Baby Boomers May Revert to Idealism of the 1960s, Consultant Says

Those ubiquitous baby boomers--the war babies, the Spock babies, the TV generation, the love generation, the Me generation and, now, the Yuppies--are on the verge of yet another transformation.

Daniel Yankelovich, an authority on social change, says that generation soon will let its idealism become a driving factor, replacing goals oriented more toward financial success.

Broke Demographic Patterns

Boomers have broken demographic patterns ever since their birth, and changes in their values and habits are of vital interest to marketers. The 76 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 have proven to be a fickle but lucrative group ever since millions were made on the hula-hoop, coonskin cap and Barbie doll.

Yankelovich, founder of Yankelovich, Skelly and White Inc., a New York consulting firm specializing in examining social change, spoke recently at a baby boomer seminar sponsored by People magazine, the self-styled Boomer Bible.

He said idealism lies “just below the surface of the pragmatism and calculation” that have come to characterize the post-war baby boom.

That generation will increasingly turn to the nonconformity of the 1960s, searching internally for new “symbols and yardsticks . . . of personal success,” he said.

“There was a very large element of idealism inherent” in the past of most boomers, he said. “It has gone underground; it is submerged.”

He said the idealism articulates itself as a “nameless yearning,” and within the next few years it will again become a factor in the demographic segment, replacing its quest-for-success attitudes.

“It will break out,” said Yankelovich. “In what form, I don’t know.”

Special Generation

He predicts the result will be “the emergence of a new popular philosophy of life.”

Many demographic factors make boomers special. The predominance of the two-earner household, smaller families, a high level of education and premiums on autonomy and independence set them apart.

Companies that have capitalized on those traits have profited mightily.

Personal Idea of Success

For boomers, the definition of success is highly personal, as opposed to the more social values of earlier and later generations. And that individuality, Yankelovich said, will continue to grow.

Yankelovich said the single most important distinguishing feature of boomers is that they are “unwilling to give up either the old material values (of their parents) or their own expressive values.”

The idea of “sacrificing personal fulfillment for economic security” seems futile to them, he said. They reject the “nose-to-the-grindstone, sacrifice-for-the-children, save-it-for-a-rainy-day” attitude of their Depression-generation parents.

And because it is a generation for whom luxuries have become necessities, it provides business with a vast market for expensive items. But marketers must keep abreast with changing tastes and attitudes for the pace-setting boomers.

‘At an Unstable Point’

“I believe we’re at an unstable point in the boomer psychology,” Yankelovich said, noting that the next few years will move the bulk of the boomers “toward more of a balance, as idealists have a chance to come to the fore.”

But for now, the group that is sometimes called the “M&Ms;,” for married and mortgaged, is still caught up in its highly competitive, calculating and discriminating struggle for life’s finer things.