Why You Really Want to Care that Marketers Ignore Us...

(from our 7/24 show re-aired 9/4)
To maintain my status as a Boomer Expert, I ask thousands of Boomers how they feel about being a part of the biggest and most influential generation alive today…actually, in the history of our nation. 

Another question I ask is, given our size and influence, whether it bothers them that almost all the commercials targeting us entail hospital beds following us around, or grown people in two bathtubs… some say yes, but many say no – that they don’t care because, really, why is that important? 

Well, here’s why marketing to us matters.

Very simply, when marketers are ignoring us, that means companies creating those products and services are ignoring us.  As a result, they aren’t geared to our shopping and consumer needs. We don’t see things like:

• A greater variety of stylish women’s shoes in wider widths (as we Boomer women know, feet grow wider as we grow older…shoe manufacturers don’t seem to care, however)
• Or Products usually found at your local drug store that are easy to open rather than so hermetically sealed as to require construction tools to open
• Or Customer service that relies more on personal rather than computerized contact – kids don’t mind never talking to a real person…but we do
• Or Larger type on product labels and store shelves so we can read ‘em without the need for glasses – BTW kudos to Ford for doing just that on the dashes of many of their new cars
• Speaking of cars: How about automobiles with built in seat swivels to make getting in and out of the car easier…
  

…and that’s just a few of the thousands of changes that we can see once companies get the fact that we spend more than any other generation …which means products/services need to be right for us, too – not just 25 year olds.  Talk with your wallets, my fellow Boomers.

You have been officially alerted….