Says AARP, “Every month, 75,000 baby boomers are joining the ranks of new grandparents. Dubbed “grandboomers” — marketers’ nod to yet another stage of life that baby boomers are transforming — they are redefining the stereotypical image of grandparents. “The average age of a boomer who is a grandparent is 53,” said Mr. Thornhill, who adds that Oprah Winfrey is 53. “So we’re not talking your traditional image of a grandma here. We’re talking about 53-year-olds who don’t feel like they are anywhere near old age.”

The trend nationwide is for cool, hip names, said Mr. Thornhill.

“They don’t want names like grandma or granny,” he said. “They want a name that works for them.”

East Brainerd resident Rodena Maas is known as “Deen-Deen” to 20-month-old grandson Hudson.

Deen-Deen was a natural derivative of the nickname Deen that her good friends already used.

Once baby is born, boomers have a new outlet for their discretionary income.

“In general, boomers as first-time grandparents spend an average of $1,100 in the first six months,” said Mr. Thornhill. “Their planned spending for the next 12 months is another $700, according to a study done by grandparents.com last year.”

The researcher said the initial outlay is to purchase a crib and all the accessories the baby has at home to outfit nurseries in their own homes.

“Boomers can be our No. 1 customers,” said Tim Allen, owner of Children’s Fair on Lee Highway. “Most are wanting to turn guest bedrooms into nurseries for their grandkids to come over.

The travel industry already has reached out for doting grandparents’ dollars.

Mr. Thornhill said amusement parks and theme parks are offering different admission prices for grandparents bringing their grandchildren.

“We’re seeing a growing number of tour companies putting together multigenerational travel packages targeting grandparents,” he said.

Jimmy Campbell of Apollo Travel said his firm has done a number of these family trips.

“They’ve gone on cruises, to Walt Disney (NYSE:DCQ) World (NYSE:DIS) , and we did a group of 10 who went to the Mexican Riviera.”

“We’re wondering when the first casual dining restaurant will come out with a grandparent menu that has games and interaction for grandparents and grandkids to do,” said Mr. Thornhill.

BUY

Aren’t you sick of Joe the Plumber? You’re not alone. Vent your frustration and sell anti-Joe merchandise at this expressive domain.

SickOfJoeThePlumber.com can be a fun way for anyone interested in real change to make a political statement. Give it as a gift to your politically witty friend who has always wanted her own platform to express her progressive, populist, views.  Spend a little time developing it yourself, attract traffic, and you might even be able to flip it to the Democratic party.

If think that Joe must go, grab this domain and tell the world.

BUY NOW

ClickZ’s Pete Blackshaw, wrote in December 2007: “New currents beget new buzzwords. In 2008, the “conversation” will certainly march on, but I’ll put myself out on a limb and predict we’ll see more than a little correction and a reality check on our sometimes overly romantic exuberance over Web 2.0.

Next year, we may well find troubleshooting our brands is as big a deal as promoting our brands. In that spirit, I humbly offer my 2008 buzzword and buzz-phrase forecast.”

Inspired, we regged many of those thoughts as domains so we would have them available when the world caught up. Like thinking up the word “blog” years before anyone knew what it was, their loss, and my foresight, can be your gain. Consider:

Friendiligence.com:
This will become very popular in 2008. It involves the extra layer of due diligence on friend requests on Facebook, MySpace, and all the me-too social networks popping up here and there. Friendiligence will also dial up as marketers oversaturate the social networking space with fan sites and more. Is this a real friend offer, or is it spam? Trust me, we’ll all ask harder questions, and some friend lists will start to shrink.

We-bargaining.com:
A close cousin of social mediation, this is a bit more centered on brands and companies seeking peace, appeasement, or a lesser sentence with consumers when they screw up (particularly with viral, WOM, or CGM campaigns). It’s a tough exercise, because it typically pits a brand against the wisdom of the crowds. Richard Edelman did a very good job of we-bargaining after the controversial Wal-Mart blog incident last year. He was open, forthright, contrite, and resolved to fix the issue.. So, too, was the CEO of JetBlue when he posted his apology to YouTube.

Greenlashing.com:
Woe to the marketer who over-claims or over-promises benefits on the green front. The market’s just too transparent. Sites like TreeHugger, now owned by Discovery, are part of mainstream consciousness these days, and smaller green skeptics will vet out a green imposter faster than you can say “carbon neutral.” As the number of do-good green blogs increases, you can expect even more greenlashing about brand missteps in this area. Mya Frazier of Ad Age deserves credit for firing the first big warning shot against marketers’ bows on what she calls “greenwashing.”

Shamsparency.com:
Don’t get busted buying shills or engaging in unsavory activity. Just don’t do it, or the forces of shamsparency will catch up with you. It happens all the time, and firms in the CGM monitoring space (like my own) make it easier to uncover the imposters. My recommendation: avoid this term at all costs, and write the WOMMA ethics code on the whiteboard 30 times.

Credlining.com:
Credlining is when consumers sift the good from the bad, the credible from the discreditable, and publish a scorecard accordingly. When protesters of Facebook’s Beacon feed effort started posting lists of Facebook’s advertising partners, credlining was in play.

View and order these names HERE

The potential to morph into a moving billboard to promote sound environmental practice while becoming the world’s premier home-delivery brand is virtually untapped across niches like coffee, pizza and flowers.

Of course, Caffenol is also a film processing term and the web is abundant with communities and forums exchanging opinions and success stories on various techniques.

Photo and Coffee Chariot story via SpringWise