Seth Godin gets it about Boomers

Seth Godin is a brilliant marketer and author. I read his first book, "Permission Marketing," years ago and then heard him speak. Few people back then really understood the potential of marketing on the web the way that Seth did (and still does).

In this post, he points out how the attitudes of boomers, and not old-fashioned demographic information, are the keys to speaking and marketing to us.

clipped from sethgodin.typepad.com Marketing to seniors (open and closed) Open people are seeking out things that they believe will make their lives better. Experiences and products and styles that will open doors, cause growth, save time and money and increase status. All of these things are 'go up' events. Find people who are open and you find people you can talk to. Closed people are trying to maintain the status quo. They are very focused on keeping things from getting worse, but they're not particularly concerned about joining the in crowd or starting something. For a long time, the easy way out was to believe that 18 to 34 year olds were open and seniors were closed. Web surfers are open, National Enquirer readers are closed. etc. etc. Then the baby boom happened. Baby boomers have been open their whole lives. And now they are seniors. So all the conventional wisdom goes out the window.

Baby Boomer Real Estate Bust?

A great commentary from the blog Generation X Finance about an article from the Boston Globe on how boomers are going to get caught without buyers as they get older. This may be a caution to many of us. As I'm a condo dweller, this isn't going to be an issue but some friends might want to take heed.

clipped from genxfinance.com Typical Baby Boomer Real Estate Cycle: Start out with a modest first home to raise a family As the kids grow old and begin to move out, upgrade to a new and/or larger house As retirement nears, relocate or move into a smaller home The problem is that our younger generation doesn’t want their McMansions or large homes. Our generation is waiting longer to get married, having fewer kids and focusing on building careers. We don’t have a need for larger homes nor can we afford what our parents are asking for them. The boomers are left holding the bag, and I’m not sure how this will ultimately play out. I encourage you to read the article over at the Boston Globe as it touches on many additional issues that I did not. It is a very interesting read.

Buckley's Boomsday

Interesting idea to have boomers break the country; another reactionary hear from. Here's an interesting review from The Tronto Star.

clipped from www.thestar.com The career of Christopher Buckley has long since passed the point where reference to his being the son of conservative columnist William F. Buckley Jr. is obligatory. As the author of 11 books laced with satire, including the bestseller Thank You for Smoking, and a comic essayist frequently appearing in the pages of The New Yorker, Christopher Buckley has made his bones. Prior to Boomsday, his latest, I had never read a Buckley novel. This seemed a good place to start. I am a Baby Boomer myself, naturally interested in the novel's plot. That plot is set in the United States three or four years hence, when the first wave of Baby Boomer retirement signals the onset of a "perfect economic storm." The novel's heroine, Cassandra Devine, broods on the reality of "mountainous debt, a deflating economy, and seventy-seven million people retiring." Who is going to pay to get the country out of this storm? Her generation, the under-30s, that's who.