DIRECT TALKED recently with consultant Kurt Medina, who specializes in the 50-plus market. He shared his thoughts about targeting boomers and seniors.
DIRECT: What’s the biggest challenge to targeting folks over 50?
MEDINA: General marketers still look at it as one market. They used to consider it the senior market, and now they’re calling it the boomer market. Of course, both are wrong. There really are three separate segments. One is what I’ve always called pre-retirees, [which] the boomers have pretty much taken over. Then there’s the active retirees, which the boomers aren’t yet in great numbers. And then seniors [who are] in their 70s and 80s. All three groups have different purchasing patterns and different hot buttons.
DIRECT: Is it another problem that people who’re the same age don’t behave the same? For example, some folks in their 60s behave more like they’re seniors while others act like they’re in their 30s or 40s.
MEDINA: Sure. But you have to start somewhere. And speaking as a direct marketer, age is an easy thing to get. You can make broad, sweeping statements about folks by age grouping. I think the boomer end of it has accentuated this. People are doing their own thing
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