The Business of Aging

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.

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

Selling to the Senior Market? SeniorCareMarketer.com Formally Launches!

We announced a number of months ago the beta launch of SeniorCareMarketer.com.  This week Fisher Vista, LLC formally launched SeniorCareMarketer (see Business Week article) to companies that market their services and products to the rapidly-growing senior care market. These companies now have a new high-tech tool at their disposal.

I anticipate the product to be well received by healthcare companies due to the success of its sister product, HRmarketer.com that was launched in 2002 and is the largest service of its type in the human resource marketplace.

SeniorCareMarketer.com combines databases of marketing and public relations opportunities with press release distribution, campaign management, and social networking services. A full range of Internet marketing and SEO services are also available.

SeniorCareMarketer.com is a direct response to the growing number of companies marketing products and services related to the expanding elder care industry, fueled by the aging of the Baby Boomer generation. An estimated 70 million Americans will be over the age of 65 by the year 2030 - equal to one out of every five Americans.

Included among SeniorCareMarketer.com's vast databases are profiles of journalists and bloggers who cover the industry, media outlets (including advertising information, editorial calendars and list rental information for direct marketing), conferences and trade shows, speaking opportunities, award competitions, and more. All are designed to help companies reach the many buyers and purchasing influencers of products and services relating to the care of older adults--including family caregivers, medical doctors, nurses, homecare agencies, hospitals, geriatric care managers, pharmacists, assisted living facilities, social service agencies, physical therapists, and even seniors themselves.

For more information, visit www.SeniorCareMarketer.comand view a screen tour here.

You can also create a FREE profile if your company in the SeniorCareMarketer Buyers Guide by visiting:  http://www.seniorcaremarketer.com/site/home/community/seniorcaresuppliers.php

Another Way the Aging of America Impacts Employers

A recent poll from LifeCare,  a provider of work-life employee benefits, reveals how the majority of single women who belong to the sandwich generation of caregivers (those caring for children and elders simultaneously) are most challenged by two issues: balancing the needs of their loved ones and coping with the overall stress of caregiving.  Don't bother with the hassle of doing a similar poll of men - trust me, the results will be the same.

When speaking to employers about how the aging workforce will impact them, most talk about attrition and the challenges of replacing the retiring boomers (although given the stock market performance, I think many boomers will extend their careers by a few years).

However, perhaps a greater threat to employers are the costs of dealing with employee stress due to caregiving.

Consider these facts:

• Family caregivers experiencing extreme stress have been shown to age prematurely. This level of stress can take as much as 10 years off a family caregiver's life. - Source: Arno, Peter S., Economic Value of Informal Caregiving.
• American businesses can lose as much as $34 billion each year due to employees need to care for loved ones 50 years of age and older. - Source: Metlife Mature Market Institutes.
• 44.4 million caregivers (or one out of every five households ) are involved in caregiving to persons aged 18 or over. - Source: National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP.

For these reasons, expect a surge in the popularity of workplace programs (employee benefits) that help employees not only cope with stress (Employee Assistance Programs) but also deal with the complexities of caring for aging loved ones (Work-Life Counseling, Resource and Referral Programs).

These are inexpensive employee benefits ($10 - $20 per employee per year) that deliver a huge value to both employees and employers.

Cool New Cell Phone for Seniors. And Smart Product Development.

A collegue sent me information on a new "Senior Cell Phone" called Jitterbug.

The company GreatCall created Jitterbug to "provide Baby Boomers and their parents with perfectly simple cell phones and services that work the way they want them to".

The company's mission is to "simplify technology and make it available to everyone. Jitterbug's products, services and systems are centered on simplicity, personalization and ease of use".

The company was founded by Arlene Harris (45-year veteran in wireless and creator of the SOS emergency phone) and Martin Cooper ("Father of the first mobile cellular phone.").

This is a great idea. I remember shopping for a cell phone for my aging mom a few years back and could not find anything even close to user friendly at Verizon Wireless or any other major wireless company.

Case and point. The results for a  Google search (today) for "Verizon cell phone senior"  mostly returns information on Verizon "calling plans"  for seniors.  This confirms how the folks at Verizon think - it's not about the product, it's about the calling plan.  And for most cell phone users this is correct - the products are all pretty much all the same - shoppers are really buying calling plans. But the senior care market is different.   The only user-friendly senior cell phone in the search results is the Jitterbug phone.

Kudos to GreatCall for developing such a phone.  This is a great example of a company who undertands our country's demographics and their needs. 

By the way, an interesting and related blog post our readers may find interesting is Sony confirms that they are tuned out.  Not to pick on Sony but this blog post offers some interesting perspectives on "identifying new products that consumers actually want ."  

Riding A Demographic Wave

Another article from a reputable national daily business newspaper on the surging demand for products and services relating to the aging of America. This article's particular focus is medical products - specifically, orthopedics and cardiovascular devices.

Marketing to Boomers: Don't Stereotype.

Good article in a recent DMNews titled Marketers' boom town discusses marketing to Baby Boomers and how marketer's should not necessarily consider them a "senior group".

While the older boomers just started filing for Social Security benefits this year, millions of younger boomers, often called trailing edge boomers, are mistakenly categorized as seniors when in fact, many are in their late 40s and raising young children.

As Laurie Bitter says, president of JWTBoom, "There are 62-year-olds who have young children in the house — they're not just going to roll it up and retire."

Much of this is common sense and as marketer's we must define our audience carefully and adjust the messaging accordingly. It's somewhat challenging because their is a gray area (no pun intended). For example, if you are selling products and services relating to the aging population you must realize that Boomers in this case can be both direct consumers of these services as well as purchase influencers if they are themselves caring for aging parents.

This requires careful attention to the copy of your campaigns. A good example is how the NCOA positions their popular BenefitsCheckUp service - online screening screenings to help "seniors" find programs to help pay for prescription drugs, energy assistance, food stamps and more. The NCOA is careful to market the service to both older adults and those caring for older adults which can be family caregivers, social workers, etc.   Seems obvious but not all senior care marketer's are taking enough care to segment their market and adjust copy accordingly.

New Report: Trends and Best Practices for Marketing to the Senior Care Industry

SeniorCareMarketer.com has released it's latest research report that covers the latest trends and best practices for marketing to the senior care industry.   

The senior care industry is about to enter a cycle of unprecedented growth (many experts say it has already begun) as the baby boom generation cares for their aging parents and require care themselves as they transition into their own senior years. While many companies focus on the marketing of products and services to the aging "boomer" generation, a larger market will develop with regard to the caregiving needs of older Americans - the parents of the Boomers and eventually, the Boomers themselves.  As America ages, the demand for products and services that relate to the "care" of these individuals  will grow significantly, from home care services and medical products to housing options and financial / insurance related products.   

This new report, “Trends in Senior Care Marketing: Where Suppliers Spent Marketing and PR Dollars in 2007, and What's Ahead in 2008” represents a broad spectrum of senior care companies.  Key topics in the report include:

- What marketing and PR activities were most important to senior care suppliers the past year, and their budgeting plans for the next 12 months;
- How senior care suppliers measure the success of their marketing and PR;
- Who and what suppliers rely on to stay knowledgeable about the marketplace;
- How optimistic suppliers are about the overall health of the senior care marketplace.

To download a free copy of the report, visit the above links or type this URL into your browser. http://www.seniorcaremarketer.com/downloads.htm

Enjoy.

Senior Care Market Lucrative For Just About Everything

Says who?

An article from The Vancouver Sun titled Aging boomers most lucrative market for just about everything.

With the front end of the baby boom on the cusp of their senior years and their parents already there, there's rising demand for just about everything relating to the aging population. And for research that help marketer's better understand older consumers.

"It's absolutely booming," says Michelle Pratt, a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AgeLab. "The fact that someone turns 62 every seven seconds means that this segment of the population is the fastest-growing, the most lucrative market. Companies know this demands a new approach to old age."

AgeLab is an example of an organization conducting this type of research and car makers, technology firms, health care providers, pharmaceutical companies, even a shoe company and Canadian funeral home have sought their expertise.

But every company better be prepared for the aging population. While five per cent of seniors are in institutions and completely dependent and ten per cent live at home with mobility limitations, the vast majority are doing fine and making their own purchasing decisions for products and services they need.

The message to me is companies must not only target their message to caregivers but also to the senior themselves.

This is one reason our soon to be released SeniorCareMarketer.com product helps marketers of senior care products and services target all the purchase influencer's - from the aging person themselves to their family members (who may purchase products and services on their behalf) to the broader healthcare and medical community.

SeniorCareMarketer has also launched it's own research report  titled Where Senior Care Suppliers Spent Their Marketing and PR Dollars in the Last 12 Months and What’s Ahead which can be downloaded for free at SeniorCareMarketer.com .    

Neurosoftware? More Evidence the Senior Care Market is Beginning to Heat Up

A year or two ago I may have seen an article in major media that related to the senior care marketplace maybe once a quarter. These days, I see these stories almost daily.

An article in the New York Times a few days ago titled Exercise Your Brain, or Else You’ll ... Uh ...  discussed an emerging mini-industry of computer-based brain products.

These products are being called neurosoftware. Examples include Nintendo's Brain Age 2, a video game of simple math and memory exercises and Posit Science’s computer-based “cognitive behavioral training” exercises, and MindFit's software-based program that combines cognitive assessment of more than a dozen different skills. And for a monthly fee, you can subscribe to web sites like Lumosity.com and Happy-Neuron.com, which offer a variety of cognitive training exercises.

The NYT article quotes Alvaro Fernandez (whose brain fitness and consulting company, SharpBrains, has a Web site focused on brain fitness research) as estimating that in 2007 the market in the United States for neurosoftware was $225 million.

Mr. Fernandez pointed out that compared with, say, the physical fitness industry, which brings in $16 billion a year in health club memberships alone, the brain fitness software industry is still in its infancy yet is growing at a 50 percent annual rate and expected to reach $2 billion by 2015.

This makes all of us at Fisher Vista feel quite good about our upcoming product launch of SeniorCareMarketer.com which will help companies who sell to boomers and seniors generate online visibility, web site traffic and sales leads.