Now More Than Ever: Boomer Consumers Want The Chance to Make Your Own Financial Choices

In these times of financial uncertainty and economic meltdown, the last thing you want is to find yourself with your back up against the wall, unable to make crucial buying decisions and financial choices for yourself and your welfare. My friend Marilynn Mobley over at Baby Boomer Insights really understands this.

Well the fact is, as a executive VP at a well respected public relations firm, Marilynn has made it her business to understand Boomer psyches - especially understanding what motivates Boomers to make financial choices, or what marketers call “buying decisons.” 

She wrote a post in her blog yesterday that really spoke to me - and will probably speak to you. Which is why I had to share it with you. Her topic,  essentially, is what motivates Boomers to buy.

Her (slightly abridged) title:

Boomers want choices, will reward (punish) companies based on the choices offered them

If You’re Not Familiar with Marilynn, You Need to Understand That She Calls Herself the ”Quintessential Boomer,” - So She’s Speaking From Personal Expereince as Well as Her Research 

By way of proof, let me share with you a bit about her. In a nutshell, here’s Marilynn:

• Lives in a big city suburb (somewhere near Altanta, Georgia)
• Married (to the same husband ) for 25+ years
• Owns both a primary residence and a second home on a lake 
• Careerwise, she’s an exec at a highly respected PR agency 
• Mother of two college-aged daughters
• Likes to take weekend getaways with a few favorite girlfirends 
• Has had some significant medical challenges over the years, but is grateful for her access to wonderful doctors and great health care 
• Loves luxury cars, spas and frozen margaritas

Besides That, According to Her Official Blog Bio, She’s Also:

• Curious
• Fun-loving 
• Bold
• Unafraid of learning about and using new technology

What makes her thoughts and opinions even more valuable is that a good part of her day is devoted to providing her clients with insights into the habits of the Baby Boom generation, and she’s been blogging about this for quite awhile now…

Marilynn Began Her Post by Noting That:

“In the research, speaking, writing and reading I’ve been doing about boomers over the past few years, one thing that always sticks out in my mind about us is that we’re all about choice. We want real choices in everything from the biggies, like whom we’ll pick for President, to little everyday choices that end up deciding the fates of brands.”

And Concluded With This Comment:

“… I do believe that boomers are going to increasingly look for ways to exercise their choices, especially when it comes to anything involving money. For too long companies have looked at us as open checkbooks who can be bought for a nostalgic song and ads showing an attractive model with a touch of gray hair. No more.”

In between, she writes about three significant buying decisions she’s made in recent weeks, and how they were all made based on how the merchant’s policies and procedures either allowed her to make a buying choice - or DIDN’T, as the case may be…

The buying decisions were significant, we’re not talking about choosing to buy organic free range eggs as opposed to your basic generic caged hen eggs, or even choosing one movie over another at the cineplex, although I’m sure you’d agree that the concept of having the ability to make a choice is still significant there, too.

No. Marilynn was Talking About Buying (Or Not Buying):

• A new car - her decision was largely made by phone and email, because the dealer from which she’d purchased her last car stayed in touch, listened, and responded as she had requested. In other words, allowed her to buy via her choice of buying modalities
• Auto insurance from a new agent - she exercised her choice to change vendors because her old agent made assumptions and took her business for granted
• Service from her (by now former) cable company - she dropped them because they accidentally mailed her a hugely enticing new customer offer that wasn’t available to her as a current customer. And they didn’t apologize or offer her the same choice when she contacted them 

Don’t you identify with Marilynn on this need for choice in your buying decisions?

Isn’t Having a Choice Something You Consider a Buyer’s Right?

• It’s been a long time since Henry Ford famously opined that “You can have any color, as long as it’s black,” when discussing his philosophy with regard to selling his Model T Fords at the cheapest possible price.
• Perhaps he said that around the same time pioneering department store retailer Marshall Field advised retailers that they needed to “Give the lady what she wants.”
• Then again, leave it to Baby Boomer comedian Tim Allen to put his twist to the concept of choice. Apparently he said:  “Women now have choices. They can be married, not married, have a job, not have a job, be married with children, unmarried with children. Men have the same choice we’ve always had: work, or prison.”

Marilynn’s post doesn’t delve into our Boomer psyches to the point of discussing WHY having the ability to make choices is so important to Baby Boomers. but if that intrigues you, why not grab a copy of C. J. R. Simons fascinating book “Boom Babies and the Gospel of Choice: Making Choices, Reclaiming Power and Creating Change.”

In the book, Simons delves into the social and historic reasons why Baby Boomers are so darned intent on retaining their power of making choices. He notes that somewhere between young adulthood and middle age, the Baby Boom generation moved from a position of “I make choices” to “Someone makes choices for me.” Which is why, he says, Boomers are now working so hard to return to the position of “I make choices.” He makes some very interesting points.

So What’s Your Take On the Concept of Maintaining Your Options for Choices in the Buying Arena?

•  How important is it that a retailer recognizes your need for convenience? For example, what if you had access to a mortgage broker who made housecalls? Or a doctor who did, for that matter? Do you yearn for the old days of at-home milk delivery?
• Are you more likely to buy if you have the opportunity to choose a product’s make and model? Or do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by the available choices?
• Have you ever walked away from the purchase of something you wanted and needed because you didn’t have a choice in any particular aspect of the transaction?  

Finally, is there actually such as thing as too many choices? When?