Boomers Defy Car Makers' Marketing Strategies

[Lydia Leftcoast]

114. The conventional wisdom in marketing is that you appeal to 18-34-year-olds

That has not changed since the days when we Boomers were that age.
The idea is that you have to capture people when they're just starting out as adult consumers.

However, that conventional wisdom ignores the fact that 1) People don't vanish when they turn 35, and 2) Many older people have more money than most young people.

Land's End learned something this year. They discontinued some of the lines that appeal mostly to middle-aged people and introduced their new "Starfish" line of casual clothing, aimed at younger buyers. The problem is that the Starfish line is designed for slender young women and looks awful on us less shapely Boomers. Besides, Land's End has always been kind of a middle-aged store. (I wouldn't have been caught dead in it when I was in my twenties.)

Now it seems that they have attracted some younger customers with the Starfish line, but they sure made their older customers angry. This fall, they quietly brought back some of their traditional bestsellers. I'm glad. I would have been real upset if they had discontinued the Sport Knit Corduroys, which are my winter uniform.