How Retailers Can Reconnect With Boomer Consumers

• Imagery: Baby boomers need to be portrayed as active. The imagery needs to be consistent with how boomers view themselves, not how marketers look at 50- and 60-year-olds of previous generations. Healthy, active lifestyles should be shown, as boomers are far more fit and have more life left in them than they're treated.
• Value proposition: Understand that even if boomers are well off, they become more value conscious and less concerned with prestige as they get older. Headlines have to tie back to the value boomers will receive in the offering.
• Being real: This doesn't mean grey hair, just more real people in advertising. Use a real soccer mom — or grandmother — in ads. Use a real couple who travel the way real couples travel, not uberluxury travelers toasting with champagne.

Boomers want to enjoy life experiences as they retire, and often they're fully funded by the time they approach retirement. Marketers need to move away from the sex appeal end of the spectrum and change the headlines to make it centered around the value, especially the experience.