Puzzled about how to approach the boomer generation, or the younger set?
Marilyn Moats Kennedy has a strategy for you: "use generational marketing."
The founder and managing partner of Career Strategies, a management consulting firm in Wilmette, Ill., Kennedy pursued that point here at the Retirement Industry Conference sponsored by LIMRA International, LOMA and Society of Actuaries.
She described generational marketing as "customizing" the advisor's message to the generational characteristics of clients. This can give an advisor a competitive edge, she indicated.
Her firm works with generational demographics and trends, and has done consulting with AIM Investments in this area.
Today's generations fall into five groups by birth date, she indicated. Many of her remarks delineated characteristics for the various groups (see chart). She also offered tips on how to respond with age-related solutions.
Boomers tend to have a set agenda of how to do business, Kennedy said. They prefer to go to meetings, and they expect consensus. They expect submission and "everyone in a meeting must participate."
By contrast, the younger busters and netsters will not go to meetings at all if they can find the information on the Internet, she said.
Boomers like food and networking, she noted. It's an "if you feed me, I will come" kind of thing, she quipped. So, at breakfast meetings, try offering food.
When meetings are over, she cautioned, expect to see younger people clear out fast, while the boomers "stay around, still networking."
