The Forgotten Baby Boom - Baby Boom generation

American Demographics, Feb, 2001 by Alison Stein Wellner

In sheer numbers, black Boomers may be smaller than their white counterparts. But for marketers, they are a giant, untapped demographic.

The 78 million members of the Baby Boom generation have riveted marketers ever since they wet their first diapers. Now aged 37 to 55, these consumers have been credited with everything from the rise of rock 'n' roll to the ascendancy of the sport utility vehicle. Where Boomers go, marketers are sure to follow.

But not all Boomers have captured the same share of attention. Although it's hard to believe that 11 percent of this most heralded generation could have slipped by without much analysis, the nation's 9 million black Baby Boomers have managed to do just that.

Why? Because most marketers have neglected to define black Boomers as a separate cohort. Instead, marketers have lumped them together with their white counterparts. But while black Boomers may have shared the same formative experiences that have defined the Baby Boom generation - the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam, etc. - over time, they have responded to these events differently from whites, experts contend. While white Boomers have moved beyond some of the social values that defined their generation, black Boomers continue to hold on to those values today. Says Darryl Mobley, publisher and president of black Boomer-targeted Family Digest Magazine: "Black Boomers wear eyeglasses of a different prescription."

That means as consumers, black Boomers respond to different marketing messages from their white counterparts. For instance, while white Boomers are arguably less inclined to buy products because of their social value, black Boomers still insist on it. "African American Boomers tend to ask `What are you, the company, giving back to our community?'" says Alonzo Byrd, vice president and head of the African American communications department at Fleishman Hillard, Inc., a communication firm based in St. Louis.

To understand the forces that have shaped their consumer mentality, it's important to realize black Boomers' legacy. Although the largest share of the Baby Boom was in white births, there were also a significant number of black babies born. In 1945, there were about 324,000 black births. In 1964, there were more than 600,000 births to black couples. These children were not destined to live the same lives as their parents - a fate that was shaped in the schoolhouse. The parents of black Boomers were the last undereducated generation of black Americans. In 1940, 42 percent of all blacks had less than a fifth grade education, and only 8 percent had completed high school. By 1990, when most of the Baby Boom generation had completed its education, 78 percent had at least a high school diploma. As white Boomers became the most college educated generation at the time, the educational transformation among black Boomers was even more significant. It laid the groundwork for their solid transition to middle class status.

While education was important to this transformation, many of the lessons that black Boomers learned weren't in the classroom. Growing up in a world of segregation and racism created attitudinal nuances that are not always present among white Boomers. As a black Boomer who recalls being turned away from a South Carolina hotel because of his race, Mobley says that civil rights issues have simply remained a part of their lives in ways that they have not with white Boomers. Indeed, blacks believe that discrimination still plagues society today. According to an analysis of the 1998 General Social Survey by Susan Mitchell in American Attitudes (New Strategist, 2000), nearly 6 in 10 blacks say that, on the whole, they have worse jobs, income, and housing due to racial discrimination.

Traditionally, marketers have seemed hard-pressed to understand how the pervasive legacy of discrimination has shaped the way African Americans respond to their messages. When marketers target other ethnic groups, they know they're dealing with another culture because of the language difference, says Marilyn Halter, professor at Boston University and author of Shopping for Identity: The Marketing of Ethnicity (Schocken, 2000). But when it comes to black consumers, "you're making a pitch based on nuances of cultural difference," she explains. Adds Howard Buford, president and CEO of Prime Access, Inc., a New York City-based ethnic marketing firm: "Black Boomers tend to view products and services as not being `for them' unless they have a specific reason or invitation to use the product and service, because in the past, they were not included."

Companies that seek to sell to this segment must extend a specific invitation. But while that invitation is necessary, it's not sufficient. Byrd believes that cause marketing is the most effective way to reach this target group. And cause marketing to black Boomers is not exactly the same as cause marketing to white Boomers. According to the 2000 National Opinion Poll by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington, D.C-based think tank, blacks identified more problems in today's society than whites. Although education tops the list of political concerns for people of all races (more than a quarter of blacks and a similar percentage of whites chose education as the single most important issue facing the country today), there is a racial divide on other issues. For instance, 16 percent of blacks chose crime, violence, and drugs as the top issues of concern, compared with just 7 percent of whites. Whites, in contrast, were most concerned about family values, political corruption, and the Clinton scandal. A far greater percentage of blacks see employment-related problems as the most important issue of the day - 14 percent compared with just 4 percent of whites.