With the first of them turning 70, Baby Boomers are about to do something undesirable yet inevitable - they're going to start getting old. And with the expectation that Boomers will live longer than any previous generation of Americans, old age may last for a very long time. The question is, will these years be filled with vitality and good health, or will Baby Boomers just live longer with frailty, pain and chronic disease? As with everything else, Boomers will most likely age in a new and different way.

Boomers appreciate intimacy, and, like the best of broadcast radio, today's podcasts are audio experiences in which the listener has a one on one relationship with the host that offers true lean-in immersion.

One of the most important lessons I teach MBA students is to look at audience data and hard evidence when making marketing decisions. It's a danger to let your personal bias cloud a strategic decision. I was reminded of that advice last week when the Boston Globe's decision to change delivery companies caused a torrent of subscriber anger. In an effort to save money and supposedly improve service, they switched to a new and untested company to deliver roughly 115,000 daily newspapers. It was a poorly handled fiasco, both from an operational standpoint and the PR efforts to sooth upset …

In a post written by Lori Bitter on Dec. 21, 2015, headlined "The Psychology of Marketing to Grandparents," she discusses the value of understanding four of Abraham Maslow's attributes and how they relate to connecting with grandparents. This is a follow-up to my comments applauding Lori's insights.