Sounding a Wise, Youthful Appeal

NEW YORK — Apparel marketers will have to perform a balancing act to allure Baby Boomers, a generation bringing a youthful mentality to the second half of their lives even as they grow into an age-accepting attitude.

Too, the generation that spawned the phrase “Generation Gap” is now wrestling with a divide of its own — the wide range in wealth of its members, despite the group’s status as the most affluent cohort in the nation’s history.

That significant wealth gap is a phenomenon generation expert William Strauss, for one, expects will become a point of contention that manifests itself in the group’s consumption patterns. It will do so, he predicted, “to the extent they try to either close that [gap] or flaunt [their affluence] with large houses, multiple cars, expensive trips and luxury goods.” Although Boomers are commonly perceived as uniformly well off, Strauss noted that roughly half of the group’s 80 million members have wealth ranging from five figures down to a negative net worth.

In fact, Boomers are more unequal economically than any previous generation, pointed out William H. Frey, a demographer at The Brookings Institution and research professor at the University of Michigan’s Population Studies Center. “The have-nots will be in the workforce longer and apparel marketers can expect them to replace their work wardrobes,” in part to reflect changes that occur as their bodies mature, Frey forecast. For that reason, comfort is likely to become a higher priority, he added.

Beyond such practical concerns, the development of TV shows and movies catering to the interests of people 50 and older — a type of entertainment all but absent from the American scene — and the portrayal of fashion in those vehicles, could spur apparel spending among Boomers, observers noted. Strauss identified such entertainment as the biggest opportunity being missed by businesses that could be targeting Boomers, who he described as a culturally focused population.

At least one generation expert, Geoff Meredith, believes entertainment geared to the 50-and-older set will begin to surface as soon as 2006. “Television will begin to refocus on the audience with the most people and the most money — the Boomers,” forecast Meredith, a specialist in cohort marketing. “Fifty-plus eyeballs will again be worth something after 40 years of single-minded pursuit of the 18-to-49 demographic. We’ll start to see series featuring fortysomethings instead of teens and twentysomething singles,” he continued. “And it will be fortysomething for the Boomers, not 50 just yet. Even as they embrace aging, the Boomers’ cognitive age — how old they view themselves — will still be 10 to 15 years younger than their chronological age.”

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Imagery in such entertainment, whether organic or an overt product placement, could shake Boomers out of what long-term trend analyst Edie Weiner described as a fashion phase marked by boredom and full closets. “An ad-driven wish list has yet to be created,” contended Candace Corlett, a principal partner in WSL Strategic Retail, in speaking of a catalyst to stir impulse purchases among Boomers already flush with apparel. “We’ve gotten it down for teens and young careerists, but not for Baby Boomer women,” Corlett added.

Also effective, observers forecast, would be marketing campaigns that educate Boomers about how they might refresh their wardrobes. One such example can be found in Josephine Chaus’ current range of Simply Eight sportswear separates, aimed at women ages 35 and older, which bear hangtags portraying eight pieces whose images suggest how they can be combined. In addition, Chaus has speaking appearances slated at Revlon in December and Office Depot in February, where she will speak with female employees about how they might dress and show them Chaus sportswear.

Despite the spending prompt some Boomers will receive from second careers and lifestyles characterized by a growing variety of travel and leisure activities, the cohort’s apparel purchases will be triggered less by the product itself and more by the inspiration it provokes, from brand image to store environment, maintained Lois Huff, a senior vice president and consumer behavior specialist at Retail Forward. “It’s a matter of balancing her needs without feeding her fears,” Huff said in speaking of the Boomer’s progression to an older life stage. “I don’t know that any apparel brand has done that.”

Marketing aimed at Boomers in the years ahead will need to strike a balance between messages that are respectful, yet fun. “Marketers need to convey images of apparel designed for people who are fully developed — things wise, richly experienced people would wear,” Strauss counseled in speaking of a group he said has sparked lifestyle changes of greater consequence than virtually any other American generation. It’s an effect Strauss predicted will continue and one marketers will need to address. “Almost all Baby Boomers, even those without a lot of money, believe they are living a richer, more profound life than their parents, and it’s important for marketers to address this value,” he said.

People in their 50s are not viewing their life stage as the beginning of a long, gradual decline to mortality, which, for many in the generation, isn’t expected to happen for three or four decades. It’s a group that will be staying involved in current trends, including fashion, projected Tom Spencer, a vice president and retail practice leader at Claritas, in citing a dynamic expected to distinguish Boomers from their 50-plus predecessors. Or, as Brent Green put it in his book, “Marketing to Leading-Edge Boomers”: “They will not tolerate typecasting, stereotypes, pandering or ageism. They will expect stylish products to instill value beyond mere utility.”

Examples of those kinds of products and brands, which have found favor with Boomers, include iPods, the VW Beetle, Eileen Fisher, Target Stores and Mountain Dew, said brand-image specialist Cheryl Swanson in citing research she conducted in 2002 with 118 leading-edge Boomers and Mature generation members, then ages 47 through 64.

Indeed, many observers pointed out that 50 is the new 30, and while marketing messages with a retro flair can strike a chord with first-wave Boomers, it would be a mistake to convey a sensibility too serious or sedate. Weiner, for one, takes the notion a step further, saying, “People are living the same mental age from 35 to 70. Women over 50 have been saying they want to dress well, so fashion marketers shouldn’t assume they don’t. It’s not until 75 that people start viewing themselves as older, and even then they’re out there being active.”

With such a youthful mentality taking hold, market researcher Yankelovich has coined the term “kidult” to characterize a group of sophisticated adults who are celebrating what the market researcher calls “adultescence,” as they reinvent middle age. Evidence of the trend can be found in kidults’ embrace of movies such as “Mean Girls” and “13 Going on 30;” iPods and the Harry Potter books, Yankelovich reported.

In fact, with the draw of youth culture anticipated to have staying power with Boomers, the offer of contemporary items that are fun to wear will continue to appeal to the group, observers predicted. Purveyors of vitamins, skin care products and fitness and health care services already have benefited from that mind-set, said Corlett, a specialist in the 40-and-older population.

Value is becoming a higher priority, as well, as Boomers scope out fashionable clothes at bargain prices.

Corlett cited WSL’s finding that 40 percent of women of all ages prefer inexpensive clothing they can replenish often and noted an opening for department store brands to satisfy that desire. Traditional apparel labels have been losing brand equity while store brands have been gaining currency, and with the emergence of the Boomer’s “good enough” mind-set, much of the apparel business has failed to feed the generation’s renewed appetite for disposable fashion.

Ironically, specialty stores such as Chico’s, Eileen Fisher and, most recently, Gap and Gymboree have taken the lead in marketing to the 40-and-older shopper, despite the group’s preference for shopping in department stores for apparel, as well as in discount stores and direct channels such as the Internet and catalogues, which enables them to save time for other activities by shopping at home.

Where Boomers choose to live the second half of their lives is starting to unfold, with preferences forming for exurban locations such as the peripheries of New York and Los Angeles; smaller dwellings in urban environments, and college towns such as Austin, Tex.; Gainsville, Fla.; Madison, Wis., and Ann Arbor, Mich. “College campuses were the Normandy of the Baby Boomer generation and are one of the fastest-growing areas for people 50 and older,” Strauss said, comparing the locales of life-defining moments for the World War II generation with the Boomers.

Overall, much of the migratory movement among first-wave Boomers, ages 48 to 58, is toward what demographer Frey described as smaller, friendlier locales that have some link to urbane amenities, such as Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and away from costly, congested major metropolitan areas.

Baby Boomers have made their considerable mark on American culture largely because they represented 40 percent of a population that once numbered 200 million, a magnitude that sets them apart from the Millennial generation, ages 9 to 26, which is roughly the same size at 76 million, but accounts for just 28 percent of 290 million Americans today, noted generation expert Meredith. And, while Boomers’ economic firepower is projected to begin fading in the next decade, when the last of them turn 50 in 2012, their influence on society is expected to prevail. “Baby Boomers have driven everything in our culture post-World War II, and this won’t stop until they die,” Meredith forecast.