The Business of Aging

Recommended Event: Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit.

SeniorCareMarketer.com is a sponsor of this years Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit & Business Plan Competition.  The Facebook page is here.

Mary Furlong & Associates co-produce this event and they do a sensational job. This event attracts some very prominent VCs (including corporate VCs) and some of the sharpest business/marketing minds in the senior care marketplace.  

Some of the event's highlights: 

• Learn why VCs are investing heavily in the boomer  market - hear from VC portfolio companies
• Learn from key analysts how they segment the market and evaluate opportunity
• Hear all Business Plan Competition finalists present their business ideas to the blue ribbon panel of judges

Who is attending?

• Investors and venture capitalists
• Corporate strategists and marketing experts
• Analysts who track segments of the market
• Organizations that serve the boomer consumer
• Media that report on the marketplace
• Entrepreneurs who serve this market

Our economy is going through unprecedented changes as are the demographics of the world (aging population) and every company must think about how they will react to these changes.  Events like this inspire great thought about how your business may adapt to these changes.

As I mentioned, SeniorCareMarketer.com is a sponsor of this event and we are speaking. But even if we were not, I'd still recommend this event to any business targeting boomers or selling elder/senior care type services. The networking alone is worth the registration fee.

I hope to see you there.

Either way, at your next strategy meeting give some thought as to how your company can evolve to better meet the needs of an aging population. There will be lots of opportunities.

Increasing Numbers of "Single Households" Impacting Senior Care

This is a very interesting article on the how the aging baby boomer's will impact the health care system as it relates to long-term care. The article and most of the statistics and financial information are for the San Francisco area but I believe it is relevant to any community.

One trend that continues to interest me is the increasing numbers of "single households" and how this will impact senior care. On a national level, there will be more than twice as many single households as the previous generation, mainly due to higher divorce rates, according to a McKinsey Global Institute analysis in 2007.

This means that many seniors will have to turn to community resources or other living arrangements as they age and are unable to care for themselves. True, they can rely on their children but that's assuming the children are local and many are not.

Either way, this demographic trend will no doubt have a major impact on the senior care marketplace - and possibly how/where we as caregivers live.

Check out article here.

 

SeniorCareMarketer.com and The Senior List® Team to Help Senior Care Suppliers Grow their Businesses

Chris Clark, founder of The Senior List, and myself (founder of SeniorCareMarketer.com) worked out a pretty interesting partnership that we believe will be of interest to this blog's readership. The details are below. If you have questions contact Chris (advertising@theseniorlist.com) or myself (info@seniorcaremarketer.com). Incidentally , if you are interested in exploring a similar partnership please send me an email.

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SeniorCareMarketer.com and The Senior List®  have formed a partnership that will give senior care providers cost-effective tools to increase their company’s online visibility, Web site traffic, sales leads and search-engine rankings.

Under terms of the partnership, senior care companies with an ‘enhanced’ listing on The Senior List will receive a free one-month trial to SeniorCaremarketer.com, an online service that combines a database of marketing and public relations (PR) opportunities with press release distribution, campaign management and social networking and SEO services.

The Senior List is an online resource that helps match people with senior-related services in their local communities. By visiting www.theseniorlist.com and choosing a state, users can browse, add or rate local businesses. Launched nationally in 2008, The Senior List has over 10,000 businesses in its growing database.

“We developed The Senior List to bring the highest performing businesses together with consumers who are searching online,” says Chris Clark, president and CEO.  “By giving our customers access to SeniorCareMarketer.com, we are providing them with a powerful marketing tool to help them grow their business’ online visibility.”

"The Internet offers limitless sales potential, and this partnership provides senior care companies with increased visibility to both consumers and  providers of senior care services,” said Mark Willaman, founder of Fisher Vista LLC, the owners of SeniorCareMarketer.com.  “Suppliers can now benefit from two cost-effective marketing tools to boost Web site traffic, sales leads and improved search engine rankings.”

SeniorCareMarketer.com Newsletter Topics for May 26th

The latest edition of the SeniorCareMarketer eNewsletter is now available.  SeniorCareMarketer Newsletter is a weekly eNewsletter covering the latest stories relating to the business of aging. It's free. Articles covered in this issue are listed below. Archives can be viewed at SeniorCareMarketer.com.  If you wish to subscribe and receive the latest newsletter via email the day it is issued, please visit SeniorCareMarketer. Again, this is a complimentary newsletter from SeniorCareMarketer.com.

Enjoy.

This week's eNewsletter topics: (subscribe here)

• The Best Places to Grow Old
• Slotmaker: Older people still gamble most
• Growing Retail Clinic Trend Makes Few Inroads In Poor, Underserved Areas
• Research and Markets: The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2009 Report
• AT&T, other firms test devices to help monitor patients from afar
• Care for the elderly may become more financially viable
• Nursing homes modernize: Changing from institutional approach to home environment
• Referral System Turns Patients Into Commodities
• Boomer Broadband: Boom!
• What about long
• The Trouble With Alzheimer's Care
• New Survey Data Shows Life Insurance Offers Many Seniors a Way to Generate Income in Retirement
• Hummingbird Coaching Partners with Leezas Place to Help Caregivers Take Your Oxygen First

SeniorCareMarketer eNewsletter May 20th Issue

The latest edition of the SeniorCareMarketer eNewsletter is now available.  SeniorCareMarketer Newsletter is a weekly eNewsletter covering the latest stories relating to the business of aging. It's free. Articles covered in this issue are listed below. Archives can be viewed at SeniorCareMarketer.com.  If you wish to subscribe and receive the latest newsletter via email the day it is issued, please visit SeniorCareMarketer. Again, this is a complimentary newsletter from SeniorCareMarketer.com.

Enjoy.

This week's eNewsletter topics: (subscribe here)

• Are Baby Boomers Killing Facebook and Twitter?
• Trend Survey Reveals Future of Senior Living Communities
• GeckoSystems Reveals Eldercare Capable Personal Robot Sales Forecasts
• Nielsen Projects Older, Multi-Cultural, and Low-Income Consumers Driving Consumer Packaged Goods Trends in 2020
• U.S. seems unprepared for onslaught of aging boomers: Senior boom or bust?
• Emeritus Senior Living And VaxAmerica Announce Partnership To Make Flu Vaccines Available To Seniors Nationwide
• U.S. Housing Market Driven by Super Sizing Baby Boomers Now Going Bust
• New AARP Report Examines Roadway Safety and the Aging of the American Population
• Senior Care Podcast By LivHOME Releases Episode 14 -- Advances In Alzheimer's Research
• Reverse mortgage warning
• Partnership Between Seniors For Living And Gilbert Guide Enhances Senior Housing Decision-Making Experience
• Employers Make New Commitments to Back-Up Child and Elder Care Solutions with Bright...
• Boomer Insight Web Portal to Take Pulse of Baby Boomer Generation

The Dangers of Generation Lumping in Marketing

Move Over Boomers, Y Has Come of Age.  This article is interesting. While it is written from the perspective of the travel industry it nevertheless raises an important question - is the buying power of the Boomer's (today's biggest and wealthiest generation) overrated? 

The article cites new research from PhoCusWright's Consumer Travel Report that shows the strategy of marketer's to aggressively go after the Boomer market may not live up to expectations.

Fact is, baby boomers between the ages of 45-54 spent the least of any age group per household on travel, and are the most likely to reduce their travel spending in 2009. With children in college, devalued homes and ravaged investment portfolios this age group has been among the hardest hit by recent economic struggles.

The author concludes: "While boomers still represent a critically important consumer group, the permanence of their risk-taking and resulting financial scars will change the way this generation spends money for a long time, if not forever. Marketers should seriously rethink boomers' status as the golden target group, at least for the near term".

Compare this to Gen X and Gen Y. The author writes "thirty-two percent of 25-34 year olds (the group that spent the most on travel in 2008) plan on spending more in 2009. This group is less likely to be burdened by high-fixed expenses and has likely not suffered significant investment loss. They also have plenty of time to save up for retirement, so they are not afraid to reach into their wallets. And fortunately for the industry, travel is high on their to-do list".

Again, this article was written for the travel industry. But could it have been written for any industry?

I've posted several blogs about the danger of lumping all "boomers" together. In fact, "boomers" is a terrible marketing term because it tends to force people into thinking of this generation as a single purchasing entity. 

When I shared this article with marketing demographic guru John Sumser he had this to say and I believe John is exactly right:

'This [article] makes an important point. I think, however, that focusing to hard on these giant demographic ideas causes one to miss the mark(et). The generational differences are a way of talking about a big change in consumer behavior. When you act as if there are impermeable walls between the genrations you don't notice important trends like...

[Person A] and I are roughly 10 or 12 years apart in age. Our children are 25 years apart. [Person A] is nearly my generation, our children inhabit grossly different universes. The language of generational difference is useful to a point, a starting point. Once the argument gets as polarized as it currently is, it stops being useful and it's time to move on.

If the people entering their 6os are your target market, you might be better served looking for regional similarities in that age group and its consumption habits......".

I agree.

Shortage of Home Care Aides

I just read a good article in the Omaha World Herald titled A growing need but low wages, few perks for home-care aides.

The article suggests the "country will need hundreds of thousands more home-care aides if it's going to keep today's elderly, followed by their far more numerous baby boomer children, out of institutions".

Home care aides occupy a category that the Bureau of Labor Statistics  (BLS) calls "personal and home-care aides" and it is the second-fastest-growing profession after  network systems and data communications analysts.

Think about that for a moment. That's quite amazing and the implications this will have on our economy are quite significant. This also explains why home care is one of the fastest growing franchise businesses.

The average cost for in-home care is about $20 - $25 per hour so if you need a home care  aide to visit for four hours per day this equals about $100 per day or 3,000 a month on the high end. And a full-time live-in home care aide can cost as much as Assisted Living - $60,000+ per year.

But unlike IT, home-care aides don't exactly make much money. 

According to the article "home-care aides make an annual appearance on Forbes magazine's list of the 25 worst-paying jobs in America. (The aides' mean annual wages put them ahead of shampooers and waiters, but behind parking lot attendants.) Once hired, they leave in droves; turnover rates run 40 to 60 percent a year, says labor economist Dorie Seavey of PHI, a nonprofit that aims to improve direct-care work'.

This won't exactly make it easy to bring new quality people into the profession.

SeniorCareMarketer eNewsletter May 12th Issue

The latest edition of the SeniorCareMarketer eNewsletter is now available.  SeniorCareMarketer Newsletter is a weekly eNewsletter covering the latest stories relating to the business of aging. It's free. Articles covered in this issue are listed below. Archives can be viewed at SeniorCareMarketer.com.  If you wish to subscribe and receive the latest newsletter via email the day it is issued, please visit SeniorCareMarketer.

Enjoy.

This week's eNews;etter topics: (subscribe here)

• A growing need but low wages, few perks for home-care aides
• Poll: Senior moms win over dads when moving in with their kids
• New Report: Home Health Care Saves Billions for Medicare
• Saving $2 trillion on health care
• Senior Living Executives Optimistic About Future
• New Book Reveals Systematic Approach for Marketing to Boomers Online
• Alzheimer's Patients React Poorly to Elderspeak
• How Boomer Housing Dynamics Busted Generations of Xers
• LifeCare Offers Tips for Evaluating Nursing Homes
• Experts Set New Home Care Goals For Older Americans
• GE and Intel Invest $250 million in New Market Opportunity
• Retirement age raised in Budget (Australia)