How the Biggest Marketing Campaign Ever can Win (or Lose) Boomer Women

The battle over healthcare reform is entering a new stage: “tea-baggers” are carrying guns into town hall meetings with their legislators. Presumably, these citizens are doing their part to influence the debate on healthcare reform, and it may be working, but it is not likely to be winning over the influential group of voters who have their own firepower in this debate: smart Boomer women who vote.

Boomer Women = the Ultimate Healthcare Consumer/Influencer

These Vibrant Women may have more at stake in this debate than any other citizens. They are managing their own healthcare (every women over 50 has her own extensive history with the healthcare system); they are also taking a primary role in healthcare decision-making for a spouse or partner. Beyond that, they are overseeing (or did oversee) healthcare for a parent or parents (so they are familiar with the ins and outs of Medicare); they managed the healthcare for their children, now adults; and as our own research indicates, there is a good chance that they continue to pay healthcare-related expenses for those adult children and grandchildren (and in many cases their parents too).

If any single group of voters has the greatest vested stake in the healthcare reform debate, it is women over 50.
And if you wanted to exert the greatest influence over the healthcare reform debate, you would engage them in the right way. What does that mean?

Marketing Public Issues to the Boomer Woman

Influencing women over 50 about issues important to them means understanding how they see themselves: When a Boomer Woman looks in the mirror, she sees someone who is independent, experienced and engaged. She knows how to make decisions, and she understands there are no perfect answers in life. She is a master at balancing pros and cons to find the best possible solution, even to life’s most challenging problems. So here are the simplest tools:

• Don’t scare her. Sure, she has lots of fear and uncertainty around healthcare, but life has taught her confidence that she can find solutions. Whatever your position, show her how it will address her fears and uncertainties around healthcare costs and services, not make them worse.
• Don’t talk down to her. She is part of the best educated generation of women in history, and what she didn’t gain through education she has gained through experience. Insult her native intelligence and you will lose her.
• Present facts. She is confident of her ability to make decisions if provided with complete information. This is the tactic used by VibrantNation.com sponsor AARP, and its campaign confirms that it knows a lot about voters over 50.
• Show her you care, and be transparent. She has great judgment. She can usually tell if people are faking interest in her or not. She doesn’t mind if you have a vested interest in the debate; just don’t try to hide it.

Conclusion

There is a lot for marketers to learn from the healthcare reform debate — and a lot for lobbyists to learn from marketers. In my next few blogs I will review specific campaigns and their likelihood of winning over the Vibrant Woman.