The Business of Aging

New eNewsletter for Senior Care and Boomer Marketers

We've launched a new eNewsletter (free) for companies that market products or services to the growing senior care and Boomer population. It's a weekly eNewsletter covering about 15-20 stories relating to the business of aging. We try and select articles that are interesting and useful and not always covered by in the mainstream business press.

Sign-up here. It's free and you can unsubscribe if you don't like it (but I think you will).

If you do sell products/services relating to the aging population/ Boomers you'll also find these FREE resources useful:

1. Senior Care Buyer's Guide. This new buyers guide allows you to increase your online visibility and share your content (research, press releases, blogs, podcasts, articles, white papers, webcasts, etc.). It's very cool! Create a profile here and start sharing your stuff.

2. SeniorCare Facebook Group.   Senior Care Marketing is a networking group for companies that sell products and services relating to the aging poulation, including Baby Boomers.

Enjoy!

Online or Onsite Conferences. No Comparison for me.

In this down economy with reduced corporate training and travel budgets, I am seeing a lot more online or "virtual" trade shows. 

I attended the McKnight's Online Expo   yesterday and today and I wasn't impressed. It wasn't McKnight's fault - in fact they did a great job running the event and I was impressed with the virtual website platform they used.  But there were only about 15 exhibitors and just a few sessions (5 or 6). Really small. So if online events are growing in popularity due to the economy I'm not seeing it.  Conversely, I attended two onsite events last week in Las Vegas and they were fabulous. So in this blogger's opinion, even with their additional expenses, I believe there are advantages that onsite events provide that cannot be matched by online events.

When it comes to virtual events, the lure for event organizers is less risk/up-front costs (no need to buy blocks of hotel rooms) and the possibility for a higher margin event - assuming enough vendors ante up for exhibits and sponsorships.

The attraction for vendors? Less expenses (no travel, shipping, meals, hotel room, etc.) and the possibility of more targeted leads (the biggest advantage of a virtual trade show is that you can track what people at the do).

But when exhibiting at onsite events we can often initiate conversations that would not have happened online. Online you rely 100% on the attendee to visit your virtual booth whereas onsite you have some control. We can also walk the exhibit isles, collect competitive information and observe how buyers interact with other exhibitor's products/services.

As an "attendee" online events don't allow me to interact with my peers the same way I can onsite (I often learn more from other attendees that I do from presentations at events). And if I do want to talk with exhibitors onsite events are superior - I can view a quick product demo, get to know the company, their culture, etc.  I know you can do this online but it's not the same.

The one advantage that online events have over onsite events is the ability to attend more sessions because they are recorded - and I can quickly jump around to find the better sessions. If onsite events want to improve their product they should allow paid attendees to listen to podcasts and/or webcasts of the sessions they were unable to attend when they get home.

Aging in America and NCOA 2009 Conference. Comments and Observations. Part 3

Following up Mark Willaman’s two blog posts recapping the 2009 Aging in America Conference, I wanted to share some of my experiences walking the expo hall floor and attending one of the conference sessions.

I applaud the conference organizers for including seven sessions relating to marketing and communications in addition to the two-day special session on Boomer Marketing. Obviously, people are hungry for this content and knowledge.

I attended packed room to hear Adriane Berg of Generation Bold present on “Winning Strategies for Social and Venue Marketing.” The audience was comprised both of social advocates and leaders from profit-focused enterprises serving the senior space. Ms. Berg did a great job of addressing and engaging the unique needs of both groups. She also convincingly made the point that the marketing and communications needs of both groups are more similar than many may think.

Ms. Berg offered ideas and exercises for everyone in the audience to stay connected to the core drive and passion that brought them to social advocacy or entrepreneurship and use that to develop the message or elevator pitch.

She then provided framework for content marketing when she describes as a “frequency program.”

She hit on many of the same points we discussed in our free eBook “How to Reach and Engage Buyers of Senior Care Products and Convert Them to Leads.”

After Ms. Berg’s session, where she kindly gave me the floor along with many others in the room to introduce ourselves and give our own elevator pitches, we had quite a number of session attendees come find us at the SeniorCareMarketer.com booth.

The co-founders of AgingParents.com stopped by. They’ve already done enormous work to generate some great online content and are finding new ways to promote this content and engage their audience of caregivers.

The fundamentals of great marketing have many advocates. Adriane Berg is certainly among them. The need to support organizations and business in the senior care space apply these fundamentals is real. We heard it first hand from many passionate business owners.

- Posted by Jonathan Goodman

Alzheimer's (and health care jobs) On the Rise

Two separate but related articles in the USA Today.

Good news and bad news.

The good news is a handful of big industries have added jobs at a remarkably high rate throughout the recession according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. One of those lucky industries is health care where every part of the $2.5 trillion industry is growing and hiring has continued non-stop at hospital, out-patient clinics and physician offices. Nearly every job is in demand: nurses, lab technicians, physician assistants.

The bad news is that this increased hiring activity is a direct result of the aging population and their increased need for services. In particular - Alzheimer's - where the USA Today article titled Alzheimer's on a relentless upward trajectory   discusses how the number of people who have Alzheimer's disease is creeping insidiously higher year after year and adding increasing pressure on the health care system. A report out today, the 2009 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures, indicates that an estimated 5.1 million Americans over 65 now have Alzheimer's.

The triple whammy for Alzheimer's victims, their family and society is that health care costs for dementia are more than three times higher than costs for older Americans who are not afflicted! Trust me, after having just dealt with caring for a loved with Alzheimer's I can assure you this is a fact.

Unfortunately says Bill Thies, chief medical and scientific officer of the Alzheimer's Association (which compiled the report) "we're seeing the government reducing dollars for Alzheimer's disease. Clearly, that's an equation going in the wrong direction."

I agree. 

Aging in America and NCOA 2009 Conference. Comments and Observations. Part 2.

As a follow-up to the post Aging in America and NCOA 2009 Conference Comments and Observations Part 1, this blog posting (Part 2) focuses on the exhibitors at this year's event. 

(The photo below, taken from the exhibit floor, shows some of the members of our company SeniorCareMarketer.com - from L to R, Jonathan Goodman, Mark Willaman (me), and Jocelyn Goodman Cook).

Here is a short list of my observations:

1. There were over 100 exhibitors. See complete list here.
2. The exhibit floor was an interesting mix of (a) well known national health care, senior care and related businesses (AstraZeneca, Philips Lifeline, ADT, Home Instead, Visiting Angels, etc.) (b) non profits, associations and government agencies (AARP, Alzheimer's Foundation, CDC, etc.) and (c) start-ups and smaller less established businesses. 
3. Many of the exhibitors were local or regional businesses from around the country (as opposed to selling nationally or globally). In my experience, most senior care / caregiving companies are local.  One reason is that hands-on caregiving businesses can be difficult and expensive to scale.   See number 5 below for another reason.
4. The smaller senior care companies that were national in scope tended to be consumer product or software companies - both of which are more scalable. Two I spoke with included Walker Wonder  (a company that provides fun and uplifting walker accessories) and O Koncepts LLC (a company that markets a product called MediSunMinder that allows you to electronically store your prescription medicine information - very cool).
5. Many senior care businesses on the exhibit floor were inspired by the founder's personal experience with caregiving. This can be good and bad. It is good because of the passion this inspires. These company's really do care. Its bad because passion alone doesn't grow a business - you need a good strategy and good marketing, and far too many of  the senior care businesses I speak with (not many at this event) seem to have neither  - especially marketing. One that does appear to have a very solid strategy and outstanding marketing is a company founded by Andy Cohen - Caring.com.    Andy was inspired to co-found his company based on his personal experience with caregiving. And they are off to a tremendous start. Kudos Andy.
6. There were a lot of start-ups - and expect a lot more as the senior care market is just getting started and on the verge of dramatic growth due to the aging population's explosive growth.   Think about this - $800 billion is spent on end-of-life issues today and it will only rise as the Boomers age. 
7. There were a handful of senior care "dot com" businesses on the exhibit floor. I already mentioned Caring.com.  Two others include Caresquare.com  (a social network for caregivers and families) and SeniorCareMarketer.com (a marketing service for companies that sell products and services relating to the aging population, helping them to gain increased online visibility, web site traffic and sales leads).
8. One very interesting company I came across - Priceless Legacy, a company that helps individuals, families and organizations preserve and celebrate their life legacies for the benefit of future generations. You have to check this feel-good company out. Everyone should consider doing this for their aging loved ones. It's very cool and the sample books they displayed at their exhibit were wonderful - good marketing. 
9. The event's co-host NCOA has a wonderful service called BenefitsCheckUp that was on display. Developed and maintained by The National Council on Aging (NCOA), BenefitsCheckUp is the nation's most comprehensive Web-based service to screen for benefits programs for seniors with limited income and resources.BenefitsCheckUp includes more than 1,650 public and private benefits programs from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
10. Lastly, the U.S. Census bureau was exhibiting and had some very interesting reports on display. One I found quite interesting was a report, "The 65 Years and Over Population" which had a map showing the percent of total population 65 years and over by county throughout the U.S., Check it out here.

I wish I could discuss every exhibitor as there were so many interesting companies - and it was a real pleasure meeting so many of the exhibitor's.  This was a quality group of people and fun to be around. Some of the other exhibitors and many others senior care companies can be found in the SeniorCare Buyers Guide - if you have a senior care company make sure to get your free listing in the  Buyers Guide.

Aging in America and NCOA 2009 Conference. Comments and Observations. Part 1.

SeniorCareMarketer.com is attending and exhibiting at this year's American Society on Aging and the National Council on Aging 2009 Annual Conference in Las Vegas, NV.  Over the next few days I'm going to post some blogs about the event.

I am very impressed with the event - as an exhibitor and attendee. The ASA and NCOA do a fabulous job. It's very well organized and well attended. There is an abundance of informative information and plenty of opportunities for exhibitors to interact with attendees. I would recommend any organization or company that operates in the elder care / senior care marketplace to consider exhibiting or at least attending this annual conference. 

The only criticisms I have about the event (one of which cannot be controlled by the event organizer) were: (1) People who wanted to come to the event and only walk the exhibitor aisles were denied entrance. This is terrible. Every event I have ever attended either makes the exhibit hall attendance free or charges a nominal fee - this has only positives as it keeps the people funding the event (exhibitors and sponsors) happy and allows more people to be introduced to the conference. I cannot think of a single negative. (2) The limited access to wireless Internet. All trade shows suffer from this problem and they need to fix it.  We're a wired world and I was unable to access the Internet from my laptop from any conference room or breakout session. Very inconvenient.

In this first blog posting I'll talk about two excellent and related presentations I attended today on the subject of marketing:

Presentation #1: Cause-Related Marketing: Strategy and Opportunity. The presenter, Jim McCabe from Eldercare Resources spoke about cause-related marketing, a term describing the linking of a company's product or service to a social cause with the goal of increasing market share, advance corporate social responsibility, improve corporate/product image and improve employee retention.  Jim spoke about the need to take your services hat off and put your marketing hat on. Not easy. Especially for non-profits and social workers.  Jim gave some excellent advice on how to implement a case-related marketing initiative.

Presentation #2:  A related presentation I attended was Fundraising 2.0: Social Media for Fundraising. The presentation by Gary Alpert from Caring.com focused on how Caring.com partnered with the Alzheimer's Association to use online social networking and social marketing to raise money for the Alzheimer's Association. 

The theme of the presentation and what social networking for fundraising is all about is to:

A) Turn strangers into friends
B) Turn friends into donors
C) Turn donors into fundraisers

The goal of the partnership between Caring.com and the Alzheimer's Association was to raise $10,000 for the Alzheimer's Association.  This would be accomplished by Caring.com donating $10 to the Alzheimer's Association for every web site that displayed a "ribbon" that promoted Alzheimer's awareness.  The ribbon (See image at the end of this post) could be customized by each web site (colors, etc.).  Caring.com would take responsibility for all the technology required to customize and install the ribbons (providing the code to cut and paste into a web site or blog) and the Alzheimer's Association would take the lead promoting the initiative via their web site, newsletters, etc.

Just Google Caring.com Ribbon and see the enormous press this campaign received. Amazing.

The results?

• 1,000 ribbon installations in 6 weeks. Goal accomplished.
• Delivered the Alzheimer's Awareness message to over 100,000 individuals across the Internet. And growing every day.

Lessons?

• Viral works.
• Early promotion drives viral adoption.
• Don't be boring. This is more than just "download and put on your web site". Make it fun.
• Recognize your supporters.

I think ANY business and organization can learn something from the Caring.com example. I sure did. Excellent presentation.

My next post will focus on the exhibitors.

Is Your Company Targeting Seniors? You Should Be. A Senior Market Fact Sheet.

Is your company targeting seniors?                    

You should be. Here are just a few reasons why according to an eNewsletter I received today from The Senior News that included this interesting fact sheet on the senior market. Enjoy.

• Seniors make up a larger market than African-American and Hispanic market segments combined.
• Age 55+ households are the fastest growing user segment to embrace computer technology.
• Seniors are the most brand loyal age group. Are you getting to them first?
• Seniors own 70% of all money market accounts and certificates of deposit assets.
• Seniors have an income per capita that is 26% higher than the national average.
• They spend more than one trillion dollars on goods and services.
• Seniors account for 60% of all healthcare spending.
• They purchase 74% of all prescription drugs and buy 51% of all over-the counter drugs.
• Seniors acquire 41% of all new cars.
• They account for 80% of all luxury travel.
• Seniors spend $7 billion online annually.
• Adults 50+ control a household net worth of $19 trillion and own more than three-fourths of the nation's financial wealth.

Source: onmagazine.com

New Facebook Group for Senior Care Companies

If you sell products or services that relate to the Boomers or aging population, you'll be interested in these two (free) social networking sites:

1. Senior Care Marketing Facebook Group:  The senior care industry is booming and it's just getting started. From home care services and medical products to senior housing options like assisted living, the demand for products and services relating to the care of older Americans is growing exponentially.  Senior Care Marketing is a group for companies that sell products and services relating to the aging of America.

2. The SeniorCareMarketer Community: Build your company profile in this site's Buyer Guide and upload your corporate logo, tags, company description and syndicate your content (white papers, articles, research, blogs, webcasts, etc.).  This will help build your online visibility and improve your search engine rankings.

Enjoy. 

Seniors Fuel Increase in Career-Site Visitors. The Bigger Picture.

I posted this blog on our suster site's (HRmarketer.com) blog earlier today but it also has great relevance to this audience. Enjoy.

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A few days ago Marketing Charts  posted an interesting article on how visitors to US career-development websites increased 20% year-over-year to 49.7 million in January 2009.

This was fueled by a surge in visitors ages 65+ who are apparently still in the job market, according to data from Nielsen Online. In fact, the number of unique visitors age 65 and older to career development websites grew 41% year-over-year, increasing from 2.5 million in January 2008 to 3.6 million in January 2009.

Chuck Schilling, research director with Nielsen Online had this to say about the data:

“While 65 used to be considered the age when most people retired, we are seeing a trend toward later retirement or partial retirement,” Schilling said. “Much of this desire to stay employed longer can probably be attributed to the fact that people are living longer and feel the need to keep generating income and sock away more retirement savings, especially in light of the current economic climate and its effect on people’s nest eggs.”

At Fisher Vista, LLC we operate what we initially believed to be two totally different businesses: (1) HRmarketer.com and (2) SeniorCareMarketer.com. Yet, as we speak with senior care and HR vendors we are realizing these two services are quite complementary.  Who would have thunk? 

And this is giving us a unique perspective on the aging population's impact on corporate America.  In particular, how every company (yes, yours too)  will have to:

(1) Rethink recruitment and retention, employee benefits design, and general staffing decisions to attract and retain an older workforce.  This means everything from how you source candidates, their job descriptions, the benefits you offer them, their work schedules (e.g., job sharing), how to train and manage them, etc.

(2) Rethink how your products or services are relevant to an aging population. Whether you realize it or not, your target market is expanding to include "Boomers" and "Seniors" and smart companies are finding ways to either (a) tweak their existing offerings to have more relevence to this market and/or developing new product lines specifically designed for the aging population (e.g., Phillips Electronics Lifeline products  and Jitterbug's easy to use cell phones).

Number one (recruiting, etc.) gets all the attention these days. But number two (product development/marketing) is equally if not more important in the long term. Our economy is going through unprecedented changes as are the demographics of the world - and every company must think about how they will maintain relevance in the next economy. To get you thinking, check out Ed Wallace's brilliant article When the Boomers Stop Buying.

I'm already seeing some senior care vendors enter the HR space by introducing their products/services to employers - usually as some form of employee benefit to help employees dealing with elder care issues.  And more HR executives are noticing the impact elder care has on employees (think presenteeism) and beginning to do something about it. 

But there are also opportunities for HR vendors (e.g., EAPs and work-life companies) to enter the B2C space or pursue other distribution channels for their services within the senior care marketplace. Lot's of opportunities.

Which ones have relevance is yet to be seen but one thing I know for sure - the HR vendor landscape will look a lot different ten years from now.

Breadth and Depth of Senior and Boomer Marketplace. And More Trade Shows.

One can often diagnose the health of a market or industry by the number of conferences and trade shows.  And if this is the case, it appears the senior care and Boomer markets (they are interchangeable) are quite healthy - in spite of the economy.

One obvious reason is  that people have no choice when it comes to aging. And when deciding whether to buy another big screen TV or computer gadget versus an emergency response system for mom or dad (or other health care need), the later will always win out.  So a lot of the companies we see doing well these days are companies that produce stuff that people genuinely need.

And as the chart on this page shows there is quite a bit of breadth and depth to the boomer and senior care marketplace.  On an aggregate basis, this $2 trillion+ dollar market appears to be a recession proof - care giving and elder care needs don’t go away in a down economy.

Anyway, back to events.

SeniorCareMarketer.com tracks hundreds of boomer and senior care conferences and trade shows across North America (as well as media outlets, advertising oppourtunities, journalists, associations, direct mail lists, buyers guides, award competitions and more) and three great events that we're going to include the following. We hope to see you there.

NCOA-ASA Aging in America Conference. March 15-19, 2009 in Las Vegas, NV

Boomer Business Summit, March 19, 2009 at Bally's in Las Vegas, Nevada

Design for Living - May 7, 2009 in Santa Clara, CA