“Mary Jane Martin, CEO of Fox Meadow Assisted Living Facility, is concerned about the facility’s occupancy rate. At one time, the facility enjoyed a dominant position in the area, but its occupancy rate has declined from 90 percent to 70 percent in three years. This erosion is at the hands of other local competitors. Their key market is the baby boomers. The baby boomers are those individuals born during the post–World War II euphoria of 1946 to 1964. The aging of this group has created numerous opportunities for assisted living marketers. The segment numbers almost 80 million Americans and accounts for close to 30 percent of the US population.

Mary Jane has directed Tomas Rodriguez, her marketing director, to institute a promotional campaign directed specifically toward this segment. Tomas’s advertising objective was to increase requests for information about the facility by 30 percent in three months by using meaningful, believable, and distinctive print advertisements. The execution style for the message was to take a “slice of life” approach. With a promotional print budget of $8,000, Tomas ran a half-page ad in the local weekly free newspaper in four communities surrounding the facility. The ad provided contact information about the facility and pictured a 75-year-old grandmother type sitting in a comfortable rocking chair, doing needlepoint in front of a wood-burning fireplace. The caption read, “Rest and relax, your time has come!” Following multiple iterations of this ad, the marketing director received a negligible increase in telephone inquiries. He said, “What happened? We did the research.”

Do you believe that this ad targeted the baby boomer population adequately and why or why not? What would you have done differently and why?