Marketers Find Baby Boomers Aren't Dead --- Yet

News Flash: People in Their 50s and 60s Have A Lot of Money To Spend

If you've noticed that the oldies station in your market has disappeared, it's no accident. Or, if it hasn't totally vanished, it's become a "classic hits" station, and one that's forsaken the fifties, and strayed more to music from the sixties to early eighties.
After all, Elvis, Chuck Berry and Little Richard, their music is just, well, old.
The same goes for TV. If you're north of 45, there's likely less of interest for you on the networks, and that's by design.
Rather, it's long been the perception of broadcasters and advertisers that by the time you're heading to a half-century or beyond, you're a stuck-in-the-mud when it comes to buying stuff. You'll be brand loyal 'til they ship you off to the nursing home. No sense wasting money trying to get you to switch.
It's baloney, of course, as just about anyone with a few gray hairs can attest, and it finally looks like marketers are getting the memo.
Advertising Age highlights efforts at Unilever to connect to boomers, even though a lot of brand managers couldn't figure out why they should care about people over 50.
As with anything, it all came down to the numbers. And these numbers are huge:

"[B]oomers are likely to retire later, work more after formal retirement and have far more disposable income than any prior generation of retirees. The estimated 78 million boomers in the U.S. spend $46 billion annually on package-goods products, according to Information Resources Inc. Various published estimates have put their total spending power at $2 trillion annually."

And it's not just for Depends and Preparation H, you MBA know-it-alls.

Oldies but goodies indeed.