Preface
First things rst: this is not your ordinary business book. This is a book
about baby boomers, and how to translate that knowledge into market-
ing opportunities that resonate with that very large, very wealthy group
of consumers who were born between 1946 and 1964. Only by knowing
the driving passions and operative values of any particular group of con-
sumers can an organization develop compelling marketing opportunities,
an approach that, I rmly believe, has gained considerable currency in
recent years but is still not fully appreciated by many companies. Cultural
fl uency is the key to the marketplace, my experience tells me, with only a
holistic, 360-degree understanding of consumers capable of revealing the
kind of innovative ideas that lead to breakthrough success.
All that said, there is plenty of information here that draws from the
world of business, specifically which marketers are most effectively tap-
ping into the cultural DNA of boomers, how they are doing that, and
what we can learn from it. I show how organizations of all sizes and in all
industries and product categories can create meaningful relationships with
baby boomers in their third act of life based on how the group is spend-
ing our two principal resources: time and money. Rather than describe
what boomers say, think, or say they think—the focus of almost all market
research—I am solely interested in what they are actually doing. Taking
a behavioral versus attitudinal approach is the only means of cracking the
code of any target market, and the reason why dozens of Fortune 500 com-
panies and their ad agencies have hired me as a consultant.
Previous Page Next Page