How to Sell to Boomers (Story published by 10 + News Oulets)!

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To boomer Chuck Nyren, who has spent years working in advertising and has written a book about selling to his demographic, one of the keys to drawing in the 50-plus crowd is to stop treating them like they’re old.

The problem with ad campaigns for products targeted at boomers, he says, is that advertising firms don’t know how to treat that group.

“If they do it at all, it’s only for products that are medical, maybe vacations,” he said in an a telephone interview from his home in Snohomish, Wash., near Seattle.

“If you’re over 50 and you watch television, it just keeps reinforcing the fact that you’re sick. That automatically kind of turns you off to everything. They think of baby boomers as either old, smiling vapid people on a beach, or as old hippies.”

Boomers buy a variety of products, just like younger people do, and pigeonholing them into certain categories isn’t going to help retailers make the most out of their shopping dollars, he added.

And to Nyren, 62, in-store marketing isn’t doing much better.

“If you walk into a mall, it just gets annoying because there’s so much noise that is directed toward younger people, even for products that are for older people, and it doesn’t really grab you anymore,” he said.

Clearer labels and product information that is more easily available are two simple ways McVie says can help draw in consumers.

Smaller shopping carts at grocery stores with magnifying glasses attached, an emphasis on single or double-serve portions instead of family packs, promotions that target price over quantity and mobile apps that help people locate and learn about products are also ways to cater to the boomer group, he said.

Some changes can be as simple as moving where an item sits on the shelf.

“You’ve got people that are in their 60s and 70s who want those products but actually find it hard to reach them, and when they do reach them, sometimes they knock things over and they fall on top of them,” McVie said.

“The smarter retailers need to realize that they need to tailor the in-store experience for those individuals.”

© The Canadian Press


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