Tailoring Ads to Aging Boomers

By Tom Ryan

While past generations were known for entrenched habits, frugality and sedentary lifestyles, today's consumers in their 60s, 70s and 80s are showing a willingness to travel, dine out and adopt new technologies. That's why the advertising world is changing their approach on how to reach older consumers, particularly as more and more baby boomers enter the upper bracket.

'They see life as something to grab and want to look great, feel great,' Mary Lou Quinlan, who runs Just Ask a Woman, a marketing company that works for clients like Clairol and GlaxoSmithKline, told the New York Times. 'They won't settle for the meager choices marketers might have offered in the past."

One newer advertising theme in reaching the new older consumer is the more youthful approach. For instance, Harley-Davidson holds garage party events at local dealerships along with courses for new riders at Rider's Edge, the Harley-Davidson motorcycle school; and also runs ads in magazines aimed at more mature women like More, Shape and Women's Health.

'There are certain categories that still have this obsession with youth,' said Brenda Saget Darling, More's vice president and publisher, among them fashion.

Another change comes from financial companies increasingly aiming their pitch for retirement planning to women.

Biomet, which sells artificial hips and knees, recently launched a campaign featuring Mary Lou Retton, the former Olympic gymnast, who is 39.

'She definitely trends in with our new group of demographics, boomers who want to be more active and don't want to live with pain,' Stacey Jones, director for consumer marketing at Biomet Orthopedics, told the Times.

Dove Pro-Age Ad; www.doveproage.com

Not every marketing switch targeting the new older consumer has been a clear hit. For example, a new line of anti-aging products sold by Unilever under the Dove Pro-Age name drew widespread attention for ads of nude grandmothers, tastefully photographed by Annie Leibovitz. But the line was being outsold by a similar line of products offered by Procter & Gamble under the Olay Definity brand, which had used a more conventional advertising approach. As a result, Advertising Age recently wondered whether the Dove ads 'went a step too far in embracing aging in all its naked, wrinkled and sagging glory.'

An older woman 'doesn't wake up and say, 'I'm glad I look older today,'' Ms. Quinlan of Just Ask a Woman, told the Times. 'As marketers try to come up with a new set of role models and icons, there will be missteps.'

Discussion Questions: How should advertisers be marketing to baby boomers as they reach old age? What approaches should remain the same or be different from their approaches to past older generations? What missteps do you see advertisers making?

• Tailoring Messages to a New Audience: Wrinkled Baby Boomers - The New York Times