BOOMER-ALITY

Does every demographic in your marketplace – public or private, external or internal – get the same amount of attention and respect?

Recent statistics caught us up:

• ·       Boomers buy two times as much online as young adults
• ·       They’ll control 70 percent of U.S. disposable income by 2017
• ·       And those over 50 years old buy nearly five times as many new cars than the coveted 18 to 34-year demographic.

Yet why do many of us dye gray hairs, fib about our age, and delete graduation dates from resumes?  And why do so many advertisers and communicators ignore us or play down to us (cf. Beatrice of the eSurance spot)?

The unwritten, unspoken answer – and one we’ve intuited before:  America’s all about the youth culture, the supposed trend-setters.  They’re the courted ones (before age 49, that is), those who will influence for years to come. 

Sheer numbers, though, count.  Which is why AARP, Intel, and Walmart teamed up to offer a ready-to-go, 24/7 customer service-centered tablet, available this month.  Which is why the discipline of knowledge management, capturing workers’ wisdom and intelligence, is one of the hottest offerings from professional services firms.  Which is why an Oprah Winfrey and a Diane von Furstenberg still draw huge crowds, young and old, on the public circuit.

We won’t belabor the point, except to ask:  Are all your communications relevant to all your audiences? 

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM THE 2012 ELECTION

Numbers fascinate us.

Political pollsters live (and die, metaphorically) by them.  They’re the center of accountants’ and actuaries’ work.  PR professionals create news through numbers.  And Web sites and social media attempt to  measure impressions and results in some form of credible numerics.

At the same time, numbers can be manipulated.  Just because only a teeny percentage of Millennials isn’t bored by advertising – or so trumpets an Edelman survey of 4,000 of these cohorts  – doesn’t mean that the vast majority of them don’t fast-forward their Tivos during ad segments.   Any reported quantity of Facebook likes, even in the high double digits, only reveals that many folks are clicking in to participate in a promotion, win a prize, or share information for points.

In short, we’re jaded number crunchers.  The mother/daddy of all statistical generators, the election researchers, showed their true selves this fall, with the U.S. Presidential election.  Instead of guiding and advising candidates, pollsters allowed for the churns and flip-flops of their clients.  [No, it wasn’t just Mitt Romney, trust us.]  A majority of West Coast voters favor gay marriage?  Then, our to-be representatives replied “aye” with vigor.  Healthcare the number-one issue on Easterners’ minds?  You bet, at least some form of Obamacare was sanctioned by all.

Polls, to us, are real opportunities to listen, to guide our behaviors, to refine our actions.  Sure, they’re grist for our external relations colleagues to drive awareness.  We’ve done the same in previous lives.  Consider this:  The best of researchers use carefully planned statistics as an architecture, the foundation for causes and reasons and emotions.  They pore over every word, every question, then copy-test to ensure that the clarity of the question will produce answers of meaning.    When responses appear, they’re sliced and diced and cross-scrutinized to ensure accuracy of reporting, then mapped to indicate future trends and issues (and needed metrics).

That kind of care with numbers is our true North Star, whether driving change or marketing or brand campaigns.   Say it’s so, Mark Twain.

COMM-CENSUS

Waahh!

The cries you hear are coming from the Midwest, which, says the U.S. Census, is no longer the heartland.  Instead, metro areas increased by nearly 11 percent over the last 10 to 12 years, as did western and southern regions.

Some other numbers that count:

• Latinos, along with a more concentrated Asian upswing, lead the people growth surge by major margins – like 65 percent in Texas, 55 percent in Florida, and, yes, nearly half the increase in Arizona and Nevada.  [That’s not so good for the GOP.]

• City hoods have become more integrated, with the most prominent example being Atlanta.  [That’s great news for promoting the U.S. of A. as a true melting pot.]

Other drool-worthy stats for demographers and psychographers range from Detroit’s “credit negative” status (a 25 percent decline) to the year 2041, the so-called date for the “majority minority” switch in this country.  [Translation:  At that time, whites of European ancestry will make up less than 50 percent of the population.]

We could spend even more time pondering the population shifts and transitions.  What becomes crystal clear to us, in our professional roles as chief communicators and change mavens, are the implications to our work (not to mention the companies we work for). 

A few of our top-of-mind thoughts: 

• Families and personal life take center stage, with policies and advertising and communications reflecting that focus.

• Diversity gets real.   Nope, not a simple nod to mixing color and gender.  Rather, language and visuals and behaviors become keenly attuned to everyone’s needs and inclinations. 

• Words and pictures matter.  Partnering with human resources experts, draw up different kinds of guides that segment and introduce messages and design and translations that will resonate with the various employee populations. 

• Internal and social-media communities will form naturally, gravitating towards like-minded colleagues who share specific values, yet welcoming other more diverse individuals and teams.

Is this a vision, an evolution, or a brand-new world? 

IT'S BOOM CITY, HERE

We’re fascinated by tech statistics – combined with, of course, very human stories.

The latest?  For the past year or so, a number of reputable firms, through various research studies, announced that the boomer generation is a rather significant middle-of-the-road adopter of technology.  From Blackberries to Internet surfing, we boomers account for 40 percent of the spend (though we’re 25 percent of the population).

What’s more, we text, use search engines, check online ratings, answer email, and, in general, practice all of the e-activities commonly associated with younger generations, whether you call them Xs or millennials or Ys.  And speaking for ourselves, we’ve developed quite a CrackBerry (substitute:  iPhone) habit, almost obsessively looking at our smartphones to determine the latest news  – and who needs us.

There it is:  The humanity of technology.  There’s an overwhelming desire to not only be informed but also to be included in work and life goings-on, regardless of age or career situation.  Even our moms, well into their 70s, 80s, and 90s, educated themselves – or via the local public library – on what this computer stuff was all about.  [They then bragged to their friends that they’d met the Internet – and it was theirs. It was a completely different story when they physically encountered screen and mouse.  That’s another story for another day.] 

That need for inclusion, a Maslov-ian desire, underlies our technology use.  There’s no way, for a group so dedicated to changing America, that boomers would not master YouTube, social networking, and the latest gadgets.  At the same time, that discipline is softened by a commitment to ourselves and the world.  It’s our DNA.  And it’s a dominant gene, one for marketers, sales people, communicators to remember.  Everywhere.  Every time.