Captivating Connections.

generations and media.

Pew Internet has released their data on the different generations and how they each consumer different types of online media.

As they explain:

"Contrary to the image of Generation Y as the 'Net Generation,' internet users in their 20s do not dominate every aspect of online life. Generation X is the most likely group to bank, shop, and look for health information online. Boomers are just as likely as Generation Y to make travel reservations online. And even Silent Generation internet users are competitive when it comes to email (although teens might point out that this is proof that email is for old people)."

Check out the whole report here.

the boomers are brooding.

This is a great article discussing the Baby Boomer generation by, who else, a BONAFIDE BABY BOOMER!

The author takes issue with how Baby Boomers are defined today. His main point?

"Over all, I would argue we were studied too much, too soon, hilariously caricatured, masterfully trivialized and sent packing before we got started.

Plus, our nickname is highly vulnerable to delicious irony: The baby’s now on statins, the boomer’s gone bust."

It's a great read no matter what your generation (and hey, forward it to your Boomer friends and family. See what they think..).

baby boomers being impacted by recession.

During this recession, many industries are banking on Baby Boomers, who are usually more affluent than other consumer groups and have more financial security, to help see them through. However, as the recession deepens, this may no longer be the case:

"The circumstances of this recession are unprecedented in the history of modern consumerism: For a generation that has substituted rising home equity and stock prices for personal savings, the current economic meltdown -- with the value of the Dow Jones Industrial Index plunging 40 percent from its peak and $4 trillion lost in home equity -- has been psychologically wrenching after a quarter century of unquestioned prosperity.

Factor in the loss of confidence in financial institutions and an investing world where even the very rich can be wiped out through Ponzi schemes and you have a group of shell-shocked consumers who are reconsidering long-held spending habits.

Much has been made about the everyday stuff of thrifty consumerism -- coupon clipping, fewer restaurant meals, brown-bagging it to work, staying close to home for vacations. But those thumbnail sketches of a contracting economy miss the big picture: The fears among baby boomers, who account for more than half of U.S. spending and who traditionally have grown more affluent with age."

As Eric Almquist, a Bain & Co. partner, explains,  "One of the unique things in the Western world now is that you have a huge group of pre-retirement baby boomers, a huge number of people who are asking, 'Can I live off my savings and social security for the rest of my life?' This creates the potential to switch behaviors. They'll watch pennies more closely, be more careful with credit, avoid losses and be more risk adverse, preserve the status quo, rather than gain gains."

wom & women.

When it comes to Word Of Mouth, it looks like Boomer women can't stop talking (about Kraft, that is):

"Baby boomer women talk about Kraft more than any other packaged goods food brand, according to results of word-of-mouth research released Tuesday by Rodale's Prevention magazine, in partnership with Keller Fay Group's ongoing TalkTrack study."

So why is that so important? Boomer women, especially in comparison to other female segments, are a very lucrative group of ladies.

"That's significant, since the study's tracking of a year's worth of online and offline conversations also determined that boomer women have "higher quality" WOM than younger women do--the conversations are more credible, and they are more likely than younger women to pass on what they hear to others, to seek additional information and, most significantly, to actually purchase the products talked about.

In fact, boomer women (ages 43-62) had higher purchase intent than younger women (18-39) for 14 of the 15 product categories tracked, the only exception coming in Media & Entertainment. The most positive word of mouth from the boomers occurred in Beauty & Personal Care, where they surpassed younger women in all six quality criteria measured--recommendation, credibility, pass-along, additional info-seeking, and purchase intent. The top talked-about brand in the category was Olay, followed by Dove, Avon, Pantene, Suave, Bath & Body Works, Mary Kay, Crest, L'Oreal and Revlon."

technology for children of all ages.

Although Boomers have made major leaps in the way they understand and engage with technologies, let's face it: They'll never be (no offense, Boomers), as a whole, super tech-savvy (or at least as savvy as Gen Y and Gen We).

The NYTimes addresses this today, showing how companies are working to best service Boomers:

In the 1960s, baby boomers, like most young people, could not wait to leave home.

Today, those boomers are trying to figure out how to stay at home, even if they are past the age when their parents made the passage to senior living. Companies that have long profited from the transformation of the counterculture into the over-the-counter culture are creating products that they hope will help them do that.

Here is what you have to look forward to as you enter your 60s and 70s: deciphering conversations at cocktail parties becomes difficult; you cannot remember where you put your keys; and your grandchildren think you are a computer klutz.

Fortunately, technologies are appearing that can remedy some of these shortcomings, helping those in their 60s maintain their youthful self-images.

“The new market is old age,” said Joseph F. Coughlin, director of the AgeLab at M.I.T. “Baby boomers provide a perpetually youthful market.”They are, says Mr. Coughlin, himself a spry 47, “looking for technology to stay independent, engaged, well and vital.”

As most of them have finished rearing their children and paying for their education, they also have a lot of money, said Mr. Coughlin, and they are looking to spend it on technology.

The companies that are successfully marketing new technologies to older people are not those that have created high-tech ways for seniors to open jars. Rather, they are the ones that have learned to create products that span generations, providing style and utility to a range of age groups.

Are there any tools that you can think of that fit this description?

technology for children of all ages.

Although Boomers have made major leaps in the way they understand and engage with technologies, let's face it: They'll never be (no offense, Boomers), as a whole, super tech-savvy (or at least as savvy as Gen Y and Gen We).

The NYTimes addresses this today, showing how companies are working to best service Boomers:

In the 1960s, baby boomers, like most young people, could not wait to leave home.

Today, those boomers are trying to figure out how to stay at home, even if they are past the age when their parents made the passage to senior living. Companies that have long profited from the transformation of the counterculture into the over-the-counter culture are creating products that they hope will help them do that.

Here is what you have to look forward to as you enter your 60s and 70s: deciphering conversations at cocktail parties becomes difficult; you cannot remember where you put your keys; and your grandchildren think you are a computer klutz.

Fortunately, technologies are appearing that can remedy some of these shortcomings, helping those in their 60s maintain their youthful self-images.

“The new market is old age,” said Joseph F. Coughlin, director of the AgeLab at M.I.T. “Baby boomers provide a perpetually youthful market.”They are, says Mr. Coughlin, himself a spry 47, “looking for technology to stay independent, engaged, well and vital.”

As most of them have finished rearing their children and paying for their education, they also have a lot of money, said Mr. Coughlin, and they are looking to spend it on technology.

The companies that are successfully marketing new technologies to older people are not those that have created high-tech ways for seniors to open jars. Rather, they are the ones that have learned to create products that span generations, providing style and utility to a range of age groups.

Are there any tools that you can think of that fit this description?

boomer blogs are booming (try saying that 3 times fast).

The brilliant minds at PSFK have compiled a list of Baby Boomer blogs they used for a recent project. The list includes some of my favorites, like Aging Fabulous, Aging Hipster, and 20plus30.

Those looking to build their RSS feeds with Boomer-centric musings need look no further.

boomers & online: its not a bust.

Baby Boomers and social networking.

 

Two concepts you normally wouldn’t group together, which makes sense, since “less than one-quarter of US Internet users ages 40 and over use social networking Web sites.”

 

Marketers, however, need to be careful not to ignore this target online, because they use WOM as much as the Gen Ys dominating the social networking scene.

'old' people vs 'young' ppl: can we make it work?

I’ve talked before about Gen Y at work, and the potential complications and clashes there are between different generations in the workplace.

 

According to research, the age gap is proving to be quite the impediment to progress, as “workers aren’t bridging the generation gap because twenty-something employees rarely chat to those in their 50s and 60s, according to a new survey.”

 

Eric Buntin from Randstad

USA

gets to the heart of the problem:
“Older workers stereotypically view younger workers as not as competent and not having such a work ethic. Younger workers view the older as not thinking outside the box.”

 

Have you experienced or seen this happen? What do you think? How would you recommend making strides in communication and bridging the gap, so to speak?

green gadget go-getters.

Here’s some ‘Consumer Intelligence’ to spark your Friday…

 

Accordting to Mediamark, those adults who are considered to be the “greenest” also tend to be the most tech-savvy.

 

Looking at different green ‘segments’, they found:

“The “Greenest” of the green segments is composed of Green Advocates. These are the most ecology-minded people: they recycle, drive hybrid cars, buy organic foods and actively preserve the environment. And although they comprise just 2% of the American population, they are the activist vanguard for the Green movement.

 

‘Although they tend to be a relatively older group, Green Advocates are more likely to embrace technology than the other Green consumer segments, as well as than the adult population as a whole,’ said Anne Marie Kelly, Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Planning at MRI. ‘They are opinion leaders who research and read product reviews before buying new technology. And they are 65% more likely to give technology product advice about what they’ve learned to others.’

 

Green Advocates are also 41% more likely to completely agree that technology helps make their life more organized; 36% more likely to be fascinated by new technologies; and 30% more likely to completely agree that computers are a good source of entertainment. They are also 24% more likely than the average U.S. adult to prefer to use the Internet when booking travel.”

 

If you're interested in the full report, let me know and I can email you it.