A SAGA about Web site usability

Web designers often complain that conforming to the rules of usability constrains their ability to be ‘creative’. Most marketers would probably agree.

As a result, companies persist in using Web sites that could be far friendlier to their users and more efficient in communicating with prospective customers. In today’ s trouble times, alienating potential customers is not an option.

Abiding by the fundamentals tenets of usability means users of all ages have an improved Web browsing experience. But, it is older consumers who are the big winners. When older people complain how difficult it is to navigate a Web site it invariably results from one (or more) usability mistakes.

What better Web site to use to illustrate a white paper about usability than that of Saga, a company dedicated to older people and who you would think would be top of the usability class. Dick Stroud

Watch out iPhone HTC is about

I like this new advertising campaign promoting yet another smartphone.

HTC (a Taiwanese manufacturer) has ads running across 20 countries as it makes its first foray into advertising with the tagline: "You don’t need to get a phone. You need a phone that gets you.”

From the imagery of the ads they appear to be primarily aimed at the young, however, I reckon they will have a resonance with the tech-savvy and tech-interested parts of the older market.

The ad and a presentation about the phone are shown above. It is also worth reading the take on the campaign in Brand Channel. It hadn’t struck me, but apparently there has been some confusion, in the mind of the consumer, between the word “You” and a similar ad campaign for Yahoo. HTC has begun to replace the “O” in “You” with a smartphone.

The reason I reckon it will ring bells the 50-plus is that the product’s pitch is that it complements consumers “just they way they are” (echoes of Bridget Jones), rather than offer a product that will make them a better person: more responsive, better organized, less cluttered etc etc.

A gutsy campaign. Dick Stroud.

Supermarket own label brands keep powering on

Earlier in the year I conducted a research project with Mature Marketing to understand the impact of the recession on the 50-plus.

One of the headline findings was the way that older people were switching to own label brands.

So it is not surprising when you read that share in McBride jumped almost 10% on Monday after another stronger-than-expected performance. I bet you didn’t know that McBride is Europe’s largest provider of private label household and personal care products.

Analysts raised their profit forecasts for the third time this calendar year on the back of rising sales and, more importantly, an improved product mix that lifted the group’s operating margin.

Rather than straightforward goods such as bleach and fabric softener, McBride is now shipping more complex products like five-in-one dishwasher tablets – watch out Finish. The company’s MD said that recession-hit consumers continued to prefer retailers’ own-brand goods to those with “fancy packaging that does nothing for the product” - “We see no let up in the demand from retailers for great value and great performing products”.

So will this switch from the premium priced brands being a transitory thing or are we witnessing a mega shift in consumer habits. This is an age-neutral question since the migration to lower priced products seems to be something that knows no age boundaries.

My bet is that we are witnessing a fundamental change in behaviour. Dick Stroud

Prudential - new advertising campaign

This weekend the quality newspapers were full of a new advertising campaign from Prudential.

I like it.

I like it because it clearly understands the concerns of the older consumer who has seen their investments and pension expectations taken a hammering by the recession.

Another ad, that uses the same guy, has the copy:

At 65 you should have a lot to look forward to.
And it isn’t just being 66.

The body of the copy says:

Clichés about retirement often pain a pretty picture. Twenty years of gold, grandchildren and pottering about the garden, but you probably know from your own parents it’s rarely that simple.

Life’s day to day demands have a habit of scuppering long term plans……..

I really like the style. Note that the ad appears to be targeted at the children of the 65+ but I am sure it will also have an impact with the older consumer.

I was also impressed to see that Prudential was making use of Web video. It a long (25 mins) pension surgery with Alvin Hall and a retirement specialist from Prudential. Impressive stuff. Dick Stroud

Kim Walker on CNBC Asia

You have got 3-5 mins interview on CNBC Asia to talk about the importance of older consumers.

Where do you start? This morning I was talking with Kim Walker about his recent appearance on the show.

The one place he didn’t think the interview was going to start was the question: “So what are your top tips.” It is a bit like having somebody talking about the implications of the worldwide recession and asking them: “what are you top tips.”

Once Kim got over his shock at the question I reckon he did really well and communicated a lot of good messages at breakneck speed. Dick Stroud

Web video goes mainstream

In the middle of last year I started a company called InTwoFocus that produces Web video for companies wanting to communicate with the older consumer.

Since then the world has moved on and Web video has become a mainstream part of many companies marketing communications.
For instance, video as a form of collateral for “White Papers” nearly doubled between 2008 and 2009.

This article “Thanks To Technology, Video is Everywhere” provides further confirmation of the explosive growth of video as the preferred mechanism for online communications.

If you haven’t got Web video as part of your marketing plans you should have! Dick Stroud

What you think about age depends on how old you are

Buried away in this 164 page report, just published by the Department for Wages and Pensions about the attitudes of Brits to age are some fascinating and a somewhat disturbing findings.

The research in this report is based on secondary analysis of data from five national surveys (with a total of 6000 respondents).

Here are a few of the findings:

There were very large age differences in perceptions of 'old age', however on average respondents judged that youth ends at 45 years and old age starts at 63 years of age. The trend is for older people to judge the end of youth and start of old age to be much later in life than did younger people.

One in five (22%) of respondents perceived people over 70 as posing an economic threat (taking out more from the economy than they have or currently put in). Younger respondents (36%) perceived this economic threat more than did older respondents.

The majority of respondents viewed older people in a positive light. However 9% expressed indirect prejudice against those over 70 years of age and a further 9% did not feel it was important to control their prejudice against other age groups.

There was significant social separation between older and younger people with 69% of respondents regarded people under 30 and over 70 as having little or nothing in common. The findings also suggest that as people live longer they may become increasingly isolated from younger generations with less than a third of respondents aged over 70 having friends aged under 30.

Attitudes to old age were more positive in regions with a higher proportion of older people, suggesting the local context also makes a difference to attitudes to age. For example, London had the smallest proportion of people aged over 65 compared with younger people compared to other regions and was more likely to perceive people over 70 and under 30 as belonging to two separate age groups.

.
Undoubtedly the tensions, related to age, will increase as the next wave of the recession bites when jobs get even harder to get and keep and public expenditure cuts accelerates. Not good. Dick Stroud

Oldies dominate online charitable giving

A spokesman for JustGiving, leading online platform for charity giving, said 25% of the funds raised on the site were from people aged 45 and over who gave more than £50.

He said a further 33% cent of revenue was from donors aged 55 and over. Also, it would be wrong to assume that younger donors were used to giving online, he said, because for 45% of 18 to 24-year-olds, their JustGiving donation was the first time they had used the internet to donate to charity.

The message is clear: "Ignore your older donors online at your peril. People aged between 17 and 24 make up only 7% of the site’s revenue, and people over 65 counts for 11%.

He went on to say:” It’s easy to get carried away with the ‘new breed' of online donors, because their contribution is important. But charities shouldn't forget about the ‘old breed' too," he said.
Having used the JustGiving web site I can vouch that it is extremely good.

Another bit of proof, as if any is needed, about the importance of the online 50-plus, 60-plus and 70-plus. Dick Stroud

Thinking outside the box

The BIG Sheep is a visitor attraction in Devon (UK). It is the sort of place to take kids but with lots of things to amuse adults (i.e. a brewery, garden centre etc ).

It sounds just the sort of place I would hate to spend a nano second.

I was amused and impressed by the organisation’s idea to run an event labelled: "Growing Old Disgracefully Day". The only requirement for entry is to be 60 +.

The event organiser talks about having a programme of "madness, mayhem, fun and nonsense" .

It’s good we don’t all like the same things. Full marks for such target marketing and some innovative thinking. I wish them luck – also the people that attend. Dick Stroud

The ageing workforce and its implications for employers and employees

These are two views, from both sides of the Atlantic, are about the practicalities of what an ageing workforce means to employers and employees.

Nothing much to do with 50-plus marketing but it helps give an understanding of the pressures facing older people who want/need to keep working.

This is a research study jointly undertaken by the Institute for Employment Studies and the Policy Studies Institute that explores the attitudes of employers towards older workers.

This research, from the US, has the quaint title: “Buddy, Can You Spare a Job? “ What it reveals are some of the harsh practicalities of attempting to get a job in a stressful and diminishing jobs market.

All rather depressing. Dick Stroud

What’s going on in the UK residential care market?

I have written a lot about the perilous state of some of the biggest companies in the UK residential care business. Too much investment in property at too high a price creating too much debt with too little thought about the long term consequences.

Ooops nearly forgot. Too much faith in the simplistic notion that an increasing number of older people means that care home fees are on a one way journey in the upward direction.

The magazine Health Investor (subscription) has an article suggesting that Royal Bank of Scotland has: “earmarked some £250 million of capital for various development projects in the residential and social care sector.”

The argument goes that there could be a bonanza for companies, with cash, being able to buy land at greatly reduced costs and probably also get building work done at knock down prices.

I am not so sure. There are two elephants in the room. First, domiciliary care is definitely the flavour of the day. Older people want to stay in their home longer and Government loves it because it is cheap. Second elephant, is a massive pressure on funding for elder care that is about to hit as public expenditure is slashed.

The Health Investor article tempers its views with some pessimistic opinions from people in the Care Industry who say that it is impossible to raise funds for new developments.

I have another explanation why RBS might be freeing up a few millions for further investment in the Care Sector. This bank was the largest investor in the sector during the boom times and has consequently taken the biggest hit as asset prices tumble. The bank has funded a lot of development projects that are just about coming on stream and will start to eat more cash.

I suspect the new money is going to find its way in keeping the bank’s existing investments alive rather than funding new ventures. Anybody from RBS like to comment? Dick Stroud

What type of housing do the 50-plus want?

Back in April 2009 I wrote about a report from MetLife Mature Market Institute (MMI) about housing and the 55+ Market.

The second part of the study has been published that is based around two surveys. One looks at what builders are building, compared to what they were doing in 2002. The other looks at what the older customer actually want.



Here are some of conclusions:

• About two-thirds of respondents (63%) plan to age in their current homes, while 12% plan to buy another home. About one-quarter (26%) are not sure.
• Preference for suburban life: The majority of respondents prefer a home in a suburb, with 32% wanting to live in close-in suburbs and 31% in outlying suburbs. In comparison, 28% prefer a rural community, while only 9% want to live in a central city.
• One-level living: Respondents overwhelmingly prefer a single-story home (79%) over a two-story home (15%) or a split-level home (7%).
• “Same-Sizing” the New Home: More than half of respondents (51%) prefer three bedrooms, while 18% want four or more bedrooms. About three-quarters prefer the master bedroom on the first floor.
• The top five inside features: The five features rated most important were: washer and dryer in the home/unit, storage space, windows that open easily, master bedroom on the first floor in a two-story home, and easily usable climate control (thermostat).
• Green Is Good - but not key: About one-quarter of 55+ respondents do not care about the impact building a home has on the environment. While another 23% said they are concerned about the environment, it does not drive their decision to purchase. Only 12% said they would pay more for an environmentally friendly home.
• Local amenities: Most respondents listed proximity to a shopping centre as influencing their choice of a new community (57% noted it as Somewhat to Very Important), followed by proximity to a hospital/doctor’s office (55% rated it as Somewhat to Very Important).
• Lots of broadband: Technology features are important to 55+ consumers, with 83% of respondents rating high-speed Internet access as Somewhat to Very Important.

One of biggest gaps between customers and builders is the provision of services such as interior and exterior home repair, transportation, housecleaning, etc., as consumers clearly strive for a maintenance-free lifestyle. There were a lot more areas where customers and builders were on different sheets.

If you are in anyway involved in the 50-plus housing market then you must read these two reports. Dick Stroud

Canadian Club video – if it was good enough for your dad

In the 1960s and '70s, Canadian Club was the No. 1 whisky in America. Not any more. The drink is as untrendy as a brand could be. What greater insult can you give than to say it was something your dad drunk?

To get people to rethink Canadian Club, the brand had to reposition dads as being more than a provider of cash and a source of repeated jokes and anecdotes.

Dads actually had a life at one time and had emotions and drivers that were not a million miles from those of their sons.

This campaign uses vintage photographs and provocative sentiments to reposition Dads.

You can read about the campaign and see the video here. Dick Stroud

AARP video - Boomer+ Interrogation

AARP recently created this trade video as a mechanism for overcoming the objections it receive from prospective advertisers regarding the targeting of the 50-plus market.

The organisation hosted a forum of senior executives from major U.S. Corporations and asked them a variety of questions concerning why they do, and do not, target the 50-plus market. This was coordinated through the Effie Awards, where AARP Media Sales was sponsoring the “Boomer+ Ad Effectiveness Award.”

The video was created as a way to overcome the objections that AARP heard at the forum. It is sad to say but these objections to the older market have been around since I began writing my book and are identical to the ones I encountered in the UK.

It is astonishing that people are still coming out with these lame excuses.

The video running time is over 7 minutes, which is long, and it does try and answer too many questions and cover all of the bases. Having said that, it is an innovative way of conveying the message that AARP and I having been shouting for longer than I care to remember. Dick Stroud

Boomers and social media - do they or don't they

The Boomer Project’s Jumpin Jack Flash e-newsletter has an interesting item about the use of, or in their opinion, the lack of use of social media by Boomers.

This guy has a different take on the situation.

To be honest, I cannot get that excited about the user numbers by age group of social networking or any other Web application, even though I normally comment upon them when they appear.

When marketers consider the relevance of social media in their consumer engagement strategies the question they should ask is: “are the types of people you are targeting using the application.” That’s what is important. Dick Stroud

What a future - prunes, mincemeat, denture cleaners and adult incontinence

The Nielsen Company’s Homescan consumer facts mid 2009 report contain the most depressing fact I have read in ages. Forget the horrors of the recession or the impending doom of cataclysmic climate change. Forget the threat of Pakistan descending into chaos. Forget the trillions of debt owed by the bankrupt UK.

This fact trumps the lot. There seems to be a high correlation between the food-beverage and general merchandise items that senior (65+) couples buy, and the ones that empty nest couples (50+) buy. This suggests that people start to acquire these tastes as long as 10 to 15 years before they collect their pension.

Look at the list. Good grief is this what my supermarket trolley will (is) containing? What hope? Dick Stroud

Life’s going to be interesting in the UK care market

Housing 21 is a not-for-profit social housing landlord that has acquired the quoted homecare provider Claimar Care. You might wonder why this is interesting.

Reason one – you don’t often/ever get a non-profit organisation acquiring, via a takeover, a listed company. Reason two – it illustrates the potential of the care market for radical consolidation.

Domiciliary care is getting the same “one way bet” feel about it as residential care had prior to the credit crunch. Then companies were acquiring property assets funded by a perceived guaranteed income streams (i.e. property prices keep going up and there will always be old people).

Now companies see the combined desire of older people and government to “age in place” as the signal that this sector will become a sure fire winner. Individuals because they want their familiar surroundings, the government because it is the cheap option).

It remains to be seen whether or not Housing 21’s entry into the market will pave the way for other housing associations to become involved in the domiciliary sector. Already some of the not-for- profits do provide these types of services.

Most domiciliary care providers are very small, often local, family run companies. The guy that runs one of the larges companies reckons there are 3,000 care providers.

Now here is the big contradiction - or shall we say “challenge”. On one had local government and the local health trusts would sooner deal with a couple of large companies. However, the trend is for individuals to be given the ability to select where they acquire their care. This will undoubtedly be accelerated by the incoming Tory Government.

The marketing challenge is that you have companies that are used to being B2Bs (i.e. selling contracts to government or quasi government institutions) having to acquire a new set of skills and become B2Cs selling directly to consumers. It is even a bit more complex than that because there is/will be a protracted period when they will have to be both.

Such a situtation would try the resources of any marketing savvy organisation. Most care providers aren’t that marketing savvy or certainly don’t have a consumer conscious culture.
Interesting times ahead. Dick Stroud

Working longer – spending longer

Metlife Mature Markets produces some good research. “Buddy can you spare a job” doesn’t tell us anything profoundly new but reinforces the picture that is emerging on both sides of the Atlantic of older people putting off retirement – for one reason or another. The other side to this news is that people will be spending money for longer. Dick Stroud

The tough retail environment

Business Week has a good article about the impact of the recession on US retailers and some of the techniques they are employing to keep people coming through the doors. It all sounds pretty good news for the consumer since most of the marketing efforts result in lower prices. Dick Stroud

Everything you ever wanted to know about the UK’s digitally excluded

I have already written about the campaign that is sort of going on to get more people in the UK online.

Anyway, this week a report was published that quantified the economic benefit of getting everybody in the UK surfing and twittering. A tidy little sum of £22 Billion. My first thought was: “I wonder what the benefit would be of getting everybody in the UK able to read?” Don’t let’s start thinking about that subject….

The absolute amount of £s value doesn’t matter since that is pure speculation by the consultants (PWC). As an ex-consultant, I can tell that the writers of this report must have used copious amounts of wet seaweed/tea leaves/fingers in the air....

The point of telling you this is to point you to the report. I am not sure what you will do with it since it tells us what we already know about age and the Internet. Education/class/employment trumps age, when predicting Internet use and there are a large number of over-65 year olds who just don’t want to use the Web, as amazing as this fact is to the UK’s political class.

If you want lots of numbers about who is and who isn’t using the Internet then this is a good reference source. Dick Stroud

Mid life is the pits

Young adults in their late teens and early 20s report the highest levels of happiness among all Americans, while their counterparts in their 50s and 80s are the least content, according an analysis of more than 600,000 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index interviews from 2008 and 2009.

Producing this chart is more for amusement than its usefulness, however, it provides the evidence to construct some amusing age stereotypes. You can clearly see the mid-life crisis group and the grumpy old man.

For those of you reading this blog, who are in their mid-50s, it provides the hope that life gets better, not a lot, but at bit.

A much more useful set of stats can be found in the monthly analysis that Gallup produces - here are the Sept numbers. Dick Stroud

A brilliant interactive age map of the UK

Just look at how the age of the UK will change in the coming couple of decades.

The map shows the change in distribution of people aged 65+. The tool enables you to look at different timeframes, age groups and types of statistics.

You must go and have a look at this tool. Thanks to Dean Crow for telling me about it. Dick Stroud

The 50-plus and the hospitality industry

This is a very simplistic eleven minutes of video about online marketing in the Hospitality Industry.

You know the story: “older people are not like they were when you were a kid” and “the Web can be really good for testimonials” etc etc.

I really hope the speaker (university professor) teaches something a bit more sophisticated on her courses. Pity the company that produced the video didn’t enable it to be embedded into other Web sites. Dick Stroud

Mockery + price fighting - a positive strategy or fight for survival?

This posting has little or nothing to do with the 50-plus but a lot to do with marketing and hopefully has an amusing twist.

There is store chain in the UK called Dixons. It is from an old era when you could get the best discounts on the high street. Times have changed but memories persist of its rather dowdy stores, even though the company has evolved from bricks, to bricks and clicks, to clicks and clicks.

The recession has made it OK to shop for rock bottom prices and the new Dixons ad campaign is relying on this emotion to overcome our hesitancy to deal with a somewhat shop soiled brand.

The campaign mocks the affluent culture of two of the UK’s premier stores, John Lewis and Selfridges, by suggesting the consumer use them as an expensive showroom and “Then go to Dixons.co.uk - the last place you want to go”. You can either see this as inspired advertising that has tapped into the post-credit crunch consumer psychology or a last ditch attempt to keep trading.

Some wag from the advertising world created a spoof version that appeared in Campaign, the Ad World’s trade mag. Something to make you laugh and think. Many thanks to Reg Starkey for telling me about the campaign and the spoof. Dick Stroud

Get your PC problems sorted for $250/year

The FloH Club was started by 75-year-old Florence Henderson, a lady who appeared in a TV programme called the Brady Bunch (to the best of my knowledge I have never seen it).

At the end of September she launched a tech support fee-based service to help older people with their computers. Plans are $249.99 for the year or $24.99/month for 6 months.

I have read a couple of blog postings about the venture with very different views. The pros the cons.

It will be fascinating to see who is right, I am not sure. There is undoubtedly a need for such a service but there are loads of free ways of getting assistance. The Dick Stroud PC helpdesk is very popular with his friends and relations and is a charitable institution. We will see. Dick Stroud

And so say all of us

The FT has an article about the blindingly obvious – lifestyle and lifestage trumps age.

Hopefully, when this statement of fact appears in the FT more people will take notice.

Commercially, businesses need to get much smarter about how demand within age groups will vary according to the life stages people have reached. Treating all 18-34-year-olds, or all over-50s, as the same makes little sense. The downturn has exposed this sort of lazy thinking.

There are big prizes to be won by companies that lose the fixation on date of birth and instead focus on what people want and need now.

If you have an FT subscription you can read it here. Dick Stroud

Web usability - good advice

Thanks to the guys Immersion Active for this link about 10 tips to improve web usability. It is a nicely presented article and the content is bang on.

1. Form Labels Work Best Above The Field
2. Users Focus On Faces
3. Quality Of Design Is An Indicator Of Credibility
4. Most Users Do Not Scroll
5. Blue Is The Best Color For Links
6. The Ideal Search Box Is 27-Characters Wide
7. White Space Improves Comprehension
8. Effective User Testing Doesn’t Have To Be Extensive
9. Informative Product Pages Help You Stand Out
10. Most Users Are Blind To Advertising

These are all basic things but still web designers ignore/forget or try and be too clever and break the rules. Dick Stroud

The marketing take on David Letterman’s sexual exploits

I have to be honest with you but what David Letterman did or didn’t do and the ensuing media coverage has passed me by.

I received an e-mail from somebody at Vibrant Nation that made me think again.

Firstly, DL is (was) a big hit with women in their mid 50s – they are the majority of his viewers.

Secondly, he seems to have a tirade of abuse from some quarters yet his viewing figures are on the up.

It would seem from the discussion on the Vibrant Nation web site that its users are not overly surprised, shocked or concerned about DL’s shenanigans.

So what lessons can marketers learn ? This is what Vibrant Nation has to say

It tells them that while women are interested in celebrity gossip, they aren't driven by it. Even when they talk about it they use it as a springboard to talk about other issues more important to them.

It also tells them that Boomer women aren't easily caught up in the distraction of scandals. They know that people make mistakes – big mistakes, bad mistakes – but want to get on with their own lives rather than get sucked into fights over behavior they know that people will engage in forever.

Finally, it tells marketers (who are still more likely to be men than women) that the ultimate stories are not about men but about women – women who spend a lot of time putting up with men who do wrong. Tell them a story about real women facing real challenges – women like them – and they will respond.

Interesting stuff. Dick Stroud

Why are Talbots and Abercrombie & Fitch suffering a retail nightmare?

If you are interested in retail then this is a must read article.

2009 has been a brutal year for both companies. Abercrombie & Fitch same-store sales have dropped by 29% - the apparel sector as a whole has declined by 6.4%.

For the second quarter ended Aug. 2, Talbots reported a 25% decline in same-store sales.

Why are Abercrombie & Fitch and Talbots, retailers at opposite ends of the demographic spectrum experiencing such a nightmare? Read the article if you want to find out. Dick Stroud

What value PR initiated research?

Anybody who reads this blog knows that I am ultra-sceptical of the worth of PR research results (i.e. research that is done to generate column inches/cm).

Scottrade, the online investing company, has researched how age affects the attitudes to investing and concluded that young investors (born 1983-1991, ages 18-26) are the most likely to manage their own investments and to describe investing as “fun and interesting.”

Gen Y was also the most confident that it would recoup its losses quickly, with half of investors expecting to recover fully in less than two years.

What the report of the research did not disclose the levels of investments by age. I would guess that your average 18-26 year old is investing a tiny fraction of a 43 -64 year old, so it isn’t surprising that they might have different attitudes.

I really do wonder the worth of this straw poll type research, however, the fact that I have written about it shows that it achieved its objective and generated commentary, so I guess it was successful in that objective. Dick Stroud.

The older feminine Facebook

Fuelled in large part by younger women, Facebook’s US active base grew by 8.6% in September 2009 to 88.3 million - according to an analysis by Inside Facebook that tracks Facebook’s self-reported demographic statistics for the US market.

Though increases for the month came mostly from younger demographics, Facebook is still growing the fastest- percentage-wise among the over-45s. The 30-day growth rate for women ages 45-54 is 6.9% and for women ages 55-64 it is 8.4% (vs. a growth rate of only 5.8% for women 18-24). How interesting. Dick Stroud

Internet use and the 50-plus

The Oxford Internet Survey, part of the University of Oxford, has undertaken a survey of 2,013 people, 916 who were 50+. The results have been analysed by Mature Times who has concluded:

Only 51.5% of the 50+ have access to the Internet, compared to 81.7% amongst 25-49 year olds, and only 45.1% use computers (compared to 81.2%).

The older the respondent, the less likely he/she is to use the Internet and there is a significant drop of user rates at the end of 50s, and another drop at the end of 60s. In the age group 50-54 years, 73.4% are Internet users, but only 19.7% in the age group 75+ are.

Income is a significant factor as the lower the socio economic group, the less likely it is that a person will own a computer – and many of those living on a pension are in the lowest income groups. In the 50+ group, only 17.2% of lowest income group are Internet users; however, they make up 36% of the population in that age group.

The complete report can be downloaded (free) from here. Dick Stroud

The gripes and groans of Age Concern / Help the Aged reorganisation

Having lived through a couple of mergers I am not in the least surprised to read that a couple of the local Age Concern charities are having doubts about joining the soon to be merged Age Concern and Help the Aged.

One member of a local Age Concern groups said he wasn’t clear whether Age UK was more interested in selling products or becoming "a charity dedicated to helping vulnerable older people. Age UK seems to be worrying more about Pantone colours and font size than about its basic aims and purpose."

I know absolutely nothing about what is happening in the charity with regard to its merger and how its relationships to the local organisations. All I do know is that it you have to have saintly qualities not to upset some of the people during the time of major organisational upheaval.

Maybe the centre hasn’t been as good as it should at communicating its messages – maybe the regional organisations are being intransigent to any form of change. I suspect a bit of both.

I wish the whole organisation well, heavens knows we need the services it provides. My only word of advice is that the process appears to be taking forever. Something I know for a fact - the longer it goes on the more people gripe (with reason or not). My advice would be to get a move on. Dick Stroud

The new Post Office TV ad

I week or so ago I wrote about the forthcoming Post Office ad campaign.

Well it is now being shown on the TV. Full marks to the Post Office for having a YouTube channel.

My first reaction was Ahhhhhh. But on a second and third watching I can see what the agency is trying to do and in a funny way I think it works.

I will be fascinated to know how the ad translates through into new business for the Post Office because I think it is aimed at the wrong type of people.

As I said in my previous posting, the target for this ad is ABC1 socio economic groups. They aint going to be the people who want to be queuing in the Post Office, especially in urban areas. Maybe it will work in rural areas, but I doubt it.

What do you think? Dick Stroud

1 sec maximum for your Web site to make an impact

It does make me laugh when clients get hung-up on the exact phraseology of their web site copy but pretty much ignore the overall impact of the page design. In future I will tell to read this edition of Alertbox.

Jackob Nielsen reckons that people can make rough decisions about a Web page's visual appeal after being exposed to it for as little as 50 ms.

In his eyetracking studies, most of the fixations are for little more than 0.1 seconds.

Nielsen believes that when the computer takes more than 0.1 second but less than 1 second to respond to your input, it feels like the computer is causing the result to appear. Although users notice the short delay, they stay focused on their current train of thought during the one-second interval.

This means that during 1-second response times, users retain the feeling of being in control of the interaction even though they notice that it's a 2-way interaction (between them and the computer). By contrast, with 0.1 second response times, users simply feel like they're doing something themselves.

For Web usability, this means that new pages must display within 1 second for users to feel like they're navigating freely; any slower and they feel held back by the computer and don't click as readily.

I can see no reason why these observations don’t apply equally, if not more so, to the older Web user. Dick Stroud

1 sec maximum for your Web site to make an impact

It does make me laugh when clients get hung-up on the exact phraseology of their web site copy but pretty much ignore the overall impact of the page design. In future I will tell to read this edition of Alertbox.

Jackob Nielsen reckons that people can make rough decisions about a Web page's visual appeal after being exposed to it for as little as 50 ms.

In his eyetracking studies, most of the fixations are for little more than 0.1 seconds.

Nielsen believes that when the computer takes more than 0.1 second but less than 1 second to respond to your input, it feels like the computer is causing the result to appear. Although users notice the short delay, they stay focused on their current train of thought during the one-second interval.

This means that during 1-second response times, users retain the feeling of being in control of the interaction even though they notice that it's a 2-way interaction (between them and the computer). By contrast, with 0.1 second response times, users simply feel like they're doing something themselves.

For Web usability, this means that new pages must display within 1 second for users to feel like they're navigating freely; any slower and they feel held back by the computer and don't click as readily.

I can see no reason why these observations don’t apply equally, if not more so, to the older Web user. Dick Stroud

Thought for the day – Understand the cumulative effects of the recession

Just in case the sprouting green shouts of the recovery are making you feel too cheerful I thought I would write a few words of doom and gloom.

Seriously, I think there is an issue that we are not discussing and one that will have a big impact on marketers - the cumulative effects the recession on the real wellbeing of people and their perception of wellbeing.

Let me give you an analogy. Most moderately health people can walk 15 miles in a day. At a push most people can do it from two days. Come day ten of continuous walking a lot of people will have a given up, either because of physical problems but most likely they will have run out of stamina.

This recession and its multiple mutations are going on for a long time. Just imagine how things will look at Xmas 2012 if (when) we have had another 2.5 years of high unemployment and anaemic growth and generally bad economic news.

Why do I reckon that we are in for multiple marathons and not a quick 100 metres dash?

This is a summary of an article in today’s FT (Economic cost: Crisis leaves lasting scars). Afraid it is a subscription publication.

The losses caused by the recession (2007 to 2010) is equivalent to 5% of all of the loans and securities held by the financial institutions in US, Europe and Asia and is the same proportion of the value of the total output in the world in 2009. You don’t get over that in a few dozen months.

The IMF states in its latest global financial stability report, “US domiciled banks have recognised about 60% of anticipated write downs, while Eurozone and UK-domiciled banks have recognised about 40%”. In other words there is more pain to come in the financial sector.

From the consumer’s perspective life is just as grim. The IMF reckons that, incomes around the world will be about 10% lower in 2010 than was expected as recently as three years ago.

Any permanent loss of output will hit households hard over the coming years, as everyone has to adjust to the fact that the world is poorer than expected.

But the scars will be permanent and the path of output is likely to be permanently lower than had been expected.

If I am right then you had better be planning for a marathon not a sprint. If I am wrong then tell me why.Dick Stroud

Wal-mart's views about how consumers are reacting to the recession

Consumers around the world are looking to fulfil their "basic needs", but are also displaying considerably higher levels of caution when it comes to making discretionary purchases. So says Wal-Mart’s ceo.

What else can we learn from the US supermarket giant?

Buyer behaviour is also increasingly shaped by the "pay cycle" – with the start of each month seeing particularly high levels of demand.

Customers are buying basic needs but are not spending as much on discretionary items like apparel.

Health and well-being is a sector where the company has seen considerable interest. It appears as if consumers are saying: "I have to stay healthy. I can't afford to miss work. I can't afford to get sick."

In the US, the perceptions about sustainability have improved dramatically in the recent past.

I reckon there is more to learn from the reflections of Wal-Mart than the musings of Jo Average Consultant.

There is no doubt that the recession is having a significant impact on consumer behaviour. Dick Stroud

Older means Greener

Gail Research has published a snazzy report about the different levels of Greenness of US consumers.

My big gripe with the report is that the oldest people researched were 65 years old. Come on guys, get real, consumers don’t stop consuming at 65.

As can be seen from the graphic – most Americans - same with Europeans – are “Light Green”.

Gail discovered, and would have probably discovered even more so had they had a sensible upper age limit, is that "Dark green" consumers are likely to be older, more educated and affluent than the light green variety.

49% of 46-65 years olds are of the dark green variety whilst their kids (36-45) are a disinterested 24%.

Old+ educated= green. Dick Stroud

Retirement Revolution – new reality

The Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company has sponsored a TV series - The Retirement Revolution Series – that is a 90-minute national documentary series broadcast by PBS that looks at the financial, social and health challenges facing Americans.

Why don’t European companies do something like this? Why don’t European companies understand to use their own YouTube channels? Dick Stroud

Don’t target age target need.

This is a good posting from the Age in Place Technology about ways to target older people without saying you are doing it. It is a variant of age-neutral marketing.

Whilst I agree with most of what is said, it is possible, when trying to strip out the age dimension, to make the marketing message obtuse and vague.

Worse still, when it is blindingly obvious what the product is and for who it is intended, the message can become preposterous. In the UK there was a series of ads for Stannah Stair lifts where the models where shown in a park watching their grandchildren play rugby but still needing assistance to get up the stairs.

It is all a matter of balance. Dick Stroud

Kimberly-Clark and Walgreens try and understand the older consumer

It looks as if Walgreens, the US drugstores, is beginning to take the impact of the ageing population a bit more seriously.

This is taken from an article in the WSJ – sorry subscription

Some senior Walgreen executives have been getting a feel of what it is like shopping with poor eyesight and gloves that simulate arthritis. The program is run by Kimberly-Clark. How interesting that it a supplier of products that is taking the lead with this.

One of the changes that Walgreen intends to make is to install call buttons near heavy merchandise like bottled water and laundry detergent in some stores. It also will put magnifying glasses on store shelves and make its aisle signs clearer.

The WSJ makes a very strange statement: “Industries throughout Western Europe and Japan have been adjusting to accommodate aging populations” – not as far as I can see.

Lee Memorial Health System provides the kit of stuff that enables young people to see and feel the world as an elderly people perceive it. Cardboard glasses in the kits simulate common vision impairments including glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration and yellowing of the eye lens. Large rubber gloves simulate the limited manual dexterity brought on by arthritis.

Kimberly-Clark introduced its elderly-shopper training for developers and marketers working on its Depend brand.

It appears that half a dozen retailers have participated in the program over the past two years.

Not surprisingly the guys at Walgreen found it difficult to read the small copy and that yellow labels disappeared against a bright yellow background and that many older shoppers couldn't distinguish between green and blue. Spending a few hours talking to older shoppers would have saved them going through this process. I guess there is nothing like experiencing it yourself to make it real.

Great to see a consumer goods company and retailer taking their older consumers seriously. Dick Stroud

The new Post Office advertising campaign

Post Offices are strange things. They are peppered all over the UK in towns and rural areas.

Long ago they were an integral part of the UK mail service. Now they are places you go to send a parcel, buy a postage stamp and wait in a long queue.

Some older Brits have a strange attachment for them (you might have guessed that I am not one of them). The UK Government has swung from trying to kill them off to now thinking they are a worthwhile thing.

Post Offices are an expensive distribution channel looking to distribute something other than basic postal services. As UK banks try and ditch low value bank accounts, especially those that rely on their branch network, some bright spark has decided to get more people to use the Post Office’s very basic banking services.

Who are the natural targets for this service? Come on who do you think? It is the oldies.

These are the people who don’t use online banking (Mmmm) these are the people who have the spare time to spend it in a long queue waiting to get served. All of this is a well known fact.

To appeal to this group, that the Post Office reckons are ABC1 55+, it is launching its largest ever marketing campaign that will, for the first time use television advertising. The man chosen to front the campaign is Sir Roger Moore who was/is known for his role as James Bond in an era when TV was in black and white (I jest).

The Post Office’s head marketing honcho says: “ the aim of the new campaign is to demonstrate its confidence and stature in the financial services market and boost awareness of its range of savings offers.”

Now the really interesting thing is that the campaign was created by Mother – an ad agency once known for its willingness to push the envelope and do strange and daring stuff. It will be fascinating to see how these young advertising hotshots go about engaging with their grandparent’s generation.

As soon as the campaign material is available I will make it available plus my comments, however, I think they have already made a fundamental mistake in their target customers. I would have said that if there are any customers for these banking services they are C1DE socio economic groups aged 65+. We will see. Dick Stroud

Web video keeps growing and growing

The August 2009 data from the comScore Video Metrix, shows that 161 million U.S. Internet users watched online video during the month; the largest audience ever recorded with more than 25 billion videos viewed.

Needless to say Google sites were the main content hosts accounting for more than 10 billion views.

Anybody still need convincing about the power of Web video? Dick Stroud

Google and Wharton’s Fast Forward - what a distraction

I am not doing you any favours writing this blog posting.

I have just discovered the Fast Forward venture

Google and The Wharton School have partnered to gather and provide quick perspective on managing the change in the marketing landscape. As we explore what will define success through marketing’s continual evolution, we aim to share ideas and lessons learned to help keep us all better informed and effective as the game - and conversation - rapidly progresses.

I could spend ages on this site. This is a perfect way for marketers to while away the hours when they should be doing something more productive. I think it is great but could seriously affect my productivity. Dick Stroud

I despair at my fellow Brits

I have already written about the idiocy of charging all UK households a “broadband tax” if this wasn't bad enough today we learn that the UK’s digital infrastructure now ranks 25th in the global league table.

This blog post is not about the subject but the reaction of my fellow citizens when they are asked about the tax and the other idiotic proposal for ISPs to log their customer’s Internet traffic.

The Yoof interviewed clearly think the old live on another digital-free planet and many of the older people interviewed seem as if they have completely lost the plot. Cripes. Dick Stroud