Here’s a great lie we’ve told ourselves for years: “Catch ‘em with your brand when they’re young and they’ll stay with you forever.” There are still too many marketers who believe that hoary old saw. Time to put it on the shelf next to some other old but not-so-bold truths like Milli Vanilli sang their own songs and no one will ever know the true identity of Deep Throat. It’s a fairy tale that rings with just enough truth to it to make it seem possible.

That branding idea reached it’s zenith at the mid-point of the last century when the size of the baby boomer generation caught the attention of marketing people everywhere. It was the biggest population bubble in history, something that a well-managed brand was supposed to be able capture and ride to profitability for decades to come.

Except it never worked. If it did, Gerber would own just about every square inch of supermarket shelf space with Gerber-branded baby food, soups, dry cereals, canned vegetables and fresh beef and pork. Cherry Coke would still be a major soft drink, not just something brewed up at a soda fountain as a sixties treat. Pop Rocks would still rule the candy counter. And I would still be driving a Ford product, graduating from that Mustang of my youth to a Lincoln LS in my old age – maybe purchasing a Bronco and a Mercury Monterey along the way. Mother Goose couldn’t write a better fable. I’m tempted to make a bad pun about the Brothers Grimm but I’ll pass for now.

So why am I still watching “smart marketing people” chasing the holy grail of 15-25 year olds? A disproportionate amount of marketing dollars is being spent on catching the eye of that very fickle group. The real money is still with the baby boomers. We’re the folks, after all, that are financing the lifestyles of most of those youngsters. We’re still the biggest population bubble in history and now we have large amounts of disposable cash as we’ve reached our peak earning years.

So with such a large and financially stable audience, why are so few food processors chasing the market? As we’ve aged, we’ve developed special dietary needs, a market largely unrecognized by most retailers. Many of us have to watch our sodium intake but prepared foods are saturated with salt. The dietary fat we could easily burn off when we were hyper-active twenty-year olds now goes straight to our more sedentary bellies and backsides.

Care to check the fat and sodium content of most processed foods on the supermarket shelf? It’s almost impossible. The mice type used to print product labels is unintelligible to our aging eyes. It doesn’t matter, though; most of the products exceed our daily maximum intake for fat and salt in one small serving.

Here is the real truth in marketing. The consumer is a fickle beast. What’s hot today is tomorrow’s embarrassment. Remember disco dancing? Each generation tends to reject the choices of its predecessors and then change its mind from year-to-year as its needs evolve. I needed a Mustang as a newlywed, a Toyota van as a suburban father of two and a Chevrolet 4WD SUV when I moved to a snow belt state. No brand loyalty there.

I was a big fan of Campbell’s tomato soup as a starving student. Can’t stand the stuff now. Like most people, red meat was a favorite for a few decades, carb loading gained my favor for a while and now I’ve gone back to meat. In an unscientific survey of a few friends, my history seems pretty average. In no instance have I discovered an undying, decades-long attachment to a particular brand.

Here’s my suggestion to food marketers everywhere. Dump the single-minded pursuit of the youth market. To make money like you had the keys to the mint, go where the money is – the aging boomer generation. We need lots of stuff, we’ve got the money to buy it and only a few companies have “discovered” us.

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Chuck Jolley is a marketing executive who's been associated with the food industry for over 25 years. He's helped develop advertising and public relations programs for Cryovac, the world's largest flexible packaging company, and published MEAT&POULTRY, the leading trade magazine in the meat and poultry industry. He's worked with major companies in the meat, poultry, seafood, baking, dairy and fresh produce industries.Contact: crjolley@msn.com