I’ve been reading an excellent book titled The Age Curve: Why Size Matters, by Kenneth W. Gronbach (AMACOM, 2008). The book is valuable to anyone wanting to understand the importance of what Gronbach calls “generational demographics” and how to use it for marketing and selling to baby boomers and other generations.

Gronbach’s basic premise is that “size matters.” In other words, the size of the generation (Baby Boomer, Generation X, Generation Y, etc.) determines its buying power. Our boomer generation at 78 million is followed by Generation X, which has 9 million fewer people, resulting in a drop in buying power, and, of course, sales to that generation.  Since the generation following is significantsly smaller, and the generations above the Boomers, the GI Generation and the Silent Generation, are dying off, the Baby Boomer generation is, literally, the “bulge” at the top of the age curve.

Gronbach, a Baby Boomer himself, hits it on the head in his description of Boomers:
* Boomers say, “We are not our parents, and we never will be”
* Boomers are health conscious and work at staying healthy
* Growing up after the Depression, Boomers are not savers, and many are spending our retirement money
* Boomers aren’t graying; we’re getting superior
* Boomers work to stay with the times, including technology
* Boomers are essentially lazy (we like to give gift cards because it’s easy)
* Boomers are swift to change partners; many are on their 2nd and 3rd marriages (I can identify with this one)
* Boomers have all the stuff they need; Boomer men have created the boom in self-storage facilities by filling them with all their stuff (I can DEFINITELY identify with this one - ask my husband)

The Boomer top three priorities, according to Gronbach:
1: Make my life simple
2: Save me some time
3: Don’t rip me off

OK, I know it’s difficult to characterize a whole generation, especially one with such a diversity in ages, but Gronbach seems to have a handle on what makes Baby Boomer tick.

Tomorrow, I’ll speak about the effects of these generational demographics on marketing and selling, and give you some Gronbach predictions….

Tags: baby boomers, Generation X, Kenneth Gronbach, The Age Curve

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Brazilian Stocks Gain, Led by Commodity Producers; Bolsa Drops - Bloomberg
Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) — Brazilian stocks rose for the first time in three days, led by commodity shares, after Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group suggested investors purchase steelmakers on the prospect that domestic demand will sustain prices. Cia

Most Canadian Stocks Advance, Led by EnCana; Scotiabank Falls - Bloomberg
Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) — Most Canadian stocks rose as energy and raw-materials companies climbed on surging natural-gas and oil prices. EnCana Corp . paced gains among commodity-related shares as natural-gas futures advanced the most in 10 months

Stocks Flat As Investors Mull Data - Forbes
Wall Street erased an early loss an hour into the trading session, but by midday stocks had surrendered any gains to sit at just about even. An encouraging report on consumer confidence helped lift the market off its early lows, and investors also

Stocks Gain, Ignoring Housing Data - Wall Street Journal
U.S. stocks rose Tuesday after home data came in roughly in line with dismal expectations. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac extended their current rebound. Taken as a whole, data in the last two sessions have detailed a housing market wallowing in recession

Mexico stocks sink, hit by losses in America Movil - Reuters
MEXICO CITY, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Mexican stocks fell sharply on Tuesday, dragged lower by losses in cell phone operator America Movil (AMXL.MX: Quote , Profile , Research , Stock Buzz ) after Morgan Stanley cut its price target for the company’s New

Stocks Narrowly Blended After Consumer Data - Street.Com
Updated from 9:51 a.m. EDT After opening narrowly blended, stocks in the U.S. took a modest turn higher following the release of better-than-expected consumer confidence data and an encouraging read on July new-home sales. Lately, however, the action

Sector Snap: Regional bank stocks mixed - Forbes
Shares of regional banks traded blended Tuesday after better-than-expected economic data somewhat offset ongoing concerns about the health of the financial sector and rising energy prices. The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its consumer

Sector Snap: National bank stocks mostly rise - CNBC
NEW YORK - Shares of national banks mostly rose Tuesday as Wall Street’s concerns over the health of the financial sector eased in the wake of positive economic data. Investors received some clarity on the state of the economy after the Conference

Brazil’s Petrobras leads stocks higher, real falls - Reuters
SAO PAULO, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Brazilian stocks rose on Tuesday, led by oil giant Petrobras as investors snapped up the shares on expectations that possible changes in local oil regulations may not affect the company as previously expected. The

Stocks turn lower in midafternoon - MSNBC
NEW YORK - Wall Street turned lower in thin volume Tuesday as concerns about the path of Hurricane Gustav pushed oil prices higher and offset a better-than-expected report on consumer confidence. Stocks fluctuated during the session as investors

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Filed under: Estates

This large home in Cotuit, Massachusetts takes traditional Cape Cod style to a new level. The home is on seven acres and has waterfront views. The land includes a pool area and a guest home with a turret and a circular staircase. The shingled home combines rough wood beams and exposed brick with columns and double-height ceilings to create a home that manages to be both cottage cute and a bit extravagant. The listing references a lot of France, pointing out that every room in the home features a chandelier, mostly imported from Paris, the kitchen features a professional eight burner Parisian stove and the master bedroom has glass etched doors reminiscent of Lalique styling. There are four bedrooms total and the home also has a library, fitness area and a wine cellar/grotto. The home is being sold furnished and is listed at $12.5 million.

For more prime properties and lush locations, see Luxury Homes and Mansions.

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PimpYourWork.com

In an effort to boost productivity by minimizing time lost due to aimless web surfing, the Invisibility Cloak script for Firefox was born. Taking advantage of Greasemonkey’s ability to run scripts to enhance your Firefox experience, Invisibility Cloak allows you to block sites that doesn’t have anything to do with your work and would normally consume your working time.Invisibility Cloak comes pre-configured with several sites already blocked and cannot be accessed till 3 in the afternoon. You can easily add more sites to the blocked list and even include excluded sites as well. When you try to access the blocked sites, it will let you know how much time is left before you can go to that site. The latest update includes the option to turn off the script every weekend.

However, while it does a great job at blocking sites, the Invisibility Cloak is very simple to deactivate. If you can control yourself from pulling the script’s plug and going back to your usual surfing habits, Invisibility Cloak does the job quite well. Otherwise, you might want to look at more “tamper-proof” alternatives out there.

Invisibility Cloak requires the Greasemonkey extension and is compatible with Mozilla Firefox 3.0.

Screencapture by Celine Roque from Blue Rabbit Media

Tags: firefox add-on, firefox addon, firefox plug-in, firefox plugin, invisibility cloak, web surfing

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My favorite Twilight Zone episode is one with Burgess Meredith titled “Time Enough at Last,” in which he plays a henpecked husband who just wants to find time to read.  Remember it?

Well, it appears that book reading is becoming less popular among the younger generations (X and Y), and independent bookstores, even in highly literate places like Seattle, are having a hard time competing for attention with the large chains, and, of course, with Amazon and other on the web bookstores. An article in the Seattle Times Book Section comments that “running a bookstore has always been an occupation for dreamers.”  Very true. I’d love to own a bookstore, but it would be more for my own pleasure than to make money.  The bookstore owner in the article (his bookstore was closing after two decades) states, “I’d like to have one copy of everything in existence.”  Gotta concur.

I buy books online, but I also frequent bookstores.  There’s nothing better on a Friday night after dinner to wander through a bookstore checking out the bargain books and finding a new gem that I’ve been waiting for in paperback.  And, I confess, I love the look and the smell of books.  And I’m not alone, a Zogby survey in May found that 82% of readers prefer to curl up with a book.  How can you get emotionally involved with Kindle?

How many books do you buy a year?  Do you purchase them on the web or at a bookstore?  Do you like printed books or on the web ones?

Tags: baby boomers, Kindle, on the web bookstores, readers

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Stocks fall on drop among financials; oil rises - Washington Post
Chris Considine, center, president of Wilson Sporting Goods Co., is joined by fellow employees at the Nasdaq opening bell Monday, Aug. 25, 2008 in New York. Wilson is a subsidiary of Amer Sports Corp. of Finland. Stocks retreated early Monday as

Aussie stocks fall 0.2 pct but rebound off lows - CNBC
SYDNEY, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Australian shares shut down 0.2 percent on Tuesday but well above session lows as bargain hunters selectively purchased oversold stocks such as Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd . The benchmark S&P/ASX 200

China Stocks Decline for Fourth Day; Haitong, Air China Retreat - Bloomberg
Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) — China’s stocks fell for a fourth day, led by brokerages, after daily trading value yesterday dropped to the lowest since November 2006. Haitong Securities Co. , the country’s largest listed brokerage by market value, dropped 7

Asian Stocks Fall on Credit Concerns, Earnings; Banks Decline - Bloomberg
Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) — Asian stocks fell the most in a week, led by financial companies, as widening credit-market losses slow regional growth and dent earnings. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. slumped 2.1 percent in Tokyo after Credit Suisse

Thomson Financial Europe AM at a glance share guide: Stocks fall; oil - Forbes
STOCKS: Stocks sank in light trading Monday as worries about American International Group Inc. touched off broader concerns that the deterioration of the credit markets will bring more big losses for financial companies. The Dow Jones industrial

Thai Hot Stocks-Index at 3-week low, banks tumble - Reuters
BANGKOK, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Thailand’s benchmark stock index .SETI fell 2.34 percent on Tuesday, dragged down by political concerns and weak overseas markets. By the midday break, the index was down 15.84 points at a three-week low of 662.36, with

JPMorgan Likes U.S. Stocks - US News and World Report
The news is bad. The economy is not prone to recover for some time. But a lot of that is well known. I don’t think it’s a surprise to anybody at this point. As an investor, it’s not just about the news; it’s about the price you pay for the news. The

UK Stocks — Factors to watch on Aug 26 - Forbes
LONDON, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Britain’s FTSE 100 .FTSE> index is seen opening 65 to 79 points lower on Tuesday, according to financial bookmakers, as lingering credit worries over the financial sector and slowing global growth weighed. U.S. stocks fell

Spanish stocks - Factors to watch on Tuesday - Reuters
MADRID, Aug 26 (Reuters) - The following Spanish stocks might be affected by newspaper reports and other factors on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified the newspaper reports, and cannot vouch for their accuracy: Telefonica (TEF.MC: Quote , Profile

Pakistani stocks at new 2-yr low on coalition split - Guardian Unlimited
KARACHI, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Pakistani stocks fell over 4 percent on Tuesday to a new two-year low as investors sold blue chips such as OGDC on fears the break-up in the coalition government overnight will raise political uncertainty. By 0621 GMT, the

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