How to market to Australian Baby Boomers

An affectionate, mature couple at a marina standing together on a dock, luxury boats and yachts in the background. The senior man is holding his wife's hand, and she is resting her head on his shoulder, smiling.

Research from customer loyalty specialists, ICLP, shows ‘Baby Boomers’ care most about product quality, customer service and complaint handling.

While many brands shift focus to target ‘Millennials’ with digital touchpoints and personalised communications, Australia’s most affluent generation, ‘Baby Boomers’, simply want brands to stand by their products, according to new research from ICLP.

Measuring the sentiment of over 750 Australians across key metrics like ‘trust’, ‘recognition’ and ‘reliability’, ICLP discovered ‘Boomers’ have more simple desires when it comes to brand relationships, when compared to Generation X and Millennials.

“While the market is obsessing about digital transformation and figuring out how to talk to Millennials, it’s important to remember Boomers are big spenders, and crucially, they’re not digital natives,” says ICLP Australia GM Simon Morgan.

Key insights from ICLP’s Deeply Devoted research include:

1. Reliability: Boomers want to rely on product consistency and quality; Millennials put almost the same emphasis on customer service and instant feedback.

59% of Boomers said it was important to them that brands offered products of consistent quality and value (52% of Millennials)
43% of Millennials considered it important that brands offered consistent customer service across all channels, versus only 31% of Boomers
Only 6% of Boomers thought it was important they get a response on social media, versus 23% of Millennials

2. Respect: Baby Boomers see respect as the brand’s ability to apologise if things go wrong and rectify it quickly, whereas Millennials worry more about the treatment of the data they share with them.

44% of Boomers think it’s important that brands apologise and rectify mistakes quickly (40% of Millennials)
Only 34% felt it was important that brands treated their personal information with respect and used it to offer value back to them, versus
46% of Millennials

3. Trust: Similar to respect, Baby Boomers build trust with brands that own their mistakes and put things right. For Millennials, trust is generated by being honest about pricing and discounts.

53% Boomers said it was important to trust retailers to put things right if they went wrong, versus only 39% of Millennials
Only 24% of Boomers felt it was important that they could trust a brand’s
advice and recommendations, versus 33% of Millennials

“Overall, the research shows Boomers care more that brands offer quality products and rectify problems quickly, while caring less about personalisation and tailored offers” says ICLP Australia GM Simon Morgan.

“Interestingly, Boomers seem to care less about their brand relationships full-stop, which is in contrast to Millennials, who returned consistently higher scores throughout the study when measuring their feelings about a diverse range of brand interactions.”

“One thing the generations did have in common is their high regard for rewards initiatives, with both age brackets saying they’d spend more if they were rewarded better.”

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Baby Boomers customer service marketing