Consisting of 77.2 million people, baby boomers — people born between 1946 and 1964 — represent a prized, yet often misunderstood, demographic for online marketers. In fact, they represent the largest group within the U.S. Internet population at 56.7 million users, a full 29.4 percent of all Internet users. So why is there such confusion about how to effectively market to them? A recent report from the online market research firm eMarketer, Boomers Online: Attitude Is Everything, addresses this issue.
The first hurdle for online marketers targeting boomers is the disparity in age that can exist within the group. This has led many marketers to divide the group into two distinct segments: older boomers (those born between 1946 and 1954) and
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Individuals 65 and older still make up less than 10 percent of the active Internet universe. However, their numbers are on the rise. In the last five years, the number of seniors actively using the Internet has increased by more than 55 percent, from 11.3 million active users in November 2004 to 17.5 million in November 2009. Among people 65+, the growth of women online in the last five years has outpaced the growth of men by 6 percentage points.
The largest percentage increase in Internet use since 2005 has been in the 70-to-75 age group, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The survey found that 45 percent of that age bracket is online, compared with 26 percent in 2005. Researching health information is the third most popular online activity with the most senior age group, after email and online search.
What’s more, many seniors find social networking exciting and enjoy finding online community. They’re creating their own blogs and, more often, connecting with family and friends by joining Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
“Social media are giving seniors a voice, and for a generation that has sometimes felt isolated and overlooked, that’s no small feat,” said Sarah Hoit, chief executive of My Way Village, which designs online social networks for older adults.
The No. 1 online destination for people over 65 in November 2009 was
The fact that the American population is aging has raised concerns. In 2011, the number of adults over the age of 65 reached 41.4 million, which account for 13.3% of the population ("A Profile of Older Americans: 2012," 2012). It is estimated that there will be about 71 million older adults by 2030 ("Healthy Aging-Improving and Extending Quality of Life among Older Americans," 2009). Approximately 2.1 million elderly are currently living in
Social media is a vital part of many younger adult's online life, and a growing number are finding fame from this platform. However, a growing number of older adults are also becoming stars and getting die-hard followers using social media. Check out the following popular seniors who are online sensations:
While there’s surely home styles that baby boomers seek out, like one-story ranches, their children, the Generation Y population, has their own set of likes when it comes to home styles. EXIT Homestead Realty Professionals in Vineland, NJ, says Generation Y home buyers are on the lookout for specific home styles that are creating a new trend in home sales, and if you’re a real estate broker, you’ll want to know what they are.
It has been known for a long time that baby boomers learn better and are more likely to respond to interactive activities, like group activities and well-organized training, also more easier ways to access detailed information. Furthermore, they need to be given activities to complete throughout the training. Baby boomers also believe that training would benefit them personally so you need to be prepared to make sure they get the feeling that the training will benefit them in any kind of way. In the other hand, GenXers do not do their best learning in hand on environment. Genxers are very motivated people who believe training will increase their employability. They like self-direct learning, more visual stimulation with few words, including
Customers are difficult to attract. Their attention is derived through content marketing and guiding them through cycles of emails, hoping that they’ll commit to a product. It’s even harder when you’re trying to market a product to so many different demographics – a Baby Boomer who is unfamiliar with digital marketing will react differently to a Facebook ad than a College Student who is well-versed in the digital marketing world. Millennials know when a brand is targeting them online. How do you target all of the demographics effectively? Who is most likely to shop in a store or who responds best to a telephone call or an email?
Hi Abbie, Thank you for sharing your information. I thought Internet was just for young people. But I was surprised that many older adults were using the Internet. Many of older adults have enthusiastically adopted it to keep up with the times as well as their old acquaintances and younger family members. Many grandparents are becoming proficient in alien things like Skype and Facebook. It has beneficial effects on mental health. According to the Pew Research Center, social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older has nearly doubled from 22% to 42% over the past year. My grandmother is 79 years old and she is better at Internet than me. Good
As the influence of the millennial population continues to grow, there is an increased demand for effective advertising methods. The purse of this research is to gain a better understanding of the successful approaches companies and advertising agencies have when reaching millennials. They say millennials are some of the most diverse and influential generations in history. They are understood as the most educated, socially responsible and most financially in debt over any other generation. Despite that, their buying power and influence over businesses continuously catch the attention of marketers. Marketers are in a position where they must find different ways to reach this generation a completely different way then they have with any other s in the past. Millennials are tech savvy with
There is a stereotype about older adults and how they are resistant to change but with older adults living longer they have to adapt. One advancement that older adults have to adapt to is internet usage. Learning to use the internet is beneficial to older adults in the aspect that it makes their lives easier or even more exciting. Single older adults can use the internet to meet other older adults to develop a companionship or friendship ( Adams, Oye & Parker, 2003). There are websites such as ThirdAge.com , Zelgo.com , SeniorNet.org and SassySeniors.com that enable older adults to pursue these relationships.
A: “The older population is an important and growing segment of the United States population.1 In fact, more people were 65 years and over in 2010 than in any previous census.2 Between 2000 and 2010, the population 65 years and over increased at a
Firstly, in both Australia and Malaysia, there is a correlation in the age of its citizens and internet usage. Australians aged from 18 to 29 years old are nine times more likely Internet users than those over fifty, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. While in Malaysia, there are very similar studies with similar results such as, the ones done by Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission where most of the internet users are 20 through 24 years old. This gap may be caused by the mindset of the older generations that may feel like that they have been living without information technology for so long, they have no need for it, even though, information technology could help them become more effective and efficient. Some of them may also feel that information technology could jeopardize their jobs if certain processes are automated with the use of information technology which, can actually create more jobs in the production
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2003) the population aged greater than 65 years is estimated to reach 19.2% in 2030, an increase from 12.4% in 2000. To break the growth down
According to Helen, who posted a blog on Colorado Free University most Baby Boomers get involved with Facebook and other social media sites to stay connected with their friends and family, as well as to reconnect with folks they haven’t seen in some time. Since members of this age group highly value community involvement, it is not surprising that they often use social media to promote causes they advocate for. All this said, Baby Boomers can get very frustrated in their use of social media. Since they sometimes use social media intermittently, they can have a difficult time keeping up with all the changes in various social media sites, especially Facebook which seems to make the most changes. Baby Boomers are not always familiar with the how to use the settings of different sites, and they can find themselves getting inundated with unwanted emails. Most are very concerned about their privacy on social media yet are not fully aware of how to effectively use the privacy settings found on the sites they frequent. Some get overwhelmed with the
By 2050, Canada’s population is estimated to reach about 40 million and 26.3% of this population will be made up of seniors aged 65 and older (Federation of Canada, 2013)
The business plans to boost the post by choosing segments age 30-60,this will appear to the profiles of the said group.
There are about six important basic marketing terms within the pieces of literature reviewed in this article. Most of them are straightforward and pertain to the way businesses categorize and generalize groups of consumers. These groups of consumers with similar characteristics are called cohorts, while a more specific group of cohorts of which a business is aiming to merchandize towards is called a target market. It is certain that in life generalities are not always accurate. It is also true that generalities of cohorts are not always reliable, but they tend to be accurate when looking at the entire group. This is not an offensive pro-racism quote made by Donald Trump, but rather a truth when it comes to targeting consumers in marketing. It may sound like common sense, but there is a difference between consumers and customers. Consumers are the users of goods and services whereas customers actually purchase the goods and services. Kids are the consumers of cereal while their parents are the customers of cereal. The final term is cognitive age. Sudbury and Simcock claim cognitive age is a new age variable of which is