middle age and even retirement may be just the beginning of a new chapter, bringing new needs and priorities to the foreground for a vast population.

Some industries may be especially in tune with the needs of an elderly generation or offer products that have a longer-term appeal. In this case, understanding what Baby Boomers want and what they respond to is especially vital. But really, there’s cause for every company to look at how its products or services can benefit this vast audience.

Here are a few tactics for advertising to Baby Boomers:

1. Discuss health benefits. Baby Boomers are very concerned with their ongoing health. This means making plans now as a preemptive measure as well as securing plans and strategies for the future.

2. Emphasize family values. Family is another strong value for this demographic. Many Baby Boomers have many siblings and went on to have large families as well. You can construct emotion-based messages that explain how your business can promote familial closeness or make someone’s home life better. Explaining benefits for kids, grandkids and future generations can be useful.

3. Share a positive message. Baby Boomers are known for having a positive outlook toward the future. So despite any current climates, such as the present economy, marketing an investment toward a more positive future will resonate with this audience.

4. Make it worth sharing. Don’t discount these middle-aged adults in terms of social networking. True, they might be slightly less inclined to make your message go viral online once they’ve used your brand. But Baby Boomers are very likely to recommend trusted companies to their friends and families.

There are minor differences when you’re advertising to possible business connections as opposed to when you’re targeting consumers who will buy your products and services outright. Small though they may be, they’re also important differences to take into account. Here are the top three noteworthy observations that can have a powerful impact on your advertising strategy in most cases. It all has to do with knowing your audience:

1. Plan the length of your relationship. When you’re addressing clients/customers, your main goal is to close the immediate sale. Of course you want to build a relationship with someone and retain them for repeat business. But that’s a shorter cycle, and it’s secondary. With business-to-business marketing, that strategy is essentially reversed. You want to plan on maintaining a long-term relationship with another business for cooperative success down through the years. You can be less aggressive in the short-term, and expect less immediate ROI. Your B2B success is measured in terms of networking and creating down-the-road goals that put your company’s agenda in alignment with someone you hope to ultimately work with. This will happen as soon as it mutually benefits both parties, when there is already a foundation of trust and respect.

2. Choose the right tone of voice. With business-to-client marketing, you can assume that a portion of the people you’re addressing might be unfamiliar with your brand and industry. You want to reemphasize your logo, your selling points, your messages. However, when you’re speaking to people within or adjacent to your industry, the tone of your marketing changes. First of all, you can assume they already know your lingo, how you operate and where their resources might fit in. While they may not know of your brand outright, you can still give them a little more slack. You can assume that if you speak to these potential colleagues as peers and let them investigate you on their own, they’ll be much more likely to come around and choose you of their own accord – which won’t happen if they feel they’re being spoken down to or given a blanket sales pitch.

3. Calibrate your terms of success. With those buying retail, you want to finalize the contract or close the sale. Usually, business concludes neatly with an exchange of money for products or services. But with other businesses, you need less concrete ways to measure your accomplishments. You’re looking to gain new leads for future business. You need to establish close communication that builds upward. This is usually achieved through personal relationships (with an agent or sales rep) rather than trying to get a consumer to identify and bond with the idea of your brand.

Ask us how you can take what you have to offer and advertise it to both markets without changing your identity or developing two separate campaigns. We can help you set constructive goals and tweak your content to create similar but slightly different materials that you can either share B2C or B2B.

Last week, The New York Times published an article about the latest trend in advertising: comfort marketing. This refers to bringing back old mascots, logos and jingles that were successful in the past. It makes viewers reminisce about the brand and reminds them of when they were first introduced to it – and, presumably, that they liked and trusted it at the time. With a sense of familiarity and history attached to the brand, marketers figure consumers will be more likely to make a purchase.

The article also goes so far as to suggest the economy – and people tightening their purse strings when making shopping decisions – is at least partially to blame for this trend. It primarily cites television advertisements, such as StarKist (tuna fish), Dr. Pepper, Doritos, Uncle Ben’s (rice) and Planter’s. These examples also happen to be mostly grocery store items. Analysts have said that in terms of spending, people are more likely to splurge right now on unnecessary pleasure and recreation items, such as manicures and massages and activities that offer instant gratification. If that’s true, it does stand to reason that shoppers may be scrutinizing their day-to-day purchases more thoroughly, which justifies the extra push to hook them via comfort marketing at this time.

But marketers aren’t just replicating old ads, they’re also modernizing them. One example is the animated Charlie commercials used by StarKist. Originally the premise was “Sorry Charlie,” wherein a tuna was rejected for not tasting good enough to join StarKist. In the new version, loyal customers are seen praising the brand with “Thanks Charlie.” The NYT states that this new twist tested well, and it made sense for the advertisers to move forward in such a way that buyers were now seen interacting with the brand.

The article also draws similarities to the fact that retro TV shows with a modern twist – “Mad Men,” “Pan Am” – are part of the same phenomenon that viewers seem to respond well to right now.

What’s your opinion on comfort marketing? Is it just another fad and a cloying ploy? Or is it a smart move to look to the past to bring an old brand into the future?

As the new year kicks off, we’re looking at some exciting growth and new developments around the office at Mad 4 Marketing. One thing we started at the end of 2011 was staffing up the company, which included introducing new team member Damon. Damon has been professionally involved with the Internet since the early 1990s and has worked on major sites like the WSJ and TigerDirect, to name a few. Now he’s leading our interactive marketing division, which helps you attract and retain clients via the power of the Web.

With the addition of Damon, we’re able to continue buying ad space online, helping you market your website and build relationships via social networking. The best part about expanding our work on these services is that we’re able to provide you with extremely measurable results on pay-per-click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. This means we can also better predict how certain tactics will improve your existing and developing online advertising strategies. We’ve got the numbers on hand and we’re excited to show our clients how our efforts can help you gain a following, drive traffic to your site, track information and even complete sales online.

With the holidays wrapping up, we began to think creatively about some of the missed marketing opportunities from the recent weeks. Creative businesses might be able to take advantage of corporate gifting in ways they’ve never thought of before. Here are just a few ideas:

1. Wrapping. Have you ever designed your own wrapping paper? With all of the glitter and glitz that’s appropriate for this festive season, it’s a great excuse to go all-out with customized wrapping paper. You can use your logo and key messages in artistic, expressive ways that really catch the eye — before your recipient even sees what’s inside. It’s a way to make an impact in an affordable way, even if your gift-giving budget can only afford the same old pens, magnets and mugs. Another thought is to send presents in reusable tote bags with your businesses name tastefully reflected, which not only means you’re helping the environment, but the person who receives your present can also think of you year-round as they keep using the container in which the present was sent. It’s two gifts in one!

2. Packing. Forget those boring and messy packing peanuts or layers of tissue paper. You can personalize the Styrofoam, bubbles, parchment or other filling that’s used to keep your gift in place. Although this one’s not as cost-efficient, since the impact will likely only last a moment before the stuffing is thrown out, it can prove to your recipient that you’re willing to go all-out when it comes to business and make them feel important. When someone’s opening a stack of gifts at the same time, these little extras will help your package stand out.

3. Shipping. Did you know that UPS expects the first week of 2012 to be record-breaking when it comes to consumers returning gifts that were received through the mail or ordered through e-commerce websites? With online sales soaring, we often think about posting advertisements on the Internet. We might even think about designing special holiday cards to go along with those items. But what about advertising on the boxes and return labels that typically come with gifts? Next year, if you’re thinking about mailing presents to your clients, colleagues and competition, considering ordering specialty boxes and labels to help promote your brand at the same time — it’s two birds in one! And as your items soar through the processes of shipping and handling, who knows how many eyes might focus on your logo en route.

Do you have any creative marketing inspirations to share? Let us know!