The Power of Baby Boomer Women Conversations

Very interesting new research out about the trends of word-of-mouth communications among baby boomer women.  It seems that unlike their younger counterparts (18-39),  word-of-mouth among baby boomer women (43-62) is:

more credible;

more likely to be passed on to others;

more likely to result in seeking additional  nformation; and,

more likely to lead to a sale.

The research on the power of personal recommendations in purchasing decisions is from Prevention magazine and the Keller Fay Group.  They followed women over a year studying 15 purchasing categories.  among the highlights:  68% of boomer women rate what they hear in their conversations as being credible (10 points higher than younger women); 56% are likely to pass along what they hear to others; 39% seek additional information; and, 55% intend to purchase.

“In this era of less trust in our institutions, marketers would be wise to pay attention to the power and influence of boomer women talk,” says Bob Siltz, VP/publisher of Prevention.

Top Beauty Brands baby boomer women talked about: Olay, Dove, Avon, Pantene, Suave, Bath & Body Works, Mary Kay, Crest, L’Oreal and Revlon.

Top 20 brands boomer women are more likely to talk about:

Folgers, Olay, Avon, Walgreens, Pantene, Kraft, Litpon, JC Penney, CVS, Olive Garden, Kohl’s, Red Lobster, Diet Pepsi, Sears, Tylenol, Diet Coke, Applebee’s, Fisher Price, Dove and Kroger.

We know that these conversations are taking place in person and online everyday. As boomer women we know that we look to each other for advice on everything from beauty to caregiving decisions.  It’s exciting to see how action-oriented these conversations are and the potential they have for boomer businesses who know how to enable these conversations among their customers.  We’ll be featuring sessions at the Boomer Summit on how companies are using Web 2.0 tools to engage their customers.

Retail spending trends: more coupons, less eating out

A new consumer spending tracking study gives us some insight into where consumers are making cutbacks in spending.  While the data isn’t specific to baby boomers, we suspect the patterns among boomers would be the same. Escape to video games and the movies seems to be big!

The NPD Consumer Spending Indicator reports that in October, consumers said they were most likely to cut back on dining out (with 57% saying they planned to spend less), followed by apparel at 54% and entertainment at 50%.  The least likely to be affected will be video games at 35%, toys at 39%, movies at 43%, beauty at 44%, and music 44%.

“Consumers are looking to spend less in the places they are able to find alternatives or ‘go without’ for now.” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst, The NPD Group, Inc., “Things like eating out less or at less expensive restaurants or going another season with the coat or sweater you bought last year are examples of where consumer behavior is changing.”   

The monthly survey also asks consumers if they plan to change shopping behavior to save money.  In October, only 35% said they haven’t changed their behavior, a seven point decrease since April.

Spending Behavior
	April	October
No Difference	42%	35%
Sales	25%	28%
Coupons	23%	27%

 “Each month one percent of our survey respondents decide to change how they shop, signaling there are lots of opportunities for the more progressive retailer,” said Cohen.

While consumers may intend to change how they shop, for now they are not changing where they shop. Forty-five percent of those surveyed said that current economic conditions will have no impact on where they will shop, compared to 44% in April.

Social Media and Boomer Business

While we all reflect on the historic nature of the election last Tuesday, there’s also a lot of discussion about the way the Obama campaign used social media tools to connect with volunteers and voters. 

 It really is astounding. 

 In the 2004 election, there was no Facebook or YouTube or Twitter.  Emails didn’t have embedded videos.  An Obama administration will likely continue to use these tools –and more–to reach out to citizens.

Read this article in Business Week http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2008/tc2008115_988160.htm

And, these tools were not just embraced by younger generations — boomers were e-mailing, texting, twittering, blogging , watching videos and sharing it all with their networks.  It’s a good reminder that business too can use these tools to reach boomer and senior prospects and customers.

At What’s Next 2009, we’ll be talking about new media success stories.  Do you have a story to share?

Is marketing to baby boomers going to change?

The economy is taking its toll on baby boomers.  Those on the leading edge — late 50s and early 60s – have seen their retirement dreams deflate along with their 401(k) accounts.

So what’s it going to change about their lifestyle and their attitude?

We’ve spent a lot of time as marketers getting into their psyche, researching them from every angle — does it all still stick? And if it doesn’t, what has changed?  Or are we going to have to find new marketing messages to reach baby boomer customers?

This is one of the big topics we’ll be talking about at the conference in March.  What do you think?  What are you seeing in the behavior of your customers and prospects?