Marketing healthcare products to baby boomers requires specific skills for many reasons

You are Robin Raff, President of Boomer Business and Beyond, Inc. Could you introduce the company?
I am President of Boomer Business and Beyond, Inc. – a consulting firm that provides strategic direction and creative development services to clients in the healthcare industry that target the 50+ segment. I have over twenty years of direct marketing experience, with twelve years marketing health care products and services to the mature market segment.


Do you think that marketing healthcare to boomers requires specific skills? Why?
;Marketing healthcare products to baby boomers requires specific skills for many reasons, among them: boomers are not a homogenous target group and require a deep understanding of the various segments based on life-stage and life-style to be considered for the development of meaningful and motivating marketing campaigns.


Boomers will resist growing old, evidenced by the huge spends in cosmetic surgical enhancements and other anti-aging products and services, along with their more vibrant lifestyle than the aging generations before them. It is important for any industry to understand how to best resonate with their target, but even more importantly for the healthcare industry which has previously not been very marketing or consumer oriented.


The healthcare industry is moving toward a more consumer-centric focus and the segments that will most frequently be targeted with these products and services are those in the over 50 age group. It will be highly ineffective to communicate with the 50+ segment if their specific health issues and concerns, and related life-stage issues and concerns, are not fully understood.


Baby boomers, who have been known to put a premium on convenience, will continue to drive the trend toward outpatient centers and more personalized health care services as they pursue greater efficiency and convenience in their health care. Developing the right kinds of health care products and services, and effectively marketing to them, can only occur if there is a thorough understanding of the psychographics and key motivators of the ever demanding boomer segment.


How much do you estimate the potential of the healthcare segment on the mature market?
The 50+ segment spends over $525 billion on health care, with that number expected to increase to $1.1 trillion by 2007. They purchase 74% of all prescription drugs and 51% of all over-the-counter drugs, representing a $100 billion market. A 2002 report from Business Communications Company predicted that by 2006 the total market for drugs and cosmetics aimed at aging baby boomers will grow to $41.9 billion.

Do you think that healthcare companies in the USA are conscious of the opportunities offered by ; the mature market?
Health care companies in the US are currently clamoring to determine how to market their products and services to all of their segments, not just focusing on the mature market. The health care industry in the U.S. is going through great changes as drug prices and medical services are becoming more transparent.


This is causing a greater awareness of consumer choices and the need to better market services throughout the industry, as we are beginning to see. There are companies, those whose products/services are specifically geared toward the elderly segment, that are more aware of the potential of the current and growing mature market segment and who have been more sophisticated in their marketing efforts to the mature segment.


The pharmaceutical industry is probably the most sophisticated and poised for success in tapping the huge opportunity in marketing to the aging segment.


It is said that you are a founding member of the Boomer Marketing Association Would you like to talk about it?
The Boomer Marketing Association was founded in October 2004. The goal of the group is to collect and share “best of breed” approaches, solutions, examples and insights for marketing to baby boomers, half of whom are already 50 and older. By 2014, all boomers will be over 50.


We feel there is a clear need among the advertising and marketing industry to change the perceptions and approach to marketing to the mature market segment. The members of the Boomer Marketing Association are highly seasoned marketers and/or are experts in the mature market segment and are equipped to help make the shift needed in developing a more sophisticated, realistic and respectful approach in marketing to the mature segment.

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