BOOMERS AREN’T BROKEN by Christine Nardi Diette
There’s a problem with how we market to boomers today. We assume that because someone is a certain age, they must want certain products. I understand that Boniva, Viagra, and incontinence products have their place, but many boomers just don’t want to hear about them.
I don’t want Blyth Danner telling me about osteoporosis. But I’d be more than happy to see her represent makeup, handbags, shampoo, yogurt or many of the hundreds of products I do buy.
And therein lies the problem with boomer marketing. For the most part, advertisers haven’t yet caught up with the notion that their BIGGEST CONSUMER GROUP is aging.
Based on the current U.S. television ratings system, once you reach 55 you drop out of the measurement system. In T.V. terms, once you reach 55, you’re all but valueless. The problem with that, of course, is that the 55-to-64 demographic is the fastest growing in the county. Meanwhile, the 18-to-49 group is shrinking.
We need to stop seeing boomer age shoppers as the “ancillary bonus” we reach with younger-focused marketing. It’s time to start speaking to boomers directly.
So how do we encourage today’s marketing teams to incorporate boomer-centric messaging into their advertising campaigns? We educate them and help them do good work.
1. Convince Them Of the Value
Boomers have money and they spend it. According to a 2010 study conducted by NBC Universal, the 55-to-64 age group spends more than $1.8 trillion annually.
Boomers control 75-80% of the nation’s household wealth. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that people aged 45-to-54 and 55-to-64 had the highest median weekly earnings of any age segment in the United States: $844 and $860, respectively.
Millennials ages 20-24 had weekly earnings of only $454 and people age 25-to-34 earned $682.
The NBC study showed that boomers spend more than the average consumer on things like large appliances, home improvement, dining out, and cosmetics. And when it comes to electronics, boomers are keeping pace. According to the NBC study, boomers were just as likely as those ages 18 to 34 to have high-definition televisions, digital video recorders and broadband service.
2. Foster Good Work
The next step is basic marketing – you learn and you test. Do I believe today’s Millennial and Gen X marketing teams can do a stellar job marketing to boomers? Absolutely I do. Just as I believe a group of guys can develop a solid campaign for Kotex. It takes respect and sincerity of mission. Anyone with an honest intention to do quality work will spend the time to learn their audience.
As marketing leaders, we need to push our teams to get familiar with the boomer audience. They need to create campaigns they believe will perform well and then we need to test those campaigns – just as we do with any marketing effort.
In the end, marketing to boomers is not complicated. Forget all that vague advice about ‘speaking their language’ and ‘avoiding condescension.’ The main thing we have to do is simply make sure boomers are on the agenda.
Once you start engaging with them, they’ll respond. After all, money talks and boomers have it to spend. But just remember, just because someone is over 50 doesn’t mean they’re falling apart.
Boomers: which marketers are speaking to you?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christine is group president at Ryan Partnership Chicago, a leading expert in promotion, shopper, and digital marketing campaigns for emerging and established consumer brands. She also blogs at blog.ryanpartnershipchicago.com.
Improve digital marketing with new ROI metrics, Google tells CPG marketers
This blog is co-posted with the Joel Rubenson on Market Research Blog. Rubenson is a partner for The Audience Measurement Event taking place this May 21-23, 2012, in Chicago, Illinois. The event is focused on the business value and actionability of understanding and translating consumer media consumption, the event features a robust agenda filled with real world-case studies and new, never before seen content by visionary thinkers and industry pioneers. When you register to join Joel for this program and mention AM12BLOG, you’ll receive 15% off the standard rate! Visit the webpage to download the brochure and find out more about this year’s event.
This is the third of a three part interview with Catherine Roe, head of CPG for Google, leading up to the IIR Audience Measurement Event in Chicago May 21-23 where Catherine and I will both be speaking. Through special arrangement, I can offer my readers a 20% discount to this event. Just use the code AM12JR
Joel: Catherine, in our last two interviews, you dropped two bombshells saying that searches on Google.com related to recipes are up 38% in 2011 over 2010 to 7.8 billion. Then you gave CPG marketers a failing grade of 3 on a scale of 0-10
Catherine: Yes, a lot of it is cultural. They still fall back on what they know. They don’t want to crash the plane or sink the ship.
Joel: someone in media once said, “If we can’t measure it we can’t sell it”. In the first interview you talked about the importance of digital to the CPG path to purchase. How should this be measured?
Catherine: It’s funny you say that, quite honestly Joel, because that has been the biggest challenge. Marketers for years have been able to associate or correlate the value of traditional media such as their GRP or their TRP or their TV spot and model out the sales lift, even though there’s not a direct linear equation that she saw the Downey TV commercial on TV on Monday night and when she shopped on Wednesday she bought Downey because of the TV commercial. But, the fortunate thing is that marketers have figured out that correlation. Then you start throwing digital and all these additional touch points that I talked about into the mix and it’s not as easy because they don’t necessarily measure and correlate exactly the same as a TV TRP.
Joel: so what do you do about that?
Catherine: The way we like to coach our advertisers through it is to think about what all these moments that matter are on the way to the path to purchase and think about them as KVTs or “key value tasks”. To be able to associate a value to every one of those tasks that hits her in the path to purchase. So, as one example, I work with an advertiser that leverages a lot of online recipes as far as a way to engage consumers because they know that if their ingredients are used in a recipe, then that consumer is much more apt to go to the store and purchase that specific ingredient for their recipe. And through this key value task type of thought process, they’ve equated and they’ve modeled out for their group that one out of every ten recipe views correlates to an actual purchase in the store. So, by doing that they are able to back into the math that says: “Okay, if I get ten visits to my site and they view a recipe, then the value of that is X because the value of a purchase of one of these ingredients in a store is X”.
That’s what advertisers need to do today to say: “What is the value if somebody visits my website?”
“What is the value if somebody downloads a coupon off of my website?” “What is the value if someone downloads a recipe?” “What is the value equation if somebody clicks on a click-to-call type of advertisement on mobile?” So, being able to identify along the path to purchase is not as simple as the TV commercial and the offline media and then jump to the store shelf. There are media points all along the way and it’s translating the value of each one of those points.
Joel: if we can think into the future, let’s say three years, what is the one demonstrable proof point that says: “They were listening. They got it.”
Catherine: I think the biggest challenge to not getting it today is that CPG companies for the most part use some type of media mix modeling and they try to use a square peg/round hole effect of just applying the same media mix modeling that they’ve used on TV, print, radio and their historical, traditional advertising. (In digital) But, what would be different in three years is that the CPG companies, coupled with the measurement companies (whether that’s the Nielsen’s of the world, the comScores) have to figure out which is the right way to measure these media and what is the ROI that I’m getting out of my digital dollar in comparison to my TV. If and when they do figure it out, they will actually put enough media (spend) in there to warrant a test.
Read Part 2 here.
Shopper Insights In Action 2012: The Event that Just Keeps Getting Bigger
Register by April 27 and Save an extra $300
The momentum surrounding Shopper Insights in Action 2012 is astounding. The energy is so extraordinarily powerful that we can already say – 2012 is the year that Shopper Insights in Action will make history.
The only thing rivaling our visionary keynotes, thought provoking speakers, brand new tracks, and jam-packed agenda is the attendees signed up-to-date.
With 52% more registrants including, 50% more retailers, 100% more CPGs and 200% more category leaders than last year already, we’re delighted to see the industry already responding in droves.
Thanks to your feedback and that of your peers, the 2012 agenda is not only fresh but captures the very essence of what keeps you up at night.
Join us to navigate The NEW, Integrated, Multi-Channel, Socially Interwoven Journey to Purchase:
Diversity of Insights from Big Box to Boutique Shops
This year, we take a closer look at emerging growth opportunities: what matters to multicultural, millennial and boomer shoppers, consumer revolution in China retail and through a revealing Global Economic Update, you’ll discover long-term implications to shifting shopper behavior and spend.
22 New Companies = New Perspectives
Exclusive Shopper Research, Cultural Anthropology & Global Trends
Embrace unconventional disciplines like neuroscience and anthropology and marry them with traditional approaches.
A Particular Focus on Social and Mobile Commerce
With the integration of so many touch points and blurring of channels in the digital and physical world, social and mobile commerce is going to forever change the way we look at and segment our shoppers.
More Global Perspectives
A full Symposia dedicated to Global Capabilities & Emerging Markets.
Find out what will remain center of the plate for value-minded consumers and the biggest opportunities to expand in China, France, India, Ukraine, Switzerland and more.
Our passion lies in the belief that it’s truly the people at the events that make them so fantastically valuable and our goal is to fill the room with the smartest, most passionate people whose stories will inspire an industry. Join us.
Sign up today to reserve your spot.
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- Online: www.shopperinsightsevent.com
- Email: register@iirusa.com
- Phone: 888.670.8200
Mention code to save an additional 15% off the standard rates: SHOPPER12BLOG
Are we playing the mobile shopper marketing game all wrong? (Part 1 of 2)
I recently read this Moms Love Smartphones article.
And once again, I was all sparked up with ideas. Most were opportunistic, once I got over the frustration I’ve had all along with mobile shopper marketing. Some of the facts in the article further convinced me that many shopper marketers are activating mobile all wrong. This week’s post is about what’s wrong with this scenario, in my humble shopper marketing opinion. Next week I will talk opportunities, and there are many! Feel free to join in via the comments section.
FACTS: Moms with Smartphones:
- Are 18% more likely than women overall to own a smartphone – 53% own one
- 68% use smartphone while shopping
- 62% use shopping apps to compare prices
- 46% take action as a result of a smartphone ad, using coupons, local deals and scanning bar codes for lower prices.
The research data is solid. But guess what? The activation centers on the use of coupons. The actions we’re asking Moms to take on their smartphones are further depleting profits for the manufacturers and brands we all know and love. Marketers are continually flocking to the use of mobile to dole out the deals. I say we need to re-think this.
When did we decide it was a good idea to use digital and mobile technology to expand the opportunity to make less money? Why do we use mobile technology to offer more shoppers more products via the “trade promotion” model of (what I bluntly call) “margin-sucking” offers and deals? We already know they don’t do much to enhance brand value. And if our discount offers generate great shopper response, we’re in “over redemption” trouble on the marketing budget as well.
If I’m a CMO, I vote NO on taking that money out of my brand budget. If I’m the SVP of Shopper Marketing I vote no to pouring good money after bad. And I don’t want to explain to the CFO why I support a higher percentage of low margin sales. Even the Sales VP avoids that meeting.
As an industry, we may be activating this way because we think it’s more measureable, but why are we still measuring the cases sold on deal instead of the health of our effective relationships with shopper?
The stats for shopper mobile coupon usage will continue to escalate, because we let them. Because we fail to use the insights derived from studies for inspiration and ideation to plan and then actually do things that might be dramatically more meaningful and effective to build our brands with shoppers over time.
The more we default to mobile as a channel to extend the reach and frequency of price promotion behaviors, the more damage we do to the strategic opportunity shopper marketing holds for both brands and retailers.
Join me next Thursday for the discussion about the opportunity side of mobile marketing, where we examine more facts and insights derived from the study and take a look at what marketers might do differently in the future.
Anne Howe is a twenty-year veteran of shopper marketing, and now runs a consulting practice with a focus on commercial innovation in shopper marketing. She is active on Twitter as @ShopperAnnie and on her personal ShopperAnnie Blog at www.annehoweassociates.com
Shopper Insights: Red Lines and Green Threads
Most of us in shopper marketing spend time every day trying to get shoppers to do something different. But we are measured by short-term brand or retail sales goals. So we ramp up offers, discounts, promotional prices and extend them via endcaps and displays. We sign up for Groupon or Living Social programs to extend our discount reach beyond the TV and the shelf. Shopper behavior changes with the use of those tools. But, sustained and profitable growth rarely emerges from this practice. Cases go up but profit goes down.
And we are left staring at the red line on the balance sheet.
Can insights help us get to green? Yes. But, in order to start the process of insights discovery that can tie to profit, it helps to examine our cultural and economic roots. From a cultural perspective, we need to explore anthropological roots and shifting tides of consumer behavior, so we understand why big shifts are happening.
From an economic insights perspective, it’s wise to explore the underlying nature of influence when it comes to shopping behaviors. That means we must understand how people feel about spending. I like to watch and try to understand that red line in the Consumer Confidence Index chart, which tracks the Present Situation Index.
The Present Situation Index is the one that most directly connects to retail sales. And while it correlates to the overall confidence index, it dove and now lingers below the other lines, a sure indicator that shopper are not quite ready to bust out the green in a way that matches their long term expectations for the economy. The spending today is more about trade-offs than it is about accumulation of stuff.
That red line of the consumer present situation index is rather scary. Especially if you’re in shopper marketing and charged with profitable growth at retail for a national brand.
If we want to drive profitable growth as marketers, we’ve got to get beyond promotions that revolve around discounted price. We need to stop tracking what shoppers tell us they’re going to do and start shopping with them to understand when and why the wallet opens up for a full price purchase. And why it doesn’t.
I’m calling that knowledge the green thread. As creative marketers, we can make something with green threads. We can offer a reason to buy that resonates beyond price. In this precarious climate of growth, we can indeed find the green thread though insights. But we need to change the question from what to why.
Meet Tommy. He’s 22 and just out of college. Why does he break the budget and buy a new iPad? What happens down the line when he steps outside the budget? Does he prefer the iPad over healthy food to eat? Does he forgo the J.Crew trip for new jeans and shirts? Maybe he stops paying his student loan. What he does is one thing. Why does he do what he does? How does he decide what drops off?
Meet Caitlin. She’s 34, with three kids and a big house she can’t really afford. Why does she buy that luxurious Kate Spade handbag? Does it mean she skips fresh produce and buys more frozen pizza for the family meals? Or is it not a trade-off at retail at all? Does she just defer by making a smaller payment on her credit card balance? Or is she just not saving for the kid’s college this quarter? When and why is your brand worth the trade off? Do you know? How do you get her back in the produce aisle? Or do you just give her more frozen pizza coupons?
Meet Janet. She’s 57 and just spent $3,000 on a trip to Costa Rica. That doesn’t include all the fine dining, bathing suits and hiking shoes. She hasn’t bought a national brand in the grocery store for years. Private brands are good enough and she figures the savings over time more than paid for her trip. Why does she do this? Food brands just don’t satisfy her quest for adventure. Does your laundry soap brand stand a snowball’s chance in he** of getting back in her cart? Perhaps not.
Back in 2007, when the Present Situation red line was above the other Confidence indices, we knew it was all about leverage. We could market to the consumer desire and not worry about the “value equation” so much. The “banked investments” could cover the backside. Tommy could get Dad to cover the tech, Caitlin could flip the house and buy Kate Spade luggage to match her bag and Janet could sell her Ford stock to cover the trip. Marketing was fun. But that’s over.
How do we understand shopper behavior today in a way that helps us get to profitable growth? Today we need to walk the line to the CFO and explain how we’re going to drive profit, not just volume. He hates that red line on your marketing ROI balance sheet more than you do.
Insights are the green thread. Without them we are dead in the water. Insights that uncover the “why” can provide inspiration for innovation that allows us to sew together integrated and effective action plans to help shoppers to make full price value decisions on our products and services. Think EDLP (the new Walmart price strategy, btw) and then: what else can you offer the shopper?
Insights allow us to understand consumer problems and shopper mindsets. We all need to focus on gaining deeper insights, using the green threads as a critical element when we sew up our story and decide what it is we might do to change shopper behavior in a way that serves the shopper, the retailer and the brand in ways that are profitable for all of us.
Anne Howe is founder of Anne Howe Associates, LLC, a consultancy that specializes in shopper marketing capability, innovation, positioning and communication strategies. She blogs as ShopperAnnie.
Kroger Simplifies Digital Couponing
Brandweek.com reports that Kroger grocery shoppers can load coupons to their loyalty cards prior to their store visits. Kroger, which has been offering some digital coupons for about three years, has rolled out a new service for consumers that puts more than 100 coupons on its Web site for private label and name-brand items. Dubbed the Digital Coupon Center, it’s shepherded by San Francisco-based YOU Technology, which has worked with the chain and various packaged goods marketers on previous Kroger digital efforts, and the current “Summer of savings” sweepstakes and promotion.
If this initiative proves to be a success for Kroger, will other grocery stores follow?
Learn more: Kroger Simplifies Digital Couponing
Best Buy taps promotions into smartphones
Best Buy is testing an innovative location-based tool to connect with customers via smartphones. The company has started to use a tool developed by Shopkick, a California-based start-up. According to FT.com, customers who activate the Shopkick application on their phones will automatically receive “kickbucks” credits just for entering the store that can be traded for benefits including gift cards, computer gaming credits or music downloads from Best Buy’s Napster service. They will also receive special in-store offers from the retailer.
Best Buy will eventually also be able to use the system to send participants in its loyalty scheme promotional offers that can be customized to reflect their shopping history and interests.
According to FT.com‘s Jonathan Birchall, in-store mobile shopping applications are likely to become increasingly important to retailers as they seek to close deals with shoppers equipped with smartphones that can search and compare prices at rival stores and online.
ShopLocal gives circulars a digital life
Retailers Canadian Tire, CVS, JCPenney, Michaels, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Save-A-Lot, Sports Authority, Staples, True Value and Walgreens are using an innovative marketing campaign aimed at making circulars digital on Facebook. Allfacebook.com reports that the retail marketing software, ShopLocal, allows Facebook users and customers to see the most relevant and personalized circular offering based on their location and demographic data. The suite includes a Deals Tab, Deals Widgets, targeted ads and Become a Fan’ widgets for third party websites. Facebook users must ‘like’ the corporate page or agree to allow the retailer to view their basic details before the customization can take effect. The report notes that the JCPenney page already has 917,000 fans.
What benefits do you feel that retailers would have by implementing this technology?
Wal-Mart may open hundreds of stores in India
The world’s largest retailer may soon be opening stores in India. Bloomberg reports that if foreign restrictions are lifted, the retailer may make their move quickly. Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart runs two wholesale stores in India as local laws, aimed at protecting owners of smaller shops, limit overseas companies to operating single- brand stores, or wholesale outlets.
“If the laws of the country change to opening up to foreign direct investment in retailing we could open hundreds of stores,” Raj Jain, managing director of Bharti-Walmart Pvt., a wholesale joint venture between Wal-Mart and India’s Bharti Enterprises Pvt., told reporters.
If the restrictions are lifted and Wal-Mart heads to India; will other Western retailers follow?
Fancy a Snack? Try Some Ice Cream!
As I said in my previous post, just because it’s the last day of the conference doesn’t mean the content and questions aren’t thought provoking! And maybe hunger provoking too!
I had the chance to sit in on the Nestle’s New Merchandising Location Strategy preso specifically covering ice cream cups presented by Russ Onish and Alex Sodek. The added bonus for sitting in? A chance to sample some of the great ice cream. Talk about a delicious multi sensory experience!
Nestle’s ice cream brands include Haagen Dazs, Dreyer’s, Edy’s as well as Skinny Cow. All of these brands have cup options for a total of 30. Cups are an interesting concept because ice cream can be an intensely personal experience. Everyone has their own favorite brand or likes to eat ice cream in a certain way. Cups also let you be a little more adventurous. You can try a new flavor without committing to a whole tub. And, for us permanent dieters, cups are great for portion control.
For the retailer and manufacturer, cups are a huge revenue opportunity to expand ice cream to be more than ice cream, like desserts or snacks. Here’s an interesting ratio to give a sense of scale $10 Ice Cream : $40 Dessert :$100 Snack. So, if these cups are crucial to expand into “snack” then the question becomes how to merchandise these cups properly: either with the parent brand or within a separate case? And how do you learn the answer quickly and reliably?
The answer lies in virtual shopping research! There were two questions:
- Should the cups be in a dedicated case or with the brand family?
- How should promotional pricing be communicated: 99 cents or 10 for $10?
I wish I could show you the virtual shopper research demo! We saw a video of how the shopper traversed the virtual grocery store and arrived at the ice cream aisle. The shopper could stop at any case and make any amount of purchase they desired. Here’s a little of what they learned:
- The Skinny Cow branded cups performed better when placed with their parent brand and the 10 for $10 offer resonated more than the 99 cent each offer.
- The other branded cups performed better in a dedicated case. When placed in the dedicated area, people bought more within the category, they bought in multiple, they bought in variety yielding more dollar sales. People also traded up to more cups versus tubs ($1/serving versus $.31/serving).
- In terms of pricing the 10 for $10 offer yielded 21% sales penetration versus 18% for the 99 cent each offer. Also, people bought more cups when offered at 10 for $10.
Nestle made recommendations for retail implementation. Here are some of the results:
- 90% of stores now stock the cups together. These stores have sales 53% higher than the 10% that did not stock the cups together.
- 85% of the stores keep the Skinny Cow cups with the parent brand. These stores have sales 136% higher than the 15% that did not stock the cups with the parent brand.
- Sales are currently at $50MM which is up 45% over one year ago. 2011 Forecast shows $300MM in sales.
All in all, these are delicious results for Nestle. I really enjoyed this preso – what about you?
Parissa Behnia
Idea Chef
678 Partners
