Getting the boomers to bite

Getting the Boomers to bite: How to attract Australia’s true big spenders

Under five per cent of advertising in Australia features a person over the age of 55. Yet it is this demographic, the “Boomers”, that command 50 per cent of the country’s private wealth.

Why then are Boomers (specifically 55 to 75-year-olds*) not front and centre of marketers’ minds? This is an age group that holds almost half (46%) of Australia’s disposable income. They are ready, willing, and able to buy cars. And we should all be ready and willing to sell to them.

CarsGuide Media’s research report ‘Redefining Top of the Range: The car buying behaviours of the Boomer Generation’ offers a deep dive into methods for engaging this financially flush customer base. The report explains that Boomers typically “hate” the type of advertising that generally targets them and shows that social media is absolutely not the right channel for their automotive marketing efforts.

Shannon Fitzpatrick, Director of Commercial Partnerships at Gumtree Australia, CarsGuide, Autotrader

While marketers often obsess over social media and shirk traditional advertising efforts, it’s Boomers who outspend Millenials in almost all leisure categories. This is a customer segment long-neglected but with enormous potential. They’re a confident bunch, too. The CarsGuide report demonstrates that with a huge per cent of Boomers calling themselves “confident” about purchasing a new car. Similarly, a significant 44 per cent of Boomers believe they have “strong knowledge” of cars on the market.

This confidence translates into snappy sales. One in five Boomer buyers says they take under a month to make a new car purchase. Their buying power extends further than their singular purchase, too. As parents and grandparents Boomers have influence over and financially assist two in every five first-time car buyers. They truly are the consumer gift that keeps on giving. Not to mention their preference for cash purchases - 86 per cent of them pay upfront when buying a new car. Boomers feel overlooked and misunderstood by traditional advertising. How do I know? My own parents tell me so! It’s not just anecdotal, of course. In the CarsGuide Media research only nine per cent of Boomer respondents said they’d discovered a brand via advertising in traditional media.

Boomers are immediately turned off by advertising that patronises or makes false assumptions about their age. By and large these are not people with one foot in the grave, despite what funeral insurance and retirement home marketing tries to sell them! These are independent and active members of the community. They are working, playing, enjoying life, and looking for ways to spend their hard-earned money.

Advertising to Boomers therefore needs to respect their status in society, their significant existing knowledge, and their purchasing power. This is not a group to be trifled with! Boomers need value-add and plenty of it. They are influenced by trustworthy, expert content, for example product reviews by impartial third-party media. More than 80 per cent of Boomer respondents to the CarsGuide Media research have visited a review website like CarsGuide when finalising their new car decision-making.

So what sets this demographic apart? For one, this desire for expert advice and reviews - high-quality content addressing their queries and concerns with exceptional editorial standards. But there’s also their general disinterest in social media and therefore the relative weakness of these platforms as marketing channels.

Here at CarsGuide we understand the true value of Boomers as vehicle buyers and we put real effort into creating content that will engage them and fulfil their needs. Boomers make up 34 per cent of the CarsGuide audience and we work hard to make them feel ‘at home’ in our world. Not only does our AdventureGuide cater to their active lifestyles, but our video content offers a trusted and engaging platform for their prepurchase research. An example of this targeted content is the 4WD School for the Ford Everest featuring Bruce McMahon, a well-known Boomer himself with many years of experience. It’s a great example of the kind of engaging, useful content that Boomers appreciate, via a channel they know and trust. It’s an important combination when looking to win over this lucrative demographic.

About the Research

‘Redefining Top of the Range: The car buying behaviours of the Boomer Generation’ is a major study led by CarsGuide in collaboration with FF2, to survey 1000 new car buyers and intenders (620 people aged 55-75 years of age and 380 people aged 35-54 years of age) in Australia. In-depth interviews were also conducted with nine individuals aged 55-75 years of age.

*For the purpose of this research report, Boomers are defined as those aged between 55-75 years of age. Comparisons were made to Generation X, defined in this report as those aged 35-54 years of age.

Boomers are immediately turned off by advertising that patronises or makes false assumptions about their age.