So do I. And I’m eligible for membership (age 46+).

Time marches on, and apparently, I too am now old.

Although I’m quick to point out that age is relative. For example, I’m younger than 70-year-old Ringo. Is this why I continue to throw away AARP’s frequent invitations to join? Am I an ageist?

If so, I’m not alone. Nielsen asks, “Why aren’t TV advertisers targeting Baby Boomers, a demographic with proven clout at the cash register and demand to spare?”

Even though the 76 million Boomers are living longer (thanks to better healthcare) and continuing to work (thanks to the recession), many marketers are sticking to the historical age targets: 18-49 and 25-54. Long-term, this may be a good strategy for building brands with younger consumers; short-term, marketers may be missing the boat.

Neilsen’s research found:

• Boomer households represent more than 50% of sales in 98 of 122 product categories analyzed.
• Boomers account for 55% of sales of 4,000 popular household brands.

To say AARP represents retired people is no longer accurate. About half of its 40 million members are still working. In 1999, it dropped its name, the American Association of Retired Persons, in favor of the acronym. “We like to say we’ve retired the word retired,” said AARP senior manager of media relations Michelle Alvarez. “(Boomers) are starting to change the way people see aging. People aren’t retiring at 62 or 65, and sometimes that’s because they need to for economic reasons, but large percentages of entrepreneurs are over 50. They’re starting restaurants. They’re going back to school.”

Which is why AARP now features celebrities such as Bruce Springsteen, who is approaching (gasp!) 61, on the cover of its magazine.

For marketers interested in shaping messages to reach Boomers, Mintel Research Consultancy identified through recent research what they are thinking.

• Aging boomers are both hopeful and pragmatic about the future.
• They are still learning to age gracefully. They seek peace of mind, not the fountain of youth.
• They care about value, sensibility and financial conservatism, not indulgence and escapism.
• They plan to spend more time at home with family.

Gotta go — early bird special!

Joining the lizards, ducks and dogs are:

• Mayhem, a reckless new character, who has shoved perennial Allstate spokesperson Dennis Haysbert into the backseat
• Actor Mike McGlone, playing a tough-guy reporter who asks rhetorical questions for Geico
• The guy with the blue phone strapped to his body, comedian Bob Wiltfong, who hams it up for Nationwide
• Justin Case, a fictional SafeAuto employee, played by Tim McCarthy

Now’s your chance to vote for the one you find most irritating and view the results. (Tell me you’re not going to vote for Snoopy.)

1. 9 criteria for brand essence and the accompanying SlideShare deck #1 by a landslide
2. Best branding & marketing books
3. Mayflower’s giant marionette: cute or creepy? Wow! The traffic to this post surprised me. The marionette deeply polarized opinion.
4. P&G brands … itself?
5. G, I don’t get Gatorade’s line extension. Since the post, the Gatorade lineup has changed yet again: G01 Prime, G2 Perform (Where’s the “0?”), and G03 Recover. Not surprised that Tiger’s Focus is gone. The line is a bit simpler, but I still don’t understand why the brand name “Gatorade” is gone.
6. The North Face dilemma: spank the Butt or turn the other cheek? The lawsuit was settled with terms undisclosed. The South Butt is still in business.
7. So who is “the world’s greatest insurance spokesperson in the world?” The marketplace may now be begging for, “Who is the world’s most annoying insurance spokesperson in the world?” Allstate’s Mayhem has joined the contenders.
8. Coke and Pepsi merge, combine logos. This post was intended as satirical commentary on Continental and United’s scrambled new logo, a bastardized combination of their individual marks. Not sure everyone got that. Too obscure. Sorry.
9. When to hire vs. when to outsource
10. BMW uncovers its brand essence: joy

As always, if you have any suggestions for topics or improvements to the blog, please let me know.

Thanks for reading.

Digital, the new instant photography, does it all better, faster and cheaper.

So why won’t Polaroid, which filed for bankruptcy in 2001, just go away?

One reason is that people love its imperfect look. Photographer Larry Fink says, “The color combines with soft focus to create images existing in the suspended time of a dream. The everyday appears to us as if from a great distance.”

At Fink’s blog, photographer Annalisa Gonnella says, “(Through) this faded, dull tone, you are instantly presented with the reverse of your vision, that is, with a memory.”

In fact, the Polaroid look is so popular it has inspired digital impersonators, such as the apps Polarize, Polarock and ShakeIt for smartphones, which allow users to give photos a similar retro look.

Plus, there is something about the Polaroid picture-taking experience. The camera ejecting the print. The image slowly and magically emerging before your eyes. Your hands cradling a just-happened moment in time. Polaroid, with all of its imperfections, provides a palpable experience that digital doesn’t.

Failure to address the impact of digital technology led to Polaroid’s bankruptcy. The company’s successors stopped making cameras in 2007 and film in 2009. Spurred on by nostalgic fans all over the world, The Impossible Project saved the last Polaroid film plant and restarted production. In early 2010, it announced the availability of a new analog instant film, saving millions of perfectly functioning Polaroid cameras from going obsolete. (Take a Polaroid snaps tour of The Impossible Project plant in the Netherlands here or buy film here.)

At the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, Polaroid announced Lady Gaga will serve as special projects creative director, a move consistent with its history of featuring professional artists in its campaigns. She said, “I’m interested in bringing (Polaroid) back … (and) combining it with the digital era and making something new.”

So why is this analog dinosaur back from the dead?

First, it is one of the most recognized brands in the world. Second, its hopelessly square and muted look induces nostalgia. In these times, its familiarity is comforting. Third, it’s instant fun. At a party, you can hand people prints on the spot.

Fourth and most important, it has cracked the branding code. It is not the tangibles of the product — it is the intangibles of the experience.

Similarly, Tom and Kate Chappell decided to make and sell the first natural toothpaste, Tom’s of Maine, in rural Kennebunk in 1975. They started with a $5,000 loan and the philosophy that their personal care products would not harm the environment. (See post.)

In Santa Cruz, George Steltenpohl and two fellow musicians, Gerry Percy and Bonnie Bassett, launched Odwalla from a shed in Steltenpohl’s backyard in 1980. Their idea — selling fresh fruit juice and giving back to the community.

Many consumers are drawn to brands that stand for something other than profit-making. Called affinity brands, a community of diehard evangelists forms around them, drawn by a common cause or set of values. For these, it’s an enthralling concept — the little guy fighting the good fight. (For more on affinity branding, see post on Patagonia and its founder, Yvon Chouinard.)

But what happens when an artisan brand sells out? (And many do.)

• Burt’s Bees sold in 2007 for $925 million to Clorox.
• Tom’s of Maine sold in 2006 for $100 million to Colgate-Palmolive.
• Odwalla sold in 2001 for $181 million to Coca-Cola.
• Ben & Jerry’s sold in 2000 for $326 million to Unilever.
• Naked Juice sold in 2006 for $450 million to PepsiCo.
• Kashi cereals, the favorite of millions of healthy breakfast eaters, sold in 2000 for $32 million by Kellogg.

A case can be made for spreading the gospel by going big. In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Gene Kahn, founder of Cascadian Farm, is quoted as saying, “You have a choice of getting sad about all that (selling) or moving on. We tried hard to build a cooperative community and a local food system, but at the end of the day it wasn’t successful.”

Cascadian Farm is now owned by General Mills, where Kahn is the global sustainability officer. “I wanted to leverage that position to redefine the way we grow food — not … how we distribute it.”

Yet, while taking advantage of the distribution channels, buyers often keep quiet about their acquisitions so as not to upset the brand loyalists.

In a post at AlterNet, Lara Christenson of Spins, market researchers for the natural products industry, is quoted as saying, “There is frequently a backlash when a big cereal package-goods company buys a natural or organic company. I don’t want to say it’s manipulative, but consumers are led to believe these brands are pure, natural or organic brands. It’s very purposely done.”

Can conglomerates maintain the values held by the original brands while expanding distribution? Can they do so while being transparent about ownership? Are consumers open-minded to this possibility?

O’Neill also wrote A Man Called Daddy and Here’s Looking at You, Kids: The Crowded Romance of Mom and Dad. “Welcome to a world where apple juice is the nectar of the gods,” he wrote. “Welcome to a slow dance of night-lights and snow pants. Welcome to what would be a look at family life through rose-colored glasses, if the kids hadn’t sold my glasses to their friend Phil.”

In his stories, O’Neill recounts with humor and affection such fatherly moments as:

• reaching into the pocket of your suit for a business card and retrieving instead a body part belonging to Mr. Potato Head
• discovering something sticky in the VCR
• making a Halloween costume from a spaghetti strainer and a small rug from the hall
• desperately trying to find a moment alone with mom for some quick romance
• playing the part of a chicken in a fantasy game understood only by the child

The following Toyota TV spot reminds me of O’Neill’s perspective on parenting. Enter the Siennas:

Of course, the Sienna family and their Swagger Wagon have a Facebook page and their own YouTube channel.

Some find this hip-hop, gansta-rapping parody funny. A few find it racist!

More importantly, does it work? Does poking fun at parenthood sell minivans? Do parents, the target audience, embrace the joke — at their expense?

Essentially a pneumatic chalk-paint sprayer driven by a computer, ChalkBot takes messages from around the world via text messaging, Facebook, Twitter and the LiveSTRONG web site, and sprays them in yellow on the roads of the Tour de France during the event.

According to The Inspiration Room blog, the system includes a text-message interface, web-based queue and approval system for tour officials, onboard machine and nozzle control, spray mechanism, camera and GPS capture system, and Twitter integration. (See how it works below.)

The messages generally support the fight against cancer, encourage survivors, and memorialize loved ones. On the ChalkBot landing page are sample messages submitted by others and a Google map indicating their points of origination.

I gave it a try and submitted a message in memory of my mom who died of cancer in 2000.

On July 19, the Tour entered the Pyrenees during Stage 14. Christophe Riblon, a Fenchman, escaped early on the road between Revel and Ax 3 Domaines and held off the charge of the peloton to win the day. The main contenders, Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador, played cat-and-mouse games with each other during the stage’s two difficult climbs. Schleck retained the yellow jersey.

Meanwhile, a few miles away, the ChalkBot was spraying messages on the Stage 16 route, the roads between Bagnéres-de-Luchon and Pau. One of them was mine.

Recently I received an email message from Nike with a photo of my message painted on the road, along with the date, the time of day, and the GPS coordinates. Great followup. Mom would have been amazed.

At this year’s Tour de France, Bottle Boy was a hit.

Bottle Boy represents Clean Bottle, a new reusable sports bottle that unscrews at both ends. The rather simplistic design concept makes the job of cleaning residue out of the bottom of the bottle easy and helps prevent mold, a concern among runners, cyclists, hikers, and other athletes. The product is available through REI and others.

Clean Bottle launched only months ago with a limited budget. So Dave Mayer, founder, built the five-foot-tall Bottle Boy costume and booked a flight to the Tour de France. On twelve of the stages, he ran alongside the slowing riders as they neared the tops of their climbs. Accordingly, he received significant TV airtime.

“The Tour de France is the Super Bowl of cycling,” Mayer says. “By running with the riders I’d essentially get free commercial time focused on my exact target audience.”

However, the daily logistics of lugging Bottle Boy up and down mountain roads was tough. “Driving all night to get to the next stage and then hauling the costume some times as much as 20 kilometers to the top of every climb is a lot of work, but it’s definitely been worth it,” Mayer says.

He blogged here about his experiences at the Tour with humor and humility. Example: “From all the reactions to (the costume’s carrying bag), I’ve now learned how to say, ‘Is that your mother-in-law?’ in French, Spanish and Dutch.”

So far, the plan seems to have worked. “I’ve gone from $4,000 a month in sales to $4,000 a day,” Mayer reports.

It’s going so well, in fact, one wonders if the stunt was truly guerrilla. Given the amount of airtime and mentions Bottle Boy received, could it have been paid product placement?

Conventional wisdom suggests one and one only. Be focused. Be consistent. Hammer it. You’ll grow weary of the campaign long before the audience is even aware of it.

Geico has broken this rule of thumb again and again. With seeming success.

Martin, the talking gecko, is most closely identified with the Geico brand, but he no longer has to do all of the heavy lifting.

The cavemen characters handle some of that, unintentionally and tragically reminding us how simple it is to switch insurance companies (”so easy a caveman could do it”).

There is also the stack of money with googly eyes, called Kash, representing “the money you could be saving with Geico.”

Now, actor Mike McGlone, playing a tough-guy reporter, asks rhetorical questions, such as “”Is a bird in the hand worth two in the bush?” (Learn the answer to, “Did the little piggy cry, ‘wee, wee, wee,’ all the way home?,” below.

And there’s more. Deadliest Catch boat captains, Jonathan and Andy Hillstrand, have appeared in numerous TV commercials, some of which costar the cavemen and Kash.

Even, Bear Grylls of Man Vs. Wild recently happened upon Martin the gecko in the bush. I was expecting Bear to eat him, but no such luck.

Other creative approaches focus on individual insurance products for motorcycles, boats, RVs, etc. (Many of Geico’s current spots are available to view here.)

Fielding multiple concepts simultaneously seems like a recipe for disaster, but the strategy appears to work. How? Three reasons:

1. Lots of budget. Geico spent $751 million on advertising in 2007, $561 million in 2008, and $473 million through October of 2009, per Nielsen. The commercials run endlessly.
2. Integrated concepts. To help connect the executions, characters frequently appear in each other’s commercials. (See Mike McGlone and a caveman in this spot, for example.)
3. Simple messages. While Geico’s creative execution is not focused, its messages regarding cost savings and ease of switching are simple and consistent. Most spots open or close with “15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.”

So far, the gecko seems to have more staying power than the Budweiser frogs.

This quote by Simon Sinek eloquently captures a key concept I’ve presented in previous posts (“‘Why’ uncover strategic insights?“). That is, the strongest brands (sometimes called affinity brands) are centered around intangible attributes, not tangible ones. They stand for some greater purpose or ideal than simply making money. Being true to some inner value is attractive to those consumers who share the same value.

Previously, I have used Patagonia as an example of a loyalty-inspiring affinity brand. It seems to sell outdoor clothing practically as an afterthought to environmentalism. “For us, a love of wild and beautiful places demands participation in the fight to save them.”

In this video at TED.com, Sinek discusses why some organizations inspire loyalty, while others don’t. The goal, he says, is to sell to people who believe in what you believe. To understand, ask why your organization exists, not what it makes. His examples of inspirational leaders include Apple, the Wright brothers, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thanks to @emilystoddard of DVQ Studio for pointing me toward this presentation.

For more on this topic, read:

• “Why intangibles are the more sustainable competitive advantages“
• “For brand authenticity, look inside.“
• “Patagonia: They also sell clothes.“