Ageless Marketing: Strategies for Reaching the Hearts and Minds of the New Customer Majority

Today's richest market is the New Customer Majority: middle-aged and older adults who make up the biggest percentage of the buying public. Never before have adults 40 years and older been in the majority. Understanding this population and persuasively selling to it require a new kind of marketing research arsenal.

In Ageless Marketing, authors David Wolfe and Robert Snyder document the results of a groundbreaking research project on the aging boomer generation, detailing the core values, buying behaviors, and emotional factors that distinguish the New Customer Majority. As more companies seek sales from multiple age groups, "ageless marketing" becomes critical to financial performance. Companies that master its subtleties have realized amazing profits. New Balance, for example, saw an annual rate of 25 percent or more with its ageless marketing themes, even when the athletic shoe industry had shown no growth since 1997.

Ageless Marketing introduces a new research approach in profiling this lucrative market. Companies that want to tap into this important segment will get insights into the characteristic values and motivations that trigger the New Customer Majority's spending choices. Wolfe and Snyder describe the challenges in marketing to this group, the stages and differences in their life experiences, and the ways to make meaningful marketing overtures.

Above all, readers will see how "empathetic connections" drive many buying decisions for this market, why traditional ploys simply will not work, and how to create marketing campaigns that yield continuing customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.