I don’t know why I awakened thinking of this today.  And during my caffeine injection whipped out a Hub Page article on it, Marketing to Baby Boomers – Don’t Be Surprised If They Ask for a P&L Statement but obviously it has been on my mind.  Most of what I had to say is in the article, I suppose, but we are a generation of people who for the first time really challenged their elders and were determined we’d be forever young.  To many, that makes us brats – but we are the generation that brought you Bill Gates and Steve Jobs so don’t be too harsh on us.  Marketing to Boomers requires more than the dire warnings of the state of the economy and the flashy dollar bills on websites.  They are not going to go there.  If a Boomer is going to be an entrepreneur in his older years – he wants answers.  In depth answers and mentorship.  Since we do not realize we are not 35, we usually have no problem accepting that from those younger than us who understand the Internet and the techie stuff.  We want to learn, be involve and keep on doing it, no matter how old chronologically we become.  But the marketers have to walk a fine line between reality and offensiveness.  Do not market to us as if we are old, but do not attempt to cater to us with pictures of 23 year olds in bikinis as representative of our generation.  How do you do that?  As I said, it is a fine line.  Boomers who want to work online do not need convincing – they need assurance of quality, stability, a marketing program and a reliable person.  In that sense we are the same as all others sought by attraction marketing – we want to do business with those we know, like and trust.