Boomers Seek Green Lifestyle

Tremendous energy and sophistication surrounded Earth Day this April. Grassroots celebrations, TV sound bytes, and newspaper editorials focused on predicted environmental catastrophes unless people find realistic solutions for a cleaner planet. Leading the parade is the huge baby boomer population. They’ve decided their path to a successful life means using natural resources more efficiently and that pollution is equal to throwing away money.

As baby boomers drifted from their hippy roots, Earth Day parallels the maturity of this generation that created the event. They can, indeed, be smug about being right 40 years ago when they concluded the kinder we treat the earth, the better off we’ll all be. Today, many boomers are returning to the land after conquering the business world and suburbia.

Socially conscious attitudes remain a driving force of how boomers shop and the environmentally safe brands they purchase according to the Second Boomer Quarterly Report from AARP Services, Inc and Focalyst.

Entitled “It’s Good to Be Green: Socially Conscious Shopping Behaviors Among Boomers”, the study surveyed more than 30,000 Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) and “mature consumers” (born before 1946) and found that social consciousness prevails. Over 40-million boomers, more than half the 79 million boomers, use their purchasing power to buy environmentally safe brands. These “green boomers” demand high quality in the products and services they buy and tend to stay with a brand they like.

According to Heather Stern, Director of Marketing for Focalyst, “As consumers get older, they become more aware of their legacy and leaving a positive mark on the world, and this is particularly true of boomers. We anticipate that as time goes on, more and more boomer shoppers will simply expect brands to be eco-friendly and rather than this being a point of brand differentiation, it will be a price of entry.

Other findings from the Focalyst report include:

• Boomers don’t perceive that “environmentally safe” and “organic” products are the same. Less than a third of the boomer population is willing to pay more for organic goods.
• Boomers with annual incomes of less than $50,000 are more ‘green’ than boomers with incomes of over $150,000 (57% vs. 50%).
• Good customer service is nearly twice as important among Green Boomers as it is to other boomers (70% to 45%).

One of the major myths about boomers is that all 79 million act, think, and behave the same way. They don’t concludes The Third Quarterly Boomer Report: How Well Do you Know Boomers? (April, 2008). For example, on a hypothetical color chart, green boomers come in different shades of green, from slightly green to very deep green. Their activities associated with environment run the gamut from replacing home light bulbs with compact fluorescent, to riding a bike to work, planting a vegetable garden or installing a solar-powdered water heater even though it costs more than a regular heater.

What’s important for businesses is that Boomers are looking for retailers who adopt green practices. They want to buy from companies that give back to their communities because their purchasing decisions reflect concern about the environmental legacy they leave their children and grandchildren.

In The New Retirement Survey (2006) published by Merrill Lynch, many boomers are not interested in a traditional retirement of leisure. While 76% of boomers intend to keep working and earning in retirement, they generally expect to “retire” from their current job/career at around age 64 and then launch into an entirely new job or career. Taking advantage of their expanded life expectancy, boomers will create a whole new life stage, which includes being “younger” longer.

And it’s not all about the money. Although continued earnings is important, more than half assert that continued mental stimulation and challenge is the motivation for staying in the game.

More importantly, boomers now have deep concerns for the well-being of their children, their parents and their communities and are more likely to put others first before themselves. The “me” generation has been transformed into the “we” generation.

Their biggest fear, however, is the unpredictable cost of illness and healthcare. They are more worried about a major illness and their ability to pay for healthcare or ending up in a nursing home, than they are of dying. As a result, many seek treatments beyond traditional medicine.

According to the research released by FH Boom and the National Marketing Institute (NMI) at the What’s Next Boomer Summit (April, 2008). Boomer consumers reaching their 60’s defy the stereotypes of aging.

“While Boomers will still be accountable for more than $2 trillion of consumer purchasing power, it appears there will be a fundamental shift in their buying patterns,” says Steve French of Natural Marketing Institute, a consulting firm specializing in healthy aging.

Their purchases will be more practical and less concerned about trends. Even so Baby Boomers haven’t halted their quest for lifestyle experimentation and change. Their ‘buy’ list covers the gamut from retirement property to experiential travel, to healthcare-driven needs and services including cosmetic surgery and alternative medicine.

It should come as no surprise that boomers are driving an environmental consumerism, attached to a holistic wellness philosophy which emphasizes all aspects of a quality life. For sure it’s a throw back to the hippie movement of the 60’s and 70’s. Considering that the boomers were the first health and fitness conscious generation, what more would you expect?

These health-conscious consumers are fueling markets for organic foods, natural cleaning and personal care products, air-and-water-filtration devices, water-based paints and stains, bottled water, organic fertilizers and integrated pest management systems that don’t rely on synthetic chemicals. Despite the 50% to 100% mark-ups of products without chemicals and foods without pesticides, the health and environmental benefits of organic foods and home care products have made them increasingly popular.

Boomers, concerned for their health, the environment and where their food comes from, are changing the way they eat and clean. More products designed to appeal to these socially conscious buyers are bound to make it to supermarket shelves.

As boomers focus on self development, seeking relevance in life and showing greater concern for legacy, they are turning their attention to ‘self worth’ as opposed to net worth. As Mathew Thornhill writes, boomers have transformed “…from becoming someone, to being someone.” (Thornhill, Boomer Consumer and founder of the Boomer Project, Richmond, VA.)

How wonderful and how extraordinary!

The Merrill Lynch New Retirement Study, 2006

Second Quarterly Boomer Report: It’s Good to Be Green”, Dec 2007
http://www.aarp.org/research/reference/boomers/green_boomers.html

Third Quarterly Boomer Report: How Well Do You Know Boomers? April 15, 2008

FocalystTM (www.focalyst.com) supported by AARP Services

The New Retirement Survey, 2006 Merrill Lynch www.totalmerrill.com/retirement

Article by Ruthan Brodsky