The Business of Aging

Staying Relevent With An Aging Population. An Elderhostel Case Study.

The blog 50-Plus Marketing (from consulting firm 20plus30) had a great post this week titled Elderhostel makes a fascinating marketing case study.

It is about how Elderhostel, a travel and educational organization for older adults, is trying to reverse a decreasing enrollment trend that has led to the organization losing millions of dollars this past year.

One problem is the age of their average customer has risen to 73 from 68 over the last ten years. In other words, through attrition alone they are on a downward spiral as they are losing relevance to the market they desperately need to sell product to - older Americans. And ironically, this is the fastest growing, largest and wealthiest demographic in the US. 

Not good.

So what are they doing?

A lot but the three biggest changes are:

1. A name change. They are now Exploritas.
2. Their top line messaging is now "Educational Travel in the U.S.A." with a tagline of "Adventures in Lifelong Learning".
3. They removed their age restrictions. No longer do you have to be at least 60, now anyone 21 or older will be able to participate.

I hope it works but removing the age restriction is a huge gamble.

I am in my forties but I am quite familiar with Elderhostel because my mom was a loyal customer up until her death last year. She loved Elderhostel! It was basically an educational vacation where you went to nice destinations and learned something by taking courses. She had a blast and enjoyed meeting new people.

But I'm not sure she would have enjoyed hanging out with 20 somethings - or even forty somethings. And vice versa. So this is a risky marketing strategy. In fact, I was surprised to see on Exploritas web site that in the section "Browse by' my choices were:

• Location
• Interest
• Date
• Activity Level
• Catalog
• Map

But not "age".

Interesting.

Anyway, I do hope their marketing strategy works because they have a great product.

Just about every business in the US needs to pay attention to this "case study" because:

1. If you don't currently include older American's in your target market you need to. The aging population is the largest, wealthiest and fastest market segment in the US. You can't grow your business by ignoring this demographic.
2. If your target market is limited to "older American's (like  Elderhostel's was) you need to realize that today's older consumers make buying decisions far different than yesterdays older consumers. Continuing to market today like you did yesterday will lead you down the same path as what Elderhostel has experienced. I'm not saying you need to do a 180 degree turn like Elderhostel did and include all age groups in your target market but you do need to repackage your products, branding and marketing to remain relevant to the Boomer market.

And that is the marketing case study all businesses will face the next several decades.

Interesting stuff - and a challenge all marketer's should love and embrace.

Implications of an Aging Workforce: What Japan Can Teach Us.

An article from Japan Inc. titled The Silver Market Phenomenon discusses the aging and shrinking society and its huge implications for businesses in Japan. It is a great read and I'll summarize the key points fro  the article.

• While most accounts of the so-called demographic “problem” deal with the threats posed by declining numbers in terms of the shrinking workforce, the added welfare burden, social conflict and so on, the opportunities of this trend are often neglected - the emergence of new markets, the potential for innovation, the integration of older people into jobs and workplaces, the joy of active aging and varied roles within the society. 

• Being relatively well-off, aging Boomers are an attractive and promising yet underdeveloped in terms of product and service offerings. This means that workplaces need to be adapted to fit the needs of an aging workforce.

• Japan is the country most severely affected by this demographic shift and it is the most advanced in terms of product development and innovation. Japanese companies were among the first to react to the challenge of the demographic change and are constantly coming up with product as well as service innovations.Japan offers the opportunity to study the silver market phenomenon and learn from the successes and failures of Japanese pioneer firms. Examples include:

- NTT Docomo’s ‘Raku-Raku’ (Easy- Easy) phone, with its strong emphasis on usability.

- Supportive devices, such as the Robot Suit HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb). Developed by University of Tsukuba Professor Sankai, it helps elderly people to move their limbs as well as workers to carry heavy weights by wearing a cyborg- type robotic suit.

- The Japanese automotive industry is also busy developing cars for the elderly, placing an emphasis on safety and accessibility.

• Despite what you may read in the popular press and in “marketing to baby boomers” books, the silver market is by no means a homogenous market. Companies should resist the temptation of getting too carried away by people’s agesegment and the over-50 market covers a wide range of different customers and consumers with an equally diverse range of values, attitudes, needs and wants.

• Another aspect to consider is that the silver market is not necessarily restricted to the silver generation only and it is important to remember the powerful concepts of universal and ‘transgenerational’ design. The best products, services and solutions are often those that can be attractive to a variety of customers regardless of their age, physical condition or mental wellbeing. In other words, beware of ageism, think transgenerationally! One of the most prominent and successful examples of this is Nintendo’s game console ‘Wii’ which has helped Nintendo tap into the elderly marketplace.

• The ‘Silver Market Phenomenon’ will not only be an opportunity for business but also an opportunity for innovation and invention, creativity, learning and social response and responsibility. Japan could certainly serve as an interesting role model for the rest of the world.

In a related blog post on this subject, Aging In Place Technology Watch, Laurie M. Orlov had an interesting take on all of this in a post titled Why don't large vendors invest more in technology for seniors?

Social Media's Influence on Boomer's Online Shopping. Surprising Research.

A new research report from Hill & Knowlton titled "Future of Commerce" discusses the influence that social media and Web 2.0 technologies has on our online shopping habits. 

According to Joshua Reynolds, worldwide technology practice director for  Hill & Knowlton and co-author of the report, "Online retailing is being profoundly impacted by the integration of social media into what historically has been a transactional experience."

But not all age groups are influenced equally.

Social media is "Word of Mouth 2.0" for younger generations who are predominantly influenced by social media channels: 27 percent of Gen Y are influenced by an "online community or blog" compared to 19 percent of Gen X and only 9 percent of Baby Boomers.

Only 9% of Baby Boomers?

This was quite surprising and I'm not sure anything can be concluded from this statistic alone - I'd like to know more about the questions that were used to come up with this assumption. Are Boomers less subject to "Group Think" or "Group Persuasion"? Doubtful.  By the way, for an interesting take this read "Does Social Media Produce Groupthink?". (be sure to read the comments as they are just as interesting as the article).

The research also suggests the "most effective way to reach consumers online is with highly-targeted campaigns tailored to engage micro communities that form around common interests. One-size-fits-all marketing is not a viable communications approach in today's PR 2.0 world."

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

When the Boomers Stop Buying

Ed Wallace  from Newsfactors.com wrote an excellent article titled When the Boomers Stop Buying  where he discusses the boomers' new vision of austerity, the coming energy crisis and the backstopping de-leveraging going on today - and what that may mean for your business. 

Read the article. It's fascinating.

And while reading it think about what you need to do with your company to have relevance in the next economy.

Marketing to the Aging Population. A Checklist.

In Mary Furlong & Associates most recent newsletter she discussed a recent panel she hosted where Lee Rainie from the Pew Internet & American Life Project gave an update on the changes of "boomers" regarding 2.0 media.

By the way, if you don't already subscribe to Mary's excellent and informative Boomer/Senior Market Report newsletter, I highly recommend it. It should be on your short list of regular reads if your business relates at all to the aging population. Mary knows this space as well as anyone.  Subscribe to it here.

Lee presented the following facts concerning boomers' use of 2.0 media in 2008:

- 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.

These statistics should be of no surprise to anyone in marketing. The takeaway is that marketer's can no longer assume the Internet and the latest social networking tools are only relevant to the younger population.  It's now a part of everyone's life and if you market to seniors, your marketing must reflect this fact. Unfortunately, too many senior care vendors are not using the Internet effectively in their marketing.

Other key demographic statistics Mary writes about include this about the aging population:

- increasing numbers of singles
- the effects of delaying retirement

Mary then very astutely says "These trends and needs are important to the organization's new strategy for products and services related to travel and entertainment, discounts, health and wellness, lifelong learning, technology products and services and pets".

Mary gets it and kudos to Mary for sharing her insights in her recent newsletter. But what impressed me the most about Mary's newsletter was her list of questions for marketers in the senior care space. These are brilliant questions and we 100% agree with them. They include:

• Do I have a strategy for buying Google key words? Is it working?
• Do I have a strategy for using user ratings to engage customers and prospects?
• Do I have a sales strategy for partnering with non profits to leverage the trust and relationship of their members?
• Do I have an integrated communications strategy that includes radio?
• Do I have a sales and communication strategy for email newsletters?
• Do I need a retail chain strategy?
• Do I have a portal placement strategy?
• Do I have a strategy for reaching caregivers to reach the needs of seniors?

I would add these "must have" requirements for any company in the business of selling products or services relating to the aging population:

• Am I blogging on a regular basis?
• Am I reading other blogs and getting into the conversation by posting comments to these blogs?
• Do I actively participate in social networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook? 
• Does my company have a Facebook"Page" or relevent Facebook Groups?
• Is my web site search optimized?
• Do I monitor social networking sites to review what consumers/buyers are saying about my company and/or product?
• Do I produce original content (articles, white papers, research) and use this content to enhance my site's SEO and for lead generation purposes (e.g., direct email marketing)?
• Do I send out regular search-optimized press releases?

The bottom line is that as more consumers/buyers (B2B and B2C) rely on the Internet for information and to make buying decisions is is critical that your company be easily found online and have a web site that is designed for lead acquisition.

The key marketing metrics we like to monitor and what our product SeniorCareMarketer helps you accomplish are (1) web site visibility (2) web site traffic (3) qualified sales leads and (4) search engine rankings (organic).

If you answer "Yes" to all the above questions you will likely score well on these metrics - and your business is likely growing and well positioned for future growth. If not, you need to make changes so that you can confidently answer "Yes" to most of these questions.

To guide you along this process, we recommend you download our free eBook titled How to Reach and Engage Buyers of Senior Care Products and Convert Them to Leads: A Three-Step Guide to Achieve Increased Publicity, Web Site Traffic, Improved SEO – and More Sales Leads.

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.

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.

Will The Changing Economy Bring Families Closer Together? What it Could Mean for Elder Care.

John Sumser is an expert when it comes to employment and recruiting topic. At our recent annual company meeting, John gave a superb keynote presentation where he touched upon how changing demographics and other societal trends are impacting everything from politics to marketing to recruiting - and the opportunities this is presenting. Fascinating stuff and I highly recommend John for any event you are planning. His presentation can be tailored to any company/industry. It's important stuff. 

Anyway, John's presentation got me thinking about elder care.

People say it takes a village to raise a child. This is debatable but when it comes to caring for elders, there is no question about it - it takes a village or at least a team of experienced and caring professionals. Especially when the elder has Alzheimer's.  But most of all, it takes a family. Unfortunately, within the last one hundred years of our society, increasing numbers of people have moved away from home. The number of long-distance caregivers in the U.S. who are caring for an older relative is about 7 million. Long-distance caregivers are generally defined as living more than one hour from the older adult needing assistance.

But a recent USA Today article titled For family, There's no Place Like Your Hometown  shows this trend is starting to reverse - and the economy is a major reasons why. In fact, geographic mobility is at the lowest levels since the government began keeping statistics in 1948 according to a recent study by Pew Research Center.

"People move for economic opportunity, and they stay put for family ties," says Paul Taylor, project director of Pew's Social & Demographic Trends Report. "But if you add it all up, you find ultimately family trumps money when people make decisions about where to live." 

Those who study migration trends say a combination of factors has led to the decrease in mobility, including an aging population (the prime ages for moving are 18-29); a rise in two-career couples, which complicates job moves; a murky employment outlook; fewer moves to traditionally high-growth areas; and the economic slump, whose roots began years before the word "recession" came into play.

My opinion is that this trend of decreased mobility will dramatically increase in the next 10 - 20 years - meaning I believe families will be brought closer together by either (1) children moving back to their parent's hometown or (2) parents moving to their child's hometown.  And the primary reason I believe this will happen is economics.

And the impacts this will have on companies providing products and services relating to the aging population is enormous.

According to Met Life,  the average cost of a private room at a nursing home in the USA is about $77,000. The average monthly "base" rate for an individual residing in an assisted living community is about $35,628 annually. If you have dementia and require additional support, this number can exceed $100,000 per year. And unless you have a long term insurance policy, this is all  private pay. What about in-home care? The average hourly rate for in-home care is about $20. If your needs increase to requiring a full-time live-in you can end up spending $200 per day or over $70,000 per year.

Now, how many families can afford these rates? 

Not many.

And even fewer with the recent real estate and stock market downturns.

As a result, children of aging parents requiring some level of care may be forced to live if not together, closer to their parents.

And this will impact how we market senior services.