By Linda Meyers and Gary Geyer

Well, it has finally happened. Those advertising people on Madison Avenue have realized that those of us over 50 are worth talking to.

We are on their radar. Now that we are a demographic, they have to re-think how they market their products.

If you haven’t noticed, most advertising you see in magazines and on TV seems to be aimed at younger people. Speaking for myself, most of the time I don’t get it. I will tell you one thing, all that stuff sure isn’t aimed at me. Or anyone else I know that’s my age. Are they interested in my business, or what?

Here is what I found out

According to the census they just did, about 25% of us are 50 or older. Mostly, we are more content and more comfortable financially, then the rest of the population. (That’s nice to know.) We feel we are better off now than our parents were when they were our age.

It’s no surprise that they are not going to lump everybody over 50 together. When advertising to us, they have realized that we are actually several different markets and we all have different needs.

What they mean by that

Some of us are the baby boomers. Others are a little older, but not yet seniors. All those older than that middle group are considered seniors. Okay? Some of us are married; some are single, divorced, or widowed. Some work full time, some part time, and some of us are retired. Some have children that still live at home, while others never had children. Some are grandparents. We are of all different education levels and have significant income differences.

We have many things in common

Almost half of us exercise regularly. Many of us take vigorous walks, do gardening and play golf. We eat in restaurants and we stay in hotels when we travel. We like going for drives, cooking, and shopping. We go to the movies, we shop and, maybe not as often as we used to, we make love.

As a segment of the population, we are called “mature adults”. And, I am sure you will agree, none of us like likes to be called old.

Some statistics

By 2025, all of us over fifty will number 115 million. Hard to believe, but we are the most affluent age group. We own more than seventy-five percent of the money in the country. And get this. We spend more than one-trillion dollars a year on things that we want. As I am sure you know, there are more things in our lives than Depends and Efferdent.

We are demanding

A lot of us don’t have the patience we used to. Maybe that’s why we expect better customer service than the rest of the population.

Boomers

The boomers amongst us will always be Boomers. Boomers do things their own way. They like to stay active and physically fit. They will go kicking and screaming into old age. One should never refer to them as “seniors”. It gets them crazy. You have to talk to boomers as if they were still 30 or 40.

Boomer women

As if we didn’t know, boomer women are a potent force. They are responsible for 80% of the decisions having to do with free time. They are the boss on family issues and anything concerning the children, our health, and the house.

Those in between boomers and seniors

Many of us in this group are recently retired. We are coming off our peak earning years and are the wealthiest of the mature group. We spend a lot on travel, and recreation in general. And since we are such loving grandparents, we also spend more for quality clothes and toys for our grandchildren than the children’s parents do. We haven’t quite gotten that, for the most part, we are on fixed incomes, so we still spend big- time.

Seniors

Most of us in this group grew up in The Depression. Maybe that’s why we have such a strong work ethic. Unfortunately, we are also the group that has the least money. So we “make do”. We like personal attention whenever possible. And most of all, we like being treated with respect.

At long last, It’s good to be a demographic!

The advertising people finally realize that our mature market is a growing market. They are slowly but surely seeing we are active consumers and we like to try new things. They like the fact that we have the bucks to spend, and I am sure they are anxious to tap into that. Why, that’s the American way.

All I have to say is, “It’s about time”. <<