Customer Reviews

Advertising to Baby Boomers

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Even if I weren't a baby boomer, I would take this book very seriously. This book is a real wake up call and perhaps a watershed in the way marketers should look at reaching boomers. It is not enough as Chuck reminds us to simply stick images and sounds of the 60's in your campaign to allude to our youth, but rather he gives some very realistic and well thought out ways to tap into what really goes on inside the head of someone who is part of the single most important generation to walk the planet up to this point. And who better to tell that story than someone who has lived it and actually been born into the world of advertising. Read his bio--this guy is literally a creation of the ad world.

Bottom line if you get the idea that you need to reach baby boomers, Chuck's book is the foundation for that effort.
But in fact, he also gives some very practical advertisng and marketing advice to reach any demographic cohort, and his take on branding is a must-read, nothing short of a revelation. And his dry wit is quite compelling as a read. None of the usual textbook boring mumbo-jumbo often found in marketing books.

In my experience helping launch CNN, and redefining local broadcasting with the launch of FOX, I could have used this very practical tool over and over again. I would love to (and may) give this book out to all my clients.

If malpractice litigation against ad agencies becomes a trend, Advertising To Baby Boomers will be the plaintiff attorneys' Exhibit #1. Nyren blows giant holes in the ad community's unfounded ideas about boomers. He shows how agencies blindly accept trendy notions about Boomers being persuastion-resistant when the truth is they often don't know jack about boomers and run from the challenge, hurting their clients in the process.

I loved the author's witty vibe. It makes a great airplane read if you don't mind getting weird looks from chuckling too much. I predict this book will increase the trend of in-house agencies, especially where the target market is mainly Boomers. If I owned an ad agency I'd make every account exec and creative under 45 read Advertising to Baby Boomers and write a book report.

Advertising to Baby Boomers exposes the heehawing, habits, and hang-ups that are preventing companies from making fortunes from this wealthy generation. Straight from the fractured keyboard of a seasoned copywriter, wise and welcome advice pokes up from every page, packaged with occasional satire and silliness.

Do you want to have fun reading a business book and still learn what it takes to cash in?

Nyren's contagious clarion call captures the Boomer zeitgeist. However, don't expect to be content while reading his witty prose. You'll no doubt have an uncontrollable urge to chuckle every paragraph or so.

If you're on the agency side, you might sense discomfort dribbling down your spine as Nyren denudes the biz so clients understand how to win the perpetual tug-of-war. (If clients prevail, however, they still keep paying the bills.)

If you're on the client side, stay alert because you'll finally figure out why your agency irks you when they fail to "get it" - especially that most deliberate assignment of wooing Boomers as customers. And while following this yellow-brick road, even the most seasoned, "been-there, done-it" pros can expect to discover underdeveloped opportunities for infomercials, internet advertising, and Boomer branding.

In the future -- after many of us Baby Boomers are dead and buried -- Nyren's book could well be hailed as a classic in the annals of advertising education. Looking back, some may call him a pundit. Others may call him a visionary. Both would be correct.

Whether you agree with him or not, Nyren's work is straight talk about the state of affairs at many of the world's leading advertising agencies today -- especially regarding the way in which they think about a cohort they choose to ignore.

Here's part of an imagined new employee orientation session. It takes place when a thirty-something veteran at an ad agency is giving advice to a recently recruited twenty-something trainee:

"At our shop, here's our attitude about Baby Boomers: Hey, if the client doesn't mention `the elephant in the room' that's okay. We don't bother bringing up the topic, either.

"And if nobody talks about them, the geezers will simply die off quietly and never be missed. After all, folks over 50 comprise only about 25 percent of the American population. (That's by no means a majority.) They hold only 70 percent of U.S. assets. (We don't really know who owns the other 30 percent.) Boomers wield annual spending power of only about $2 trillion. (Exactly how many zeros is that?) Well, heck, they need to buy stuff anyhow. So why waste creative energy in trying to influence them? Around here, we stick to doing the fun stuff -- creating award-winning campaigns for people our own age! We're the ones with the high credit card limits. Just yesterday I had to increase my card limit to 34 grand. By the way, what's yours?"

Does Advertising to Baby Boomers draw controversy -- sometimes scorn -- within the advertising agency community? Yes, it probably does. But its target market is not the agencies. Rather, the real target market is CLIENTS. Nyren's is one of the few books designed to better inform advertising agency CLIENTS on how to deal with a massive demographic shift forced by the relentless march of time. In my opinion, it's a "must-read" for any business owners or executives who wonder which half of their advertising dollars are being wasted.

Since I market to the Baby Boomers, I thought this would be a good book to have.
What I found, however, were mostly war stories about big advertising agencies challenges to marketing to the Boomer generation. For me, a tedious read and not a lot of useful information I didn't already know.

Like the old Doublemint gum ads you get Two-Two-Two good things in one from "Advertising to Baby Boomers." Chuck Nyren has written a guide to successfully advertising to boomers from the ad buyers point of view, and gives great insights into the boomer market as well. There's only one thing to do with this book - Buy it! Then enjoy the wonderful humor, serious analysis, and gutsy commentary about how to get the most from working with an agency to get your message across. It's a book that will remain a resource for years to come.

John Migliaccio, Ph.D.
President
Maturity Mark Services co,
Co-Author, "77 Truths about Marketing to 50+ Consumers"

The book is riddled with bad advice throughout. It is out of touch, misleading, and perhaps the greatest sin of all, lacks any research or data points. It is pure opinion and conjecture based on the author's own experience as a Boomer. I can't even imagine the ego at work that would allow a person to think that they themselves define a generation. A few gems:

1) According to the author, infomercials are the best way to reach Boomers - because whereas they are far too savvy to fall for tricks such as viral marketing, they lack the capacity to operate a remote control.
2) Apparently "branding" is the new buzz word in advertising - and has only been in use the last ten years. (Guessing from the rest of the book, I'm not sure the author has been inside an advertising agency since the mid `80's) Boomers are too smart to go for these "shenanigans" (his words, not mine).
3) According to the author's advice, marketers should just highlight product benefits, and ask consumers to define who the brand is. He then went on to give an example that proved this is perhaps the worst thing you could do. He manages to redefine a major sneaker brand, known for superior fit and performance, as "not too ugly."
4) The examples he gives for products that should be marketed Boomers are often standard household goods, rather than products that have particular appeal to empty nesters or the aging population. I agree that many marketing efforts for household goods should not exclude Boomers - but why would you direct advertising of this type towards a household that statistically has half as many people in it than the next younger generation? If you are a toothpaste manufacturer (the example given in the book) wouldn't you prefer that consumers buy twice as much of your product?
5) The chapter on anti-aging drugs, one of the largest marketing opportunities for Boomers, not only focused entirely on Viagra, but included the author's personal experience with the drug. Ew.