How to Reach the Baby Boomers' "Buying Center"

When thinking about marketing to Baby Boomers, remember values inspire and inform Positive Aging. As people mature, their values tend to move from materialistic to meaningful. That’s why the Boomers’ reasons for buying are more than skin deep, and motivating them to purchase takes more than trendy techniques. It takes genuine communication based on a sensitive understanding of what drives Boomers to act.

Marketers who don’t understand and respect Boomer values risk making them feel marginalized, and that’s a recipe for disaster. Commoditized research can help identify and clarify Boomer values, but knowing how to address them in genuinely sensitive and meaningful ways takes a unique skill set which encompasses advertising and marketing communications, as well as gerontology counseling.

Why gerontology counseling? Well, to engage and motivate Boomers, you have to precisely identify and communicate with the issues that go to the heart of the matter—their “buying center,” if you will. That’s where Boomers ultimately make their purchasing decisions. However, the journey to that special place, where reason and emotion converge, is complex and confusing, unless you have the guidance of a counselor who knows how to understand and empathize with Boomers. Once you reach their Buying Center, you have to communicate in a way that motivates Boomers to take action. That’s where advertising and marcom expertise come into play.

Finding all of that experience and expertise in one place may seem futile. Or it might be right under your nose.