Boomers: The New Medicare Age-In Audience – Part 1

The boomers are aging in to Medicare on their terms. Get with it, or kindly get out of their way.

What can we do as marketers to get the most out of our age-in marketing budgets? We can start by taking a close look at the boomer audience as they are the new face of Medicare and they are changing what it means to “age in.”

Boomers: the new age-in audience

Understanding the boomers’ past will help us understand their attitudes about the present and future and how to best reach them as marketers. This group was shaped by a post-war economic boom era of ostensibly effortless prosperity. The generosity of the GI bill brought WWII veterans home to a lifestyle of adequate education, food, housing and opportunity. These circumstances created safe and comfortable conditions to expand their families. And expand they did, giving way to a baby BOOM. These boomers started out genuinely believing that the world would improve with time. But by the 1960s and 1970s they were faced with a controversial war and civil injustices within their own borders. They responded by taking to the streets and campuses with antiwar protests and movements for civil rights and equality for women. Boomers demanded change and spearheaded revolutions that would forever shape the future of our nation. Because they grew up in an era of reform, they believe they can transform the world, so they are accustomed to changing the status quo.

As history demonstrates, boomers have redefined each phase of life, and they’re expected to do the same as they age. They are confident of self, goal-oriented and career-focused. They define themselves by their professional accomplishments and criticize younger gens for lack of work ethic. They are independent, self-reliant and self-actualized. In other words, they know what they want and will settle for nothing less. As this audience ages in, they expect more from a Medicare plan than their parents did. They expect a shopping experience that adapts to their personal needs. They expect a dynamic experience that is available wherever they choose to shop. They expect a process that takes something as complicated as Medicare and makes it accessible.

In part two of this blog, learn about an old marketing standby that is still garnering results, but with a twist, and the basics of creating an effective online presence that will deliver results.