David Weigelt and Jonathan Boehman, Founders of Immersion Active, have built a marketing practice uniquely focused on reaching Boomers and Seniors online. Thought leaders in this space, they have just published a book laying out their perspective on this brave new world: Dot Boom: Marketing to Baby Boomers Through Meaningful Online Engagement
Dot Boom is not valuable only because it’s the first and only book on the subject; it also serves as a valuable guide to engaging Boomer consumers online.
Boomers are the most important consumers online
Weigelt and Boehman remind us first of an important fact: Boomers aren’t just online; they spend more online than any other generation. A 2007 study by Forrester Research showed that Baby Boomers spend almost $1,200 every three months online. Generation Y ($300-430 every three months) and Generation X ($450-560 every three months) combined don’t spend more than the average Boomer. And yet agencies still ask me, “Are Boomers really online?”
Word of mouth and genuineness
Dot Boom notes that, like younger consumers, Boomers value word of mouth and testimonials from trusted sources – more than anything else. Successful online marketing to Boomers must enable testimonials; this is why social media represent such a meaningful marketing tool for Boomers.
Inspired by Boomer marketing guru David Wolfe (who wrote Dot Boom’s foreword and publishes the blog Ageless Marketing
), Weigelt and Boehman also focus on the human needs underlying consumer needs; they recognize the value in stories, in genuineness–the value in values–when speaking to Boomers. At VibrantNation.com we see that the most important value among Boomer Women, whose resources and interests are both consistently underestimated by the market, is feeling recognized for who they truly are.
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Meaningful Online Engagement
Where Dot Boom really succeeds is by outlining the roadmap to “Meaningful Online Engagement,” also translated as “the exchange of information within a topic.” Weigelt and Boehman chart the way information flows through clusters of consumers who aggregate around topics and need-states.
They site an important study conducted by CNET called “Understanding Influence and Making it Work for You” (warning: this link is to a pdf that may take a while to download)
that debunked the idea that the world of influence is dominated by a few super-viral consumers. Instead, influence is peddled and shared by a broad middle-tier of people who share large networks, and do so largely through technology. The study also noted that the desire to help others is a prime motivator behind word-of-mouth marketing. Brands that engage and honor that motivation with this large middle-tier of well-connected Boomers will get their support.
Summarizing Boomer engagement online
As the Founder of an online community of smart Boomer women, I can confirm that Weigelt and Boehman are on the right track with Dot Boom. Because they are young men they have a hard time internalizing the prosperity that informs (even in a recession) the purchase decisions and marketing opportunities among the Vibrant Women that we connect with at VibrantNation.com, but that is a quibble. As for summarizing their message, I can’t say it better than they do themselves:
Marketers need to employ a new, boomer-friendly, more holistic view of engagement, which is defined by the exchange of information within a specific topic that is focused on meeting a basic core need. This type of engagement can be measured by gauging the level of influence within the group of people, places and things that make up the engagement cluster. By defining engagement clusters and identifying the influencers within those clusters, marketers have the opportunity to help shape the information exchange. When marketing starts to grasp these opportunities, brands are on their way to becoming influencers themselves.
This is so true of boomers, sometimes they are overlooked in favor of the younger market. I do a lot of arts and crafts and am always amazed at how many of the younger crafters and craft sites market themselves as “this ain’t your grandma’s (you fill in the blank). The boomer is not the typical grandparent or consumer, we are at a stage in our life where we do honor stories and someone who is genuine. Another great book on the subject is Generation Ageless.