New Book Covers Successful Marketing And Advertising To Boomer Generation

Furniture World Magazine

Successful marketing and advertising to today's Boomer generation requires new strategies and creative tactics. Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers reveals what works and what doesn't. Somewhere between Woodstock Nation and Over-The-Hill, the most sought after market in America became passé. The fortysomething-to-sixty crowd has not been attracting its fair share of commercial attention. This is an ill-bred business blunder. The influential over-50 segment has $750 billion in spending power and today controls 50 percent of all discretionary income. Even more staggering is an unfolding demographic truth: more than 30 percent of Americans will be over 50 by 2010. The frontrunners are Leading-Edge Baby Boomers, the founders of modern youth culture and adroit consumers of yuppie materialism. They have never been shy about exalting brands when products meet their astute expectations. Now, the enormity of this segment is evolving to become the most lucrative marketing opportunity in fifteen years. Americans born between 1946 and 1955 are poised to shatter traditional assumptions about the sixth and seventh decades of life. They will not tolerate stereotypes or ageism. They will expect stylish products to instill value beyond mere utility. They will invest in products and services that speak to deeper values, and they will reward those who crack the marketing code. This "fascinating and trenchant" tome tells how. Provocative and incisive, Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers reveals the seminal secrets to successful marketing. A thorough discussion discloses the psychological, sociological and interpersonal dimensions of a generation roaring into retirement. Authorities love and loathe baby boomers. The generation's economic clout and penchant for quality products make one of today's most desirable target markets. However, their cultural impact and conflicted Vietnam War era history, often casts them as devils of social deterioration. Boomers represent the renaissance and ruin of the nation's social stability. Marketing to Leading-edge Baby Boomers: Perceptions, Practices, Principles, Predictions, to be published January 15, 2005, is a sweeping exploration of the generation born between 1946 and 1964, with emphasis on the 37 million born during the first 10 years of the boom. Author Brent Green covers divergent topics from boomer icons, erectile dysfunction to classic rock 'n roll. From the perspective of a seasoned marketing creative director, Brent Green delivers clarifying "pattern recognition" about the momentous social forces converging as 12,000 boomers turn 50 every day. And he examines longstanding derogatory boomer images, such as their reprehensible reputation earned during the confrontational Sixties and amplified during the Yuppie Eighties. In the first section, Perceptions, the author scrutinizes downbeat images of boomers and the disquieting rise of a new ageism, which connects an alleged "self-absorbed" agenda to traditional stereotypes of "greedy geezers." He describes a phenomenon he calls genism as "an unprecedented double whammy." In the sections, Principles and Practices, Green elucidates boomer "bipolar metavalues," illustrated with anecdotes and historical context. He provides perceptive "how-to" advice, from crafting effective ad copy to reaching boomers on the Internet. Pragmatic marketing advice includes case studies validating the effectiveness of generational marketing strategies. In the final section, Predictions, Green proposes challenges and opportunities confronting the generation in the coming decades. He predicts boomer activism will rise again like as social forces congeal into economic and social distress and foresees an era of either unprecedented generational cooperation or fierce conflict. To build upon these predictions, while adding texture to the boomer zeitgeist, the book includes a short story whose fictional characters embrace selfless civic engagement and a feisty unwillingness to become marginalized, altruistic values versus legendary independence. One pundit describes Green's short fiction simply as "disturbing." Author Biography: Brent Green is a former counseling therapist, and today he is a marketing communications consultant with over 25 years of experience. He has had numerous successes marketing a multitude of products and services to Baby Boomers. Over fifty regional, national, and international awards acknowledge his creative and commercial accomplishments, including the highest distinction in target marketing, the Direct Marketing Association's International Gold ECHO award. Title: Marketing to Leading-edge Baby Boomers: Perceptions, Principles, Practices Predictions Author: Brent Green Publisher: Paramount Market Publishing, Inc., 301 S. Geneva St. #109, Ithaca, NY 14850 ISBN: 0-9725290-7-1 Publication date: January 15, 2005 Price: $39.95 hard cover