The Business of Aging

New Senior Care Award and Membership Organization

I wanted to update our readers on a new award opportunity and membership association.

Award
Three leading senior-care companies announce an alliance to highlight eldercare providers with high customer satisfaction ratings. SeniorCareMarketer.com, The National Senior Living Providers Network and The Senior List® are proud to announce the 2010 Silver Service Awards program. The Silver Service Awards will recognize eldercare providers offering superior customer service, as rated by their own customers at The Senior List's consumer-opinion website. More information here.

Membership Organization
The Aging Technology Alliance is a new association for companies that market to the aging population. The purpose of the association is to promote the awareness, benefits and value of member products & services and assist in the advancement of member companies & individual members. This is done by facilitating innovation through professional development, and by creating a vital and expanding aging technology community. A current list of members is here and you can join here.

Boomer Summit Recap - Chicago 2010

Following the ASA/NCOA event was the The Seventh Annual What’s Next Boomer Business.   As I have said before Mary Furlong does an absolute awesome job organizing these. This year was no exception.

Mary kicked off the day by telling attendees that over $40m has been invested into senior care businesses the last four months alone. She is also seeing a wave of top talent migrating to the boomers and senior space - similar, she said, to the early dot-com days. In short, this space is hot. Very hot. She also discussed the trend of public private partnerships as budget cuts have motivated non-for-profits and government entities to contract with for-profit companies to improve service delivery. Another hot trend is "boomer entrepreneurship" as many older Americans look to secure their financial future.

I had to leave the conference early but not before I listened to the opening presentations which I will summarize here.

Kevin Donnellan, EVP, AARP
- Boomers most studied demographic
- Boomers represent over half of total US spending power.
- Boomers want health, money, mobility, independence, choice, control, simplicity, user friendliness, meaning from work. They view life as a  journey.
- 94% of companies expect to further invest in social media.
- Reviews are huge! Info ricochets at warp speed. Companies must embrace these sites and join the conversation.
- AARP now delivers their messages on many different platforms (video, podcast/radio, print) - all companies need to be doing this. As Kevin stated, AARP is "modernizing the toolkit" - marketing has not changed, just how we execute our campaigns.

Mark Graham -SVP, iVillage - NBC Company
- iVillage relies on 650 volunteer forum moderators to keep their message boards active. Great strategy.
- Recommendations from message boards carry twice the trust than blogs according to Nielson.

Stan Humphries, Chief Economist, Zillow
- 9 million unique users - info on 95 million homes (most of single family homes)
- 3-5 months supply of homes for sale is standard - we are currently at 8 months meaning if we stopped putting homes on market today it would take 8 months to sell inventory.
- 55+ households move less often (they age in place)
- 26% of thjose 55+ expect to move in the future
- Most boomers will stay in rural and suburban areas
- 75+ are increasingly opting for apartments and rental accommodations.
- 90% seniors prefer to remain in their homes but...
- Large percent of boomers don't have savings so they may be locked into homes.

Day Four - Aging in America 2010 & Boomer Summit

In my last post I focused on the first of two conference themes I observed: "As a company selling to seniors you will fail if you rely only on traditional marketing". This post focuses on how the he concept of "retirement" is going through a transformation.

What is retirement? And how is it changing.

The thought, let alone concept of retirement did not even really exist  in the pre-industrial agrarian era up to the mid 1800's. Prior to that people had no choice but to work until they physically or mentally could not. But since the industrial era people have increasingly treated retirement as if it was a right - it's considered a given. But all that is changing right in front of us. Not since the change from an agrarian to industrial economy has 'retirement' gone through this much transformation

This is big stuff. While we are not sure exactly what this change means a few things ere clear. When looking at the retirement that the parents of Boomers had versus what many Boomers will have:

Then: A hard stop. People quit worked at 65 and lived off their pension until death, maybe making a few trips per year if they were fortunate. 

Now: No stop. People will take on-and-off "gigs" until they are physically or mentally unable, and live highly active lifestyles until the end.

I realize this is a broad generalization but it makes the point.

It's almost as if we are returning to a modern day version of an agrarian society.  Not that our economy will become more agriculturally based but more in the sense that work is life, life is work. Some because they want to. Most because they have to.

Frankly, the age 65 'retirement' makes no sense with many people likely to live active and healthy lives well into their 90s.  Many Boomers will choose to work but more in the form of "gigs" than full-time employment. By gigs I mean not working as an "employee" for the same company year after year. And many people 55+ will become solo practitioners. The point is that Boomers will redefine what retirement is and the implications are enormous - as are the opportunities.

Some related articles:

- Economy pushes boomers to the brink -- retire or wait?

- Ten reasons why boomer start a business

Day Three - Aging in America 2010 & Boomer Summit

Today was our final day of exhibiting. Tomorrow we spend the day at the Boomer Summit.  As a marketing firm in this marketplace, three powerful themes resonated from this year's ASA event. I'll focus the two of those themes the next two blog posts. These themes include:

1. As a company selling to seniors you will fail if you rely only on traditional marketing.
2. The concept of "retirement" is going through a transformation.

Many sessions, workshops and hallway discussions were about the issues facing society as populations age. This is the third theme I took away from this event. While I will not focus on this theme in these blog posts, all of us in this space - vendors included - must never lose sight that this is the core of what these events are really all about.

Let's first look at theme #1 - As a company selling to seniors you will fail if you rely only on traditional marketing. Three points I want to make here. First, you need to be allocating a significant part of your budget to non-traditional internet marketing - SEO, SEM, PPC, etc.  A good model to follow is from our sister company HRmarketer - The Lead Generation model.

We were talking to one vendor who said his company didn't really need to worry about online marketing because their customers - the aging demographic - would rather hold a physical brochure in their hands and would be unlikely to go online to get information.

OK.

These were some statistics released last year by Pew Internet & American Life Project - they will only increase as Boomer's age.

•  74 percent use the Internet
•  62 percent have broadband at home
•  72 percent use a cell phone
•  43 percent connect to the Internet wirelessly.
•  91 percent of boomers use search engines
•  78 percent search in health care
•  30 percent use online ratings
•  38 percent share video feeds
•  26 percent read blogs
•  17 percent share creations
•  16 percent have a social network profile
•  7 percent blog.

Maybe this company's CURRENT target market isn't online (even that is debatable) but they will be soon. And if you delay building your online visibility it will be too late.  Just ask Porters of Racine.

Secondly, the messaging you used in your marketing last decade will not work with aging Boomers. Old people playing checkers and smiling will not sell your assisted living community. Many thought leaders have written about this topic including most notably David Wolfe in his book Ageless Marketing: Strategies for Reaching the Hearts and Minds of the New Customer Majority.

Finally, your marketing must account for the fact that most of the products and services relating to the care of an aging individual will not be purchased by the individual. As a result, you must also build brand awareness with numerous purchase "influencers" including the children of aging parents, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, care managers, in-home care companies, etc., etc. etc. This what our SeniorCareMarketer product is all about.  Even employers and human resource departments  may be involved.  

My next blog post will focus on the second theme I took away from the ASA event - The concept of "retirement" is going through a transformation.

Day Two - Aging in America 2010 & Boomer Summit

Most of my time has been spent around the exhibit floor so I cannot comment on the quality of sessions but virtually everyone I spoke to had nothing but positive remarks. Traffic has been pretty good on the exhibit floor with a very diverse mix of vendors representing all categories of senior care products and services.

Today I want to bring attention to the NCOA's new "Straight Talk for Seniors on Health Reform" initiative.  The NCOA cosponsors this event with the ASA and they really are an excellent voice in the aging marketplace. If you are involved in this market I highly recommend joining and supporting the NCOA  - it's a quality organization.

The NCOA launched their new Straight Talk for Seniors on Health Reform initiative yesterday. It lays out five straight facts on how health reform will affect seniors, including Medicare benefits and premiums, long-term care, and more. And because the NOCA is a non partisan, non profit organization they cut though the politics to give straight answers. NCOA President & CEO James Firman said:

“For 40 years, NCOA has proudly stood up for the interests of older adults, from supporting the passage of Medicare in 1965 to helping people understand and navigate complex benefits programs today. Seniors know they can trust NCOA to provide the straight talk they want on this important and complicated issue.”

Read it here and share it widely with the older adults in your life. It's only two pages, with an optional third page of citations.

Opening Day - Aging in America 2010 & Boomer Summit

SeniorCareMarketer.com is at the annual Aging in America conference and Boomer Summit this week. We are exhibiting, sponsoring and speaking. I will try and give a daily update as time permits.  

As I have said before, any company that markets products or services relating to the aging population must be at these events.  They are two of the best.

This morning I participated in a panel discussion/workshop titled Entrepreneurship & New Career Opportunities within the Boomer Market. Other panel members included:

Mark Miller, President, 50+Digital, LLC
A.D. Frazier, COO/Co-founder, BOTH
Beth Sanders, Founder & CEO, LifeBio.com
Jeff Williams, President, Bizstarters.com LLC

This was a great session that provided a lot of practical information for anyone doing business in or thinking about doing business in the "senior care" marketplace.

Mark Miller did a fantastic job moderating this event and summarizing  the opportunities in this growing market.  Mark also reminder everyone that the 55+ demographic posts the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity.

Jeff Williams, an expert on starting a business after 50, says "In the corporate world, one person can fire you. But to be truly "unemployed" as a self-employed person all of your customers would have to "fire you", and I don't think most of us are so stupid as to let this happen." Jeff discussed how boomers who have been downsized will have to accept the new reality that they may never again be employed with another Fortune 500 company - and that this is not necessarily a bad thing. 

A.D. Frazier, the CEO of a very interesting start-up called BOTH (Back of the House) spoke about how his company can help any solo practitioner (the majority of businesses) get started (incorporating, business plans, web hosting, billing, etc.) by outsourcing all non revenue producing activities. I wish I new of BOTH when I started my business ten years ago!

Finally, Beth Sanders took us through the early days of her start-up, LifeBio. LifeBio simplifies the publishing process so that anyone can create their own book of life's adventures. Customers create an autobiography or the biography of a loved one by using LifeBio's carefully-crafted questions or by using our Memory Journal or other reminiscence products. Beth discussed how she created a scalable business by utilizing innovative distribution "partnerships" - something any business, regardless of size, can benefit from.   

 

SeniorCareMarketer.com Named Exclusive Online Marketing and PR Provider for Boomer Authority™ Association

Online marketing and PR service provider SeniorCareMarketer.com (SCM) has entered an exclusive partnership with Boomer Authority, the world’s leading association for professionals and companies targeting the 50+ baby boomer and beyond demographic. 

Under the agreement, SCM will make its online marketing and news distribution services available to the 1,000+ members of Boomer Authority. A direct response to America’s growing senior population, SCM combines a database of web-based marketing and public relations (PR) opportunities with press release distribution tools and SEO campaign management and measurement abilities.
 
“Our partnership with SCM places a comprehensive suite of marketing and PR tools at our members’ fingertips, helping them increase brand awareness, develop new business opportunities and generate incremental revenue,” said Martin Diano, CEO of Boomer Authority(TM).

Please read details here.