MARKETING TO BABY BOOMERS
So many people arrive en masse at the "final life stage." However, Baby Boomers will give traditional retirement a new meaning. To market to them, you must "school" yourself on Boomers. Here are a few tips.
Talk to them. Ask them questions. Learn where they are in life, and find out where they want to go. Use resources such as genpolicy.com on the Internet. Books by Chuck Nyren, "Advertising to Baby Boomers" and Brent Green, "Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers," also are good resources.
Evaluate your product portfolio. Boomers have specific needs. How does your portfolio speak to those needs? Once you have completed your evaluation, get creative. If you wait for the companies that you represent to offer brochures and sales flyers that are "Boomer Bitchin'," you will become a dinosaur.
For all their good intent, company brochures and promotional materials are "designed by legal departments." Instead, create your own promotional materials that compliment company brochures using Boomer language and pointing to you as the Boomer insurance and financial life coach.
Save time and money. Hire a Boomer to assist you in your marketing efforts. Look for a Boomer with attitude. When they were kids, companies focused the majority of their marketing efforts on Boomers. When they got out of college, marketers hired Boomers to market to Boomers. Now that they are older marketers, ad agencies and corporations are relying on non-Boomers for creative ways to capture the Boomer market. Something's terribly wrong with that picture.
Do non-Boomers know that Boomers maintain a healthy materialistic appetite, that they have a higher level of education or that they will live longer than any generation before them? Market Boomer to Boomer to capture more of the market.
Talk Boomer talk.Your marketing message needs to stay away from the doom and gloom of aging. Remember the mantra, "not a senior." According to political scientist Paul Light, the average Boomer viewed 15,000 hours of television by age 16, and by the time they reached 21, they had seen more than 300,000 commercials. Do you think they are a slight bit skeptical when it comes to advertisers and marketers?
Boomers have fine-tuned their brain to skip over negative stimuli. Advertising should speak about the product from the Boomers' perspective. Talk about quality of life and well-being, and provide answers to the multitude of questions the next life stage holds for them.
Mirror Boomers.Show them you are involved and passionate about the battle to age with dignity and well-being living younger, not older. Let Boomers know you refuse to deliver the same retirement package of products and services that have been used on the previous generation. Guide Boomers to the companies that "get it," and demonstrate your sensitivity to issues they face at this time of their life. Give them the information they need and generate "experiences" that increase their interest in your products and services.
Keep your marketing design visually simple. Use contrasting colors (they like color) and easy-to-read fonts and sizes. If a Boomer has to work too hard to understand your message, they will give you the Boomer boot.
Connect with a well-told story. When they were children, Boomers were told bedtime stories, not bedtime facts. As they grow older, they are constantly faced with the facts of aging, working longer, war, flu shot shortages, gas prices, politics and life moving quickly by them. Boomers need the products you represent in your Boomer portfolio. Who they purchase products from depends on how they are marketed to. The power of a well-told story is unsurpassed compared with the confusing messages they are bombarded with each day.
Be passionate with the service you provide. Boomer service with a passion must be engrained in your business at every touch point that you or anyone associated with your business has with a Baby Boomer. Good service is hard to come by. Passionate service keeps customers for life. Take action now to capture your share of the Baby Boomer market.
AUTO DEALERS COMPENSATION OF CALIF. RETURNS $9.6 MILLION
The trustee board of the Auto Dealers Compensation of California Inc. has announced an equity distribution of approximately $9.6 million to its auto dealership members. AD-COMP is a private workers' compensation group self-insured program. The group covers 239 auto dealer members, with close to $30 million in annual contributions, according to AD-COMP.
"This great success can be attributed to all of our members taking advantage of the superb safety and loss programs to eliminate claims and to the tremendous impact of diligent claims management," said Chairperson Mike Johnson.
The AD-COMP program, an alternative to the traditional commercial workers' compensation insurance market, was developed with the goals of:
1. Streamlining administrative costs;
2. Helping to reduce losses before they occur implementing "World Class" risk control programs;
3. Funding conservatively in accordance with state regulatory guidelines to cover losses that do arise;
4. Purchasing excess insurance for extremely large claims;
5. Administering claims effectively and efficiently once they occur;
6. Providing oversight of the claims process to help control the cost of claims;
7. Marketing the program to prospective members who are committed to reducing their workers' compensation exposures; and
8. Adhering to the strict guidelines mandated and regulated by the State of California, Office of Self-Insurance Plans.
AD-COMP is administered by Bickmore Risk Services. Claims are managed by Intercare Insurance Services, and brokerage and marketing services are provided by Dealer Cover Insurance Services.
FIRE BURNS IDAHO MALL
Several businesses at a Coeur d'Alene, Idaho- mall were destroyed in a fire in late December. The blaze was likely started by a heat cable in a drain pipe, fire department investigator Glenn Lauper said.
Lake City Shoe Repair, 7-11, Beau Monde Exchange, Kids Corners, Pay Day Loans and the former La Petite building suffered an estimated $1 million in damage, officials said.
No one was injured in the fire, although two firefighters were treated and released after slipping on ice in the parking lot. The icy conditions were made worse by the spraying water from the fire fight.
"It's the biggest loss this year," said Lauper of the damage. "We have had an increase in fires in the entire community, not just in Coeur d'Alene, and they're all weather- and heater-related."
Pay Day Loans owner Donna Noll said she and her husband, Derrick, put all their savings into the business, but that they didn't carry liability insurance. Most of the couple's Christmas presents for their four children were burned in the fire. They had been stored in the back room of the business.
Brooke Miller, owner of consignment shop Beau Monde Exchange, said she's glad nobody was hurt. She plans to reopen at a different location after insurance matters are settled and those who had consignments and in-store credits get their money.
Lauper said the owner of the mall and its insurance company will conduct an independent investigation into the fire.
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