Want mail? Here’s a simple solution: Just get older.
According to new research from Mintel Comperemedia, life and health insurance marketers sent more direct mail to Baby Boomers – consumers aged 45 to 63, depending on who’s defining them – than they did to younger Generation X and Y cohorts.
During the 12 months ending June 2009, Gen Xers received 15% fewer health insurance marketing direct mail pieces than Boomers, according to Mintel. Gen Y saw even fewer offers: 25% less than their parents’ generation.
For life insurance, the younger generations are equally ignored: Gen X and Gen Y got 18% and 23% fewer mailings, respectively, than Baby Boomers did in the past year.
According to Mintel, Gen Xers are less likely than average to say they own non-employer based life or health insurance, but they’re more likely to say they’ll purchase these products in the near future (17% more likely for health insurance, 23% for life insurance).
“Generation X is under-served and over-interested in life and health insurance, making them the perfect target market,” Daniel Hayes, Mintel’s VP of insurance services, said in a statement. “Because Gen Xers are concerned about providing for both young children and aging parents, adequate insurance coverage is extremely important. They want to keep themselves and their dependants healthy, but they also need to know their families will be provided for if they aren’t around.”
Mintel’s research also Gen Xers are 72% more likely than the average American to say they’re currently saving for a child’s education. But at the same time, they’re preparing to support their parents: 53% of Gen Xers say they expect to be the primary caregiver for a parent or other relative.
The Futurist’s Take: Granted, Baby Boomers are, on average better targets for insurance than their younger counterparts, both due to increased health concerns and ever-encroaching senses of responsibility. But leave aside the product being offered: Does anyone else anticipate a not-too-distant future where the tactile nature of direct mail, to say nothing of the comparatively uncluttered mailboxes of these younger generational cohorts, makes physical mail an intriguing medium to test? One more note: before marketers take the data from Mintel about how interested Generations X and Y are in insurance, pause and consider that Mintel has an Insurance Services division. Not that the findings aren’t valid…
