Link to the Accenture report

Many thanks to the guys at The Savvy Boomer for sending me a link to the Accenture report that I mentioned a couple of blog postings ago.

Another interesting finding from the research about the use of blogs and podcasts. Dick Stroud

The experience of ageing

Watch this at Boston.com

This is a self explanatory video about the Age Suit that has been developed by MIT AgeLab with the delightful name of AGNES. Dick Stroud

Boomers+ Generation Y and social networks

USA Today has a long article about how Boomers are using social networking. Lots of stories about how older people are using the Facebook and MySpace.

More interesting information comes from the latest Consumer Electronics Usage Survey from Accenture. I cannot find a link to this survey so can only reproduce what was covered on Steve Rubel’s blog posting.

I think the chart says it all. As you would expect there would be a higher growth rate of use from the sectors with the lowest historical usage. What is more interesting is the plateauing of use by Gen Y. Are we near to maximum penetration for this generation?

Is social networking sinking into the category of a foundation application and losing its excitement. That is my guess. We need another year of results to know with any certainty. Dick Stroud

And another one bites the dust

Active Life, the lifestyle magazine for the over 50s, appears to have ceased publication, although the title continues in an online presence .One of many UK magazines that are shutting up shop. Jane, thanks for the information. Dick Stroud

TV campaign to raise the awareness about strokes

The UK Department of Health is spending £12m ($16.8m) on an advertising and publicity support material campaign that is designed to raise awareness of stroke among healthcare professionals. This is the ad that is currently being broadcast. Does it work for you? How would you compare it with the Alzheimer’s Society ad? Dick Stroud

New ad from the Alzheimer's Society

I would be really interested to know what people think about this ad.

If you can spend a moment and leave a comment it would be most appreciated. Dick Stroud

A positive start to a Monday morning

An amusing and positive thought and imagine for a Monday morning

I love the quote: “If you can’t make it better, you can laugh at it”. The Boomer Chick blog is worth a read. Glad that the name changed from the blog domain name (overthehillchick).

Dick Stroud

Boomers and Social Media (Yawn…)

If you are bored of reading about Boomers and social media then skip this post and spend a few more minutes of the day worrying about the recession.

At the beginning of March I wrote that Forrester (the much acclaimed research company) had discovered that not all Boomers were luddites. A fact that appeared to surprise the report’s author.

After publishing the blog I thought that maybe I was being a bit hard on the guy. The thought passed, sooner than it should.

The above shows the analysis that caused the realisation that technology and Boomers might get on better than a herd of AIG executives with a bunch of drunken rednecks. Actually, the charts are very interesting and are taken from the report author’s blog.

The comments that appeared on his blog, about the the analysis, reassured me that I am not alone in my views. Here is a sample:

My perception is that your perception is limited……

This week I have had a number of incidents in which I bumped into a very frustrating assumption about baby boomers and their lack of use/understanding/curiosity and very professional use of social media…..

To assume that my peers are by-in-large clueless ignores the fact that my generation invented all this stuff and we’ve been embracing it all along….

We noted 18 months ago that the usage of social media was not just The Yoof and are bemused that all the marketeering was aimed at the young, of whom there are fewer with less money, than on the baby boomers who are both numerous ….

And so on and so on… Dick Stroud

The hogwash of generational differences

Black people behave like XX, White people like YY, Latinos like ZZ and the Chinese like a combination of XX+YY+ZZ. Rubbish you say and you would be right.

How about Muslims behave like AA, Christians like BB and Jews like CC and Taoists like a bit of this and a bit of that. Rubbish you say and you would be right.

So why do people keep trying to make massive generations about how Xers, Gen Yers, Millennials and Boomers behave?

Crude stereotypes about race and religion often chime with out prejudices but sensible people dismiss them as simplistic and more dangerous than helpful.

So when you see a table, like the one above, breaking down the behaviour of the US workforce into a few snappy sentences then your warning bells should start ringing.

Have I heard some old guy whining on about how in his day things were done like XYZ – of course I have. Maybe there are few more of them around then there should be, but please don’t apply this conclusion to 76 million Americans.

Funnily enough the crude stereotype that I hear mostly applied to the young, by people I encounter, is that they are so conservative, risk averse and unwilling to think outside the box.

However, I wouldn’t be stupid enough to apply that to all young people. Pity the author of this article didn’t have a bit more sense. Dick Stroud

Age and online advertising

Lightspeed Research and the Internet Advertising Bureau – the trade body for digital marketing in the UK have conducted a couple of interesting surveys about consumers’ response to online advertising.

One of the studies asked internet users when they believed they were most receptive to online advertising messages, and the best way to get their attention on the web.

The other research was all about understanding what consumers believe are the kinds of ads most likely to grab their attention online.

Both studies are worth a quick read. I have extracted the two bits of analysis that refer to the demographic differences. My usual gripe is that the research lumps everybody above 55 into one category. Unfortunately, this limits the usefulness of the research.

The messages that jump out of this analysis are that older people aren't interested in the entertaining quality of the ads. This might, almost certainly is, due to the fact that online ads are created for young people. This probably explains the response to “I don’t notice ads”. I was surprised that there was such a steep fall-off with age in the interest in money-off ads. Maybe that is because of the products that have money-off offers don't interest the older demographic?

Clearly the 18-24 year olds becoming progressively attentive to ads as the day unfolds whereas the oldies have a break for lunch. Overall I think the research raises more questions than it answers. Dick Stroud

Factlet about US Internet Use

This table shows Nielsen’s research about the active Internet audience profile for November 2008 in the US for both home and work. Just look at the period spent online by the 55+ and 65+.

Kübler-Ross model finds new application

Come on admit it. I bet you have never heard of the Kubler-Ross model of the five stages of grief.

The model was first introduced in Ms Kubler-Ross’s 1969 book "On Death and Dying" and describes the five stages that people pass through when coming to terms with grief, especially the diagnosis of a terminal illness or catastrophic loss.

The guys at Harvard (The HBR Editor’s blog) reckon that this model might be appropriate to the way people are responding to these troubled economic times. They reason that most people appear to be stuck in one of the first four phases - denial ("this simply can't be happening!"), anger ("string up the evil bankers!") , bargaining ("I'm calling a credit counselor!"), and depression ("goodbye, Future!").

They don’t think, and I agree, that few if any people (and here I am talking about marketers) have reached the acceptance stage ("Hello, Reality").

This blog entry is well worth a read as is the Wikipedia description of the model.

What is interesting to speculate is the speed at which the different age groups will reach the Acceptance Phase and how they will deal with it. How will the 50-plus react when they realise that the wealth they expected to fund their retirement has dimished by 30-50% - that their kids will be hanging around for a lot longer whilst they try and find a job and raise enough money to buy a home – that their dreams of a retirement of fulfilling and useful activities has been replaced with having to find a way of supplementing their diminishing income. Not nice – is it.

So Mr, Mrs and Ms Marketer this is the world you are going to have to inhabit when you try and market to the older market. Dick Stroud

VibrantNation.com – nice web site

Carol Orsborn, with Mary Brown, wrote an excellent book about marketing to older women - BOOM: Marketing to the Ultimate Power Consumer -- The Baby-Boomer Woman.

Carol has been involved with establishing VibrantNation.com, a social networking site for boomer women that I wrote about way back in November 2007. I have to be honest that I have only glanced at the site since then but I went back to have a closer look. I do like the visual appearance.

VibrantNation has just published some research about the extent of networking of boomer women. Here are some of the results:

They are in personal contact with at least 46 people each month.

65% share information online with others in their network.

They are comfortable relying on referrals from strangers online if the source is knowledgeable/experienced. They rely on references on websites like Amazon.com (70%), eBay.com (54%) and TripAdvisor (27%).

Interesting stuff. It would be even more interesting to know how these numbers compare with their husbands and partners. Dick Stroud

So how do you make money out of Facebook?

The last few posts have shown that Facebook is becoming increasingly more important for the 50-plus – and for companies trying to reach the 50-plus.

I still encounter a load of scepticism and (dare I say) ignorance amongst UK marketers about the relevance of social networking in general and Facebook in particular.

I have seen very little convincing content about the commercialisation of social networks, so I was really interested to receive an e-mail from the publicist of a book that has just been published in the US on the subject - The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff.

The author is Clara Shih – an interesting looking lady. As you would expect you can see a splendid page on Facebook about Ms Shih.

Well, congratulations to the publicist at Addison-Wesley your e-mail worked. I will certainly read the book and suggest others have a look to see what they think. Dick Stroud

A graphic that says it all

This has absolutely nothing to do with the 50-plus.

Today that FT has a feature about the impact of the recession on UK employment.

The above graphic says it all. The only thing in the UK that grew in the last half of 2008 was Government. During 2008, public sector employment increased by 30,000 (5.78 million) whilst private sector employment fell by 105,000. What a terrifying fact. Dick Stroud

Facebook is getting older and older

Just as pressed ‘publish’ for the last item about Facebook, another item popped-up in my inbox. This one is about a report just published by Nielsen (Global Faces and Networked Places). I suggest you have a look at this report.

Nielsen shows that Facebook’s greatest growth in global audience numbers come from people aged 35-49. Isn’t it nice when two bits of research come to the same conclusion!

For the sake of accuracy, Nielsen defines ‘global’ as Switzerland, Germany, UK, Italy, Spain, France, Australia, USA, Brazil. Don’t ask me why.

In terms of audience numbers the greatest growth for Facebook has come from people aged 35-49 years of age (+24.1 million). The social networking site added almost twice as many 50-64 year olds visitors (+13.6 million) than it has added under 18 year old visitors (+7.3 million). What a nice quote for your next presentation about oldies and Web!

In Nielsen’s own words: “Consequently, people under 18 years old are making up less of the social network and blogging audience, whereas the 50+ age group are accounting for more of the audience.”

The diagram shows data from Nielsen Online, Global Index, December 2007 – December 2008.

How interesting. Dick Stroud

Facebook gets older

A US research agency, iStrategyLabs, has published data that shows the demographic of Facebook users in the US.

Not that I understand how this works but the data comes from Facebook's Flyers advertising system that provides a demographic analysis of the Facebook population.

As you would expect the 18-24 year olds are the main users but the high levels of growth is coming from the older demographics.

You can download the spreadsheet with the data from here.

The bottom line is:

The 35-54 year old demo is growing fastest

The 55-plus are not far behind with a 194.3% growth rate – If they had split the

55-plus into 55-66 and 65+ the growth would have been even greater.

The 25-34 year population is doubling every 6 months

Pew Internet has given us some insight into the demographics of Twitter users.

As of December 2008, 11% of online American adults said they used Twitter or another service that allowed them to share updates about themselves or to see the updates of others. This seems a bit of a weird definition and liable to lead to confusion?

Pew concludes that:

Nearly 19% online adults ages 18 to 24 have used Twitter and its ilk as have 20% of online adults 25 to 34.

Use of these services drops off steadily after age 35 with 10% of 35 to 44 year olds and 5% of 45 to 54 year olds using Twitter.

The decline is even more stark among older internet users; 4% of 55-64 year olds and 2% of those 65 and older use Twitter.

I do hope that we are not going to start using the use of Twitter as a measure of Web literacy, a bit like using mobile phones was the benchmark for being technology literate. Dick Stroud

Web video and the 50-plus

About a year ago I realised that video will transform the way we use the Web. I also realised that nobody was providing a specialist service to provide Web video that works with the 50-plus. Do I smell a business opportunity?

At long last I have got my act together and formed a company that specialises in creating video content that works with older people, the 50-plus, 50+, Boomers – call them what you like. A great rarity for me I even produced a press release that explains what it is all about.

You can cut to the chase and look at the new company’s web site - InTwoFocus.

Hopefully out of small acorns and all of that…..

I somehow think that Web video will take up more of my blogging time. Dick Stroud

Residual effects of the recession

I know it is too early to start predicting the residual effects of the recession upon consumer behaviour but that doesn’t stop me thinking about it.

Marketers should certainly be casting their eye to the day when the can stop worrying about keeping their jobs and start to focus upon making sense of the carnage that is their customer base.

Neither of these factlets are specific to the 50-plus but both relate to this age group as any other.

AARP has just published a report: "Economic and Health Insecurity: A Survey of Washington Voters 18+ on Current Legislative Issues.” Interesting to see that AARP has cast its research net outside its customer base.

The report is full of data – here are a few things that caught my eye:

• 45% say they will consider delaying retirement if the economy does not improve over the next 12 months.
• Those currently retired, 18% say they will re-enter the workforce if the economy does not improve.
• 34% are helping a family member pay their bills
  

Research released from McKinsey found that LinkedIn’s year-on-year growth is up nearly 200% in the United States and it now has more than 35 million members as the managers use social networking as a means of finding work or linking in with a network for support to help if the ‘release’ letter/e-mail arrives. It is not just in the US where social networks are being used in this way.

These are a couple of unrelated examples of changes that are stirring in the mind of consumer.

There will be a lot more significant changes to occur before the recession abates. Perhaps we should start talking about the pre-R consumer and post-R consumer. My bet is they will be mighty different. Dick Stroud

Differences between the Asia Pacific countries

Kim Walker’s company has conducted, what must be the largest online poll of the 50-plus in the six key countries of Asia Pacific. The research was done between late December and the first week in Jan 2009. We are talking big numbers – a poll of over 170,000 people.

The above chart shows how the respondents in different countries vary to question about rewarding themselves for the years of hard work providing for others.

The older age groups in all of the countries intend to reward themselves (code for spending money) but just look at the country differences. Not surprising the 50-plus in Australia are way out in the lead in their intentions to reap the rewards of their hard work.

It is definitely worth downloading Kim’s research report. Dick Stroud

A “no frills” TV ad for 50-plus insurance

Castle Cover provides insurance for the over-50s.

The campaign manager at the company said: "We wanted to keep the advert simple and direct, and using the memorable Castle Character helped us to achieve that. The message is clear, concise, and impactful - tying in very well with our brand.” Well I think he is safe in knowing that he has achieved that objective.

The advert will be shown across a number of channels -- including Sky News, ITV2 and ITV3 -- over a period of five weeks.

With the current state of the UK TV advertising industry I bet he got a fantastic deal. Dick Stroud

The Hospitality and population ageing

This is the first time I have seen anybody give any thought to the issue of how hotels, in this case the vast hotels in Las Vegas, will need to adapt to an ageing population. Some of the issues it identifies:

• long walks between parking areas and rooms
• long lines at check-in
• rooms too crowded with furniture
• large heavy doors
• loud music in the restaurants
• trouble with round doorknobs
• slick or overly textured flooring
• small or hard-to-find light switches
• poorly lit stairways

The list goes on and on…

The person who has been researching and talking about this subject is Jeffrey Catrett, dean of the Les Roches School of Hospitality Management. Well done. I just hope the hospitality industry starts listening. Dick Stroud

Getting attention the wrong way

I have just come upon a promotional item produced by the United States Parcel Postal Services that attempts to sell the use of direct mail as a means of reaching Boomers.

The data it contains is a few years old and not really that much use (i.e. 95% of Boomers sort through their mail the
day they bring it in, 79% bring in their mail the day it’s delivered, 50% say they look forward to discovering the mail each day).

What amazed me was the imagery used. What could they have been thinking about? Dick Stroud

Retirement retires - maybe

There has been a splurge of news about the way that older people are changing their views about the ‘R’ word.

According to the UK’s financial services company, Prudential: "”More than two million people are delaying retirement this year because of the global downturn and a fall in value of their investments – only 25% of those delaying drawing their pension in 2009 expect they will be able to retire before 2012, with an even higher number – 42% expect it will be 2012 or beyond before they can stop working, and 23% believe they will never be able to afford to retire.”

A recent YouGov report says that only a third of people aged 55-plus said they would retire at the date they had previously planned - 20% said they would be forced to work between two and four years longer, while 15% said they would have to work five or more years extra to make up the shortfall in their pension.

Things don’t sound that much different in the US. In a study conducted by Scottrade, only 32% thought they would be able to retire — ever — compared with 39% in a similar survey last year. Nearly 75% of Boomers fear full retirement will not be an option for them.

Unfortunately, the intention might be to continue working but The European Court of Justice ruled this morning that the UK’s law, where people can be forced to retire at 65, is not a breach of EU legislation – as long as it had ‘a legitimate aim related to employment and social policy’.

Needless to say, with UK companies falling over themselves to reduce headcount you can expect a lot of 65 year olds picking up their gold watch and heading for the door. Dick Stroud

China’s ageing (rapidly) population

If you are interested in the opportunities and threats of China’s ageing population then this is a must read from Wharton University. The numbers are staggering.

The challenge is huge: More than a fifth of the city’s permanent residents were older than 60 at the end of 2007. And according to the Shanghai Academy of Social Science, that figure will grow about 1% per year, which means by 2020 more than 30% of the population will be over 60, while the average lifespan of a Shanghai resident is 81. Based on data released by the local government, nearly 20% of Shanghai’s senior citizens, about 500,000 people, would like to live in a senior housing facility. However, senior housing in Shanghai is full, except for in the luxury segment.

Dick Stroud

New BBC series about ageing in different parts of the world

The BBC World Service is broadcasting 4 programmes about how ageing varies around the planet.

This is the programme blurb.

Our world is ageing rapidly. By 2050 more than 1 in 5 of us will be over 60. For the first time in human history there will be more over 60s than children under 15.

Most of the world's older people live in developing countries. Yet definitions, expectations, and the problems of old age are changing rapidly. So what is it like to be old in today's world?

In this four part series we meet Third Agers from four continents to find out.

Download the podcast and have a listen. Dick Stroud

Self employment and the 50-plus

For ages I have been talking about the business opportunities that exist for companies to assist older people start their own business.

Either because of necessity (i.e. being made redundant) or because it seems like a good idea, an increasing number of the 50-plus will finish their working life working for themselves rather than somebody else.

This project researches the number of new independent companies set up by older people (the report uses the term “third age founders” – not my favourite) and compares their growth and innovative performance compared to businesses set up by younger entrepreneurs.

This table is taken from the report and shows that self-employment is a way of life for 22.8% of the 50-plus-to-retirement, economically active male population. I will be coming back to this project and research that has been completed by Standard Life on the subject. Dick Stroud

Who cares about personal care?

This analysis from YouGov recently appeared in Marketing Week.

Apart from the fact that it perpetrates that irritating habit of lumping together the whole of the 55+ in one big number I wonder what it tells us?

It seems that the UK population, within a 6% margin, seems to be willing to try a cheaper personal care brand. Taking account of the error margin in the research implies there is no discernable difference in this characteristic between the different age groups.

What the analysis does seem to say is that older people are more willing to take a chance that a product is of a lower quality, even if they are the least likely to try cheaper personal care brands. Confused? Join the club. Dick Stroud

Bookend Boomers

The Mature Market Institute (MMI) has published a study titled: Boomer Bookends: Insights into the Oldest and Youngest Boomers.

The research, conducted in October 2008, looks at the differences between those Boomers born in 1946 and those born in 1964.

Isn’t it weird that so much research has been done about a group of people that is defined by the ups and downs of birth rate?

I found the data about expected inheritances interesting. As much as anything about the absolute amounts (smaller than I would have expected). I reckon you can reduce these figures by 20% to take account of what has happened since the research was conducted. Dick Stroud

The finances of publishing to target the older market

ZoomerMedia is a Canadian company that publishes ZOOMER magazine that is the largest paid circulation magazine in Canada for the older market and hits the streets 9 times a year. The magazine has a paid circulation of approximately 190,000 with another 50,000 copies going to news stands.

The company also derives royalty revenues from providing marketing and membership services to CARP and claims to be Canada's leading provider of online content targeting the 45+ age group.

ZoomerMedia has just published its results for the Q4 2008 that provide a fascinating insight into the actual workings of a paper and online media business targeting the older market.

Any budding entrepreneurs, thinking of having a crack at the old market publishing business, I suggest you have along hard read of the results. Dick Stroud

Forrester it isn’t the 1st April yet

I am astonished. No, I am flabbergasted.

The mighty Forrester Research has just published a 4 page report, for the give-away price of $749, which is advertised with the following quote.

Baby Boomers aren't technology Luddites; in fact, more than 60% of them consume socially created content. You'll also find Boomers leaving their opinions on Web sites and even joining social networks. Yet this group isn't as active as younger generations, so to reach Boomers, start with sponsoring or creating social content since they're not as willing to create blogs, videos, or audio. We also recommend allowing Boomers to share their opinions with others by enabling comments, ratings, and rankings on Web sites.

Wow, its good to see that Forrester is still at the cutting edge and discovering that Boomers might actually know how to turn on a computer.

Any sap that, in these recessionary times, thinks it is worth spending $749 of their company’s fast disappearing cash reserves to purchase such drivel should be fired – or as Starbucks said in a recent note announcing its decision to “aggressively re-architect our cost structure” be “separated from the company”.

You will get much better insight about Boomers and social media by looking at this blog (thanks Emma for the reference) and the Pew Internet site. Dick Stroud