Reading about Baby Boomers is boring…
...unless you want to reach into their fat purses and wallets through advertising. Then, you will want to know everything you can about this crazy, overpowering, boring, loving, rebellious, traditional bunch of left-wing, right-wing, ex-hippies, ex-punkers, ex-librarians, and other groovy peeps who are now in their late forties, fifties, and early sixties.
I left out a lot of great adjectives, but if you have gotten the impression that Baby Boomers are not one big homogenous slice of tart apple pie, you would be right. People in their 40s are not seniors. People in their 60s have never seen a mosh pit. And, some boomers (quite a few) have lead quiet, complacent lives raising their kids…and you might be one of those kids. So, don't disrespect your elders. Kidding.
Baby Boomer Years
Statisticians say that the baby boom started in 1946 after soldiers came home from WWII (3.4 million births that year) and ended in 1964 (4 million births). This adds up to almost 80 million Baby Boomers. Boomers will be somewhere between 47 and 65 years old in 2011. And, I happen to have fallen right into the middle of the boom, between the Beatle Boomers and the Disco Boomers. Well, that’s how I like to think of the two Boomer sects because music was very important to Boomers. And, Baby Boomers had a cool soundtrack to accompany their lives...until Echo Boomers came up with rap.
My point is this: The Baby Boomer generation is so big that marketers and actuaries have had to chop the group into two halves.
- Beatle Baby Boomer Cohort #1 (born 1946 – 1955) was around for Beatlemania, mod clothing for men and women, Vietnam, free love, Jimi Hendrix, and all the fun stuff that you think of when you try to imagine Boomers.
- Disco Baby Boomer Cohort #2 (born 1956 – 1964) was in school during disco, Watergate, and a lot of other boring stuff. (You know you're a Disco Boomer if you can find Leif in a group of singers.) Well, punk music was during their time, and that was cool. But, I basically think of Disco Boomers as conformists compared to the older, more-frenetic cohort, who wanted to change the world, and then decided the world was cool as it was. Some people call the younger Boomers "Generation Jones". Maybe that’s because Jones is a common last name and Disco Boomers were less rebellious and more common than older Boomers. (Just ribbing my younger sister.)
Baby Boomer Narcissism
Yes, all Baby Boomers believe that they were born into the best of all generations. Why do we think that?
We lived in a time of prosperity and, since there were a lot of us, advertisers geared their products toward us, TV shows geared their content toward us, and anyone who wanted to sell anything told us that we were fabulous and that we could be even more fabulous with the help of their product. Well, we believed them. Are Boomers fabulous? Some of us are. Some of us aren’t.
However, flattering the Baby Boomers will get you whatever you want.
Baby Boomer Leaders
Most Baby Boomers are not leaders. They are followers. And, if you can convince this market that their leaders use your product, they will probably buy it. Unfortunately, John Lennon is dead, so there are very few “leaders” for the Beatle Boomers. And, I think that Al Gore is perceived to be a leader of youngster rather than a leader of Boomers.
Famous Beatle Boomers who could be leaders:
- Richard Branson (July 18, 1950)
- Jimmy Buffett (December 25, 1946)
- Deepak Chopra (October 22, 1946)
- Bill Clinton (August 19, 1946)
- Hillary Clinton (October 26, 1947)
- Susan Dey (December 10, 1952)
- Sally Field (November 6, 1946)
- Ron Howard (March 1, 1954)
- John Kasich (May 13, 1952)
- Julie Kavner (September 7, 1950)
- Condoleezza Rice (November 14, 1954, Middle-Eastern heart-throb)
- Sissy Spacek (December 25, 1949)
- Sally Ride (May 26, 1951, "bought her a brand new Mustang, a 1965")
- Cheryl Tiegs (September 25, 1947)
- John Travolta (February 18, 1954)
- Denzel Washington (December 28, 1954)
- Oprah Winfrey (January 29, 1954)
A similar list of younger Disco Boomers would include:
- Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com (January 12, 1964)
- Jon Bon Jovi (March 2, 1962)
- Bono (May 10, 1960)
- Carrie Fisher (October 21, 1956)
- Eddie Murphy (April 3, 1961)
- Mel Gibson (January 3, 1956)
- Tom Hanks (July 9, 1956)
- Darryl Hannah (December 3, 1960)
- Sean Hannity (December 30, 1961)
- Madonna (August 16, 1958)
- Conan O’Brien (April 18, 1963)
- Donny Osmond (December 9, 1957)
You might want to understand what people like about these Boomer heroes by putting together a focus group. Maybe you can find other Boomers who embody the same characteristics, but won't cost a fortune. Then, you could use those heroes (or actors) to hawk your latest cool widget, or more likely, your boring insurance product.
Well, I can tell you one thing. We, Boomers, will rock until our dying breaths, because we have been told how great we are over and over by the media. And, hey...when your laptop dies, come to us. We are dinosaurs who can write in cursive as fast as you can text.
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Christina Gregoire - Christina Gregoire writes about divorce, fashion, and baby boomers. Her forte is explaining complex ideas in simple language.
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