Attracting Boomers to participate in community park and recreation services is challenging. Here are ten strategies to create marketing messages that are effective in connecting with today’s 50-plus active adult Boomers.
Market to Life-Stages
There are 78 million Boomers. This group is far too large to share similar interests and needs. One size does not fit all. Unlike prior generations, Boomers have followed non-linear life paths and, although they are similar in age, they are at many different stages in life. For example, their children may be grown and gone making them traditional empty-nesters. They are just as likely to have children or grandchildren under age 10. They may be remarrying. Many are taking on new jobs, relocating, going back to school, pursuing new hobbies, or starting a second or a third career. Many are dealing with minor or major health conditions that are associated with aging.
The Message: The age 50-plus consumers are best defined by the life events they are experiencing, rather than by their age. Marketing to specific groups by special interests, life stage, or other relevant factors is effective.
Personalize the Message
Boomers want to know “how will this benefit me?”. They have always found ways to put themselves first. Boomers are the ‘Me Generation’ and they want attention and focus. They have come to believe that they are the center of it all because they have been treated that way for the past 60 years.
Message: Provide and promote exceptional customer service. Offer opportunities for service up-grades, or customized services that may be available an additional cost. Make the message feel personalized and articulate the personal benefits of participation.
Make it Emotionally Appealing
Participation decisions by Boomers are based on whether it “feels” right - how it feels instinctively, rather than on the facts. Emotionally engaging messages are preferred 3 to 1 over factual messages by Boomers.
The Message: Testimonials from other Boomers are effective messages. Use emotionally compelling words, images, and concepts to convince them that the programs, activity, or services will make them feel smarter, bolder, braver, more influential, and more knowledgeable as a result of their participation.
Recognize Achievement
Boomers have sacrificed a great deal to realize success in their careers. They invented the sixty-hour work week figuring that long hours and hard work were the way to rise above the pack and get ahead.
The Message: Marketing messages might include the affirmation such as “You deserve it” or “You deserve the best”.
Self-fulfillment
Boomers are guided by internal values. Social values and status are no longer influencing forces for their choices and decisions. They are interested in being someone; they are no longer seeking to become someone.
The Message: Focus on how participation and involvement will provide them with a sense of self-satisfaction, personal significance, the achievement of self-fulfillment and self-actualization.
Accessible Information
More than any other generation that is online, middle-aged adults read web site content. Boomers report that they want more information and they want easy-access to information.
The Message: Replace most of the web site graphics with well-worded text that provides substantive, detailed information. Offer user-friendly, convenient and efficient means for obtaining additional documentation.
Provide Accurate, Truthful Information
Promote programs, facilities, and services on their own attributes and don’t promise more than is true and accurate. Make the information believable. Avoid comparative claims.
The Message: Make claims that are conditional, rather than absolute. Use “If” and “when”.
Provide Information from a Positive Perspective
Positive presentation of information is more effective than negative information. Negative messages are ignored. The older the individual, the less likely they will respond to negative or neutral messages or images.
The Message: Create marketing messages that are positive.
Technology Savvy
Boomers are technology savvy and they will explore new technologies. They are frequent users of the internet. Eighty-two percent of them indicate that they use the web extensively and 64% have been on line for more than 6 years. An estimated 7 million adults over age 50, who have no children in the home, own video game systems. Nearly one-third of the active bloggers are middle-aged adults.
The Message: Create a strong website that is organized to follow a logical thought patterns with clear navigation. Apply a unified arrangement and appearance that is consistent throughout the web site to reduce disorientation. Make it convenient to communicate electronically. Also offer off-line (phone, walk-in) alternatives. Develop a social site that may include blogs or discussion groups to create a sense of community.
Promote Healthy Active Lifestyles
Ninety-eight percent of Boomers don’t want to be called a “senior” because they don’t consider themselves to be old. They perceive of “old” as age 80. They anticipate living to age 90 and beyond. They expect to maintain good health over the next three to four decades. In a recent study 93% of Boomers stated that exercise is a primary way to manage healthy aging. The Boomers have already transformed fitness into a multi-billion-dollar industry.
The Message: Develop extensive health and wellness programming that is targeted at Boomers. Encourage and facilitate healthy, active lifestyles. Integrate health promotion into every detail of the physical and social environment. Develop marketing messages that emphasize the health and wellness benefits of participation.
The 50-Plus Boomers are a large group of potential participants. Creating unique marketing messages that appeal to Boomers as middle-aged active adults are effective in attracting them to park and recreation services. The Boomers are making it “cool to be gray”.
