Baby Boomers!

Most accounts say there are 70 million or so of the original 79 million Boomers born during the Baby Boom years, 1946-64 still alive. That is70 plus million with a whole lot of purchasing power, the last two years notwithstanding. We are many things, “older” being but one, but also a long, long list of other adjectives including “consumers”.

Many CE marketers I come in contact with are the children of Boomers, themselves members of another already largely forgotten Gen classification (remember “Gen X”?) Intelligent, educated managers who are also (how to put this remembering I have clients who might read my description of them) shall we say, a bit “confined” in their views of who is and is not a consumer for what they make or sell.  For many of them, Boomers are not on the radar because they are, they believe, too old to be interested in consumer electronics and technology.

You can find products that appear purposely aimed at Boomers, for example, Nintendo’s BrainAge.  Or features such as enlarged text on eReaders, iPads and the like.  But come on is that it?  Really?  What next, a secret iPod carrying pouch feature on adult diapers?

Well, the good news is we don’t need our own special line of CE/tech products, the occasional accommodation for diminishing eyesight notwithstanding.  All that is out there is as appropriate for most of us as it is for the skinny jeans crowd, and in at least one respect, more so.  We can afford it.

I saw Eric Clapton a couple of weeks back at Seattle’s Key Arena whose 16,641 seats were all filled with what appeared to be Boomers, all of us paying from $75 to $1,000 to watch and listen while Boomer Eric and opening Boomers Los Lobos, played some great music.  Music we would also like to hear and watch on expensive home, car, and personal AV systems.

You want to sell more?

Put aside the tired age related stereotypes of who is and is not a consumer for CE/tech.  Don’t ignore or worse yet, talk down to us 70,000,000+ Boomers.  We’re older, not dead, and have some money left over for what you sell after buying our Viagra, frequent urination, and varicose vein meds.

William Matthies is the CEO of Coyote Insight (www.coyoteinsight.com) and can be reached at wmatthies@coyoteinsight.com or at (714) 726-2901. Visit Business Wisdom at http://businesswisdom101.blogspot.com/