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Balsamic Dreams: A Short But Self-Important History of the Baby Boomer Generation What are baby boomers really like? This apparently light-hearted attack on "the me generation" by one of their own in fact offers a wide array of thoughts to ponder. The baby boomers are probably the richest, most influential generation America has ever known. Nearly 80 million strong, groundbreaking in their lifestyles and beliefs, and now ascended to professional positions where they earn with abandon, the baby boomers are hardly slowing down. As they pay off mortgages and watch their children leave home, their budgets for discretionary spending expand: they are becoming, more than ever before, a dream target market for companies and marketers. Realizing they have failed to adapt their tactics to an aging market, many of these companies are rushing to secure the custom of baby boomer clients. Consultants are earning big bucks for books, reports, speeches and seminars that explain the fundamentals of baby boomer marketing to interested professionals. These services are very worthwhile, but even the sharpest minds can take only so much market analysis before fatigue sets in. If you or your employees are looking for a refreshing but instructive respite, Joe Queenan's Balsamic Dreams is just the trick. Witty, sarcastic, biting but undeniably insightful, Queenan's work will inform readers' basic understanding of the much-analyzed baby boomer generation. It's imperative to take his judgments with a grain of salt, but smart professionals will enjoy parsing truth from embellishment for the benefit of their strategy. Queenan, a baby boomer himself, pulls no punches in evaluating his peers. They are, in his estimation, indecisive lovers of trends. "They don't ever actually want anything," he insists. "They just want a huge number of choices ... They have bottomless faith in self-help, though it's obviously not working." While he clearly employs stereotypes for effect, Queenan – who has written similarly unsentimental books on topics ranging from the film industry to Great Britain – has noted most the broad trends that swept his generation over time. Regret runs beneath his jibes, but certain of his assessments are difficult to counter. The end result is social commentary both fun and valid – if slightly overstated. The broad scope of this book makes it in fact quite a noteworthy contribution to the body of literature that can help us understand baby boomers. For marketing and sales executives it offers a textured picture of some of baby boomers' common traits and tastes. Queenan's references to brands and products like Crate & Barrel or squid-ink vermicelli, taken together, in fact constitute quite a catalog of this target market's favorite things. While the book, unsurprisingly, doesn't include analysis or projections, readers will be able to fill in many gaps themselves. It's a lively ride that's sure to offer up some new ideas. Back To Mature Market News → Go To The GenerationTarget.com Mature Market Bookstore → |
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