How do you market to people with no money?

Every one wants a piece of that yummy boomer pie.

The boomers are working, they have money and they spend all of it. No trinket costs to much for them.

But, retirement is looming. When they retire they won't have any money. This article from Forbes talks about marketing to the baby boomers who retire with nothing.

Let's start of with them defining who they are talking about:

Few companies are gearing up to meet the needs of this powerful group. This is a mistake. The cohort of financially unprepared yet undaunted and uncompromising baby boomers--"u-boomers" for short--will account for almost 25% of total U.S. consumption by 2015. This implies a massive market for products and services that meet discriminating u-boomer tastes at affordable u- boomer prices.

So boomers. The marketers have you pegged. They have been researching you your entire lives.

You think my little rants here are distasteful here's what the marketers know about you.

The u-boomers also face a crisis of community. By 2015 there will be 21 million unmarried 51- to 70-year-old boomers--more than twice as many single-person households as the previous generation had at the same age. Yet barely half believe they can count on family members for a safety net, and just 30% attend church weekly. Both figures are 10 percentage points lower than for the previous generation.

...

Companies also need to think about repositioning their brands so they help u-boomers feel smart, innovative and proud--not cheap or old--as they reconcile their financial limitations and lifestyle aspirations. For example, some discount airlines such as JetBlue (nasdaq: JBLU - news - people ) are helping passengers feel smart and special by combining low prices with comfort--individual television sets, leather upholstery, extra legroom--and a cool brand.

...

Companies can also appeal to u-boomers by combining health and convenience into products and brands. Most are quite unhealthy and deeply concerned about their health, while also being committed to proactive health management. Healthy, convenient products--think frozen food formulated for senior nutrition needs, or fruit smoothies containing calcium and Omega-3 fatty acids instead of protein boosts--will find a large market.

...

Similarly, the loneliness of many u-boomers suggests opportunities to add value by creating services with an element of community spirit. Examples here might include new travel options emphasizing socially conscious work or shopping experiences that are more entertaining and interactive.

Basically they are saying; you will buy anything cheap and shinny, you are fat and out of shape, and nobody has now, nor will they ever, love you.

When you are self-centered and narcissistic you alienate your friends and family. If you had focused on your family and friendships during your lifetime you would not be so lonely now. You would have a support network there to help you out when you got old. And, you would not be so scared of getting old.

Karma's a bitch; ain't it?

Your flashback for today - fun

Here's your trip back to the 90's.

Enjoy.

A Baby Boomer wants out

We've covered this one before in The Boomers Want Out.

There is a group of boomers that came late to the party and they don't feel like they are getting all that perks that their older siblings got.

Over at the Lahonton Valley News we get this gem from a baby boomer who wants out.

On Monday I will be 51 years old, and I'm a bit concerned. I'm not concerned about being over 50. I kind of saw that coming. I'm irritated about being labeled a "Baby Boomer." I don't think like a Boomer, I don't dress like a Boomer and that's because I am not a Baby Boomer.

The classic definition of a Baby Boomer is someone born between 1946 and 1965. It's meant to include the children of the Greatest Generation who fought WWII, saved the world and then came home, got married, used the GI Bill to go to college and buy a house, created the upper middle class and set about having babies to create the permanent Republican majority.

Real Baby Boomers came of age at a time when space travel was new, nuclear warfare was a real possibility and the Beatles shared the charts with Sinatra and Pat Boone. The rich ones joined the National Guard or got college deferments, and the rest were drafted and went to Vietnam. As a rule Boomers either wear sandals or hate people who wear sandals but, either way, most of them can roll a joint with one hand.

Sounds like you just described yourself. You had Disco. A drinking age of 18 and fashions that make 80's big hair look good. (Maybe that's why nobody really minded the big hair in the 80's it was better than the 70's.)

A lot of cool stuff happened during the 10 years that separates us from the others. The T-Bird, the '57 Chevy and the Mustang hit the roads. Chuck Berry, the Beatles, the Stones, Johnny Cash and Elvis all had hit records. On the big screen James Bond and John Wayne dominated the movies, and we watched Bonanza and Huckleberry Hound on our new color TVs.

Those are all things that the baby boomers claim as their own. In fact, those are all things the baby boomers want credit for. So, if I understand what you are saying, it goes something like this. "All the really cool things that make a baby boomer a baby boomer is what makes me different from a baby boomer so I'm not a baby boomer."

All baby boomers are ego centric cry babies. You are even crying about being a baby boomer. It is amazing.

We came of age after Watergate with a healthy distrust of government, an unhealthy appetite for fast food and stereos that were equipped with turntables and cassette decks that were always played too loud. We were the generation of American bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Journey and The Eagles, and we loved every minute of it.

This paragraph is a charm. Let's take it step by step.

First you claim that you are great because you've made yourself fat and deaf. There's something to be proud of. Hmmmmm, let me pry myself from my chair and go flip that record over. Omph, Omph. Ah hell, I'll just keep my fat butt here in the chair. Pass the fries.

Then you claim great American bands. Let's make this clear. Journey. Sucks. The Eagle. Suck.

Skynyrd, what can I say about that. They had a few good songs and now all the original members are dead (we'll I think one is still alive) yet they are still on tour. How the F is that possible? You boomers are so f'n stupid you will pay a lot of money to see what is, in reality, a cover band.

We are the generation that gave up the business suit for the polo shirt, the martini for the margarita and the comb-over for the shaved head. I turn 51 on Monday, and I am more familiar with my recliner than my 401K ,and I own more Hawaiian shirts than I own stocks, but given what the Boomers have done to the market, I'm cool with that.

There is something else to be proud of. You know your recliner better than your 401K. Nothing like screaming to the world that, "I'm watching TV while I go broke."

You sound like the typical baby boomer.

Sorry, you can't get out. You are condemned by your own words.

You video for today - fun

Don't know why this one comes to mind.

Here's Blind Melon. No Rain.

You are what you eat

Ahhhh, all that Yummy food.

Or, as Homer Simpson would say, "Donuts".

Well, you eat like shit your entire life and bad things happen to you. I know this is not a news flash to most of us. But to a large group of baby boomers (and by large I also mean physically) this is a news flash.

Here's the story:

At 59, he has taken over the responsibility of grocery shopping and cooking, a role his wife had for 30 years.

"The kitchen is now my domain," he said. "I enjoy cooking. It's like a hobby."

This transformation was spurred by rising blood pressure and cholesterol levels that landed Gordon at Northwestern Memorial Wellness Institute. After identifying his "food personality," working with a dietitian and exercising for the first time in his life, he dropped 30 pounds and lowered his blood pressure enough to scale back on medication.

"I never used to think about my meals or what I was eating," he said. "I knew I had to make changes."

Let's start somewhere in the middle. What the F#@K is a food personality? Who makes this crap up? What are these people 3. What next? Will we have Barney the dinosaur signing the "cholesterol song"? Wake up! You are almost 60.

OK, with that out of the way.

You are 59 and never thought about what you ate and you never exercised. This just leads me to believe there won't be a crisis with Social Security or Medicare because the boomers are all going to start dropping like flies. They are not going to live long enough in retirement to bankrupt us. (One could hope.)

This huge demographic is behind a majority of today's food trends -- everything from nutritionally enhanced foods and functional beverages to fresh local produce and artisanal foods.

"This generation is redefining what it means to have quality food," Barry said. And, she added, they're investing the time to become more knowledgeable about food.

How do they get their egos through the door. Maybe that is why their bodies have gotten so large.

Let me see if I've got this straight. The baby boomers are the generation that brought chain restaurants to the forefront of American cuisine. Where we used to have ethnic mom and pop restaurants we now have Chili's and The Cheesecake Factory.

So what they are saying is that now they have discovered other people of the world know how to make decent tasting food and they want credit for going to their mom and pop ethnic restaurants. The same types of places they first put out of business by only eating at McDonald's.

Nearly 80 million strong, this generation may have grown up on meat loaf, mashed potatoes and tuna casserole, but now they're seeking foods that can help them stay young, or at least feel young.

Boomers have traded in their Tang for orange juice fortified with ingredients that can lower their cholesterol. They've ditched their beloved Pop-Tarts for high-fiber flaxseed cereal and said good-bye to Tab for acai berry smoothies and green tea.

"The boomers do not view themselves as 'old' like their parents tended to at this age," said Matt Thornhill, president of the Boomer Project, which collects marketing data.

That's it. Rock music didn't keep you young. Yoga isn't keeping you young. Maybe orange juice with fish oil will do it. (Well, where do you think omega 3 comes from?)(OK it's also in flax seeds.)

As luck would have it, there's no shortage of advice on what boomers should eat to stay vital and fit. In fact, an anti-aging diet movement seems to be sweeping the nation: Bookstores and grocery stores are filled with how-to tomes and foods promising to keep your mind sharp, arteries clear, bones strong and joints pain-free.

A major champion of this movement is Dr. Michael Roizen, creator of the RealAge program and coauthor of the new book "You Staying Young: The Owner's Manual for Extending Your Warranty".

Just goes to show. Take a pile of horse shit put a shiny wrapper on it and the baby boomers will buy it. They'll buy anything if they think their neighbors might buy it too.

A Book about X

Authors are starting to write about Gen-x in a positive light. Maybe we are finally getting rid of that 'slacker' label.

The Plain Dealer brings us this article about us:

The numbers just aren't on Generation X's side.

Sandwiched between 78 million baby boom ers and 76 million millennials/echo boomers, the 45 million people born between 1960 and '77 (the author's Gen-X boundaries) mostly have been ignored by the culture at large.

Except when they pop up as cynical, grunge-listening, coffee-sipping slackers in pontificating magazine cover stories or movies such as "Reality Bites." But Gen Xers are all grown up now, in their 30s and 40s, married, raising children and working.

And, according to author Jeff Gordinier, they've been changing the world. Generation X movers and shakers include the founders of Wikipedia, Google and YouTube. Barack Obama is a Gen Xer. So are Stephen Colbert and the people behind "The Onion." Not to mention culture-changing artists such as Nirvana, Public Enemy, Douglas Coupland, Quentin Tarantino and Sofia Coppola.

These are just a few of the examples Gordinier, editor-at-large at Details magazine, culls in his passionate defense of his generation. The book's full title, "X Saves the World: How Generation X Got the Shaft, But Can Still Keep Everything From Sucking," gives a pretty good snapshot of where he's coming from. Gordinier might have a chip on his shoulder, but he makes a strong argument.

"The more boomers talk about bringing the world together, the less they succeed at it, but a thousand Woodstocks couldn't touch what Generation X has already accomplished through the shrewd and inspired use of media and technology," he writes.

The one exception I take to the above is that everything I have read starts Gen-x no earlier than 1965. So that would rule out Obama and Colbert from being x-ers.

It's a date I don't think we should move. I know people born in the early 60's and they act like baby boomers.

If I have to choose between McCain and Obama I will pick Obama. But Obama is still a classical, 'government can save us' boomer. Doesn't matter conservative or liberal all baby boomers are 'government can save us'. Just look at the compassionate conservatives. They are going to save us with bigger government. (Of course if I have to choose between McCain and Clinton I might have to leave the country.)

I have not read the book. I'm to cheap to buy books. If my local library gets a copy I'll read it, or if the publisher wants to send me a copy (for free) I'll review it.

You're video for today - fun

Here's your video for today.

(And here's to YouTube, another gen-x invention.) It's amazing how much time we can waste and still be more productive than the boomers.

Here's the Foo Fighters.