A smart bit age-neutral celebrity picking – or not?

Gym chain LA Fitness has signed a four-year profit-sharing deal with singer and 'Strictly Come Dancing' star Alesha Dixon that goes beyond the usual flat-fee endorsement model.

In addition to doing media and marketing work as the face of the company, Dixon will work closely with the LA Fitness board devising new dance and exercise routines and advising on health and fitness issues. The chief honcho of LA Fitness, said: "Alesha will bring a fresh, contemporary eye to the entire LA Fitness business. We look forward to working with her to develop new classes and products that our current members will enjoy, and that capture the imagination of potential members."

I think this is code for saying that Ms Dixon will be able to broaden the age appeal of the fitness group.

This lady clearly has an appeal to younger people but has been able to extend it to older people who make up a large segment of the Strictly Come Dancing audience.
Looks to me like a smart move. I guess it all comes down to how good Alesha is at playing at being a celebrity. Dick Stroud.

A Sunday Supplement ageing fest

As I opened my Sunday paper the first of the numerous supplements that fell out was Senior Living , closely followed by Healthy Ageing – I know the image says Healthy Heart but the publisher hasn’t got around to updating their web site with this title.

Senior Living had nothing but wall to wall ads about retirement properties.

Healthy Ageing had ads that told me how to keep my gums in shape; put some fizz into your morning glucosamine, bring down my cholesterol levels, say goodbye to veins, use the next generation of joint care, get the lowest cost stairlift, contribute to Macmillan cancer support, improve my immune system and finally buy Saga health insurance.

As far as I could see the invite to join Bannatyne’s Today (a UK health club) was the only lifestyle ad. I guess that is what you would expect in these sorts of newspaper supplements.

Just have a look at the models they used on the cover of Senior Living. Believe me these are not your typical retirement property customers, more like their children. Dick Stroud

The Watch or the Phone – who will win?

Are watches destined to the technology dustbin of history? Is a product that survived the trauma of the clockwork to electronic revolution going to be replaced by the mobile phone?

Let me declare a personal interest. I really like watches. For me there is no better example of the power of branding than the luxury watch. You can go and buy a watch that keeps perfect time and spend less than $5 or you can buy a product, that is no better at time-keeping, for $50,000 (and a lot more).

The branding strategy of Rolex, Cartier, IWC and the other host of weird sounding names is simple – your watch is a statement of you. Classy watch, classy person.

Have you noticed that you don’t see that many young people wearing watches? Since the mobile phone is rarely a nano second out of their attention, why bother. For many the phone is the primary emblem of status so why bother with a watch ?

Of course watches are not going to be gone anytime soon but I reckon they are under threat.

With this argument in mind I was amused to see that Tag Heurer has launched a phone, with a watch function and LG a watch that is also a mobile phone.

It will be interesting to see how things work out. Dick Stroud

Japan’s “parasite singles” flat line spend is causing problems

I am glad it is not just the older consumers who are given strange and in the case of Japan's “parasite singles”, a most unpleasant name.

Today’s FT has an article about this group who are defined as being unmarried women and men in their 20s and early 30s living with their parents with, up until now, lots of dosh to spend on themselves.

Nearly half of Japan's single men and women between the age of 20 and 34 live at home.

Not only are the demographics conspiring to reduce the spend of this group, their absolute numbers declined 5% in the past year, but also they are losing the yen to spend as a result of Japan’s endless period of economic stagnation.

The result of this that sales of those highly priced European-made handbags, shoes and watches are tumbling. Of course none of this should come as a shock for those Japanese marketers who understand basic economics and demographics. Dick Stroud

UK taxpayers face a generation of pain

How much do reckon disposable income in the UK will fall in the next 2-3 years as a result of higher taxation. Come on; don’t tell me you have built that into your marketing plans. What am I offered - 2% - 5% - 10%?

Of course it will not be the same across all of UK society but as sure as eggs are eggs we are in for a significant, arguably the greatest, hike in the rate of tax take. You don’t want me to go over the reasons for this, if you are interested read this article in the FT.

Let me leave you with the concluding sentence: “Whatever happens, people in Britain will have to get used to paying much more for their public services and receiving much less.”

Want to rethink those budgets for 2010? Dick Stroud

Massive jump in people working beyond the age of 65

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development reckons the proportion of older workers planning to work beyond the state pension age has increased by 31% in the past two years.

This has lots of implications. The longer people work the more they spend, even though they may say they are continuing working to save. The longer they work the less they fit the stereotype of the retired person that most companies appear to think is the norm.

Marketers need to do a reboot, download the latest updates and ensure their perception of the world bears some resemblance to the reality. Dick Stroud

Ageing and the effectiveness of touchpoints

These charts were constructed using ZenithOptimedia’s ROI Tracker - a consumer research-based tool that measures and helps plan marketing activities across the range of brand contact touchpoints.

You can read more about this product and what it seems to tell us about age and touchpoint effectiveness by downloading this article.

Here are a couple of quotes from the article with my comments:

The ROI Tracker shows how contact effectiveness changes as consumers get older. At an all-touchpoints level, it shows that contact influence and levels of brand association decline swiftly as we get older. The older you are the less likely you are to respond to advertising. I suspect this is partly because older people are more familiar with brands and their advertising, probably more fixed in their ways and also less targeted by most advertising.

The big flaw in this type of analysis is that it doesn’t take account of type of the nature of products each age group are purchasing. If I am 20 I am not that likely to be thinking about buying a washing machine, or am I falling into the trap of stereotyping? Overall, I agree with the article’s analysis other than the dreaded “more fixed in their ways”. Ahhhh

The influence of internet search rises as we get older, exceeding TV advertising in influence by the time we are 45. Other online touchpoints that display similar growth in influence as we get older include product comparison websites, brand websites, retailer sites and consumer opinion sites.
There may be a simple reason for this: as we get older we become wealthier but, paradoxically, steadily more value conscious. We are more likely to look for bargains (in-store promotions also get more influential with age), and the internet is a great place to go looking for bargains.

The rationale for the results might be true in some circumstances but I think is way to simplistic. The reason for the importance of search is much more likely to be influenced by the complexity and value of the shopping basket of products being purchased by the different age groups.

Here are the definitions of the things being measured. Brand Association = the percentage of consumers associating each brand with each touchpoint. Influence = the relative influence of each touchpoint on purchasing.

No doubt about it, this is an interesting type of analysis. I counsel about making too many conclusions based on these high level results. I am sure the devil is in the detail of the analysis. Anybody got any thoughts? Dick Stroud

Prudential withdraws from equity release market

For a lot of the 50-plus, certainly the 70-plus, the expectation was that if "pushing comes to shoving" then their house would provide an income stream by use of equity release (reverse mortgage).

In a surprise move the Prudential said on Tuesday that it is to stop selling equity release products.

The Prudential, one of the top three providers, has been selling lifetime loans since 2005, but its decision to withdraw is believed to be due to access to funding for the loans.

It is not just The Prudential that has decided to call it a day. The number of providers of this financial service has dropped from 20 to 11 over the past year.

Maybe this is a temporary blip. If it is the start of an avalanche, then there will be a lot of worried older people. Dick Stroud

An interesting way of getting your message to an older audience.

I have just received some information from a company (Live Marketing). As the name suggests, is all about getting your stuff, directly into the hands of your target customers.

The Boat and Caravan show has a nice tasty audience for anybody interested in the older market. Average age is 48 years, 76% are ABC1 (significantly higher than the UK population), average household income is £38,307 (23% more than the national average) etc etc …

Of course the group are self selecting because of their interest in caravans and boats. For a lot of UK marketers, especially the younger variety, this enough to consign the idea to the scrapheap.

I think that would be foolish. Goody Bags will ensure your promotional material is thrust into to hands of the show attendees.

Sounds like an idea worth thinking about. Dick Stroud

Apple iPhone Apps for oldies?

On what I suspect will be the inevitable migration to Apple I have just started using an Apple iPhone. What can I say? It is an amazing device. Beautiful interface, both on the device and the computer, with the marvellous innovation of access to zillions of Apps.

I thought I would have a look around and see what has been written about the iPhone and older users.

Mmm, maybe there is a shed load of stuff out there but the only thing of substance I could find was by Mark Sigal where he discusses why an Apple Tablet, if it is ever launched, would be more useful to Boomers than an iPhone.

The basis of his argument is the iPhone is physically too small for older fingers and eyes. From my personal experience, this is not true, but then my basic law of marketing tells me never to extrapolate the universe of the market from your own experience.

I had a look around to see if there were any Apps for older people. No success.

I feel sure that somebody has really researched this subject, if so, can you tell me where to look.
If indeed none of the 50,000 Apps are aimed at making life easier, amusing, safer, exciting, inclusive ….. for people with physiological ageing issues – like 50% of the population – then it seems to me that there is one hell of market waiting to be attacked. Am I right or am I right?

Sure, many of the Apps are age neutral but are any targeted at older users? Dick Stroud

AARP's lifetuner project is a statement of intent

At the end of October, AARP, the US organization that is all about the 50-plus, launched a Web site and online community designed for 25-to-34-year-olds. Weird or what. It is like Age UK launching a Web site targeted at teenagers. This is how the site describes itself.

LifeTuner is where financial literacy becomes interactive and community driven. A place where tools spark aha moments and create an "hmm...I need to do this" sense of urgency. Where even one person's small success can inspire others like them to get started. Or an expert's good advice can help you finally take action. And, where learning from someone else's mistake means you won't find yourself saying, "If only I had known this before . . . ."

As you can see, there is minimal AARP branding on the site that looks much lighter than its parent. You can also see from the style of copy that it informal, direct and unfussy.

I have no idea how well it will work but you have to congratulate AARP for thinking outside the box. This article in Business Week is about how the project evolved from concept to launch and talks about all of the organisational road blocks encountered when trying to do something that is radically new.

If it does nothing else it demonstrates that AARP has the energy and nerve to try new things. Well done. Anybody at Age UK reading this? Dick Stroud

Britain - vision of Japan’s decade of stagnation

I haven’t written anything about the recession for some while. That doesn’t mean to say that it is no longer important or that it is still not the only show in town for marketers – it is.

There is only so much doom and gloom that you can read and write. Of course recessions create lots of business opportunities but, for most marketers, it is and will be grim.

I am sure you will have seen the countless ads that infected the UK TV for “consolidation loans”. The proposition was simple. You might be up to your neck in debt one of these loans can help by consolidating the debt into a single loan, give you a bit of breather from paying the interest, secure the loan on your house and then charge you an even larger interest rate in the future.

The UK is like the consumer who was duped by this sales line. It has consolidated its debts, into a staggeringly large public sector debt, and the nation is waiting for the first repayment bill to drop through the Treasury's letter box.

Until now it is only the unemployed who have suffered from the recession. The task of paying back the debt will affect everybody.

If you think I am overstating things have a read of this leader in today’s New York Times. Not a happy story. Dick Stroud

Britain may finally be emerging from recession, but many analysts warn that it is a false dawn. In fact, they argue, the economy here is so ravaged by growing debts and ruined banks that it could well be following in the steps of Japan’s lost decade of the 1990s.

The parallels are eerie: Like Japan, Britain enjoyed more than a decade of booming growth, fed by aggressive bank lending and real estate investments. Haunted by the comparison, policy makers have been extra aggressive in using fiscal and monetary levers in hope of preventing the stagnation and banking stasis that plagued Japan for so many years.

Some economic indicators over the last week have been positive: an uptake in retail sales, fewer jobs lost and an export revival. Yet analysts say they may well turn out to be teasers that cloak deeper, more structural flaws in the economy.

In addition to rising debt, the tax base is collapsing and the crippled banking industry has yet to show it can generate profit by lending to companies. And so on and so on and so on…..

RIAS’s aquatic customers

Back in September I talked about RIAS’s TV advertising campaign featuring the "real life" of an over-50s consumer.

The company has just launched a new home insurance ad that recognises that today's over 50s are active, individual, busy and experienced. This tale of the everyday 50-plus features a volunteer lifeboatman.

I expect that the choice of the lifeboat theme has a lot to do with the popularity of these people and their charity with older Brits.

What made me smile is that RIAS is perpetuating the fascination that companies have with older people and water. The first ad featured a women long distance swimmer. So many ads have older people on the beach, wobbling around on surf boards or running hand in hand through the waves. I am sure the reason I notice this water thing is that I hate the stuff – not the washing or drinking variety but the sort that get you wet.

Anyway, RIAS is highly successful company and I am sure they have done their homework and tested the ad to destruction with the target market.

Finally, a personal plea to the new marketing director of the company who is on record as saying that she intends to make more use of digital media. After spending a pile of money on a new ad and PR campaign why not ensure that you digital media, like this ad, is at least available on YouTube or your the web site? Dick Stroud

Technology adoption and age

The Cable & Telecommunications Association has just published some research about the uptake of online services in the US.

It concludes that those 65+ using the Internet use it a lot and in a wide range of ways. I think we pretty much knew this but it is always nice to see a bit more evidence supporting this view.

The report contains a nice image showing the uptake of various types of technology by age group. Again, nothing new but some facts from a different source. Dick Stroud

Coca-Cola is targeting just about everybody

An item appeared in one of the UK marketing magazines that states that Coca-Cola is targeting the emerging middle classes, ageing customers and younger, more environmentally-conscious consumers in a bid to double its revenue by 2020.

It is would be more informative to say the groups that Coca-Cola is not targeting.

You have to give it to the brand, it’s cannot be accused of “aiming too low” when it wants double the daily servings to over three billion and be the ‘number 1’ non-alcoholic ready-to-drink brand in every market and every category within a decade.

The ceo says that there will be a renewed focus on older, wealthier consumers: “To target aging and affluent consumer globally, we are actively exploring new ingredients, new functionality and new occasions."

This all sounds exciting stuff. It will be interesting to see how the aspirations translate into product and advertising. Dick Stroud

Mr Google looks into his crystal ball

When the CEO of Google gets his crystal ball out and looks to the next 5 years it is worth 6 minutes of your life to listen to what he has to say. If you have 45 minutes that you are willing to spare then you can listen to the complete version of Eric Schmidt’s interview in front of the assembled hoards of CIOs and IT Directors at last week's Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Orlando.

Nothing specific about the 50-plus but essential listening for all marketers, irrespective of their target market.

For me the most interesting comment was his prediction that the distribution distinctions between TV, radio and the web will go away. Certainly video will (is) dominate the Web. Don’t forget that there is only one company that focuses on Web video made for older consumers. Dick Stroud

Retro is good but going back to tweed!

A lovely article in the New York Times about the way that teed is making a big comeback. I know the recession has sensitised our instincts to revel in all things old but going back to tweed is, I think, a step to far. What next – bear skins? Dick Stroud

The impact of age on charity volunteering

I recently read an article by Rob Berry about a research project he undertook for one of the world’s most respected charities, Medecins Sans Frontieres.

From his research he discovered that the age of the doctors had a significant impact on their rationale for wanting to become involved with the charity. I asked Rob to write a few words for inclusion in my blog explaining what he discovered. Here is what he said.

Research amongst medical practitioners, academics and policy advisers was used to understand the motivations and barriers to volunteering. Whilst there were some important common motivations in terms of altruism and humanitarianism, there were also fundamental differences depending on age. Older doctors were particularly motivated by the wish to use their skills in a less well resourced area as a way of putting something back. They were also ready for a break from routine. Nevertheless, they had concerns that needed to be overcome in MSF’s communications: the length of assignments, safety, living conditions, issues around leaving family and friends and arranging absence cover.

Younger doctors were often motivated by a sense of adventure but needed reassurance about the danger or benefits of this sort of career break. Financial considerations were more important to this group than to their older colleagues.

MSF were able to develop a communications programme for recruitment that used the common denominators whilst addressing the needs of different groups. Understanding the importance of age delivered greater efficiency in attracting the right volunteers when and where they were needed.

I wonder how many charities have a one size fits all approach when trying to attract volunteers?

In this case age is an important factor. In other cases lifestyle will be the main determinant. The only way you are going to find out is by research. That is where Rob’s research agency (Manor Marketing) comes in. Dick Stroud

Ageing in place products and the market

This is an account, from the Ageing in place technology blog about the annual American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) conference, that brought together 9000 attendees and 425 exhibitors.

The blog posting contains lots of references about new products targeted at the ageing in place market plus insights into the marketplace for such products. I found this comment very interesting.

Vendors compete with inaction, not each other. One vendor speculated that all of the technologies represented at the show together represent at most a 5% adoption rate among the populations they could serve. And that's probably just in the US. The biggest competition for all of these vendors is inaction and lack of awareness.

The UK has just the same problem. There is a need – no doubt. There are products and services that can greatly assist older people wanting to remain in their homes and get the maximum from life for as long as possible – no doubt. Do older people, or their children, know about these products, do older people know about the concept of “ageing in place” – almost certainly not.

One huge marketing opportunity with an equally daunting marketing challenge. Dick Stroud

All you every wanted to know about marketing to older consumers

A while back I was the lead editor on a series of online talks about marketing to older consumers

The publisher, Henry Stewart, has made available a teaser of the first 5 minutes of each of the sessions. If after watching you don’t buy the whole package I will be astonished!!!

Here are my two sessions. How the older market is evolving internationally and The web and the 50-plus. Dick Stroud

Simplicity - a new computer for oldies

Full marks to Discount Age, the company that has launched the Simplicity computer. A wise choice of celebrity ensured that this new computer got a lot of radio and television exposure.

This 'simple' computer costs a bit more than your standard PC but for this you get an open source based computer with the Eldy software that hides all of the techno gunk allowing the user to get on with their simple applications of e-mail, browsing, printing etc. You also get a pile of videos showing you to use the thing.

It will be interesting to see how then venture gets on. My bet is that if somebody hasn’t bought a computer by now then this new product will not be enough for them to get out their credit card. Maybe it will be attractive children to buy one for their parent’s Xmas? The declared market for the product is the 50-plus. I don't think so, much more likely to be that group of the 70-plus who have tried to get their heads around using a PC but gave up but who still have a real requirement to be online - probably to keep in contact with their family.

The new computer is interesting, but I was more fascinated by the parent company, that sells a newsletter (£10/year) providing discount opportunities for the over -60s.

There are a lot of people trying to attack this market. Way back in 2007 I talked with Daniel Wilson when he started seniors discounts. It is amazing how this has grown. At one stage he tried to charge for membership but it appears as if this has now been dropped. I think Val Singleton and her friends might discover the problem for all people trying to charge for content – including the 50-plus - is the expectation that content is free. Dick Stroud

Revenge of disco dad

An amusing article in today’s Marketing about the search for authenticity meaning that parents, rather than celebrities, have become the heroes of Generation Y.

The “Damn right your Dad drank it” ad campaign for Canadian Club whisky is quoted as supporting this hypothesis.

I don’t know if I buy this argument about a new found affinity and respect between the generations. In support of the argument, the author quotes research from the World Values Survey that is said to show changes in personal values within generations with today’s parents being far more flexible in the way their value system changes.

I think a more convincing argument is that the values of youth (i.e. fun, creativity, individuality, etc) are shared with the wider adult culture.

There is a profound set of implications if these arguments are correct. It means that Gen Y is attracted to brands and products that have a strong sense of ‘realness’ or authenticity which means that old things, original things, or things that just have a very well defined sense of self.

In many ways authenticity has become the new cool and parents are proving to be about as authentic as it gets. Does this mean the generation gap has narrowed or indeed closed?
I don’t think so, however, it is food for thought. Dick Stroud

Age Concern + Help the Aged = Age UK

Let me get this right. Back in Feb 2009, when Age Concern and Help the Aged decided to merge, they registered the new charity, under the legal name of Age UK and then announced they were launching a rebranding exercise to come up with a puker new name.

Corporate Edge, the branding consultancy was hired and money spent. Nobody knows how much but it is thought to be less than £100,000.

Today, 10 months later, the charity has decided stick with the name they first came up with. Now call me an old cynic, which I am, but I bet my boots that the reason they have taken all of this time to come back to where they started is that they couldn’t agree with any of the alternatives.

I have nothing against Age UK; it is a perfectly decent and acceptable name. As I said in a previous post, the one thing that was certain, was that the new name was going to contain the word ‘age’. This constraint means there are not that many alternatives. Apparently a couple of the names that didn’t make the grade are Agenda and Age Matters.

Maybe I am being really dumb but the names of the two organisations had a meaning. Age concern – pretty obvious; Help the aged – pretty obvious. What significance and meaning does ‘UK’ in Age UK add?

I wonder if Corporate Edge will use Age UK as a reference client? I guess the selling pitch would go something like this: “ Age UK were so impressed with our work that after 10 months they rejected all of our brand name suggestions and used the one they came up with in the back of a taxi..”

Enough, enough, the deed is done, the name is in place. Best wishes to Age UK. Dick Stroud

Vision and ageing

After cognitive decline, the physiological effects of ageing on eyesight are, in my view the most important for marketers to understand. Let's be honest, it is a subject that most marketers don't ever think about. This video makes a start to explain one facet of the problem - the decline in the eye's ability to distinguish colour contrast. This article provides a much more detail explanation of the subject. Dick Stroud

Amazing marketing successes in ageing Japan

Kim Walker’s blog has some fascinating examples of commercial successes that are a direct result of Japan’s rapidly ageing population. If you want a glimpse at the future of marketing then observe Japan.

On the whole, older people have amassed all of the 'stuff ' they want/require and are looking for a different type of satisfaction. An opinion poll conducted by the Cabinet Office found that 44% of people in their 20s are seeking material wealth, in sharp contrast with 66% of seniors in their 60s searching for mental happiness.

Here are two of examples that Kim has collected together.

Tokyo Disney Resort has seen visitors aged 40+ grow from 2.8% of revenues in 2003 to 18% in 2008. It is not surprising that the company has started selling a special Wednesdays-only pass for the parks for people aged 45 and older

Middle-aged and elderly people accounted for 54.5% of Japanese overseas travellers last year, an increase of around 9% from 10 years earlier. JTB Corp. established a subsidiary specializing in senior travel in 2005, and sales skyrocketed 190% last fiscal year compared to 2006.

There are many examples that illustrate what happens when you live in the fast ageing country on the planet. Dick Stroud

The Future Perfect Company

Ages ago I talked with a lady called Philippa Aldrich who had an idea to create a web site to sell products that were designed to be useful to older people.

Unlike most people who have a good idea that never progresses beyond a hazy concept, this one has become a reality.

The Future Perfect Company has just launched its web site. I reckon it is well designed and is definitely age-friendly. Very best wishes to the company. Dick Stroud

H1N1 Vaccine: A Generation Gap?

Being vaccinated against Swine Flu is a good idea? Your answer to the question appears to be governed by when you were born.

A fascinating article in Media Post suggests that in the US there is a distinct generational divide with older people getting the jab whilst their kids rejecting the offer. Another article appeared in the New York Times.

The argument put forward for this age divide is that older people were brought up with having their arms pricked against all sorts of nasties (e.g. polio, diphtheria) whilst for the younger generation it is a new thing. The other explanation proposed is that older people have first hand experience of the results of epidemics whilst younger people have only read about them, or more likely, listened to a podcast.

I would add another reason for the difference. Younger people have been brought up in an era when the story of a person suffering side effects, or worse dying, following a jab, is national news in a matter of hours. This situated occurred in the UK, with most of the population unaware that within a week the real explanation for the death was revealed as having nothing to do with the jab – the damage was done.

Why on earth is this of any interest to marketers, other than on a personal basis?

This is what the author of the article says:

But, this generational divide has also exposed a marketing misstep that has broader implications for all marketers. Public health officials neglected to take these different generational experiences into consideration when developing their marketing communication efforts. Had they done so, they might have been more effective in encouraging younger parents to inoculate their children.

It's a lesson all marketers should heed -- whether they are marketing health care, financial services or consumer products. Generational first-hand experiences drive attitudes, beliefs and purchase decisions.

Beware, don’t take this generation differences stuff too far, but in this case I think it is a pretty good explanation. It would be fascinating to know what the situation is in the UK. Anybody out there with an answer? Dick Stroud

Recession forces luxury brands to target the wealthy

The first thing that popped up on “must blog” list is another item about luxury.

According to a Luxury Institute study, summarized by AdWeek, state-of-the-market series, 77% of high-end shoppers "agreed that luxury is less important in today's economy."

Surprisingly, the majority of affluent consumers aren't big luxury shoppers. Pre-recession, most of the luxury market's power came from lower-income aspirational buyers. Now they can no longer afford to shop that way, so luxury brands are looking for new ways to sell to the actual wealthy.

According to the survey, many affluent consumers said that they're primarily interested in quality and service, which they consider hard to find in luxury goods.

The survey also found that the rise of discounting has damaged people's brand perception.

"Radical discounting is a disaster. It tells people how big the margins were." Shoppers are confused, forgetting that luxury items are more expensive because they are of higher quality.
AdWeek suspects that shoppers will be much more discriminating in the future. One expert mentions a "rise of connoisseurship."

Interesting stuff. So if the aspirational buyers are having a hard time and it is the really wealthy who are still buying, what difference does that make to the profile of the target customer? Methinks it has just got older. Dick Stroud

"Luxury Shame" a byproduct of the recession

According to the consulting group Bain & Co, shoppers are suffering from "luxury shame". These results appear in its latest report about the global luxury industry.

The WSJ (sorry subscription only) covers this research and has a fascinating article about the trials and tribulations of the luxury suppliers.

Guilt has really increased in the last year, says the brand strategist Martin Lindstrom.

Why am I talking about this? Well, it is an extreme example of the impact of the recession on consumer behaviour, something all marketers should be interested in understanding. Secondly, the 50-plus are significant purchasers of luxury goods so a large number of this generation are experiencing this phenomenon.

Apparently some luxury brands are emphasising marketing tactics they hope will be an antidote to the guilt syndrome. Things like promising to channel profits to a charity, as shoe brand Cole Haan recently did with its offer to get a 15% discount on a new pair of shoes when you donate an old pair to a designated charity.

The good old catch-all of promise of saving the planet from climate change is another wheeze being used to make people feel better, like the Swedish clothing brand Filippa K that opened a second-hand store in Stockholm that sells used clothes of its own brand for at least 50% off.

What seems like a much more commercial approach is encouraging Internet shopping (i.e. let people get the luxury buzz at home instead of in the store, away from the scorn of the poor). Not surprising that there has been an estimated 20% jump in online luxury sales this year (according to Bain & Co).

In the same week as the “luxury shame” story was being covered in the media there was news that, Milan's Versace Group announced that it would cut 26% of its worldwide workforce and consolidate its operations in an effort to return to profitability by 2011. The fashion house has also made plans to close all three of its stores in Japan due to poor sales, though the company's business is successful elsewhere in East Asia.

“We’re reviewing in a comprehensive way the whole structure of the company,” said the company’s chief executive - that sounds bad.

Next time you open a magazine that is full of ads for luxury watches, jewelry, holidays etc that are the same campaigns as were used pre-recession, just think what a total waste of promotional spend. Most of the luxury brands are still living in a state of denial. Dick Stroud

RIAS's focus on the 50-plus pays off

RIAS, the insurance company that is exclusively for the 50-plus, has been voted in the top 2 Car insurance providers in the UK, by the Auto Express readers in the 2009 Driver Power survey, the same position as in 2008.

To drive, sorry excuse the pun, the company on to bigger and better things it has appointed BUPA's ex-chief marketing officer as marketing director, with a remit to increase the brand's use of digital channels in its direct marketing mix.

Just goes to show how successful a company can be that commits to selling to the older market.

A word of advice to the new marketing director. Have a good look at the company’s web site. It is need of good spring clean. Not very logical, inspiring or easy to use. Dick Stroud

Agency bosses too old and change resistant

If I had a £ for every time somebody says to me: “the reason that marketing is youth-centric is that agency staff are all young” I would be a wealthy man. I would be even wealthier still if I also got a £ for every time somebody tells me this fact and then expects me to be surprised.

I have to say that I haven’t heard the statement about agency bosses being too old before. An interesting observation you might say, but even more so when it comes from a Mr M Sorrell (aged 64). I guess what he is saying is that it is all the other agency bosses, but not him, that are too old.

Of course what he is saying is probably true. I guess it is summed up by his statement: “WPP isn't an advertising business anymore.” Advertising was so yesterday, today, digital rules.

"The people who run agencies tend to be of an older vintage - to put it politely," said Sorrell. "They tend to be resistant to change and want to spend the last three to four years of their careers travelling around the world rather than dealing with fundamental strategic issues on a daily basis."

I have never subscribed to the argument that you can blame agencies’ focus on Yoof because the average age of their staff is just pushing 30 years old. Of course it is part of the problem, but the far more important issue is that agency staff, of all ages, tends to be a conservative, risk averse bunch; even thought they think the are totally the opposite.

Agency staff, and most of their clients, find it impossible to think outside the 18-35 ABC1 box. Sure, within that box they come up with zany ideas and innovative uses for digital technologies. but most of them have a ‘c’ for conservative stamped through their creative soul. Sad really, but I guess agencies attract these sorts of people. When they get older they become even more conservative as Mr S observers. Dick Stroud

Getting older going into debt a UK and US problem

In March 2009 I wrote that in the UK borrowers approaching retirement owe four times as much as 10 years ago. I just read another report, this one from the US, titled “Debt of the Elderly and Near Elderly, 1992–2007” from the Employee Benefit Research Instiute. This paints an equally horrible picture of what is happening to the debt profile of older
people.

The headlines from the report say

Debt levels rising: Debt levels of those in or near retirement age are heading up: Among elderly families—and especially among the lower-income elderly—both housing debt and consumer debt levels are rising. For some cohorts, a substantial percentage have debt levels well beyond the threshold considered problematic.

Percentage with debt: A growing share of older American families had incurred debt through 2007, particularly those ages 55–64—the ages right before or at the start of retirement.

Debt levels: As the percentage of families with a head age 55 or older with any debt increased from 1992–2007, the average total debt level also increased: from $32,191 (2007 dollars) in 1992 to $70,370 in 2007; the median debt level (half above, half below) of those with debt increased from $15,923 to $43,000.

Rising housing debt a major concern: Although rising debt levels are not necessarily a sign of danger for all elderly or near-elderly families (especially if they are also high-income), rising housing debt is of particular concern, since housing typically is the major asset elderly families have. Leveraging it at this point in their lives may leave them without a major resource to finance an adequate retirement, given the recent downturn in the housing market.

What is terrifying about these results is that they are prior to the recession. Ahhhh. Dick Stroud

Twitter status of US users

This is really interesting. Those who Twitter in the US look as if they are just as likely to have an MBA as being a High School drop-out. As you would expect the user base is still predominantly young. This analysis is from Pew Internet and appears in its reported entitled Twitter status of users. Dick Stroud

Pew Internet research on the democratization of social networks

Social network services users have gone from being classic early adopters (i.e. Male, highly educated, young to middle-aged, urban) to become every man and woman – with a continued skew towards youth and as diverse, if not more than the internet-using population.

This doesn’t mean that more older adults aren’t flocking to social networks, they are, but younger adults are also still using these networks, so the overall representation of the age cohorts in the user population has actually gotten younger.

I think that is trying to say is that you are now getting all types of younger people using these networks, which is keeping the age profile young, however, you are also getting a lot of older users who are coming from a limited profile of society. Why don’t you download the presentation and make your own mind up. Dick Stroud

The ageing consumer and their online habits in Asia Pac

Here's an abridged version of the presentation Kim Walker delivered to the 2nd Southeast Asian iMedia Agency Summit in Phuket, Thailand during October, 2009. Features information about the ageing consumer and their online habits. Good stuff. Dick Stroud

The Charity Brand Index

In the past couple of weeks I have been writing a lot about charities and how they are faring in these troubled times.

This is the first time I have come upon the “Charity Brand Index” that is produced by PRWeek and Third Sector, in association with Harris Interactive.

It bills itself as a comprehensive assessment of the Top 100 UK charity brands based on a survey of more than 3,000 members of the public.

The index attempts to measure things like:
• Recognition of the charity
• Willingness to donate
• Attitudes towards their cause
• Trust
• Effectiveness of media relations and advertising
• Understanding of their work

These are all important factors so if you have £1,200 in your budget you can learn why The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain receive 10 points compared to Macmillan Cancer Support that received 350.

The trouble with these types of scoring systems is that they take no account for the relative size of the charities. So whilst the recognition of Macmillan is clearly zillions times higher than The Watch Tower, it is wrong to also make a judgement about the effectiveness of their media relations and advertising.

I guess what this type of study provides is the mechanism for marketers to be judged on their performance (i.e. have they increased or decreased their ranking year on year). It also guarantees that you buy next year's edition. Dick Stroud

An idiot side effect of the postal strike

I have just received today's copy of the Daily Telegraph, a newspaper with a predominately older readership.

Stuffed inside the paper were 200+ pages of advertising inserts. Catalogues from John Lewis and all sorts of companies trying to sell me stuff for Xmas.

Most of this material would have descended through my letter box in dribs and drabs; instead I receive it all in a single pile. Have the advertisers gone mad. What do they think the effect is of being deluged with advertising material? Believe me, more means less. I am certain that companies must be experiencing a massive drop in effectiveness by switching from the post to newspaper distribution.

If somebody suggested that promotional mail was only delivered once a week then there would be uproar – this is what is effectively happening. Nuts. Dick Stroud

Desperate days for UK charities

If charities ever needed to be smart at marketing it is now, as they face a double whammy of bad news.

Whammy 1 – The postal strike

According to the Institute of Fundraising charities are likely to lose millions in income if the postal strikes continue into the Christmas period.

The report says that a number of areas are affected by the mail strike, which is based on a detailed survey of eight members of the institute. The areas include membership subscriptions, general donations, regular trust and corporate donations, fundraising events and the trading of Christmas cards and Christmas catalogues.

For some charities the potential losses are expected to be in £millions. If there is a backlog in the postal system, people will receive a large amount of mail when the strike is over and may be less likely to read and respond to appeals.

Whammy 2 – The recession begins to bite

The worst effects of the recession are yet to come for charities, commentators have warned after a turbulent few weeks in the voluntary sector.

Major aid agencies are among the latest to make large job cuts, and in September the UK Giving Survey showed individual donations had fallen by 11% in 2008/09.

Senior charity figures believe the recession is beginning to bite. The chair of the Charity Finance Directors' Group says the fortunes of charities are a lagging indicator of the state of the economy. He predicts that government spending on charities would be cut by up to 17% over the next five years. Another industry pundit says: "the nice decade of growing public funding and generous government capacity-building is coming to a close, and a new era of public sector cuts and smarter capacity-building beckons."

So charity marketers your challenge is to do a lot more with less. Above all you need to be very clear about your target contributors and how to reach them. Without doubt older people should be featuring high on your list of targets. Do you understand how the recession has changed their behaviours and drivers, both financially and emotionally? Are your pre-recession marketing strategies still relevant? I hope you have got some good answers to these questions. Dick Stroud

Sky TV reinforces its commitment to accessibility

A while back I wrote about Sky gaining an award for its work in making its TV controls more usable. I was not so impressed by the usability of the company’s Web site.

Looks like things are changing since Sky has just launched a new “accessible” site. It is really good. Well done Sky. Dick Stroud

New commercial radio station aimed at the 50-plus (just)

Absolute Radio is launching a new radio station, Absolute 80s, in early December that will be positioned as a pop and rock music station aimed at 30 to 54-year-olds, playing a mix of artists such as Human League, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Duran Duran, Adam & The Ants and Culture Club in a jukebox format.

Sounds like one to miss, but good to see more media aimed at an older consumer. Dick Stroud

The 50-plus are the best stock traders

A big caveat, so beware. I have not idea how good or bad this research is (conducted by Fintrader.net) but I think the results are fascinating, even if they are wrong.

Here are some quotes:

A new five year study of financial trading shows that the over 50s are by far the most successful, profitable traders and investors: a full 40% more profitable than their 20-something counterparts and 25% better than the 30-50 group.

Time spent trading was a factor for all three groups. The 18-30s and over 50s spent more time on their portfolios, which may be because the 30-50 group had greater work and family commitments elsewhere. But clearly the over 50s had much greater productivity.

The 50+ traders took higher risks for higher returns than the 30-50 group. So maybe the 50-plus are not more risk averse argument

The secret to the difference between youth and age lay in discipline. The 18-30s tended to break trading rules and failed to follow systems through. Maybe they had poor attention spans as they would often close out winning trades too soon. Older traders kept better records and managed their money better.

The 18-30s made great use of internet information, charts and chat rooms but so did the over-50s (more than the 30-50s), becoming extremely web savvy and using a wide range of online tools. So maybe the 50-plus are capable of using the Internet.

Older investors are sick of earning 1% a year and being sucked dry by high management costs for poor advice and are now learning to trade markets themselves.

One theme which is common to all groups is “total distrust of financial advisors and professionals. Really bad news for the Financial Services industry

My instincts tell me these results are probably correct but then I might be falling into the trap of using age stereotypes. Dick Stroud

Spending on the Xmas holiday season in the US looks grim

If you haven’t subscribed to the Boomer Project newsletter you should.

In the most recent edition it has the results of their research into the spending intentions of Americans for the holiday season.

Not good as you can see (click to enlarge image). As the newsletter says: “We have seen the future and it stinks for retailers, except for the discounters.” Happy Xmas. Dick Stroud

Radio 4 and the 50-plus

The BBC’s Radio 4 channel added more than 750,000 listeners in the space of a year, according to Rajar.

Radio 4 is now listened to by 10.22 million people every week. The Today programme helped bolster the numbers as the recession prompted a rise in demand for in depth news. It attracted 6.6 million listeners, a record 16.8 per cent share of the audience.

Woman's Hour and You and Yours also posted record results.

According to "industry commentators" the popularity of the station, which has an average audience age of 55, has benefited from older audiences moving away from “youth obsessed” television.

The Head of Public Policy at Age Concern and Help the Aged said: “TV has become out of touch with the tastes of an ageing audience, reflecting our society’s obsession with youth.” He went on to say, “As shown by separate reports from Ofcom and our charity, older viewers are being increasingly put off by programming that not only doesn’t meet their tastes but is also reluctant to show grey hair on screen.”

I think much of the commentary mixes up two things. One thing is the BBC’s fear of having too many oldies on the screen and so it seems to have this policy of despatching older presenters to wherever old presenters go when they give up their earphones. To be honest I don’t think that really concerns that many older people.

The other factor is that a lot of BBC TV does assume its viewers have the intellect of a slug. This, unfortunately, might be right about a lot of its viewers, but not all.

Radio 4, for most of time, has moderately adult (not in the sexual manner) programming so I guess it really is the last resort if you are in need of a little intellectual substance. Just think if you could persuade the BBC to take advertising - a readymade channel to the bright 50-plus. Dick Stroud

Where goeth the UK Residential Care Market

I have a particular interest in the dynamics of the UK residential and nursing care business. It is a business that is part consumer services, part property investment, part B2B and is about to be hit by the UK’s waking nightmare of plunging Government spending.

Mix into this concoction the fact that many care companies are wallowing under a mountain of private equity debt and even more are ill-equipped to tackle the required restructuring of their business models and processes and you have one hell of a mess. But, for the astute and entrepreneurial one hell of an opportunity.

Recently I "What’s going on in with UK residential care” that questioned if the Royal Bank of Scotland supposed £250 million of capital for the Care Industry was for new ventures or to support the numerous ill advised investments it had made in the past. Sorry, I keep writing Royal Bank of Scotland rather than its new name the UK Government (the UK taxpayers are about to own 83% of the bank).

I also wrote “Life’s going to be interesting in the UK care market” that talked about housing 21’s takeover of a domiciliary care company and what this means for the industry.

I have just finished reading two articles in the Health Investor (sorry subscription only). One of these quotes a lot from a report by Colliers that paints a rosy view of the industry, even though the profit margins are in decline.

What interested me was the correlation between GDP per capita and weekly fee for those in residential homes. As you can see the same strength of relationship does not exist with nursing homes. If my future business success was based on the healthiness of the UK's GDP per capita I would be seriously worried. This is exactly the emotion of the other article, as can be seen from this quote.

Professionals are nervous, individuals are nervous and the patients are nervous,” says Robbie Burns, chief executive of Clinovia, a home healthcare firm owned by Bupa. “There is an almost surreal nature to the situation – how banking systems can implode overnight is beyond comprehension to most people.” And the industry has every right to feel nervous. The latest government intervention to part-nationalise the UK’s leading banks is estimated to push public sector debt to above 50% of the annual national income.

Somehow I don’t think this is the last I will be writing about this subject. Dick Stroud

Retirement Housing investments can go down and down as well as up.

Trying to make money out of people who want to retire (whatever that is) and move property is a risky business.

Of course success and failure is welded to what is happening in the wider property market but also to the financial health, or perception of health, of older consumers.

This article illustrates that Canada (British Columbia) is no different to the UK. The start of the article says it all.

Offering mountain view and golf on the doorstep, developers spared no expense to draw retiring boomers to British Columbia. Too bad about the timing, though: Utopia is now in creditor protection.

By its very nature property is a long term investment although if you tell that to somebody who bought at the peak of the market and who has seen their investment wealth shrink by 25%+ that insight may not be that welcome. Dick Stroud

What, more importantly, Who is a Homepreneur?

Homepreneurs are small business owners running viable enterprises from their home that provides at least 50% of their household income by selling products and services not just locally, but nationally and, often, around the globe.
In the US there are 6.6 million such businesses that employ over 13 million people. 35% of homepreneur businesses generate more than $125,000 in revenue; 8% more than $500,000. These are not pocket money outfits!

What interests me is the demographic profile of this group, according to a research study:

• 69% male
• 52% were over 55 or older and only 6% were less than 35.
• 46% of homepreneurs completing college.

This looks to me like a distinct market, somewhere between a mini-SME and a consumer, that is predominantly 50-plus, that companies should be addressing. You can download a report that gives more info about this group or read about them in Business Week. Dick Stroud