This series of columns evolved from a not-so-simple question I asked myself sometime around New Year's Day: What do boomers want (to read)? Much of what I've learned since has come from your e-mails and telephone calls. Conversations have sprung up wherever I have gone.
For example, one night at the Publishers Association of the South's Winter Conclave in Nashville, Tenn., we talked over dinner about the narrowing of the generational technology gap--many young people entering the work force now may have less computer experience than boomers who began incorporating PCs or Macs into their social and professional lives more than two decades ago.
What does that mean?
All we can say with some degree of certainty is that boomer numbers will continue to matter 'til death do us part. According to Generation Ageless by J. Walker Smith and Ann Clurman, in 2004 the Census Bureau projected that the number of people 55 and over would grow more than 45% between 2005 and 2020, while those 25-44 would grow only 5.6%.
Smith is also president of Yankelovich, Inc., which has been tracking U.S. lifestyles and values for more than 35 years. The marketing potential for boomers at every stage of their aging process has been of special interest. Recently, he shared his observations about where bookselling fits into the boomer equation.
For booksellers, Smith suggested the place to begin is "to sort out what's unique about boomers and what's not. There is a widespread trend toward authenticity, connections, community, social impact and empowerment. Boomers are part of this broader trend, but it is not exclusive to them, nor to any generation. We are all caught up in these things together. So delivering these things is just good for business. The difference with boomers is how they approach these broader trends."
He noted three aspects worth considering:
"First, boomers are unwilling to give up individuality in their quest to find connection and fellow-feeling with others. So even as you create an inviting atmosphere that offers communal engagement, you must allow boomers to do so in a style that is unique to the individual. Starbucks does this with its infinitely variable products and its differentiated store designs. Wi-fi (sometimes free) makes it possible to share with others while doing your own thing. Perhaps bookstores for boomers will be less places to find books than places to create an individual bookstyle. Maybe they all read the same authors but they do so in their own self-invented ways. Such an environment would simply echo the long-standing boomer style of joining the crowd to find one's own individual bliss. Note that the connective behavior of younger people is much more about the network and the networking than the individual and the avoidance of communalism.
"Second, boomers believe in information. They are data hounds. They retain a core belief that if they can just dig deep enough they will find the truth. I joke about this and say that boomers are the Watergate generation--they learned that the more you find out, the more you know about what went on. Boomers, more than any generation today, believe in the written word. Tapping into that sensibility is key for booksellers. They must leverage it in every way. And most importantly, they must not fight boomers when they seek to add new information sources. Find ways to integrate your offerings with the Internet. Make one supplement the other or enhance the other. Don't fight it. Just don't make yourself irrelevant to the continuing boomer quest to learn more. Boomers revere information. This is not true of other generations, and thus creates a built-in gap that must be addressed in other ways.
"Finally, boomers want to matter. They are not willing to hand over the reins of power to younger generations. Boomers are convinced they are smarter, savvier and more perceptive. Books matter, of course, and books are the source of all the ideas and insights that matter. So, just remind boomers that what they need to know in order to matter is ready and waiting for them at bookstores. Booksellers should be the first people boomers look to when they want to weigh in on some topic or issue."
Smith believes that bookstores "have an enormous opportunity with boomers. These stores offer what boomers want, and if they do so in ways that fit broad cultural currents while tapping directly into what boomers want in particular, they will thrive."--Robert Gray (column archives available at Fresh Eyes Now)