For those of you who think that marketing to teens is the next wave of things to come, think again.
According to a recent article by Linda Tischler in Fast Company magazine, "The 40-plus age group is now 45% bigger than the 18-to-39 group and will be 60% bigger by 2010. In 1989, adults 40 and older became the biggest adult segment for the first time in U.S. history, making them the new customer majority. The leading edge of the boomer cohort--which encompasses people born between 1946 and 1964--is 58 now, and if past experience is any indicator, the group that humorist Joe Queenan called "the most self-important generation in history" is likely to transform middle age and beyond, much as it did puberty, early adulthood, and thirtysomething."
More from the article:
"More important, boomers have bucks. Lots of bucks. According to Mature Marketing & Research, a Boston-based firm, they control more than half of the nation's discretionary income and three-quarters of the country's financial wealth. And they're likely to get their hands on even more. Boomers' parents, the Silent Generation, are dying off, and inheritances will spell the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history. Add it all up, and by 2010, spending by people 40 and older will be "a trillion dollars greater than spending by people between the ages of 18 and 34--$2.6 trillion versus $1.6 trillion," says David Wolfe, author of Ageless Marketing (Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2003)."
Sounds like a fast-moving gravy train to me... would it be time for you to re-think your demographics?
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