Saturday, June 4, 2016

The Mature Generation is Still Driving… Both their Cars and the Marketplace

I take a break from work and clients most every day from 6pm until 8pm during the week. It’s a time when I sit back with a light dinner and drink and prop my feet up on the ottoman.

It’s not time allocated to grabbing the evening news. Instead it’s a chance to tune into the re-runs of Seinfeld on TBS.

I remember watching Seinfeld back when it premiered. It was fun to watch because I could identify with like guys and gals that also called New York City home.

However, today when I watch the show, I am much more entertained by Jerry and George’s parents… and their parents’ friends.

What I find most entertaining about the parents is that I now live and breathe my parents, their friends and even a few of my own personal friends who embody that same Mature Generation lifestyle today.

Yelling and screaming and saying whatever is on their mind is less constrained today by the defined parameters of their past.

We don’t really hear too much about the Mature Generation in the news and media world. Shoot, the Millennials now have the spotlight and their Boomer parents stand just to the side.

But the very simple fact that the Mature Generation is living longer than any other generation to-date is rattling a lot of changes and serving as the catalyst of many factors influencing the market.

Anchoring readers quickly… here are a few factors that I think are particularly interesting factoids about the Mature Generation…

(1) Statistically, Matures span the age range of 74–91 years of age in 2016 and total about 55 million members here in the U.S…. the group is not dying off at the pace initially projected… they are living longer and staying healthy

(2) Born and raised in the midst of the Great Depression, Matures post the highest levels of wealth of any other generational group, are the most financially stable and post the lowest levels of debt and bad credit…. Matures understand some financial fundamentals especially related to savings and budget spending

(3) Not only are Matures living longer, but they are also the healthiest generation with the lowest levels of obesity and dietary problems… Matures grew up in a work environment in which pay, promotion and recognition was drive by performance and they are translating the same dynamics to their health and process of aging

(4) Matures are the largest voting block… not necessarily in generational size, but in showing up at the polling booths and capitalizing on their right to vote… we all hear about the Millennials electing Obama, but we rarely hear about Matures driving local, state and non-presidential candidates. LOL… while the news media elects to highlight HRC, Black Lives Matter, AFL-CIO and NOW as the top lobbyist groups in the America, the AARP founded by the Mature Generation is actually the largest lobbyist group in the U.S.

(5) Matures divorced more than any other generational group and have been married more times over than any other generational group. While Boomers and Millennials are often showcased for their sexual promiscuity… just remember that Matures have spent the most time ever in divorce courts.

The Mature Generation remains cemented in their values of authority and rules, logic and order, right and wrong… loyalty and respect.

In a marketplace driven by the physics of balance and co-existence of opposites perhaps made most famous by the dynamics of High Tech and High Touch, the Mature Generation is matching up more with kids less than 8–9 years old than any other Generational group.

As I have shared many times in this Blog, where I reside in Atlanta is an area of the city where many Millennials have since also settled… a share of which are now having a baby or two.

What I find most interesting is how Millennials and their babies and young kiddies are bypassing the Boomer grandparents and connecting more instead with the local Matures.

Parents of the young kiddies today are becoming much more anchored with high touch icons ranging from real, natural foods to actual stuffed toys to real books — shoot even coloring books and Crayons.

Boomer grandparents are still trying to integrate in technology and, in many cases, fail to connect to the high touch.

But the Matures???… well it’s a natural connection.

And unlike the Boomers who are still attempting to recover from their over-mortgaged debt, the Matures have the dollars to go shop at Whole Foods to purchase those great whole grain cereals and right-off-the-local-farm milks.

Marketers need to take note. Brand trendsetters need to refocus.

Whether its walking the malls that they saw become hot and now not or walking the neighborhood streets to grab a print newspaper, the Matures are not going to be dying off any time soon.