Generation Explanation Selling to boomers

Back in 1988, pre-Jada and -ID4 Will Smith had his first hitsong, "Parents Just Don't Understand." We laughed andacknowledged our survival of similar situations--getting busted forusing the car without permission, parents dressing us in stylesfrom the previous decade. But a funny thing happened: Even thoughwe're older now and starting our own families, we stilldon't understand our parents.

Gen X and Gen Y have led an entirely different existence thanour boomer predecessors. Life without a PC or VCR? May as well havebeen born in the Dark Ages. Watergate? Oh yeah, I saw that movieDick. OK, maybe the differences aren't that extreme, butJ. Walker Smith, president of research firm Yankelovich and authorof Rocking the Ages: The Yankelovich Report on GenerationalMarketing (HarperBusiness, $15, 800-331-3761), offers thispolitically correct explanation of generations: "Baby boomersgrew up as the Watergate generation: The more you find out, themore you want to know. Xers grew up as the Iran-Contra generation:The more you find out, the less you know. And echo boomers [Gen Y]are the Monica Lewinsky generation: The more you find out, the lessyou want to know."

But even though you view the world through different eyes, asentrepreneurs, you can't ignore boomers. A generation 78million strong, boomers still control a whole lot ofwealth--whether through their own spending or their influence onchildren and grandchildren. And although they scare the SocialSecurity-pants off us with their spending-not-saving habits,someone's got to profit. Why not you? Smith offers his tips forpitching your products and services to those born between'46and '64:

• Suckers for a good ad: Whereas Xers are leery of salespitches, boomers don't mind being marketed to."They've always loved being talked to inadvertising," says Smith. "All the inside jokes inadvertisements have been directed to baby boomers in the past 30years, and boomers have enjoyed that."

• Freedom of choice: You may cringe when you realize thereare 200 options to choose from when buying a new car, but every newgadget and color thrills boomer decision-makers. "Boomerscontinue to be very interested in novelty," says Smith. Also,unlike Gen Xers who bristle at the thought of more info cloudingtheir hectic day, boomers welcome information to help them make adecision about all those choices.

• Back in the day: As kids, they had free love, freedomrock and almost-free drugs. "Boomers like to look back totheir youth because they remember it as the best of times,"explains Smith. "A backward-looking appeal is often far morepersuasive than a future-focused market." Hello, VW Beetle andNick at Nite.

• Spring chickens: Says Smith, "Anything that has afocus on youthfulness is going to be inherently persuasive to babyboomers--a focus on themselves as energetic, vibrant, willing totake chances, to break rules, to challenge taboos, to be alwaysopen to the next new adventure, and looking at life as a continuingacceleration into the future." In other words, no Metamucil orsenior cruises quite yet. Try motorcycles, SUVs, adventure travelor parachuting.

• Trimming the edges: Gen X is edgy; boomers just want tobe hip. "The hip generation is all about making lots of money,but deep down inside you still feel like there's got to be moreto life," Smith explains. "Being edgy is all about beingon the inside of an IPO, where [making] money for its own sake isthe right thing to do." Smith cites the current MasterCardcampaign as a good example of hip: "There are some thingsmoney can't buy. For everything else, there'sMasterCard."

And though you may still be offended that boomers branded Xersas the generation of slack, let it go. Any attitude on your part isa sure kiss of death. "There's some lingering resentmentof having been dismissed by baby boomers," says Smith."But allowing that negative perception color how you talk toboomers gets in the way of establishing an effective connectionwith them. And a bit of that would come through in youthfulcondescension: `Oh, you're just an old boomer--what do youknow?'" Well, they know how to spend money. Enoughsaid.