78.2 million baby boomers; 50.2% are women (courtesy US census). They’re 25% of the American population. Marketing Sherpa says they hold 70% of US resources.
And its a market that’s going to stay around for a long time – In 2030, there are expected to be 57.8 million baby boomers (according to projections); 54.9 percent would be female. That year, boomers would be between ages 66 and 84.
U.S. News talks about how only 10% advertising is targeted at the 50 plus demographic (Despite them having 75% of the financial assets) -
As a group, they are the most affluent Americans, with three quarters of the nation’s financial assets and an estimated $1 trillion in disposable income annually. Yet while boomers are hurtling toward their retirement years–the oldest boomers will begin turning 60 next year–Madison Avenue continues to prize youth. Only about 10 percent of advertising is directed specifically at the 50-plus market. “The demographic sweet spot has always been 18 to 49,” says Brent Green, author of Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers . “Once you turn 50, you fall off the planet.”We also know that -
And points out that – ’1 in 3 adults will be 50 or older by 2010′.
Let’s look at a few of the Kindle’s features that make it great for baby boomers -
- Boomers travel a lot, and Kindle is great for travel.
- Boomers can read not only books, but also get newspapers, magazines and blogs.
- Boomers are at the point where they’d much rather live life to the fullest than spend 30 minutes driving to a store to pick up a book.
- Kindle lets them read on larger size fonts.
There’s a lot more there – have to dig deeper and find hard data to back up things that people generally assume to be true i.e. boomers read more, boomers subscribe to newspapers more, etc.
It’s just that recent articles have been running with this thread of Kindle appealing mostly to baby boomers and older demographics and they have this implicit assumption hidden in there that it’s a bad thing.
78 million people with lots of disposable income and lots of time. That’s not a bad demographic to be doing well in.
Filed under: evolution Tagged: | kindle baby boomers
Good post. Here’s my take on Kindle and Baby Boomers:
http://tinyurl.com/owj724
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