Business Opportunities Weblog

September 15, 2008 by Rich Whittle | 2 Comments

Journal Of New England Technology:

While the term “baby boomer” may be convenient for demographers, web-based businesses targeting them are finding them hard to pin down.

Sure, baby boomers may have discretionary income, but they’re also pressed for time and few people in that generation define themselves using that term, making them a difficult demographic to target with online advertising.

Even Waltham-based RetirementJobs.com Inc., which last week landed an agreement to provide its job search engine to the 40-million member AARP — arguably the largest online gathering of baby boomers — generates revenue through listing fees rather than conventional advertising.

Baby boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, are typically consumers of some the most expensive big-ticket items such as travel, automobiles and financial services. But the websites targeting them need to focus more on specific needs or interests rather than an entire generation, said Denver-based consultant Brent Green, author of “Marketing to Leading Edge Baby Boomers.” Without a more narrowly defined audience, it’s difficult to generate revenue with targeted advertising, he said.

Although RetirementJobs.com attracts baby boomer job seekers, even that demographic is too broad to target with advertising, Driver said. So the website segments its users into industries, job categories and locations through online profiles before pitching prospective jobs, he said.

“We market to people along the lines of their affinities,” Driver said, “not their age group.”

Photo by weirdvis.

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Tags: Baby Boomers, Internet, Strategy