A Research On Baby Boomer

The term baby boomer refers to the period between 1946 and the early part of the 1960s, after the World War 2, where there are high rate of childbirth. During this period, there was baby boom. The incidence of child control through pill was not yet in vogue at this period. Following the great devastating impact of the WW2 on countries populations, the need increase the populations size was encouraged by government of countries and family clans. This results in the boom of childbirth. Thus, the demographic statistics of countries continued to be on the increase during this period.

The decline of child birth through birth control pills and other contraceptives brought to the end of the period of baby boomer. In United States, contraceptive pills were introduced during 1965. and this period is regularly referenced as the period of the end of baby boom. The baby boomer term has being applied to marketing conceptualization. There is a group of characters with similar attitude and age grade refers to as baby boomer. In his book ‘Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers’, Brent Green (2003) conceptualize baby boomers as those born in the period between 1946 and 1955 who have a generational cohort or unit that is self defining.

They conceive themselves as those born at the height of the Vietnam war. The second grouping of baby boomer according to Green is those conceived in the mid 1950s to the mid 1960s. Thus, from this classification we can group the baby boomers into older boomers , and those that are described as the younger boomers. The demographic of this group he termed as trailing-edge boomers. Thus, 77 million of baby boomers formed the first mass market for advertisers to grab their professional prowess in the American market. As consumers, baby boomers behave like kids, preferring to watch television shows, buying baby foods like cereals for breakfast.

They also posses adult characteristics which sees them setting trends. The aging of baby boomers in their 50s and 60s provides marketers new opportunity into creating products to satisfy these peculiar consumers through adequate market segmentation analysis and planning. WHAT DO THE BABY BOOMER WANT IN CLOTHING There are diverse group forming the baby boomers; however, they share some similar characteristics when it comes to taste for clothing, and the choice of satisfaction derived from consuming specific products.

The 78 million baby boomers still have a great dominance on the U. S. market. Marketers and retailers have being accused in treating this group as homogenous; sharing same preferences and taste. Researches has shown that baby boomers have different taste for their clothing, from those of other generation breeds. The difference lies in the preference for qualities of cloth comfort, value, and quality, authentic products and ethnic materials. The baby boomers have more interest for fashionable clothing material.

According to a survey conducted to see the difference between baby boomers and other general taste for clothing, all respondents placed high importance on fair trade philosophy that has to do with wages, workplace, and their environment. On the other hand, the generational cohorts (baby Boomers) have more inclination towards wearing ethnic attire, which forms their main intension to buy from the fair (Littrel et al, 2005, pg 407). Furthermore, baby boomers have move value for clothing details in order to generate information that has to do with the cloth relativity to comfort, value and quality.

The female baby bombers are showing more signs and preference for selecting and choosing their clothing than generations before them. They prefer to select garment based on the style and ethnic attire. They then rate the clothing material to enable them get the best satisfaction from utilizing this cloth. However, it has being argued in recent researches that there is a declining rate in baby boomers for garment, in recent years, however, their preference for denim jeans still remain unchanged.

Furthermore, the baby boomers are now declining their interest in shopping for apparel from the stores, as they are now increasing their interest in electronic cloth buying. THE PRODUCTS THE BABY BOOMERS WOULD WANT AND PREFER TO SPEND THEIR MONEY ON. The baby Boomers are now aging, where the youngest among these generational cohorts are in their 50s. Thus, as elderly they would need pharmaceutical products to keep them fit and healthy. This older generational group would need to consume more nutritional supplements products that would argument their feeding habit. Many pharmaceutical companies in U.

S. see this generational group as a potential market to sell their nutritional and supplements products and drugs. As this group like to remain young and avoid aging they would require more of nutritional products and this food supplements to keep them healthy and young. Furthermore, the baby boomers that are now in their elderly age would be in need of thick attire that would keep them warm during period of winter and heavy snowfalls. In their eating habit in additional to the nutritional food supplement, they would be need less of fatty and protein food, but more of vitamins.

Thus, they would need more of vegetables, white meat, and fish. They will want food that will aid them in maintaining their gene and DNA. Though they do not like stereotyping and aging, thus organization would have to be extra careful not to be caught arousing the other side of this group. The housing preference for this group of people would be in a quite locality with more gardens and natural settings. The countryside would be more of a better place for recreation for this category of people than taking them to Las Vegas and New York to view noisy and hotspot centres.

This group would also be spending their more on artificial aids like artificial hips and knees to help them with weakness in joints and knees. Thus, these artificial aids market would be having more boom has this aging group continue to count more years to their age. The baby boomers would also like to spend their money more on products that would aid them to fight aging. Thus, anti-aging products would be a market target for these generational cohorts. Unilever Plans For Capitalising On Baby Boomers Unilever is a multinational corporation with well-established branches in US, Europe Africa and other continents.

It products ranges from confectionaries, fast foods, beverages, noodles etc. Unilever products are made for both the old and the younger. In the company quest to provide effective products that would satisfy the baby boomers, it has researched on the shopping pattern of this group. The study had baffled other executive why Unilever is studying the shopping pattern of this group. The research and study of Unilever on this group has made it discovered that the average baby boomer seems to have a hearing aid fixed into their ears than they would prefer an ipod earpiece.

Thus, the company is seeking for way to manufacture product that would adequately satisfy this group, and at the same time capitalizing on the opportunities that is untapped with this population This pattern adopted by Unilever has reawakened the need for other organizations to study this group and develop products to meet their needs. Unilever invested more on researches and have planned to re-brand their products with the view of having foresight to satisfy consumers’ wants. This strategy it has adopted for the baby boomers. McDonald Company Plans on Capitalizing on this Population

McDonalds is a world fast food organization with branches and franchised centres in every continent in the world. The company have also developed plans for the elderly group constituting the baby boomers. The company sees the financial and investment prowess of able businesspersons and entrepreneurs in baby boomers. Thus, it has opened up a portal in its website to encourage and direct baby boomers on ways to get franchise in establishing outlets with McDonald’s company name. McDonalds know that these are mostly retired executives, and thus have accumulated enough retirement funds to enable them buy franchised.

Thus, by opening this portal (America’s Best Frachises) in its website it has made it each for baby boomers to know the steps to follow in acquiring franchise from the company. Furthermore, McDonalds has entered into partnership with Guidant Financial Systems in order to make the financial process for the franchising easy and smooth. Furthermore, McDonalds in 2000 invested $1. 8 billion to open 800 new outlets in its plans to attract patrons beyond young people to designing program that would be adequate and appealing to baby boomers.

Thus, the company took an holistic approach in making sure every category of its customers including baby boomers are adequately cared for and attracted to its interior and external features in every of its restaurants. REFERENCES Brent Green (2003) Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers. New York: Writers Advantage Littrell, Mary A. , et al (2005) “Generation X, baby Boomers, and Swing: marketing Fair Trade Apparel” Vol. 9 Number 4. Thompson Anne (2005), “Baby Boomers Create New marketing Frontiers” in NBC News, March 16.