How to Market to Baby Boomers in a Digital World

While Gen Zers may be worried about getting old before their time, older consumers (boomers and Gen Zers) are increasingly behaving like their youthful counterparts. Nearly three-quarters of adults ages 50 to 64 report using social media, and 45% of adults 65 and older say they use social media as well. While they’re spending more time online, they’re also spending money there: according to a GWI consumer trends report, boomers are more likely to have made an online purchase in the last week than Gen Z shoppers.

Despite online habits which make this older generation more reachable than ever, your conventional marketing strategies cannot be used with this generation. Consumer behavior may be converging, but attitudes and beliefs remain distinct.

How to market to baby boomers and Gen X

Emphasize quality and value

Eighty percent of Gen Z and millennial shoppers say they make purchases based on a brand's mission and 82% of millennials say word-of-mouth is a key influence in their purchase decisions. However, only 18% of consumers over age 55 consider brand mission as highly important, and a mere 9% look to peer recommendations when considering buying from a brand.

Instead, the majority of older consumers (96%) consider quality and value highly important when making a purchase. According to research, baby boomers are also the biggest annual spenders ($548.1 billion), followed by Gen X ($357 billion).To reach this market, steer away from mission-driven branding and influencer marketing; promote high quality, the best price, and an overall impression of value. Don't promote your business as a budget option; instead, focus on highlighting value for money. Place the durability of your product or the efficacy of your service at the forefront of your branding.

Strong brand recognition makes customers less price sensitive, and will allow you to improve your margins—but that's only after you’ve demonstrated that your product provides value for money.

Be a historied brand

Hitching your brand to the latest trends will not impress older consumers. Positioning your brand as historied, proven, and trusted is vital to win over this demographic. Consumers aged 55-plus are skeptical of newer brands, and more drawn towards businesses with a long and proven history. Highlight your legacy in your industry, and use customer and expert testimonials to demonstrate value.

For example, Geico placed its history of serving customers in the insurance market at the forefront of its Legend of the Lizard Superbowl ad, a mockumentary historicizing of the gecko mascot. The beloved Geico Gecko has been around for 25 years, and in this campaign, Geico built an impressive story around it, emphasizing the company's past with the word "legend."

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But you don’t have to be an ancient brand to emphasize history. Consider the example of California doughnut chain Johnny Doughnut, which opened its first store in 2013 and positions itself as historied with the claim that its product is handmade from a Southern 1920s recipe.

Leverage branding trends

While short-term branding trends and memes may seem unserious to older consumers, some long-term branding trends are highly effective. Nostalgia branding is particularly powerful for a demographic who feels a degree of disconnect with the values of our current age. Leveraging typography and color schemes of decades past to align yourself with older values will create cultural touching points that your audience can connect with on a deeper level.

Coca-Cola repeatedly uses nostalgia in this way, from their seasonal "Holidays Are Coming" campaign to their design choices.

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If a nostalgic wrapping for your product or service doesn’t work, older consumers are also interested in branding that integrates the tech of the future. Both AI and VR branding have proven popular among today's more tech-savvy older audience, and integrate virtual reality or artificial intelligence in your brand positioning.

AI can be used in captivating campaigns, such as BMW’s "The Ultimate AI Masterpiece" video, which emphasizes luxury and elegance (as well as the integration of AI assistants) in BMW's 8 Series Gran Coupe models. It can also become part of your brand positioning: Disney has integrated the "magic" of AI and predictive analytics into its MagicBand, a wearable device that offers personalized user experiences. Cruise operators, such as Carnival andPrincess, are following suit with their Medallion Class.

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Meanwhile, brands can use VR to create engaging audience experiences, such as Alzheimer's UK’s virtual reality app which allows users to experience life through the eyes of a dementia sufferer.

What this shows is that the internet and social media are influencing every age group—old assumptions about who you’re marketing to and how must be reassessed.

Be informative

Baby boomers and Gen Xers are a demographic that still expects advertising to be a source of information. You can use this to your advantage: including informative text in your marketing materials allows you to further explain the benefits of your product, highlighting the characteristics of quality, reliability, and value that older consumers require.

Avoid pigeonholing older consumers in your marketing efforts

Dig a little deeper and there are, of course, disparities. For example, in the boomer bracket, women are more likely to consider it important that a brand is “making the world a better place”—61.1% agree, versus 41.3% of men. Health, beauty and fashion brands may, therefore, want to consider their environmental credentials.

Some generalizations are necessary when you target any broad demographic, but older consumers are more sensitive to being pigeonholed than other audiences. Maintain a nuanced approach that considers gender, income, political leanings, and other factors like home ownership when building your campaigns, and endeavor to connect on a personal, individual level when building your reputation.

Meanwhile, focus on a long-term brand-building project that highlights value and builds trust by emphasizing your experience and history. Older adults exhibit strong brand loyalty, meaning any efforts to convert them are rewarded with repeat customers.

Marketing to boomers FAQs

About the Author

Post by: Lotte Reford

Lotte Reford is communications lead for Squadhelp.com, a naming and branding platform with more than 40,000 customers globally, from the smallest startups to corporations like Nestle, Philips, Hilton, and Pepsi.

Company: Squadhelp
Website: www.squadhelp.com
Connect with me on LinkedIn.