The Change Mariner

Over-50 Boomers Represent Untapped Market

Northwest Indiana News

The over-50 crowd never has been a priority for most marketers. But the new wave of active, affluent baby boomers like Dickerson that's swelling the ranks of that age group is making them harder to ignore.

Americans age 50 and above control $7 trillion, or 70 percent, of all U.S. wealth, bring in $2 trillion in annual income and accounting for 50 percent of all discretionary spending. Yet they are the target of only about 5 percent of advertising dollars, according to gerontologist Ken Dychtwald, president of the Age Wave think tank in San Francisco.

Dychtwald thinks marketers should be pitching more concepts like home remodeling, anti-aging medicines and sports cars to 50-and-ups, instead of old-age products for "mature" consumers. But the first step is to focus on them at all.

"Most companies are not paying any attention whatsoever to people over 50," he said. "It's absolutely unbelievable."

The number of 18-to-34 year-olds shrank by 9 million between 1990 and 2000, he noted, while the 50-plus group rose by 12 million as the first boomers -- born from 1946-64 -- surpassed the half-century mark.

Posted by Timothy Fredel at February 15, 2004 11:12 PM | TrackBack
Related Categories: Area - Social - Demographics | Quadrant - Social | Theme - 'Boomers Battle Aging'

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