The Business of Aging

Marketer's Placing Too Much Emphasis on "Boomers".

DISCLOSURE:  I am not a baby boomer, I don't like the term and I think too many marketers place too much emphasis on it. I have nothing against Boomer's. I just don't like the label.

I read the blog posting BoomerCafé … the Next 10 Years  several times and I couldn't figure out why, but something about it bothered me.  Most of the article pontificates about how unique, affluent, diverse, and active the Boomer generation is and how difficult they are to market to because they hate to be pushed  and are suspicious of everything.  I guess there were no Boomers who fell for the Madoff ponzi scheme.

Anyway.

Then I figured out why the post bothered me.   This one line sums up my problem with the post.

[In order to effectively market to Boomers] you’ve got to win their respect to get their support".

How is this different than marketing to any other individual, group, culture, generation, etc?

It's not.

But leave it to the Boomers to think they are the first generation whereby companies must earn their respect first.  And this is why I don't like the term "Boomer"  as a marketing term.  It does not mean anything beyond the fact that they were the post WW2 generation that included a lot of people.  And by the way, is it me or does the Boomer generation seem to keep expanding? Now it's people born between 1946 and 1964. When I was a kid, we were told it was people born between the 1943-60. What happened?

Ahh, but wait. This generation, relatively speaking,  has a lot of affluent people.  And this, and this alone, is why marketers make such a big deal about the Boomer generation. Because everyone is trying to figure out how to sell more stuff to the Boomers.

Ok. But again, what's the big deal?

As a marketer, you want to carefully identify your target market, learn as much about them as possible (demographics, buying habits, needs, purchasing behavior, etc.), and figure out how to reach them, engage them, establish trust with them and motivate them to buy more of your stuff.  (And I don't mean hard sells. If you truly have a valued solution and earn the buyer's trust you'll sell your stuff. How to do that is a whole different discussion but the Internet has changed everything - think social media/networking). 

But this is not unique to the Boomer generation.  It's called good marketing.

In the Boomer Cafe's blog post it says:

 "AARP and few other organizations have made attempts … but have never quite succeeded at reaching the 77-million baby boomers in America, most likely because they are not subtle at either pushing or winning trust. Neither have marketers".

I would rewrite this as:

"COMPANY has made attempts … but has never quite succeeded at reaching X market because they have not fully understood the market's needs,  have not built trust with the buyer and have not delivered a valued solution".

It has nothing to do with "Boomers".

And how many marketer's would define their target market as an entire generation? It does not work like this. Cruise line vacation marketers like Carnival have a product for every budget, lifestyle and age group. I don't think the marketers at Carnival approach marketing differently when trying to figure out how to sell to someone age 25, age 65 or age 80.   

Marketing is marketing.

So, how does AARP "reach all 77-million Boomers?" 

Not by thinking their target market is an entire generation that shares any single common trait. That's foolish.  And not with one product. Impossible. Unless they figure out a replacement to the iPod. How about brand extension such as offering different AARP memberships and magazines for different age/demographic groups?

Again, it's not about reaching the "Boomer" it's about good marketing  - identifying your target market, learning as much about them as possible (demographics, needs, buying habits, purchasing behavior, etc.), and figuring out how to reach them, engage them, establish trust with them and motivate them to buy more of your stuff.  

By the way, I agree 100% with what David Henderson (the author of Boomer Cafe) writes in his blog post: "I think it’s the hardest thing for any marketer or PR person to comprehend. In today’s world, pushing products and services is far more expensive and far less effective than connecting, listening and engaging audiences in conversation. The latter is today’s style of the Internet Era."  

I couldn't agree more.  Regardless of generation.

Elder Care. A high-speed train Racing Toward a Steel-Reinforced Concrete Fortress?

David J Levy JD CCE  from the American Association for Caregiver Education and a true expert on caregiving issues,   sent me a copy of the BusinessWeek article, Our Health-Care System Needs a Bypass.

David says that if you read nothing more read her description of Eldercare:

“If health care is a train headed for a brick wall, then elder care is a high-speed train stuffed with our parents and grandparents racing toward a steel-reinforced concrete fortress.”

In his email to me, David writes that the author has framed the issue for an out of the box solution. Essentially, aging in place with a Social HMO and great reliance on friends, neighbors and the family.

But David asks a question: Who trains and supports these folks to do this? Who explains the reciprocal independence, dignity and quality of life mantra that family caregiver and their loved one deserve? David says all this fails before it starts without a methodology to teach. It is the parable of giving them a "fish" or teaching them how to fish. Like everything else in the system we don’t have enough fish for starters and enough fishermen to teach fishing anyhow. 

Something to think about.  

Thanks David.

New eBook Helps Senior Care Suppliers Stand Out in Fast-Growing Marketplace

SeniorCareMarketer.com has released a new eBook designed to help companies who market to the senior market reach buyers and stand apart from the competition.

The complimentary eBook titled “How to Reach and Engage Buyers of Senior Care Products and Convert Them to Leads”  —is authored by Mark Willaman, founder of Fisher Vista, LLC, and SeniorCareMarketer.com. 

Willaman draws from nearly 20 years of expertise to help readers achieve increased publicity, web site traffic, improved SEO and greater sales leads.

The heart of the eBook is Willaman’s “Marketing PR Lead-Gen Process(sm),” a three-step process based on traditional and Web 2.0 principles focusing on infrastructure, content and promotion.
“Increasing numbers of companies are entering the senior care market, ranging from medical supply firms to home care services,” said Willaman. “Yet many senior care suppliers are unprepared for the competition they will soon face.  The challenge is to deliver a targeted message to each potential purchasing influencer without breaking the bank.”

Chapters focus on the following topics:

“Strategy, Messaging and the Search-Optimized Marketing Website,” “Promotion,” “Integration with Other Marketing Activities” and “Content. Content. Content.” Webinars, blogs, advertising, social networking and events are also covered, and the eBook concludes with a sample six-month marketing plan.

Two key challenges are identified:

-    The need to reach purchasing influencers such as family caregivers, medical doctors, nurses, homecare agencies, hospitals, geriatric care managers, pharmacists, assisted living facilities, social service agencies, physical therapists, financial planners and even seniors themselves.

-    Standing out in an increasingly-crowded marketplace. Willaman noted that many vendors view marketing as a luxury, and pay for sporadic marketing campaigns only when they have a few extra dollars in their budget.

“Many locally-owned companies who once enjoyed a near monopoly in their area are waking up to find competition, often from companies or franchises based out of state with significant marketing budgets,” he added. “Suddenly, what worked yesterday no longer works as effectively and the little things like a quality web site begin to make a big difference.”

The complimentary eBook is available for download at  http://www.seniorcaremarketer.com/downloads.htm
 

BabyCenter? What About ElderCenter? (btw, domain taken)

In 2001, Johnson & Johnson bought BabyCenter.com for $10 million.

Today, J&J announced they'd close the online store in an effort, the company says, to concentrate solely on digital media (the content part of BabyCenter.com). 

According to AdvertisingAge 

The move gets J&J, which does the vast majority of its consumer-products business through other retailers, out of the online-retail business. But it wasn't concern over channel conflict or profitability of the store that dictated the decision, said Tina Sharkey, global chairman of BabyCenter. "By transitioning into a fully featured media platform, we now have commerce media as one of the things we offer," Ms. Sharkey said. She declined to comment on whether the online store was profitable.

I doubt it. Anyway......what does this have to do with the senior care market?

With declining birth rates, J&J must be a little concerned about the future of it's BabyCenter property and for that matter, it's baby care product lines.  And it is not only the United States that is experiencing declining fertility rates. Canadian birthrates have also hit an all time low and the European Union has predicted an overall drop in Europe's population of 7 million people by 2050.

(On a side note, one often overlooked fact about declining birth rates is that 25 years from now, there'll be many elderly people who are childless and who may not have anybody to care for them. Not good.)

But what we will be seeing the next 25 years is significant growth in the aging populations around the globe.

So what about J&J launching a senior care equivalent to BabyCenter.com? Seems like that would be a perfect complement to J&J's product lines that cater to the aging population. In fact, I've been surprised at how few consumer product companies have pursued such initiatives. My guess is this will change in 09.

Dealing with Assisted Living Vacancy Rates

Jim Moore, president of Moore Diversified Services (a senior housing consulting firm) wrote a good article in the December Assisted Living magazine (why McKnights doesn't publish their magazine articles online is beyond me) where he discussed his recommended New Year's Resolutions for senior housing businesses.

One in particular that jumped out for me was what to do about decreased occupancy rates.

Due to typical resident turnover, most assisted living facilities on average need to refill about 50% of units during the course of a year (much higher for facilities with poor customer satisfaction).  If you figure the average assisted living facility charges a base rate of about $3,300 per month, Jim says:

"the incremental additional operating expense cost of occupying just one additional unit at a relatively high occupancy is approximately 30% of that $3,200, or $960. That means for each vacant unit, about $2,240 per month would go right to your bottom line as additional profit and cash flow. That is a cash flow impact of about $26,900 per year".

BTW, depending on the amount of additional care you need these "base rates" can rise well above $6,000 and for end stage Alzheimer's residents it is not uncommon to see monthly rates in excess of $8,000. 

To reduce these vacancy rates, Jim suggests (and we 100% agree) that you need to "redouble your occupancy enhancement efforts", even if that means spending more money. The rationale for investing more in marketing is to fill the pipleline to avoid the high opportunity costs of vacant units.

In this slow economy when margins are already lower for assisted living facilities the gut instinct is to slash the marketing budget but it's a huge mistake.  Marketing should not be stopped and started. The reason is because there is a lag time between campaigns and sales. Suspending marketing creates serious gaps in your prospect pipeline - something you can't just kick-start when good times return. It's not a faucet whereby you turn it on and realize immediate leads/sales.

Another reason why assisted living facilities must invest in continuous marketing campaigns is that unlike most businesses, you must capture people at the time they need your product - unlike say a car, people who need assisted living don't have the luxury of delaying their purchase until their personal financial situation improves - they need it now and if you are not on their short list or if they are not aware of you, you lose the sale opportunity.              

And lastly, don't limit your marketing to just local advertising. Big mistake.

Often times the "buyer" of assisted living is a son or daughter who is making the purchase on behalf of their aging parent(s) and they may live out of state or outside your local market. For these reasons, having a search-optimized web site and a strong online presence is critical so as to be found by people out of state who are searching the Internet for resources. 

And lastly, your marketing strategy should also focus on "referal targets" who also play a role in the buying decision for assisted living - e.g., discharge planners, case managers, rehabilitation centers, physician offices, geriatric case managers, etc.