The Business of Aging

Preparations for the Boomer Venture Summit are Underway. A Must Attend Event.

The entrepreneurs have submitted their business plans and the final preparations for the Boomer Venture Summit are underway. 

Are you interested in hearing from some of the greatest minds in the Boomer Marketing Industry? At the 2010 Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit, there is a line-up of over 40 speakers who are leaders in the fields of aging, technology, marketing, venture capital, online media, and so much more. You will have the opportunity to network with CEOs, venture capitalists, and many more experts to discover why the boomer generation is a vital focus for these industries. Your next opportunity, business idea or job, may be here!

Feel free to register for the Summit at www.SCUBoomerVenture.com and use the discount code MPR5.

We (SeniorCareMarketer.com) will also be exhibiting and speaking and we hope to see you there!

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.   

 

Using Elder Care Programs to Retain Employees

In the latest Talent Management magazine (a popular trade magazine for human resource professionals) there is an article titled Back to The Future.

Within this article there is a sidebar article on How to Retain Generations X and Y. Something many employers are concerned about considering these generations consistently boast the highest turnover rates in corporate America (staying on average 20 months per job).

What does this have to do with senior care?

A lot.

The writer, Sarah Sladek (CEO of Limelight Generations and author of a lot of books) lists some of the ways companies can retain these employees.

And high on the list is  "Elder Care programs" considering most Gen Xers and Yers will find themselves caring for aging loved ones if they are not already.

At HRmarketer.com, a sister product to SeniorCareMarketer.com, we work with a lot of companies who market elder care programs to employers and their products/services are in high demand these days. 

Companies that market senior care products/services need to really take a look at the employer channel as a possible market - but is a far different marketing and sales process than B2C (selling to Boomers). I will be speaking about this topic at the March What's Next in Boomer's Summit. If you are attending this event I would be delighted to speak with you about this market and help you determine if it is the right channel for your product/service.

7th Annual What’s Next Boomer Business Summit Announced

Mary Furlong & Associates, the nation’s premier consultancy for marketing and business development strategies for the 50+ market, announced today the dates for the 7th Annual What’s Next Boomer Business Summit. What’s Next, taking place on Friday, March 19, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, will focus on the most effective strategies for selling products and services to the post-recession baby boomer market.

Visit the event web site and REGISTER here.  We attended this event last year and I verify it is OUTSTANDING. If you sell a product or service relating to the aging population, go to this show.

Every year, What’s Next brings together the country’s leading baby boomer strategists and marketers at an event designed to introduce new research, products and services that truly represent what is next in the boomer market, and this year is no different. The 2010 event will emphasize integrated, social and mobile marketing; innovative distribution channels and will provide a profile of business segments that have moved into the rapidly growing sector of care giving, an $800 billion market 1.

The 2010 Summit boasts premier participants such as AARP, Abeo Partners, Caring.com, firstSTREET, Forum One Networks, HeartMath, iVillage, Microsoft Corporation, SeniorCareMarketer.com, Southwest Airlines and Zillow.com discussing their latest baby boomer marketing strategies. 

Confirmed speakers to date include:
    

•     Kevin Donnellan, Executive Vice President and Chief Communications Officer, AARP
•     Mark Graham, Senior Vice President, iVillage.com
•     Dr. Stan Humphries, Chief Economist, Zillow.com
•     Catherine Calarco, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, HeartMath
•     Andy Cohen, Founder and CEO, Caring.com
•     Steve Cook, Chief Marketing Officer, Abeo Partners LLC
•     Brandon Daniell, Chief Innovator, Abeo Partners LLC
•     Dr. Mary Furlong, CEO, Mary Furlong & Associates
•     Jody Holtzman, Senior Vice President, Research and Strategic Analysis, AARP
•     Bill Johnston, Chief Community Officer, Forum One Networks
•     Mark Miller, journalist and consultant
•     Gary Moulton, Aging Coordinator/Product Manager, Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Group
•     Bud Myers, Senior Director of Merchandising, firstSTREET
•     Mark Willaman, Founder of SeniorCareMarketer.com and HRmarketer.com

The What’s Next Boomer Business Summit is an official post-conference of the NCOA-ASA National Aging in America Conference taking place March 15-19 in Chicago.

Related Posts:

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

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

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

Event Review: 2009 Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit

I attended the Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit & Business Plan Competition this week .  We (SeniorCareMarketer.com) helped sponsor the event.

How was it?

In a word, remarkable. In two words, highly worthwhile.

This year's event had record attendance (how many events can say this these days?) and Mary Furlong and Associates puts on the event and does an extraordinary job. Their next event is in March  after the Aging in America conference. Block off the date and attend both.

So who attended this Boomer summit?

Prominent Silicon Valley VC firms like Piper Jaffray and corporate VC's including Johnson & Johnson's Business Development Group which is responsible for identifying businesses for J&J to invest in and/or acquire. 

Bloggers, analysts and Authors including Ken Dychtwald from Age Wave.

Innovators (companies)  that develop and market products and services relating to Boomers and the aging population. A very diverse group. Some of these include:

First Street: An online and print catalog of innovative products for Boomers.
GilberGuide:  Senior housing guide and resource database.
Read How You Want: On-demand, optimized alternative format editions of books, etc.
Caring.com: Content and resources for people caring for aging loved ones. 
HeartMath: Products and services that enable caregivers manage stress (some very cool technologies).
CareSquare: Online community/social network for families and caregivers.
Halo Monitoring: Technologies that help seniors live more independently (fall detection etc.).
Silver Ride: Transportation options for the aging population.
Boomers and Beyond: Wellness services for Boomers and aging population.
Immersion Active: Interactive agency for the mature market.
Posit Science: Brain fitness programs (very cool stuff).
The Senior List: Online directory of senior care providers. 
SeniorCareMarketer.com: Marketing and PR software for companies marketing to Boomers and the aging population.
ETR: Help children, young people and adults develop attitudes and behaviors that contribute to optimal health and well-being.
Famililink: Web site that helps families stay in touch.
Magnolia Prime: Telephone reassurance and support system for the aging marketplace.
PharmaSurveyor: Online software to check drug interactions and side effects (very useful). 
Traveling4Health: Medical tourism.

There were a bunch of great sessions . Too many to write about. But four I really enjoyed included:

Jody Holtzmann, SVP of Research at AARP gave an absolutely wonderful keynote presentation on market research relating to Boomers and the aging population. Mr. Holtzmann's information will benefit any company marketing to this sector and AARP has some of the best data available anywhere on this space. Visit AARP's research page regularly if you compete in this space.  I do. RSS feeds here.

Steve Jurvetson from DFJ Global Network (his blog is here - it's a good one) spoke about four market forces that present excellent opportunities for breakthrough innovation and entrepreneurship (IOW, product ideas). These include:

1. Disruption: Without disruption entrepreneurship and start-ups don't exist. Three types;

A.  New distribution channels (Internet)

B.  Technologies 
C.  Structural Changes in Markets

2. Deregulation
3. Financial Turmoil
4. Demographic Shifts (e.g., aging population)

Laurie Orlov, senior care and boomer industry analyst spoke about technologies for aging in place. I was intrigued about her definition of a good analyst - "someone who describes market shapes, identifies and describes participants in the space (vendors), and predicts trends".  Laurie does a good job at this and compares the current Boomer marketplace to eCommerce in 1999.  She presented what she believes are the four categories to aging in place technologies, a sector that will be huge in the coming years:

1. Home and Personal Safety (e.g., alarms, motion sensors, med reminders, etc.)
2. Communication/Engagement  (e.g., email, video, cell phone, etc.)
3. Personal Health - med reminders,  wellness, etc,)
4. Learning (cognitive improvement, social networking, education, distance learning, etc.)

Ken Dychtwald from Age Wave gave a stellar presentation on marketing to Boomers. Ken is amazing and should be on any event organizer's short list of keynote presenters. He presented agents of change that any company marketing to Boomers and the aging population (pretty much every company) must know. Here are four:

1. Maturity not what it used to be. Today's "seniors" are active, have money (control more wealth than any other demographic group), are healthier and live longer. The average life expectancy was 25 in year 1000 and is near 80 today - BTW, Ken says the human body has a biological potential of  140 :-). Lessons for marketer's: Be Aspirational, not desperational in your marketing.
2. Demography is Destiny. There were no pediatricians in the 1940s - wasn't considered a necessary sub specialty - until the Boomers arrived.  The point? All modernized countries are about to get hit with this age wave explosion and things will change. Ken's advice - get out in front and dig a big hole. IOW, as marketer's you need to act now.
3. The New Power is Consumer. It is hard to identify a product category where people 55+ don't spend the most. Furniture, health, travel, entertainment, etc. I found this very interesting. 
4. New beginnings. Cycle Lifespan. There used to be distinguished segments. We're born, go to school, work, retire, die. And products were marketed accordingly. No more. Education, work and leisure are no longer separate. IOW, target "mindset" and "lifestage", not age.  Think about this - Ken is saying that age is NOT best way to break up the population. This is very interesting. Careers, marriage, singlehood, caregivng, empty nest, retirement, grandparents - they happen at different times for people. 

OK....who didn't attend this event?

Traditional HR technology, work-life, EAP or wellness companies. Why more human resource professionals and vendors are not focusing on this space is beyond me.  Baby Boomers (born from 1946 to 1964) are planning to work longer and many until they are physically no longer able to do so according to AARP research.  No matter how you look at it, the workforce is going to age considerably the next 10-20 years and this will have profound implications for organizations - on recruitment, talent management, employee wellness, management, leadership development, etc. Within the last ten years we've already seen employers shift benefit spending - they now spend more on elder care benefits than child care benefits but this is only the beginning. But simply offeering employees LTC insurance as a voluntary benefit or access to an R&R for elder care support won't cut it.

Brain fitness is a booming market at the moment (50% of boomers state losing mental capacity as biggest fear). With an aging workforce you can bet that employers have a vested interest in maintaining employee cognitive function - which by the way begins to decrease in your forties. Over thirty published clinical studies show brain fitness software works. What a huge opportunity for talent management software companies, training & development, wellness and other HR vendors.

BTW, another interesting shift may be in outsourcing. With such a vast and educated population (Boomers) we will likely see more "outsourcing" inside America. The Boomers can serve this market. More on that in a future post.

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.