Energizer using rocker to market batteries for hearing aids

The Associated Press

ST. LOUIS -- Battery-maker Energizer Holdings Inc. is appealing to baby boomers' rock 'n' roll roots to sell them something they probably hadn't considered in the '60s.

Hearing aids are not only necessary, eventually. They're cool, too.

The St. Louis-based company has enlisted 1980s rocker Pat Benatar for a marketing campaign, "It's Hip to Hear." The company is hoping the 51-year-old Benatar will help boost sales of its batteries for hearing aids.

"Our generation has helped shape American culture, especially since we're the first to be raised on rock 'n' roll," a 16-page brochure quotes Benatar as saying. "From Aerosmith to the Rolling Stones, our music defines us, but all those years of rockin' are beginning to take a toll."

Benatar is known for such hits as "Love Is a Battlefield," "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" and "Invincible."

Benatar herself hears just fine. But Energizer is betting the rocker will break the old-person stereotype associated with wearing a hearing aid, Ernie Petrus, director of sales and marketing for Energizer Miniature Batteries, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Matt Thornhill, founder of the Boomer Project, a Richmond, Va.-based consulting firm that helps companies reach the over-50 market, said Energizer's choice of Benatar is "fabulous."

He said her music and personality are familiar and -- most important -- boomers want to maintain a youthful attitude and active lifestyle as they age.

"That means being able to see, hear and function like they've always been able to," Thornhill said.

Mini-batteries used in hearing aids are just 8 percent of Energizer's total sales, but the company sees a potentially huge growth market, Petrus said. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates about 78 million people -- one out of three adults -- is a baby boomer between the ages of 40 and 58.

Petrus said audiologists reported a surge in interest in hearing loss after President Bill Clinton got a hearing aid in 1997. But interest has since waned, he said.

A survey Energizer commissioned showed that only 1 percent of baby boomers are concerned about their hearing health. Give it a little time.

"Boomers buy eyeglasses by the tens of thousands," said Thornhill. "As they start to lose their hearing, I don't think they'll have a reluctance" to buy hearing aids.