Seventy seven million Americans were born between 1946 and 1964, but it was 2006 when that fact hit the senior-living industry between the eyes.

So believes Andrea Ellen, a Connecticut-based marketing consultant to senior-living companies.

“I think 2006 was finally the year that the industry got with it and started to pay attention to the fact that we have an explosion of numbers,” says Ms. Ellen. “The industry is sitting up and paying attention.”

As a result, executives are paying more attention to marketing, she says: “looking at how their business should look in the future.”

“First was the development stage, with all the building. Then came the issue of how to fill them. Now the industry is taking a close look at who they market to.”

And, she adds, how they market.

“The adult children of the generation now in senior-living are more savvy consumers than their parents were,” Ms. Ellen explains. “Boomers will be needing more money to live comfortably in retirement. They’re more self-indulgent and they’re going to live longer.”

And they will want to continue living an active lifestyle – and demand a wealth of activity options, she says. “A new building is not new for very long.”

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Settling for 90-percent occupancy may get you a bonus, but it doesn’t create the waiting list that helps you make your case for additional growth if you operate in a certificate-of-need state, says John Greaves of Lockwood Marketing in St. Louis, who develops marketing and sales programs for senior-living communities.

“People here talk with sales people everyday and hear, `Oh, we’re doing great; we’re at 90- or 92-percent occupancy,’” says Mr. Greaves. “A lot of equity is tied up in that other 8 percent. If you are not filled to capacity then you are not reaching your potential.”

As senior-living executives chart their goals for 2007, Mr. Greaves says, 100-percent capacity ought to be at the top. “Get in a waiting-list position,” he urges.

Setting – and meeting — a higher standard of success will enhance a company’s credibility when it goes shopping for money to build.