The Over-the-Thrill Crowd

Say the aging baby-boom kids: Gimme shelter (and lots more)

Age, alas, has caught up with the kids of the baby boom. Now, one in every three Americans are products of the population surge that began right after World War II and lasted until the mid-1960s. According to the Conference Board, a blue-ribbon business research body, the aging of this generation "will be the single most important economic stimulant of the 1980s."

The oldest of these postwar children are already 34, and over the next ten years they will cause a bulge in the big-spending 35 to 44 group. The number of Americans in this bracket will jump from 28 million to 40 million by the end of the decade, and they will be pocketing $1 out of every $4 in personal income, up from $1 of every $5 at present. By 1990 the average household income for people in this group will be close to $30,000 in real terms, and their total spending power will have grown by 70%. Because of their numbers and affluence, the aging baby boomers are being avidly courted by sellers of all sorts of goods and services. Says William Hull, research director for the J. Walter Thompson ad agency: "Anything that people in this group does is hot, and companies are therefore riding along with them into middle age."

They are entering an age when their outlays normally will be heavy because they will be buying and outfitting homes and educating their children. But this typical spending will be even more exuberant because the baby boomers are themselves the children of inflation, born with credit cards in their mouths and oriented toward spending rather than saving. They are part of the instant-gratification, self-indulgent Me generation, which has a taste for high-priced gadgets and little interest in self-denial.

The increased spending of the 35 to 44 group is expected to give a mighty lift to such key segments of the economy as housing, furniture, appliances, apparel, autos and financial services. Already this group spends 50% more than the average consumer for furniture and one-third more for appliances. John Widdicomb Co., a top-of-the-line furniture manufacturer, has increased its advertising to attract these people, while Chicago's John M. Smyth Co. retail furniture chain has expanded its interior decorating services to appeal to the more sophisticated customer entering early middle age.

Ford Motor Co. managers estimate that the 35 to 44 age group, with its interest in outdoor leisure pursuits, buys 25% of all vans and pickups. These consumers want fuel-efficient cars--but also fancy extras like air conditioning and stereo. Says Louis W. Stern, marketing professor at Northwestern University: "That age group wants the outward visible things that say, 'I have made it and I want to live comfortably.' "

These people are major users of credit, taking out mortgages to acquire their bigger houses and urban condominiums and installment loans to furnish them. Maurice Mann, vice chairman of A.G. Becker, a brokerage firm, has warned savings and loan officials to anticipate "massive demand" for mortgage lending in the 1980s "as a result of the postwar babies seeking shelter." Insurance executives are looking at the group as an ever expanding market for homeowners' and life policies. Bankers are catering to their desire for convenience by opening more and more centers that can manage all aspects of a customer's personal finances.

As the baby-boom generation is growing older, the youth cult is gradually fading. Says J. Walter Thompson's Hull: "Ten years ago, everyone wanted to be young, but now people just want to stay active and attractive." Tennis clubs, exercise salons and racquetball courts are proliferating, largely because physical fitness has become a priority, not to say mania, with yesterday's youth. Reports Denise Bourcq, manager of Chicago's Gloria Marshall Figure Salon: "The majority of women we see are between 30 and 45." Even Geritol, that elixir of the sunset years, has aimed for some time now at a younger, still attractive woman who wants to hold on to her health.

Some more mature faces are showing up in ads to match the aging of the audience. Revlon's Lauren Hutton wonders in magazine ads what to do about her skin now that she is over 30 (her answer: use Ultima II creams), and the One-A-Day vitamin girl is no longer a teen but a woman pushing 30.

Companies are bringing out new products or repositioning existing ones specifically for these older consumers. Says Roy Johns Jr., a vice president at Levi Straus & Co.: "As the baby-boom kids continue up the age ladder, either we will go with them or somebody else will." Thus Levi's has already sold some 15 million pairs of new, wider jeans "cut to fit a man's build with a little more room in the seat and thigh," as the ads say. The jeans have spawned a whole rack of clothes for the aging male body, ravaged by roast beef and gravity.

Mattel, the California toy company, is trying to hang on to the kids who have mellowed into grownups. Its Barbie doll has been joined by a line of electronic toys for adults. The $500 Intellivision, a computer that plugs into a TV set, will play roulette, compute income taxes and do estate planning. Winemakers are also preparing to reap a rich harvest as the Pepsi generation trades its aluminum pop tops for corkscrews. By 1985 domestic wine is projected to be a $6 billion industry, up from $3 billion today. "Sales of the better wines can only be described as spectacular," says Alin Gruber, senior vice president of Sonoma Vineyards, "and the most important reason for it is that people who started with pop wines are moving up."

It is precisely this advance to more sophistication and affluence, as well as sheer numbers, that will make the 35 to 44 age group such a potent force in the economy of the 1980s. People with products to sell are getting the message: Age--at least early middle age--is more attractive than youth.

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