Cars and Africa – beginning of a trend?

Slowly, very slowly, you are seeing the buying power of older people (still referred to as boomers) being understood by marketers. Maybe it is just a convenient justification for decision made for other reasons, but increasingly companies talk about their products appealing to the “niche boomer market”.

These are two examples from articles published today.

“U.S. convertible sales the last two years have been over 330,000 units, or about 4% of passenger cars sold and 2% of all vehicles, according to Power Information Network. It's not a blistering market, but automakers are betting that aging baby boomers increasingly will opt for second personal cars after trading in minivans and big SUVs no longer needed for hauling kids. That's why Cadillac, Pontiac, Ford, BMW, Chrysler, Mazda and Nissan all are adding droptops- this is a growing niche that we must be in," says VW Chairman Bernd Pischetsrieder.”

An article in the Harvard Business Review Newsletter about tourism to Africa.
“We have identified three major markets of American travelers who could be attracted to Africa. Baby boomers. They like to travel. They are young in attitude, physically fit, and at the peak of their earning power, she said. There are expected to be around 23 million boomers aged 45-55 by 2005.” Interestingly the other two niches they identified were Adventure travelers and Cultural heritage tourists. From my own experience, both of these groups will be very well populated with people over the age of 50).

Great oaks from little acorns grow (or something like that).