Brand storytelling and Google analytics

A while back I wrote about an excellent paper by Nicholine Hayward on the dusty old subject of Strategic Planning.

Nichole has just released a new paper about Brand Storytelling (Motive, Means and Opportunity) that shows how the most exciting and effective stories always benefit the consumer as much as the brand.

Much of the paper is about McDonalds and with the help of Google keywords and other tools she show how by getting down to the detail of the company’s Web traffic it is possible to improve the brand dialogue between it and its customers a vice versa.

It really is a great paper and beautifully written and whilst not directly about the 50-plus it contains ideas and techniques that apply to all age groups. Dick Stroud

Addicted to screens

This is a heavyweight study (Video Consumer Mapping study) conducted on behalf of the Nielsen-funded Council for Research Excellence by Ball State University's Center for Media Design (CMD) and Sequent Partners.

The main conclusions:

• The 45-54 year olds consume the most video media (this includes TV, computer, mobile and any other form of screen input)
• Live television remains the big consumer of time across all ages.
• The quantity of time spent gazing at a screen is remarkably consistent across the age spectrum (see the chart) with the notable exception of the 45-54 year olds who gaze at even more TV than their parents.

This is a summary of the main report.

These headline conclusions belie the quantity and quality of the analysis contained in this study.

It is a remarkable insight into the screen viewing habits of Americans and hence a great guide to channel and advertising consumption. Dick Stroud

A conference you cannot miss

On the 18th June I am the chairman of a one-day Market Research Society Conference, in London, about: “Life in the Middle Ages.”

No this is nothing to do with history but that funny period of life between Yoof and decrepitude.

Seriously, this conference is about exploring the ‘big squeeze’ being felt by today’s middle-aged consumer.

The conference has some great speakers from The Futures Company, Royal Mail, GfK Financial, BDRC, Ofcom, Murmur Research, GP Forschungsgruppe, Steel Magnolia, Channel Five, Digital Unite, Hampshire County Council and the Oxford Institute of Ageing.

These are subjects we will be covering

• New lifestyle segmentations that challenge accepted wisdom about middle age
• The impact of recession on the middle-aged consumer’s behaviour and attitudes
• Complex market and generational pressures and influences affecting their emotions
• Where they are spending and how brands maintain equity in this valuable market
• Which channels work best to engage and communicate with this generation
• The secret lives of the middle aged man
• How changing middle-aged demographics are affecting other sectors - kids, youth and the elderly

How can you not attend? If you are involved in research, consumer insight, planning or marketing you can claim your discount by emailing james.coyle@mrs.org.uk. Hope to see you there. Dick Stroud

Clothes for the older women – as bad ‘on’ as off-line

There is an excellent article in the WSJ about the idiocy of why companies continue to ignore the spending potential of older women. If you have a WSJ subscription you read it here.

The focus of the article is about the way that the new online fashion sites continue to ape their off-line equivalents.

A new site has been launched called StyleCaster that appears to be a lot more than a simple online catalog by using video and social-networking techniques – “The Facebook of Fashion”. Other sites mentioned are ShopFlick and SmashingDarling.


I had a look at these three sites and it clear from the creative that they are aimed at my daughter or granddaughter, assuming I had such things.

The image of regular contributors, from Style Caster, says it all.

All of this would be OK if it were not for the facts. 45-54 year olds spend twice as much online as their daughters. Not surprisingly the average age of an online customer at Saks.com, Saks Fifth Avenue's Web site is 42. "We wouldn't be getting that if we were limited to 18 to 34," says the president of Saks's online division, which the company considers its second-biggest store after its New York flagship.

The article’s author concludes with an amusing and insightful statement...... When it comes to online shopping, there may be a self-fulfilling prophecy at work: I can't find much appeal in sites that market only to twentysomethings. Thus, when I don't buy from those sites, they may continue to believe that the "hasn't-bought-a-house-yet" demographic is their best bet. Dick Stroud

Even more about the recession and the 50-plus

Today’s FT has an article about the “increase in part-time pensioners”. What it is really about is the need for older people to keep or restart working to make ends meet. Here are a few of the tasty bits of information

• Norwich Union said it had seen nearly a 50% per cent increase in people taking income from their pension while leaving it invested in the stock market, compared with a year ago. It believes this is evidence that more people are phasing their retirement.
• Scottish Life and Standard Life are seeing more people than usual were phasing their purchase of an income from their pension.
• A report on the impact of the recession on older workers, to be published next week by Help the Aged and Age Concern, will show 60% of the 50-plus may have to work longer than planned because of the downturn.
• An economist at Architas, Axa's fund management company, estimates that people will have to work a further six years on average in order to have the same level of income in retirement they would have had before markets crashed.

Of course none of this applies the public sector workers who receive their pensions irrespective of what happens to the economy.

Unbelievably, one of the reasons why people in the private sector will have to work longer is to enable government employees to retain their ludicrous pension rights.

If you detect a note of anger/contempt/envy/disgust, you are right! Dick Stroud

Winners and opportunities in the recession

I was recently asked to write a short article for the Royal Mail’s Mail Media Centre (MMC) that appears on the web site that Redwood manages for the company.

MMC is a really useful site that provides a source of intelligence and innovation for the direct mail industry.

I thought that there was a tad too much bad news about so I would lighten things up by looking at those who have been ‘winners’ from the recession. Hope you enjoy it.

A slightly longer version of the article can be downloaded from my Web site. Dick Stroud

US consumers reconsider retirement

McKinsey has just published some research about how the recession has affected Americans views about when they intend to retire.

The company publishes something it calls the Retirement Readiness Index. This measures the financial preparedness of households to retire. It is currently at 63, whilst 100 represent the level necessary to maintain a current standard of living. A figure of 80 represents what is is necessary to avoid making large reductions in spending on basics needs such as housing, food and health care.

The above chart shows the attitude of different types of people to their retirement plans.

Note that the high net worth group is the one intending to delay their retirement the longest.

What does this mean? I guess it is a combination of two things. The high net worth group probably has more opportunities to extend their period of time working AND they understand the dire nature of the way the recession has impacted people’s wealth. The Mass Market is living in cloud cuckoo land. Dick Stroud

The UK recession is good for lots of people

All is not doom and gloom.

The way the recession is affecting consumers in the UK is nothing like the previous bad times.

The economic pundits keep comparing it with the really bad times we had in 1990 but as this chart from the excellent presentation from Lord Turner at the FSA shows, interest payments are now much smaller as a percentage of income than back then.

In his speech he says

The extent to which mortgagees have benefited from this fall has been highly variable.

Some – with tracker mortgages – are enjoying spectacular decreases in mortgage interest payments, some much milder benefits, but only a minority of people (for instance, among subprime borrowers coming off very low fixed-rate deals) are likely to face a material rise in mortgage payments. And on average the effect is very significant, with total household disposable income after taxes and mortgage interest payments, actually up 6% over the year to Q4 2008.

Falling house prices may shift many people into negative equity, and a rise in unemployment will produce an increase in arrears and defaults, but compared to the early 1990s, we are less likely to see mortgage repayment problems among the vast majority of people who, even under the most extreme forecasts for unemployment, will still be in a job.

The distinction between the employed and the unemployed in the UK is huge. You might be employed and feeling grumpy and frightened about the future but actually you are doing financially OK - even more than that you might be doing very well.

If you are unemployed then the chances of you getting a new job is remote and you are really feeling the pain.

Marketers need to understand the difference between real and perceived pain and adapt their campaigns accordingly. Dick Stroud

What do the rich look like online?

Looking for US online consumers with deep pockets – look no further. Over 40% are in the age group 35-54 and 36% are 45+. This is according to eMarketer that has rehashed numbers from comScore.

I wonder how this profile matches up with the target age groups of most online properties?

Thanks to BitBriefs.com for referencing these stats. If, like me, you are interested in factlets then it is worth checking out. Dick Stroud

Attitudes to sustainability differ by age

This article in Packaging Digest provides an in-depth argument about why sustainable branding strategies need to differ by generational group.

I would really like to see the research upon which these conclusions were made since my bet is that difference in attitudes is more affected by lifestyle then age. However, if this subject is of interest to you then this article provides a good foundation of thinking. This is what it has to say about the older generations.

Boomers and Matures are the most committed to environmentalism. One study participant summed up this position: “I simply believe in environmentally oriented anything!” By all measures, Matures are the generational champions of sustainability and enthusiastically engage in eco- and energy reduction practices—if they are aware of them.

Not surprisingly, the Boomer/Matures are information-hungry and most have the time to commit to learning.

This conclusion is in keeping with my own research in the UK and goes against the most people’s stereotypical assumptions. Dick Stroud

A different take on West Side Story

It will only take a minute.

If you know the tunes from West Side Story and have any knowledge of the US retirement jargon then you should really enjoy this Walt Handelsman cartoon/animation take on the trials and tribulations of the US 50-plus as they face an unsure financial future.

You just have to laugh otherwise.......

Many thanks to Reg Starkey for sending me the link. Dick Stroud

Housing and the 50-plus

A couple of interesting takes on what is happening in the housing market for the 50-plus.

It appears that the "active adult communities" in the US – I guess we would call them retirement villages in the UK - have not powered ahead in the way that had been predicted.

Conventional wisdom had home builders anticipating a wave of early-retiring boomers jumping from their family homes to active adult communities, leaving lawn mowing behind as they spent their pre-golden years golfing and taking cooking classes.

So far, the wave has yet to build. Sales of homes in active adult communities are growing, but not by leaps and bounds. According to the National Association of Home Builders, the percentage of 55-plus home buyers (in the US) who opt for active adult living has grown from 2.2% in 2001 to 3% today. That means 97 percent of them currently are not moving to adult communities.

This article provides a very sound set of arguments why the growth in the market has not occurred, some are to do with the recession, some are not.

At the much older end of the 50-plus age spectrum, when people require care services, all is not well. The US has exactly the same problem as the UK with paid care being expensive and individuals and government lacking the funds to provide.

This post in AgeingPlaceTech spells out the reality.

All is not well in the world of housing and the 50-plus, but a place with zillions of business opportunities. Dick Stroud

How the Australians use digital channels

Many thanks to Gill Walker for sending me details of two reports about the use of the Internet in Australia.

If there are any questions you ever had about how Australians use digital channels then you will find the answers here. Loads of stuff about the age demographics of digital uptake. Dick Stroud

Weird sense of humour

You cannot say that Goodyear is being selectively ageist or youthish with these two ads. Really strange sense of humour.

You can read all about them on the Goodyear site.

Very strange people these Americans. Dick Stroud

Retirement at the Tipping Point

This report has been produced by Age Wave with research from Harris Interactive.

Well worth reading since it provides interesting contrasts as to how the recession has affected different generations - as shown in this example.

So there you are Mr & Mrs or Ms Boomer and you find that it will take 6.3 years to replace you net wealth because of losses on the stock market. How do you feel about that?

OK, it will take your Millennial friends and relations a bit longer but then they have time on their side.

I guess you can take some comfort that you are not one of the Silent Generation (dreadful name) who have even less time than you. You can argue with the report’s methodology but it does provide a lot of interesting ideas about the recessionary effects on the US consumer. Dick Stroud

Twitter demographics

This is a good summary of Twitter demographics amongst older age groups. Also, you might want to have a look at this presentation that includes a session from the guy at Twitter who is responsible for business applications.Dick Stroud

Inaccessible Sky accessible remote control

I recently attended an event where Sky was presented with an award for producing an accessible remote control for its satellite TV service. It was great to see a company that sells to a multi-age market taking accessibility so seriously.

Yesterday I was recounting this story to a neighbour who thought the control sounded just what they needed.

OK, here is your mental exercise for the day. Have a look at the Sky web site and tell me where you can find any details about the device and how it can be ordered.

You have got 5 mins. Clock ticking.

Maybe it was staring me in the face but I couldn’t find any reference to the device. It’s not good enough for a company to tackle one part of the accessibility problem without following it through to all parts of the sales and support channel. Dick Stroud

Longer life but at what cost

I am always crowing on about the effects of lengthening life expectancy but this research from Japan was a real wake-up call (Trends in healthy life expectancy in Japan: 1986 – 2004).

The research examines the increasing life expectancy of Japanese men and women in relation to their health from 1986 to 2004. The researchers computed healthy life expectancy for seven available time-points for both sexes and at all ages.

The results showed that the gains in life expectancy prior to 1995 were mostly in years of good self-rated health, while the gains thereafter were in years of poor self-rated health. The exception was for women at age 85 (see chart), among whom there was an almost continuous increase in the number of years in poor health.

I reckon that Japan is probably more likely to keep it citizens in good health than a lot of Western European countries also Japan has not been stricken by the ravages of obesity, unlike the US and UK.

My guess is that the data for the UK would show that even less time is spent in ‘Good’ health.

So, from a marketers point of view – just look at the opportunity for products and services that inject a higher proportion of ‘Good’ life expectancy. Dick Stroud

A closer look at the Equality Bill

Wishful thinking. Alice in Wonderland. Away with the fairies. These are few of the phrases that come to mind having had a look at the guts of the new Equality Bill that apply to older people. I am astonished that something that must have taken so long to produce is so simplistic, ill defined and naive.

Fortunately it is unlikely to ever see the light of day after the change in Government (May 2010) but even so it is such a wasted opportunity to provide decent guidance and structure about genuine areas of discrimination.

Let me give you a couple of quotes – honestly these are taken from the document:

Ensuring private members’ clubs do not discriminate against older people. For example, a man in his 60s who is going to a nightclub as a guest with a younger friend cannot be refused entry simply because he is considered too old. Cripes, just think of it. Sorry folks, no more turning granddad away from dens of debauchery

Putting a new Equality Duty on public bodies. The Duty will mean public bodies need to think about the needs of everyone who uses their services or works for them, regardless of their age. For example, a local council puts extra benches in local parks so older people can enjoy the park too. The fact that many of the UK’s public parks are no-go areas and require a police escort won’t be much helped by sticking a few more park benches down.

Some might accuse me of being a tad cynical but I am truly amazed at this new proposed law but I reckon it is all form over substance.

Most of the restrictions it seeks to impose are aimed at the public rather than the private sector. The estimated first year cost of this is put at a quarter of £ billion. Believe me this ain’t going to happen. Dick Stroud

New Pepsi Ad

This Pepsi ad uses the a very simple technique of switching between old (ancient) and current imagery to emphasis the connection between the generations. In Pepsi’s case the connection is that both generations are consuming their product.

The sign-off line is a bit tacky: “Every generation refreshes the world.” All comments welcome. Dick Stroud

Recession shrinks the generation gap – I wonder

This article in Forbes follows the well trodden path of arguing that the recession is making us all better and caring people. OK, it doesn’t say so in words of one syllable but that’s the core hypothesis.

Here are a couple of quotes.

Everyone feels guilty about consuming so much with so little thought---buying things we didn't need with money we didn't have. While the recession may not give us much choice in the matter, spending less and saving more--and living within our means--actually feels like the natural course.

After more than a decade of candy-coated materialism, just about everyone is losing the taste for superficial treats. The generation gap doesn't seem so big anymore: Younger and older people alike are looking for substance in their lives. Young adults are embracing a spirit of collective activism that hasn't been seen since the boomers were their age. Older men and women are communicating regularly via technologies that barely existed five years ago. We have more in common than ever before.

My advice to marketers is to be suspicious of these simplistic ideas. I am sure it driven more by wishful thinking than research. Dick Stroud

A weird smile

When the Standard Life ad was first released I didn’t think much about it but the more I look the more I am convinced there is something weird about the models smile.

Maybe it is the combination of the dark background colours but I think she has the same sort of manufactured, unsettling, demonic smile as our dear leader – Gordo. Just a thought. Dick Stroud

Online advertising priorities

Many thanks to Martijn de Haas for telling me about this report from the European Interactive Advertising Association titled: “Marketers’ Internet Ad Barometer 2009.”

The above result comes from research in UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Norway in answer to the question.

Do you see an increase in targeting online advertising according to demographic breaks associate with traditional media and if so which age bands have seen an increase.

Sad to see European marketers are retaining their aversion to older age demographics. Dick Stroud

The 2009 Ageing Report

If you speak Euro-bureaucrat or have an inordinate amount of spare time you might want to have a look at this report.

Seriously, this report does contain a lot of useful data.

The purpose of the document, as far as I can decipher, is to provide the EU with a standard set of data on the assumptions about the ageing of its citizens. Dick Stroud

The UK’s Equality Bill

When I have some time I must wade through the 40 pages of the new Equality Bill and the 210 pages of its “impact assessment”.
Unfortunately for this new proposed legislation, its government sponsor is one of the worst and most ridiculed members of the Labour Government – Harriet Harman, or as she is commonly called - Harriet Harperson.

I am sure the bill contains lots of good things but dear Harriet has commandeered the thing and is using it as part of her pitch for replacing Gordo (Gordon Brown) when he is finally dumped.

I question how much time companies should spend on pondering the legislation since the chance of it being implemented, or implemented in its current state, is remote. Dick Stroud

Designing web sites for the older users

It is nice to see an age related web design article that starts by talking some common sense.

The discussion on web design for older site visitors often drifts towards accessibility and gets mixed up with looking at disabilities rather abilities, but this should not always be a given.

Not every person over 65 years has eyesight so poor that they have to increase text size or change the contrast of text colours. Not every person over the retirement age has problems with motor control or significant short term memory loss. The diversity of the 65+ user group is enormous.

A website might be easy to use for someone over 75 years old simply because they're experienced web surfers or familiar with the site. In contrast you might find someone younger, but with less Internet experience, struggling to use the same site.

It is not a bad list of things to do and not to do. My only gripe is that it doesn’t cover any of the issues of using Web 2.0 technology, especially AJAX. Dick Stroud

European mobile web users

These numbers are from comScore showing the differences in the types of Web sites searched by the age of the person - note this is for mobile web use. I am so glad to see that I am not the only person who is paranoid about the weather! What a differences in the use of social networking sites (16.5% compared to 2.5%).

The data is for mobile Web users in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. Dick Stroud

Even Google talks nonsense

The Google Retail Blog contains a post titled: “Lucrative Adventures in Neverland: Understanding and Reaching the Boomer Consumer.” It is dreadful. It looks like it was written in 10 mins after a rapid canter through Wikipedia.

I loved the last pearl of wisdom that was left with the reader:

Recently, we've seen nostalgia-themed advertising campaigns for companies like Target, Coke, and Nationwide Insurance; marketers' goal in revisiting the past is to distil the economic anxiety of the present.

Some of these campaigns involve combining the best of the past and present in order to bring in younger audiences, but boomers, in particular, tend to benefit from nostalgic targeting that reminds them of their youth.

Google – if this is the standard of your analysts I suggest you stick to technical stuff. Dick Stroud