However, since they already have enough housing, cars, and clothing to satisfy what they need, they possess the power to withhold spending until brands deliver precisely on what they want as customers-a far cry from a decade ago when they were still paying for homes, cars, and educations. Today, the purchasing power of this group makes brand managers salivate because the likelihood of converting interest or preference into sale is higher among boomers than any other demographic segment.

Boomers significantly influence the consumption preferences of many products; hence, the recent resurgence of classic rock and bands such as Led Zeppelin and the Eagles. Just as music migrates as boomers move through different life stages, so also have other products followed this trend, with automobiles providing perhaps the most observable example. The 1980s were all about minivans; their personality defined baby boomers’ needs for maximum capacity and flexibility to transport a cargo of kids. In the 1990s, however, cargo demands diminished and road dominance increased, leaving the SUV as the product of preference for baby boomers. In the 2000s, the personality of the auto industry reflects boomers’ need for fewer seats but more experience-and sporty convertibles fit the bill well.

Baby boomers will affect demand for products and services and provide growth opportunities for manufacturers, retailers, and service providers that understand the types of projected changes highlighted in Box 8.1.

The market power of baby boomers is undeniable. The strategies and nuances that have translated into bands’ long term dominance focus on staying in tune with baby boomers, who today represent an increasing proportion of music industry sales. Their most effective musical spokespersons are themselves baby boomers, and since these bands are part of this segment, relating to them is easier than for younger bands. Staying connected to them is challenging, but here are some of the ways they do it.

The principle of “Borrow from the best” lives deeply inside the walls of many stellar corporations, well illustrated by two of the most dominant brands in the world-Microsoft and Wal Mart. DOS was the operating system licensed by Microsoft for IBM personal computers, but Bill Gates didn’t write that program-it was purchased from someone else. Microsoft took an existing idea and made it a dominant product, diffusing personal computers to the masses. At Wal Mart, Sam Walton was famed for plucking ideas from employees, competitors, and books and rolling them out fast. When a reporter asked him about borrowing ideas, he acknowledged the importance of this practice, but he added, “I always try to improve on them.” The way great brands roll over everyone else is by incessant borrowing from the best-perfecting wheels, not inventing them.

Baby Boomers Rule! It’s a simple statement with profound ramifications for marketers.

Just ask the Rolling Stones, Elton John, and Bruce Springsteen, all of whom have achieved market success in part because of their connection to the largest demographic segment in the United States. Once popular with this nostalgic, massive, and lucrative market, bands that evolve to stay relevant and remain top shelf performers can ride the boomer wave to sustained profitability. Brands, such as Coke, have done the same.

Not only do baby boomers dominate the demographics of industrialized economies, they sit poised at the driver’s seat of financial demand. In defiance of the Rolling Stones’ admonition, baby boomers get satisfaction because of their freedom to spend on things they want.

Baby boomers also want to buy experiences, youth, and memories, and they look for ways to remind the rest of the world that they are not your stereotypical 50 year olds. They are younger in mind, body, and spirit than generations before them, and the picture of rocking back and forth in a rocking chair is something they reserve for people in their eighties. These midlifers remember Woodstock (or at least have some evidence that they were there) and have kept classic rock as part of their lives. It explains why the Rolling Stones, Elton John, and Neil Diamond thrive on tour.

Connecting with Boomers Nothing establishes an extrasensory connection with baby boomers more effectively than the songs and bands they loved during puberty and early adulthood. “Music defines a generation, and who could better represent or influence boomers than rock stars who are mostly baby boomers themselves, like the Rolling Stones and the Eagles,” says Stephen Swid. Some people still get the urge to gulp a Coke when they hear “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.” What defines them as a generation defines them as a market to advertising, marketing, and brand managers.

Sheer size, spending power, and accessibility make the babyboomer market extremely attractive to all kinds of marketers, even those who previously sold products to a different generation of consumers. Penetrating a new market, however, means brand rejuvenation and repositioning, even if the brand is, arguably, one of the best known of the previous century. We refer, of course, to Cadillac, the brand that went from status symbol to age identifier-becoming known as the wheels of choice for oldsters around the country. Similar to the Rolling Stones, Cadillac faces the challenges of: S Evolving its product at a rate that doesn’t alienate current fans but positions it as fresh among baby boomer markets S Creating an emotional connection with and harnessing the buying power of baby boomers to grow profits S Relating to the changing attitudes and lifestyles of its customers Since the inception of the Cadillac brand, culture and massmarket values have changed, due in part to the likes of Elvis and the Rolling Stones. Conventional behaviors, attitudes, and style of sixtysomethings indicate that Jagger, Richards, Watts, and Wood should be sporting cardigans and taking quiet walks with grandchildren.

Boomers have freedom both to spend and withhold spending.

Because they already have enough housing, cars, and clothing, they not only have the freedom to spend on what they want; they have the freedom to withhold until they find exactly what they want, whether that’s a Jaguar, a Hummer, or a Cadillac. This elevates the importance of brands in reaching growing, profitable market segments. If brand managers can create fans among aging baby boomers, the likelihood of converting interest into a sale is greater, because the boomers can

• However, Mick Jagger himself seems each year to discover another new family

responsibility, if you follow the paternity suits filed in various places.

probably afford to buy it. That’s a major difference in their lifestyle compared to a decade ago.

Aging baby boomers become fans of brands that fulfill certain expectations-quality products that are aesthetically pleasing, personally satisfying, natural, convenient, easy to use, and, if possible, noncaloric. Expect empty nester boomers to indulge in luxury travel, restaurants, and the theater, which often means they need more fashionable clothing, jewelry, and the designer brands found in department and specialty stores. They watch their waistlines and diets and are good prospects for spas, health clubs, skin care products and cosmetics, beauty parlors, and healthier foods. As they approach retirement, they purchase condominiums and begin to take more frequent but perhaps value oriented vacations, often purchased online. They need financial planners with financial products oriented toward asset accumulation and retirement income-perhaps even stocks that pay dividends.

Branding to Boomers Brands are gaining importance among boomers’ product choices. If you examine boomers’ spending patterns, you can begin to predict demand for various consumer and industrial goods. For example, when people are between the ages of 25 and 44, nearly everything they buy classifies as a necessity, because they need everything to build and run a household. In these markets, brands guide the choice between which food, cars, clothing, and household options will be bought, not whether the products should be bought. Although younger baby boomers and Generation Xers have definite brand preferences, their purchases are driven by such strong immediate need that they may not have the opportunity to exercise much brand insistence. If the household is empty, it needs to be supplied with furniture, food, and a car suited for commuting and carting kids to soccer practice; price often plays a more important role than brand during this life stage.

The baby boom buying frenzy of the 1980s and 1990s, characterized as the Need Economy, put retailers on Easy Street to growth and profits. Today, however, the Need Economy is giving way to the Want Economy, which ticks upward every seven or eight seconds, as another baby boomer someplace in the United States turns 50! Often, these peers of Mick Jagger are at the height of their careers and earning power, have low or no mortgages to pay, and have generally reduced family responsibilities.* Yet, as they reach age 50, their need to buy things to build a household is decreased, unless they have to furnish a second home due to divorce. For the most part, as they become empty nesters-with children out of the house and later out of college-they find themselves with too much stuff. They are in the unique position of having the ability to buy what they want but without the immediate need.

Show Me the Money! Baby boomers have discretionary income that vastly exceeds that of any other cohort of customers, explaining the popularity of Forty Licks and other classic rock bands and tours, including the Eagles and Chicago. Marketers have followed the baby boomers and their money for decades-from their turbulent teens and twenties, in which they were dubbed hippies, to their thirties and forties, in which they settled into good paying careers and had families. At this juncture they were considered yuppies-young urban professionals-and they bought homes (and everything for them), clothing, food, and cars at record levels, and spurred cultural changes reflected in everything from television programming (remember thirtysomething?) to fashion and beauty products. Today, those baby boomers have become muppies- middle aged urban professionals-whose changing needs today and over the next several decades will create dramatic effects on the sales and profit levels of the brands they’ve supported in the past. As they move through different stages in their lives, they will continue to support the brands with which they have an emotional connection, and their sheer volume will be a moving driver of consumer product sales.

Baby boomers delayed getting married and having children longer than any previous generation, but eventually they entered the trap and brought with them a permanent propensity to consume. They earned a lot of income during the 1980s and 1990s but they spent more than they made, buying products that past generations considered luxuries, such as consumer electronics, cable TV, cellular phones, second homes, and household services. They drove the minivan market in the 1980s and the SUV market in the 1990s, and they will drive the resurrection of the sporty convertible in the 2000s. They will also drive overall spending rates. Understanding the spending trends of boomers helps explain which sponsorships make sense for concert tours-such as E*Trade and VISA’s alliance with Elton John in the 1990s.