Believe all of us!

This is Carol Orsborn’s response to the previous blog posting. Of course she is absolutely right.

All of the studies reveal that there's cause to celebrate—and room for growth! The FH Boom (Fleishman-Hillard) and Zoomerang (Market Tools) studies say that the majority of boomers believe that companies are doing a better job today than they were 10 years ago when it comes to marketing their products and services to them. While this is so, it also means that there are still a substantial number of boomers who aren’t yet feeling the love from marketers. But as all the studies show (including your citation from GfK) the group of boomers who feel ignored are definitively in the minority.

Of course, media and the marketers can do better, but these new surveys are big, in that they are signs of a societal sea change, that is no less than revolutionary. What generation in our lifetime has actually experienced being more embraced by media/marketing as they aged, rather than less? The answer is zip. So what we have here is something worthy of our attention—as well as our optimism!

All the studies are also in alignment concerning the boomer’s relationship to television. The citation from GfK, the boomers who indicated that they feel ignored were specifically speaking about television advertising. The FH Boom study reveals that just one-third of boomers say television advertisements are the best way to reach them about new products and services. The Internet is an equally powerful medium—but the news here is that the majority of boomers (76%) indicate that they prefer to get information about products and services from multiple sources. The Zoomerang survey places an exclamation point on the television and boomer stats, noting that the internet is the most important source of information for boomers when making a major purchase, such as automobiles or appliances.

In other words, boomers are turning to other media, filling in the gaps that TV advertising has left behind.

I rarely use this blog to recommend books (other than my own) and never when I have been directly approached to do so by the author. I bought Carol’s book Boom when I was in the US. If you want an insight into marketing to the Boomer women then this is the book to buy. You should also visit Carol's blog. Dick Stroud