Aug. 8, 2008 at 11:06am

Safety, experience lure boomers

Posted by Kathleen Deakins in Advertising, Care Line Marketing, Planning and Strategy
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Consumers become more risk averse as they age, observes Peter Francese in Ad Age July 7, 2008. Francese is founder of American Demographics magazine and demographic trend analyst at Ogilvy Mather. So, we should appeal to aging boomers with messages of safety, experience and service guarantees.

And we should do it carefully, especially among the boomers I know – and you probably do, too – who seem to get more pig-headed with age. “Resolutely opinionated consumers don’t want to admit their minds are closed, and they resent it when anyone suggests they are not willing to consider a new idea,” Francese writes.

Here are more lessons, based on Francese’s insights, for hospital marketers seeking to lure the risk-averse crowd in their replacement part years:

Price matters, but don’t count on the sale if there is perceived risk. As more price and quality data are available to consumers expect to see hospitals with strong quality numbers able to command premium prices.

Opinion Web sites are increasingly influential. While the influence of these sites varies a great deal by market, marketers everywhere need to keep current on how their customers are making decisions. For example, keep an eye on RateMDs.com with 316 ratings added yesterday and ratings for 150,000+ doctors.

Boomers still read newspapers. Despite the declining circulation of the nation’s newspapers, they still reach older consumers who prefer newsprint in hand to news on the Web.

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