Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers

by Brent Green

By 2010, 30 percent of the U.S. population will be over age 50. Even today, the over-50 segment has $750 billion in spending power and controls a majority of the nation's assets. The generation's front-runners are Leading-Edge Baby Boomers, founders of modern youth culture and then yuppie materialism. This essential marketing guide presents stimulating chapters that will show you:

-- Critical "bipolar metavalues" that influence the buying behavior of Leading-Edge Baby Boomers.

-- Select the right advertising media to achieve your marketing goals

-- LOHAS: a new lifestyle segment that's changing everything

-- How to plan and organize "bandwagon" Boomer events and promotions

-- Exceptional opportunities for reaching Boomers through the Internet.

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 2003

About the author

Brent Green is a creative director, copywriter, author, professional speaker, and consultant focused on articulating the stories of the Baby Boomer generation.

Author of "Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers: Perceptions, Principles, Practices, Predictions" (PMP, 2004 and 2006), Brent has spoken widely at conferences about the Boomer segment and the unprecedented reorientation of Western countries to aging populations. In 2010, he published "Generation Reinvention: How Boomers Today Are Changing Business, Marketing, Aging, and the Future." He has also published "Noble Chaos: A Novel" a literary and coming-of-age story about the Vietnam War era at the University of Kansas. He has also released an Audible version of "Noble Chaos," narrated by Jack de Golia, an award-winning producer of audiobooks.

He has recently finished writing and publishing a biographical novel about his close friend who was a PhD wellness leader and impetuous daredevil while bravely fighting five recurrences of cancer, entitled "Warrior: The Life and Lessons of a Man Who Beat Cancer for 57 Years." Brent's recent writing achievement also includes a self-help book focused on grief and loss and entitled "Questions of the Spirit: The Quest for Understanding at A Time of Loss."

He has been called upon for expert commentary by "The Los Angeles Times," "CNN Headline News," "The Wall Street Journal," "US News & World Report," "Dallas Morning News," "The Denver Post," "Business Week," "MarketWatch," and "The New York Times."

Established in 1986, Brent Green & Associates, Inc. develops integrated marketing communication programs with emphasis on direct response media. Brent has received over 50 regional, national and international awards for creative and strategic excellence, including the Direct Marketing Associations International Gold ECHO Award. The Rocky Mountain Direct Marketing Association selected him as Direct Marketer of the Year.

As a creative director and copywriter, Brent has led marketing program creation for McDonald's, The Broadmoor Hotel, Business Radio Network, Total Petroleum (U.S. division of TOTAL in France), Orange Glo International (OxiClean brand), "Men’s Health" magazine, "Men’s Fitness" magazine, the United States Olympic Committee, and numerous Colorado advertisers.

Reviews

[Ernest Hightower]

Some new marketing books "catch the wave" and achieve overnight bestseller status, especially those that promise instant success: permission marketing, viral marketing, emotional marketing, and on and on. Green's book does not give pat formulas or suggest easy answers; it reveals insights and proposes strategies. The book is full of anecdotes and case studies from his successful career in marketing. That's a plus. It's refreshing to read a marketing book by someone who has actually been a practitioner and has a track record. Too many marketing books are also way too theoretical or academic. The author admits his own activism during the Vietnam War era and couples the lessons of that time with decades of experience as an advertising executive. He provokes new thinking about social issues often taken for granted (at least by me until I read the book). The book made me aware of what some marketers are doing well and what a larger group is doing wrong when it comes to baby boomer advertising. Green shares interesting insights about boomer history, debunks some myths that crop up in conservative media, and calls for a better conception of aging. If the author is so inclined, however, it would be helpful to see a second edition with more "how-to" information.

[Melanie]

Although this book was published over 8 years ago, I liked the way it breaks the baby boom generation between "leading edge" and late boomers. Part 1 contains good descriptions of perceptions of the generations and the forces that shaped them. I also found helpful information in the first two chapters of Part 2 about how to reach this generation. I would recommend these sections to anyone trying to reach this segment of the population.

[Karen]

Interesting, but he has a far more pessimistic view than I do.

[Kalle Wescott]

Pretty obvious material; poorly written.