How Baby Boomers Think
“I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support, rather than for illumination.”
– David Ogilvy
In Marketing & Sales – How Baby Boomers Think Is Just As Important As What They Think
Baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964 and approximately 78 million strong, are a very significant segment of todays markets. Moreover, the whole business of marketing, sales and public relations is about getting information into people’s brains and persuading their minds to buy or take some other action.
The older we become the more emotional reactions determine if we should think about a matter. Emotional triggers in the brain activate memories and the stronger the memory – the stronger the emotional response. Marketing and sales must integrate both empathy and vulnerability (honesty and openness) into marketing messages. These two attributes are necessary to build trust, and are essential to optimal results in marketing and sales communications to boomer and senior customers.
Your Markets Are Changing
Now that the adult median age is in the mid-40s and continuing to rise, pressure is building on company marketing and sales professionals to learn how to better market to a dominantly older customer population. Progress in this direction must be founded in the recognition that young, middle-aged and older brains and minds all work differently.
Though we don’t notice it happening changes take place across our full life span in how information is processed by our brains (which process information sent to it by the five senses) and the mind (where thinking takes place). How a 30-year-old mind processes the contents of a commercial, print ad or direct mail piece will be markedly different from how a 50 or 60-year-old mind processes the same information.
Our colleague, David B. Wolfe, noted author, lecturer and expert in marketing to older consumers suggests eight changes in how we process information as we age:
Eight Progressive Changes in How Older Minds Process Information
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Less reliance on reason to determine what is of interest, and more on intuition (which is cued by emotional responses).
Implications: identify and employ images that promote strong positive emotional responses; relationship building must precede presentation of company and product; relationship potentialities are primarily emotionally inferred (“gut feelings”) – rather than rationally deduced.
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First impressions (which are always emotionally based) are more durable and more difficult to reverse than for younger adults.
Implications: be sensitive to images that can stimulate negative first impressions. It is probable that the strongest sources of negative impressions are images that conflict with idealized image of self, especially with respect to autonomy and sense of personal validity.
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After a matter qualifies for interest and further attention, baby boomers tend to want more information than do younger consumers.
Implications: manage the transaction continuum so that emotional cues are present when most advantageous, then shift to “hard” or objective information when most advantageous; information content must be no greater than what the baby boomer wants at a given point in time.
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Decreasing speed in rational processing of objective information.
Implications: Deliver objective information (e.g., product benefits and features, technical information, etc.) at a slow to moderate pace. Avoid “jump cuts” and incomplete sentences.
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More resistant to absolute propositions.
Implications: present information on company and products in a qualified, even deferential manner.
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More sensitive to metaphorical meanings, nuances and subtleties.
Implications: take advantage of greater sensitivity to subtlety to expand the content of the message, especially in terms of metavalues – values that transcend the generic value of the service and expand its perceived attractiveness. Nonverbal symbols are effective in accomplishing this.
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More receptive to narrative-styled presentations of information, less responsive to information presented in expository style.
Implications: Make greater use of story-telling techniques to get information across. Stories are generally quicker to arouse emotions than straight-forward propositions about a product’s features. Think Hallmark Cards – they surpass most in using stories to present products. Resistance to emotionally neutral information (mainly processed in the left hemisphere of the brain) increases in midlife. Storytelling has become an important part of market strategy. Whoever tells the best story and tells it best will most likely win.
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Perceptions are more holistic.
Implications: Project an interest in the “whole” person, not just the facet that might need a particular product or service; also, avoid depicting representatives of target markets in flat, single dimension contexts (e.g., simply showing consumers using or talking about the product without reference to a larger context).
Understanding how a baby boomer’s brain and mind processes information is key to effective communications. If an ad, TV or radio spot, web site or sales presentation fails to connect with a baby boomer’s idealized image of self, it is more likely to be ignored.
For more information on how we can help you to improve marketing, sales & service to baby boomers and seniors, contact us at info@comingofage.com or call us at 630-462-7100.