Marketing Consulting

For the first time in history, two very different generations currently make up the "over 50" category of persons living in the U.S. Most businesses aren't prepared to serve either one.

Consumers are becoming more sophisticated spenders. As boomers age, businesses that rely on the so-called "senior market" will be in for a shock if their marketing programs, including customer service, fail to keep pace with a radical shift in demographic characteristics and structure. Moreover, those who continue to buy into stereotype marketing will see their R.O.I. go A.W.O.L.

Generational marketing is already a mess of misguided myths -- all you have to do is turn on the television for a few minutes to see that stereotypes rule the airwaves. Marketing dollars get thrown at segments of the population with the least spending power, while consumers who control most of the nation's wealth get bombarded by advertising focused on bodily functions gone awry.

While ageism continues to drive marketing spending, the 50+ demographic is undergoing its most dramatic reformulation ever. This demographic currently controls more than 70 percent of all personal financial assets in the U.S. While small segments of corporate America have used their considerable resources to research and court the lucrative baby boom market, understanding that the generations following are not only smaller in number but also lighter in pocketbook heft, almost all but those companies directly dependent on the older market have turned their collective backs on the wants, needs and expectations of older consumers in the U.S.

Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Ruffenach laid out the numbers during his keynote address to The Association of Gerontology in Higher Education last March (2003) in St. Petersburg, Florida:

On the one hand, within a dozen years, the United States will have an estimated 106 million people ages 50 and older, or 45% of the adult population (emphasis ours). On the other hand, this country has a business community, which-for all its supposed savvy-really doesn't know what to make of older adults or how to approach them… One would think that companies would be falling all over themselves to accommodate aging Americans, who by various estimates have anywhere from $1.6 trillion to $2 trillion dollars in spending power. Instead, many businesses regard older adults--at best--as a marginal audience--at worst--as a market not worth pursuing at all.

The marketing staffs at Future Age Consulting Inc. represent a variety of disciplines including anthropology, sociology, psychology, gerontology, and traditional marketing. Company founder, Dr. Tina Quartaroli, has spent over a decade personally researching the wants, needs, and expectations of both the WWII and baby boom generations, a combined market of well over 100 million consumers. While some marketers happily sell silly myths of fast-car-craving, free-spending, dying-to-be-young boomers, and cluelessly-cautious, tight-fisted, continuously-constipated seniors, we work with real numbers and real people. We know your market, we understand your market, and we can help you reach your market - the real one, that is.