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.

A few weeks ago, The New York Observer and other outlets began reporting on a trend making its way through the celebrity world: reverse or anti-product placement. Called a “wicked” new marketing strategy, this fascinating pattern describes marketing and public relations companies sending out free samples to famous persons with the hope of linking that brand with the A-lister’s strong public image.

But what’s so strange about that? Haven’t agencies been mailing out free samples and swag for decades? Isn’t it actually a commonly used form of publicity and sponsorship?

Yes; but now the difference is that they’re not just sending out the goods of their clients. They’re sending out samples from their client’s competition. Why would they do that? Well, because they’re sending out those branded products to celebrities with whom their own brand would never associate. For example, gleeful (albeit probably untrue) rumors are rampant in the fashion industry that a competing designer brand sent Snooki (the moniker for Nicole Polizzi of MTV’s “Jersey Shore”) a handbag from Gucci—all in an effort to devalue the respectable brand and boost their own sales. Snooki, who’s been in the news recently due to an arrest for disorderly conduct, is infamous for her less-than-brilliant comments and untoward antics on her hit reality television show, now in its second season.

The Observer also calls this tactic “deviously dirty” as a form of “unbranding.” It sounds technically legal—but could there be connotations of negatively associating a brand that fall under libel? Maybe someday; for one thing, the worlds of fashion and celebrity certainly love to argue about brand and copyright infringement, and they never shy from a potentially publicity-inducing legal battle.

So what do you make of this practice? Is it bratty or genius? Is it even ethical?

In a world where Tiger Woods can still swing a club like nobody’s business but can’t sell a pair of sneakers because of the goings-on in his personal life, there’s certainly something to be said about how seriously the American public takes brand association. In fact, perhaps we should be a little surprised that this sort of thing didn’t become common practice a lot sooner, especially way back when there were Martha Stewart arrests and Britney Spears breakdowns to capitalize on with anti-product placement.

At Mad 4 Marketing, reverse product placement doesn’t quite bear the level of finesse that we would want to enact for our customers and clients. We prefer to help you build and market strong brands that stand out simply because they’re the best and reaching the best-suited audiences for your products and services. But in the meantime, it does provide us with a hearty laugh behind our hands and something to chat about on meeting breaks.

And it makes us pay a little more attention to what Ms. Snookums is going to wear next week on “Jersey Shore”—and wonder where it really came from!

It always makes sense to ask successfully acquired clients and customers how they came to hear about your business. By carefully comparing how well each of your advertising efforts performs, you can bulldoze past a lot of trial-and-error and simply direct your budget toward what works, both in quantitative and qualitative units. For example, if no one’s seen that ad in the newspaper but everyone heard about you from a friend or relative, you may wish to pull your print ads and focus on buzz-generating word-of-mouth campaigns–or even reward former patrons for referring a friend. And if you’re reaching a higher caliber of clientele via brochure than billboard, you’ll certainly want to bring your message down to the smaller scale, which can also cut back cost.

These days, tracking is everything when it comes to building successful campaigns. Online, it’s perfectly easy to determine how a person landed on your page; analytics mark each click-through by its referring links, search engine source, browser type and even the viewer’s physical location—it’s not only effortless, but also automatically built into most website content management systems. But even online there’s always more you can do; when it comes to e-commerce, many shopping outlets utilize codes. Asking buyers to enter a code before they take advantage of a sale helps marketers to track which sales and campaigns were more successful than others, and to help determine if shoppers heard about it from a newsletter, referral or ad. This is why you might see several usable codes available for the same sale, depending on where you hear about it.

In what other ways can coding and tracking be used in your business endeavors? Mad 4 Marketing recently posted job listings on several career search websites. But each posting required us to pay a fee, and since we weren’t sure which websites or which wording would be most successful for attracting the best new teammate, we decided to generate a few different ads. We asked job candidates on each board and posting to reply with a different subject line. This took a little more time and thought, but we were able to see from where we were getting hits, and what kind of prospective employees were nipping the bait. After the first week we cut our ad placement (and cost!) in half and only used phrasing that was clearly expressing our desires to the most qualified candidates.

Another example is Satori’s text message campaign. In 2008, we used a lot of on-the-scene guerrilla marketing to advertise for the newly opening apartment rental community in Fort Lauderdale. We wanted to reach out to those who already lived in and loved the surrounding area of South Florida. At each event (such as street fairs, art shows and the boat parade), we advertised the chance to win six months’ free rent by texting a code to a given phone number. At each event, the code differed. That way, we could see which community event had directed the most participants to our giveaway, as well as which regions or crowds were most interested in Satori. This information turned out to be extremely valuable in later marketing endeavors, such as choosing local ad placement.

The bottom line is that tracking efforts are a smart investment in the future. It means looking past today’s brochure or even tomorrow’s website, toward next year’s entire marketing strategy. Tracking provides you with the tools to always understand and surpass prior tactics–and no matter what, this means that you will ultimately succeed.

One way to make your marketing go a long way is to partner up with a complementary business to create a mutually beneficial campaign. Recently, Mad 4 Marketing was invited to participate in a series of seminars hosted at Regent Bank sites throughout South Florida. By participating in these seminars, Mad 4 Marketing was able to advertise its expertise through Regent Bank’s promotional efforts, while Regent Bank was able to provide industry-specific guidance to their customers. This situation created a harmonious opportunity for both businesses, allowing Mad 4 Marketing and Regent Bank to get the most out of their combined advertising efforts.

Regent Bank developed this seminar platform as a way to provide a valuable service to their current client base, while attracting attention from prospective bank customers. This valuable marketing strategy was a way to welcome a broad audience to their local bank sites, where they would be able to connect with bank employees and learn about the bank’s new promotions. Topics included:

•    Top Tips is Today’s Economy for Condo Boards and Property Managers
•    Navigating the Changes in Small Business Administration Loans
•    Is Your Networking Strategy Working For You?
•    Unconventional Marketing Methods for Unconventional Times

Mad 4 Marketing benefited from this opportunity because it allowed the company to reach out to Regent Bank’s diverse customer base from a standpoint of industry leadership. Introduced as a knowledgeable and trusted resource to the bank, Mad 4 Marketing was put in a very strategic position to generate new contacts and represent the company. Mad 4 Marketing was also able to invite their own regional contacts in Boca Raton and Davie, Florida, to hear Chris Madsen, Amy Chattin and Tiffany Tobol share their marketing insight. Chris Madsen, President of Mad 4 Marketing, spoke about creating 360 degree campaigns. Amy Chattin, Director of Client Services, introduced the merits of non-traditional marketing techniques. Tiffany Tobol, Director of Interactive Marketing, addressed interactive marketing strategies for small businesses.

And of course, those who attended these seminars benefited from the chance to hear experienced professionals provide guidance on a number of relevant topics, at no cost to them. Seminars were held either before or after work hours, and light refreshments were served. All seminars offered attendees the chance to network and make connections with the bank, seminar presenters and each other.