Ready for More

DIRECT TALKED recently with consultant Kurt Medina, who specializes in the 50-plus market. He shared his thoughts about targeting boomers and seniors.

DIRECT: What's the biggest challenge to targeting folks over 50?

MEDINA: General marketers still look at it as one market. They used to consider it the senior market, and now they're calling it the boomer market. Of course, both are wrong. There really are three separate segments. One is what I've always called pre-retirees, [which] the boomers have pretty much taken over. Then there's the active retirees, which the boomers aren't yet in great numbers. And then seniors [who are] in their 70s and 80s. All three groups have different purchasing patterns and different hot buttons.

DIRECT: Is it another problem that people who're the same age don't behave the same? For example, some folks in their 60s behave more like they're seniors while others act like they're in their 30s or 40s.

MEDINA: Sure. But you have to start somewhere. And speaking as a direct marketer, age is an easy thing to get. You can make broad, sweeping statements about folks by age grouping. I think the boomer end of it has accentuated this. People are doing their own thing — getting married a second or third time, or having their first kid in their 60s. It's a topsy-turvy world. It's a combination of age and life stage.

DIRECT: Are boomers behaving at all like their parents?

MEDINA: Yes and no. If I said yes, they'd be aghast and say of course not. But the truth is, some of the things they're doing follows. Our bodies are aging at about the same rate they used to: You lose some of your eyesight, your thinking process changes. You discover you may have all the things you need. You try and get my wife to buy anything for the house and she'll just scream, ‘We have no room! We can't put anything else in this house!’ But with boomers there's a lot more activity than ever. It used to be you wanted to look young. Now the secret is vitality. You want to be active.

DIRECT: Are boomers thinking of retiring? Are they facing the challenge of having to take care of elderly parents while they're still caring for children?

MEDINA: Caregiving is going to be a major crisis in about five years, as boomers' parents age [and eventually need] additional care. There was a chart done by the Gerontological Society of America that shows the number of middle-aged parents with parents they're going to have to care for [will] double over the next 10 years. This is going to [create] all sorts of strains. It used to be, ‘Well, send them to a nursing home.’ Boomers won't accept that. They say, ‘That's not for my parents.’ Will they be working longer? That's a definite yes. A major reason is pure psychology. Work has become so ingrained in us — people will continue to work because it's in their being. They also need the money more. Defined retirement benefits are going the way of the dodo; you have to manage [retirement] yourself. As a result of the stock market going down and coming back up, people are less confident that whatever they've [saved] is going to be enough anyway. People will be working longer because they need the money, the health benefits…and frankly, because employers need them, since there are fewer workers in proportion to potential retirees. Companies will have to adapt, give more flex time and make it more convenient and pleasant for older people to work.

DIRECT: What's the biggest opportunity in this market?

MEDINA: Travel and education. In the next five years, on the younger end, boomers are going to want more experiences [as they] reorder their lifestyle. It [will be] an active retirement, which may include work, and more new things than were ever possible.