Know your U-Boomers from your Uni-Bombers

A couple of consultants at McKinsey, as reported in Forbes, have come with the term U-Boomers.

The U's are the largest segment of the baby boomer generation, sandwiched between roughly 10 million well-to-do households with high hopes for a comfortable retirement and the financial resources to pay for it, and 11 million disadvantaged households that are deeply pessimistic about the future.

They are supposed to have share all the optimism and expectations of their wealthier counterparts but don’t have the bank accounts to live the high-life. As the US (and most of Europe’s) economies head south it is likely that a tranche of the U’s will be joining their disadvantaged and pessimistic compatriots.

McKinsey thinks the Us are a marketing opportunity. As Class 1 Boomers turn left at the door of the 747 their U-Boomer friends turn right. Answer – make the right of planes longer and shorten the left.

I am not sure how marketers will deal with these financially constrained Boomers but I am sure they will find a way. Dick Stroud