Useful insight to consider if you’re targeting this audience:

• Around 22% of the UK population are Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964), in fact around 50% of the UK adult population is now over 50.

  
  Even though this group is still probably the most economically powerful, with a high average discretionary income, their lifetime value may now be starting to decline as more of them retire.

• Most boomers have smart phones and have been using the Internet for more than twenty years.
• They have plenty of free time to read the direct mail they receive.
• As younger generations have moved away from Facebook, it has increasingly become the social site of choice for the over-50s.
• Research by Marketing Week found that Boomers feel somewhat patronised by brands and misrepresented in advertising.
• There are a lot of myths about this audience – that they are stuck in their ways and they are brand-loyal, when in fact because they now more disposable income they are typically very open to new ideas and opportunities.
  
  

Some guidance on marketing to this older segment

1. Think about their particular needs
   
   • Don’t bombard them with too much information, too much choice and too much complexity.
   • Keep your proposition simple with plenty of relevant value to this audience.
     
     
2. Segmentation
   
   • There’s as much diversity among 70-year-olds as there is among people aged 16, 24 or 48, so look at what these people are really like.
   • Embrace “niche ageing”, and segment not on age, but on interests.
     
     
3. Added-value services
   
   • Younger people tend to consume products while older people tend to consume services.
   • Think about how you can wrap services around existing products.

     For example, older people are less likely to be online, so problems or FAQs might need to involve a helpline using real people.