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”.

Boomers do not think of themselves as old.  They anticipate living to age 90 and beyond.  Ninety-three percent of active adult Boomers  believe that exercise is a primary way to manage healthy aging.   The findings of a 2006 survey of more than 5,000 middle-aged and senior adults confirmed their commitment to staying active and in shape.  Approximately 77% of those surveyed reported that they workout at least three days per week and fewer than 6% indicated not working out at all.  These findings are reinforced by a 3-year 114% increase in health club memberships by those over age 55 (International Health, Racquetball and Sports Club Association).  

Alternatively, for the first time in more than a decade, fitness membership numbers are declining among the fitness industry’s traditional core membership, the 18- to 49-year-olds.  According to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the level of leisure time physical activity among adults age 18 to 49 dipped from 31.8 percent in 1997 to 30.8 percent in 2007.   Finally, this younger adult group will experience virtually no population growth between 2009 and 2016.  The age 50-plus segment of the U.S. population will increase 25 percent between 2006 and 2016 and by 2030 one in every five Americans will be a Boomer

Given these statistics it is evident that promoting healthy active lifestyles by providing fitness and wellness services that are attractive and relevant to the age 50-plus adults is a great opportunity for park and recreation agencies.

The opportunity

Almost every element of society will make adjustments to better serve the Boomer market.  It is anticipated that in 2009, these middle-age consumers will spend more than $72 billion on products and services to help slow the aging process.  Is it any wonder that major pharmaceutical companies have about 750 new drugs under development targeting some aspect of the aging process? 

The Boomers are the largest, richest and fastest-growing segments of the population and they are demanding products and services designed and marketed specifically for them.

The question is how can your agency tap into this opportunity?
Fitness Centers

As upward of 78 million boomers make their way into retirement with more than $2 trillion in buying power, they will be demanding more from your agency especially given the fact that only 27 percent of fitness centers offer programs for older adults.

Condition-specific products and services

Grocery stores are masters at branding specific areas of the store, so why not do the same at your fitness center?

Create a “Chronic Solutions Center” within your facility. This area could be a stand-alone space that offers the following services for active adults and others:

Assessment service. Partner with a medical assessment group that would locate their practice inside of your fitness center, and offer your members screenings for diabetes, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, joint conditions and more. If they can’t locate their service inside your center, you could seek out a mobile screening service that could come to your location one or twice a week.

A specialized team. Your condition-specific team could consist of a medical doctor, registered dietitian, physical therapist, well-educated condition-specific personal trainers, massage therapist and other allied professionals.

Educational center and programs. To support your focus on providing conditions-specific education, create an information kiosk that provides literature from various advocate groups (American Heart Association, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, American Dietetic Association, etc.). Beyond this, offer classroom-style learning opportunities, such as cooking classes that address conditions ranging from diabetes to high cholesterol. You could also offer a lecture series on healthy aging topics such as weight management; joint, heart and eye health; depression; chronic fatigue; arthritis, osteoporosis, fibromyalgia and more.

Physical activity programs. According to Dr. Ronald M. Davis, president of the American Medical Association, “If we had a pill that contained all of the benefits of exercise, it would be the most widely prescribed drug in the world.” But, since we don’t have this magic pill, we will have to rely on what we know does work: exercise. Condition-specific exercise programs can be plentiful, from cancer to heart disease, back pain to depression, diabetes to high blood pressure.  You could offer yoga, massage, deep breathing classes or chiropractic services.  A well-rounded physical activity program can help Boomers fight virtually any health condition. The key, as with all programming, is to ensure that you have properly trained staff.

Spa services. The Boomer’s desire for healthy solutions is partially behind the rapid rise of the spa industry. According to the International Medical Spa Association, the medical spa industry now has more than 1,500 locations. At a growth rate of 300 percent over the past three years, this segment of the $12 billion U.S. spa market is a prime example of what happens when healthcare and spa services combine.

If you don’t have the financial resources to incorporate these elements into your center, you may wish to approach a local Medispa to sublet space in your center. If space is an issue, you may wish to partner with a Medispa group in your neighborhood that offers you a referral fee on each service or procedure provided.

Make your facility relevant

To become more relevant to the Boomer population, recreation centers must move beyond the programs, products and services being offered today and take a new approach. These suggestions are a few ways to break through the status quo in an effort to grow your participation. But there are many other opportunities within the wellness arena. Investing in these new areas to create products and services to meet the needs of the aging Boomers may be a wise investment.