The biggest Ponzi scheme of all time

There’s lots of stuff being published about Madoff and how his Ponzi scheme was the biggest of all time. He might have burnt through 20 Billion, some say 50 Billion, whatever, it's a big number.

Compared with the UK Government, Madoff hadn’t got past page one of the Idiots Guide to Ponzi schemes. He was an amateur, not even worth a footnote in the history of Ponzis.

The article in the Sunday Times by Dominic Lawson spells out the unbelievable mess the UK is in because of the ageing population and the unwillingness of the Government to have done anything about its consequences other than make matters a hell of lot worse.

Mr Lawson quotes a European Commission report, about The Sustainability of Public Finances, dated 2006 (yes 2006) that said:

The United Kingdom has been placed in excessive deficit procedure and the European Council has recommended that the United Kingdom bring the deficit below 3 % of GDP by the financial year 2006/07 at the latest.

As a result of the weak fiscal position in recent years, the debt/GDP ratio has risen by around 5 % of GDP in three years, to 42.8 % of GDP in 2005 (42 % for the financial year 2005/06).

Do you know what the debt/GDP ratio is now? Come on have a guess. You won’t believe it? Trust me it is a big, big number. OK, double the figure in 2005 and add a bit (87%).

Lawson goes on to say that the IMF says that the

Fiscal headache of the credit crunch is as nothing to the migraine which, absent a change in policies, is about to pulverise us: it states that in the period between now (yes, that is 2009) and the middle of the century, the fiscal impact of the credit crunch will be about a tenth of that caused by the demographic crunch.

Let me spell this out for you. The Ponzi scheme we have been living through over the past couple of decades, but especially since the mid 1990s, has been paying Jo Public a ridiculously large amount compared with the money contributed.

Everybody has been living in Alice in Wonderland. The Government was able to position itself as the wise investor and manager of the nation’s wealth and Jo Public has done pretty well with zillions of new jobs created in the Public Sector and a continuous stream of initiatives, interventions, and policies to make everybody feel happy.

It was all a sham. Just as the credit crunch caused Madoff's scheme to collapsed so it has with UK New Labour Ltd. The scheme is collapsing in front of our eyes and guess who is going to pick up the tab. Jo Public, Jo Public’s kids and their kids. What a mess.

Marketers need to start preparing for how the will exist and thrive in a low growth, austere economy. Better start today. Dick Stroud

Two new books about doing business with Boomers

There is a steady stream of new books appearing about Boomer XXXX and Boomer YYYY. Here are some details about two that I have recently read – well partially read.

Boomer Selling, by Steve Howard, is all about: “Helping the wealthiest generation in history own your premium products and services.”

Boomer Marketing, by Ian Chaston, is about: “Selling to a recession resistant market.”

Having written a book about the subject matter covered in both of these titles I find it very difficult to give an objective review.

Every author has a different approach to writing a book – every reader has different requirements.

Boomer Marketing is firmly based at the ‘academic’ end of the writing spectrum containing piles of references to other academic papers and using the language and detachment of the academic journals I review for the IDM's Journal. You can download some additional content from the publisher’s web site that will give a feel for the author’s style when discussing segmentation. This book will be ideal for the final year business studies students who contact me and who want a quick fix on stuff about oldies.

Boomer Selling is at the other end spectrum and the sort of book you pick up at an airport – very chatty – very direct – lots of statements like “Boomers won’t postpone gratification” and “Know our emotions and bring yours”. Have a quick listen to the author talking about the book.

It is not the fault of the authors that neither book comes anywhere near to reflecting the new reality, the opportunities and grave dangers caused by the recession. Because of the gestation time of writing and the process of publication it would be unreasonable to expect this to happen. Boomer Marketing makes an effort, but only at a cosmetic level.

If you are interested in the 50-plus market then you could do a lot worst than purchase both books – there are always a few factlets and challenges to conventional thinking that makes such books worthwhile. Dick Stroud

1.8 million UK grandparents save for the grandchildren

The importance of grandparents' spending and wealth transfer to their grandchildren must not be undersestimated, or worse ignored.

Grandchildren are important to their grandparents. Day in and day out, gramps and granny are spending large amounts of dosh on their kids children.

This bit of research from Saga concludes that 13% of the grandparents (1,800,000) regularly save money for their grandchildren and that 20% of grandchildren will receive a pots of £10,000+ when they reach adulthood. The way the UK economy is going they will need it!

I would have thought this intergenerational dynamic is of great interest for the Financial Services Industry. Dick Stroud

The Economist survey on ageing.

I reckon The Economist is fantastic value for money.

Each week, in one publication, you get a distilled summary and interpretation of the important things that are happening in the world – all for the princely sum of £100/year.

OK, advert over.

This week’s edition has a special survey on the ageing of the world’s population. I have had a quick scan at the online version and it looks great. Definitely worth purchasing.

In its section about selling to the older demographic it perfectly summed up the situation.

The hardest thing about selling to older people is that they are such a heterogeneous group. Someone in his 70s may be in frail health and living in an old folks’ home; or he may be running for president of the United States, as John McCain did last year. There are many shades of grey.

You can say that again. Isn’t it a terrific photo on the cover? Dick Stroud

Seminar about 50+ marketing

The third Retirement Show will be taking place in London on Friday 17 and Saturday 18 July at London Olympia's Grand Hall. Before the event starts, on the 16th, there is a day marketing seminar, at the same location. I will be on the boards talking about all things Internet. The programme has some interesting looking sessions. Dick Stroud

A really excellent blog

I have referenced the Aging in Place Technology Watch blog a couple of times.

It really is an excellent place to learn all about the developments in technology aimed at assisting older people.

Laurie Orlov, the person behind the blog is a tech industry veteran, who clearly knows what she is talking about and who writes in a most engaging way.

If you register on the site you can download the Technology of Aging in Place market overview report. Well worth doing. Dick Stroud

Don't keep telling me about the problem give me a solution

Aviva is the UK’s largest insurance company and has taken to doing bits of research showing the dire financial straights of the UK’s over-50s as they reach retirement not having enough savings for their own wellbeing or that of their parents.

The most recent press release is: ‘Baby gloomers’ unprepared for parents’ retirement care.” The one before was: “A growing sandwich generation survives not thrives.”

I am sure the research is right on both accounts; however, it raises an interesting marketing question: “ Why keep telling people that they are, or will be poor, when they can’t do anything about it.” Maybe worse than that, why keep telling them about their lack of savings when they perceive the reason for their plight as being the fault, probably incorrectly, of the incompetence of finance companies like Aviva.

Aviva, don’t get me wrong, I totally understand why you are undertaking this PR research and I am sure the messages you are telling are true and sensible, but isn’t it counterproductive?

Now here is an idea for you. You rightly identify that there is a lack of knowledge about the costs and procedures of providing care. Why not divert your PR research budget into creating the definitive web site to help the sandwich generation navigate the unfathomable route between the NHS, social services and the charities who make up the elder care jigsaw. Dick Stroud.

Including the digitally excluded

There is a lot of chat about enabling the digitally excluded to jump the chasm and reap the benefits of the digital world.

Mostly it is just talk.

Many older people, mainly in their late sixties, seventies and eighties, don’t have the desire, patience or perceived need to get to grips with PCs, Windows and all of the paraphernalia of needed to use the Internet.

I have written about a UK company called Finerday that is trying to make this jump a little easier. Now I have discovered a US company (Famililink) with the same intention and not dissimilar technical approach.

The question niggling me is that if an older person learns enough to be able to use either of these services why will you not go the extra 10% and start using generic software. No doubt somebody will answer that question.

There are very few organisations that are doing the hard work and providing services to help older people take the first steps and get to grips with the wonders of IT.

In the UK, Digital Unite is leader. I wonder if there are equivalents in other parts of the world? Dick Stroud

Are Baby Boomers killing Facebook and Twitter?

I suppose it must be like your mum and dad turning up at a club/pub/party and wanting to be introduced to your friends. Shock and horror. This is what seems to be going on with Facebook and Twitter. A couple of my friends who recently joined Facebook couldn't wait to go and check out their children’s profile.

Are there no places for Yoof to go where they blasted parents don’t want to follow? Dick Stroud

Importance of middle-aged women

Here are a couple of factlets for you about the Web use of UK women.

According to a study that will be published in the summer by the Internet Advertising Bureau and that is being conducted by Nielsen Online, women between the ages of 35 and 49 are now the largest demographic group on the web, representing 15% of the UK online population.

The next largest demographic group is 18-34-year old women and 35-49 year-old men, each representing 14% of the internet audience. How interesting. Dick Stroud

Is the public sector a major customer – be worried be very worried

Imagine you are in a boat that has just survived a horrendous storm.

Bits of rigging are broken, the galley is in a mess but you are all still alive. The sun is breaking through the clouds and you and crew give a collective shout of joy. You look over your shoulder and see on the horizon, what looks like a solid black line of clouds.

You look again and it appears to be rapidly approaching. You should be worried but you guess that if you survived one storm what more can go wrong. Big mistake. Big. Huge.

Two stories in yesterday’s press should send a shudder down the spines of all companies that get a significant amount of business from the public sector. That includes a lot of businesses that are dependant on local authority spending to provide services to older people.

Quote 1. PricewaterhouseCooper accountants said that whichever party wins the next election, there will have to be cuts of around 15% totalling a huge £22 billion. PWC’s John Hawksworth said: “Public spending cuts may need to be greater than either party is admitting. “If health is protected then other departmental spending would need to be cut by around 15% in real terms.

Quote2. More than half of UK jobs created in the business services sector during the past five years will be axed by 2011, a study suggests. About 334,000 jobs will be lost in the sector because of the credit crunch and recession, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said. Firms who worked for the public sector would suffer as spending by government bodies are tightened.

The UK has vast array of companies that owe their existence to the past decade of massive government spending. For a lot of these are quasi-marketing companies it is time to batten the hatches, look for new markets and pray. Dick Stroud

Spending power of the 50-plus

I have given up blogging about the economic importance of the 50-plus on the basis that everybody knows all about that and it doesn’t need it to be endlessly repeated.

Yesterday, I had a chat with a marketing agency about some work they are doing for a major international company, I wont say what industry because that will identify the company, but it appears that their marketing staff are unaware of the economic clout of their older customers.

This article in Media Post states again the sort of facts that I had assumed all marketers understand – clearly that is not the case.

• People 50-plus earn $2.4 trillion annually compared to $1 trillion for the 18-34 group.
• According to McKinsey, people 50+ generate 41% of all disposable income.
• They buy 60% of all packaged goods, over half of all new cars and spend 75% more per vacation than consumers under 50.
• In 2007, people over 50 spent 3.5 times the national average holiday shopping online.

I don’t expect these stats will make a jot of difference to marketers who are still institutionally youth-centric but I guess they still need to be repeated. Dick Stroud

It’s obvious – why bother with the research

Reckon you know something about fonts, older people and browsers. See how you get on with these questions:

"In this day and age, most people who need to increase their font sizes in their web browser already know how to do it." Right or Wrong?

"People who do need to resize type will do so via the browser; it's not hard to do so." Rights or Wrong?

"It's not 1995; not all 50+ people are such newbies that they don't know, or wouldn't want to know, how to resize text in a browser." Right or Wrong?

"The people who most need to increase font size are people 65+, which is the group least-likely to be skilled enough to have adjusted settings." Right or Wrong?

Now go an have a look at the latest edition of Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox for the answers and find out how some hot shots from the Web design world got on with the questions. Dick Stroud

Matt - thanks for a great newsletter

Matt Thornhill is the founder and president of a company called Boomer Project. If you haven’t subscribed to his newsletter you should.

I have just got around to reading the June edition and it contains some really interesting links to Boomer focused businesses that are totally new to me.

The one I really liked is Sonic Boomers that describes itself as

Monday through Friday there are daily links to relevant news for the Boomer audience, as well as a different song spotlighted from the entire history of recorded music. Each Friday, new album, DVD and book reviews are published, along with feature stories, interviews, and a highlighted article from the archives of rock 'n roll history.

It looks an inviting and well constructed web site. Matt, thanks for publicising. Dick Stroud

Goodbye, 9 to 5 TV Part 2

A few days back I wrote a blog post about the launch of a new 50-plus social networking site and TV channel. You can now have a look at the style of the programming from this clip that is published on YouTube.

Clearly this is a low budget business and it will be incredibly difficult for it to gain visibility amongst the sea of channels available on UK TV. That said I reckon the founders need congratulating on a brave venture. I do wish them success. I guess it is in their business plan but I would ditch the TV Channel and focus on publishing the video programming via the Web. Dick Stroud

50-plus business ventures - lessons from the US

Each year a competition takes place, at Santa Clara University, called the Boomer Summit where start-up businesses pitch for a prize for the best business concept aimed at the Boomer market.

So where do our friends in the US see the future of Boomer ventures. These are the concepts of the five finalists

A super- dopper hearing aid. The venture is not launched.

Ageing in place. Two of the companies are having a crack at this sector one of which is Life at Home Longer - the other is to launch.

Providing information to assist with the selection of care homes/service using user generated content. The Senior List

Medical tourism – how to make your retirement income go further by selecting cheaper medical assistance from abroad Traveling4Health. .

My observations are:

No surprises. This is what I would expect in the UK. To be honest they are all a tad too predictable.

The popularity of Ageing in place – This is going to be such big business since it provides a solution that is popular with the customer and, in the case of the UK, the Government since it is perceived as a way of saving money.

What is disappointing is the paucity of technology solutions. If you are not going to get high tech solutions coming from the West Coast you are sure as eggs are eggs not going to get them coming from the UK. Dick Stroud

Go Computer Part 2

A few days ago I wrote about the launch of computer aimed at older people. At that stage there was not that much detail available. This blog posting from the excellent Aging in Place Technology Watch blog gives a much more detailed account and review of the product. Dick Stroud

50-plus less likely to lose their job during the recession

Thanks to Rick Hartley for telling me about this factlet. A few days back I wrote about the: “Resilience of employment amongst the 50-plus.”

In the UK it appears that the young are having a worse time of things, as far as remaining employed during the recession, than the 50-plus. Getting employed again, having lost a job, might be a very different issue.

The US appears to be following the same course as is demonstrated by this fact

The only segment of the population that is gaining jobs is the 55+ age category. This group gained 224,000 net new jobs in May while the rest of the population lost 661,000. In fact, over the last year, those folks 55 and up garnered 630,000 jobs whereas the other age categories collectively lost over six million positions.

"Moreover, the number of 55 year olds and up who have two jobs or more has risen 1.1% in the last year, the only age cohort to have managed to gain any multiple jobs at all.

I have no idea why this is happening but it is a very important issue for marketers who are trying to understand the result of the recession on their customer base.

It would seem that we can add to the usual list of reasons why the 50-plus are an important group the fact that they are more likely to remain employed. Dick Stroud

The Bookends Generations

Marketers instinctively look for the unique characteristics of individual consumer groups/segments to be able to tailor an offering and the communications to resonate with their special needs/requirements.

Many of the questions I get asked about the 50-plus focus on how they differ from other age groups. When I say: “in many ways they have similar attitudes to other age groups” I can see the look of disappointment and then the suspicion that guy doesn’t know what he is talking about.

A few marketing and Internet gurus have made it their life work to research and (dare I say) emphasise the difference between Generation Y and their parents and grandparents. A lot of the arguments are built upon Gen Y's supposed instinctive understanding of ‘technology’ that has somehow become part of their DNA. Like all of these arguments it is based on a grain of truth – the question is: “how significant of these differences.” More importantly, what is the magnitude of the differences compared to other factors like race, wealth and education.

There are a couple of studies that conclude that the Boomers and Gen Y have a lot more in common than is generally believed.

The Bookend Generations published this week by the US-based Center for Work-Life Policy and is about the US.

The Reflexive Generation is a report from the London Business School's Centre for Women in Business and is about the UK.

The LBS study is free. The Bookend Generations is $40.

Once I have read them both I will write again on this subject in detail.

An article that summaries and merges the two sets of findings appeared in Friday's FT.

It is nice to know that there are few other people who also question the extent of the generational differences. Dick Stroud

Sustenance and hope for caregivers of elderly parents

When people talk to me about 50-plus marketing they invariably have one of two things in mind.

Most often they are thinking of age-silo products like stairlifts, walk-in baths, hearing aids, retirement properties etc. Alternatively they are thinking about age neutral marketing (i.e. selling more multi-age products to the older demographic).

There is a third group of activities that few people want to talk about and this involves providing care for the elderly and services to carers. In the past the responsibility for providing care was assumed by the state and the relatives of the old person. This is changing as the traditional family structure disappears.

Let’s face it, looking after an incontinent and confused 80 year-old is not the sexiest of subjects. The final phase of life issues are things none of want to face. We prefer to ignore them until reality intervenes and creates a crisis.

I was recently sent a book to review called Sustenance and hope for caregivers of elderly parents by Author Gloria G. Barsamian. This is not a book about marketing but about the realities of being old and being a carer.

I have only just started reading it but it seems to provide a remarkably balanced and positive description of the subject. If you need a business reason to read such a book then consider the opportunities created by the rising 80+ population.

Another good and personal reason to read it is that a lot of us will be both a carer and the one being cared. Dick Stroud

An amusing photo

There is a small area of grass, called Parliament Square that is close to where MPs meet.

Over the past couple of years it has been used by all sorts of people wanting to make their voices heard – anti- war/pro-war, Greens, Tamils, Vegans, pro/anti Muslim groups etc etc.

Not to be outdone a pack of angry 50-plus have recently decided to make their point about the way their pensions have been decimated by the Labour Government.

Much more amusing than the usual deadly serious bunch that inhabits the place. Dick Stroud

Word of Mouth (offline) works better than online social media

The argument is more complex than my title suggests but that is the gist of the conclusions from a recent Harris research.

The thing that fascinated me was the results to the question: “"Thinking of that most recent product or service purchase, which of the following methods of gathering information, if any, did you use to identify the choices of product or service you considered for purchase? Please select all that apply."

Look how similar the results are over the age spectrum.

The big difference is the use made of public social networking site that is still Yoof dominated.

Look at the data for the percentage that use the company’s web site.

Thanks to Chuck Nyren for identifying this research - has also written about this subject. Dick Stroud

Who is having the best recession – the young or the old?

OK, the recession is a nasty thing, we are all agreed upon that fact.
Who's having it the worst - the old or the young?

It is the job of pressure/campaigning groups to paint their members as the people suffering the most pain, but what are the facts?

Look no further and download this brilliant document from the ONS. The answer seems to be that young are the ones who are really suffering. A few factlets.

• Employment rates for people over state pension age continued to rise, driven by increasing employment rates for women: over the year to March 2009, rates for women aged 60 and increased by 0.5%.
• Young people have experienced the largest percentage point increase in unemployment rates compared with other age groups: in the year to March 2009, unemployment rates for 18-24 year olds increased by just under 4% to 16.1%.
• Claimant proportions have increased for all age groups but young people were still the most likely to be claiming Jobseekers Allowance: in March 2009 (7.6%).
• Redundancy rates for young people have increased more than for older age groups: in the three months to March 2009, the rate for 16-24 year olds was 12.7% higher than the previous year compared to a rise of 7.6% for 25-34 year olds.

Looks like life might be getting tougher for brand managers relying on the Yoof Market . Dick Stroud

Recession and ageing population debt

The vast bulk of marketers are not taught (or incentivised) to think strategically. Strategy is the time when this year’s marketing comms budget finishes.

For those marketers who are still employed, which is the large majority, the recession is feeling a bit like a bad hangover that went on longer than normal but is beginning to feel like history. Ahhh

The lead article in this week’s Economist is all about the world of tomorrow that is dominated by debt. I will not do the magazine a disservice by attempting to summarise its arguments. Here are the first 200 words of the editorial.

Marketers had better start thinking about the implications of working in Debtland. Dick Stroud.

The worst global economic storm since the 1930s may be beginning to clear, but another cloud already looms on the financial horizon: massive public debt. Across the rich world governments are borrowing vast amounts as the recession reduces tax revenue and spending mounts—on bail-outs, unemployment benefits and stimulus plans.

New figures from economists at the IMF suggest that the public debt of the ten leading rich countries will rise from 78% of GDP in 2007 to 114% by 2014. These governments will then owe around $50,000 for every one of their citizens.

Not since the second world war have so many governments borrowed so much so quickly or, collectively, been so heavily in hock. And today’s debt surge, unlike the wartime one, will not be temporary. Even after the recession ends few rich countries will be running budgets tight enough to stop their debt from rising further. Worse, today’s borrowing binge is taking place just before a slow-motion budget-bust caused by the pension and health-care costs of a greying population.

By 2050 a third of the rich world’s population will be over 60. The demographic bill is likely to be ten times bigger than the fiscal cost of the financial crisis.

The Economist June 13th 2009.

Language of Ageing

Earlier this month I wrote about the names we use to describe older people.

This blog entry considers some of the terms us marketers are all too happy to bandy about without really knowing what they mean. Terms like retirement, caregiver, Sandwich Generation and aging in place. These terms don’t have any absolute meaning and as sure as eggs are eggs they don’t mean very much to older person.

Maybe I should create a directory of ageing terms.

The message for marketers is not to be lazy and slip into using terms that are open to misinterpretation just because of the effort required to accurately define/explain. Dick Stroud

June Newsletter has just been published

I haven’t kept my New Year’s resolution and published the 20plus30 newsletter at the beginning of each month. No excuses, just the pressure of work and idleness.

Anyway, I have just made a mid-year resolution and will ensure that a newsletter is published each month from today forward.

The June edition has the following contents:

• Recession forces marketers to get smart - gives access to my latest article.
• Reveals the impact of the recession on the 50-plus - details of the research I conducted with Mature Marketing.
• InTwoFocus -news about the launch of my Web video company
• Best practice in 50-plus marketing – details of the Webinar series I edited that contains contributions from the great and the good of the 50-plus marketing world.

What a feast of great content. Dick Stroud

A new 50-plus TV channel

Way back in March 2007 I discovered Ning and created a social networking site for the 50-plus, all before breakfast. Well to be honest it was the bare bones of a site but I was fascinated to see how easy it was to use this amazing generic social networking software.

Now somebody has done it properly and created Goodbye 9 to 5. Not only have they produced a web site but have also launched a TV channel.

This is what they say about themselves.

A new TV programme produced by Serious Leisure TV, who already make The Caravan Channel, a specialist programme for caravanners, motorhome owners and tent campers.

Goodbye, 9 to 5! starts broadcasting on Information TV, Sky channel 166/Freesat 402 on Wednesday, 10th June 2009, and the first edition will run for two weeks, showing on Wednesdays, Fridays and Mondays at 6pm. After the initial two weeks, the show will become weekly, with each new edition premiering on Wednesday.

Goodbye, 9 to 5! has a general magazine format, but some segments have a strong bias towards the interests of older people - for instance, the first edition has an item about bus passes, and an editorial special about pensions for military service people who retired before present pension conditions came into force.

Goodbye,9 to 5! won't be a static kind of production - over coming weeks and months, it will evolve into a strong and campaigning programme promoting and defending the rights and liberties of the individual - especially when the individuals in question are over 55!

I will certainly be recording the programme on Wednesday and will post a blog item with my opinions. I wish the guys who started the channel the very best of success. Dick Stroud

I want a hero

The past 18 months has been the era of villains.

First it was the nasty bankers that soon expanded to include all “big business” that reached a crescendo with anger and fury at the political class. The corporate world has either tried to stay below the radar, hoping not to be noticed, or to prostrate themselves as being ‘sorry’ and promising to do better.

Nobody has tried to claim the space of being a hero – a company that is sympathetic to the mood of the citizenry and who wants to do the best for them.

This weekend Marks and Spencer must have spent a fortune, even at today’s highly discounted advertising rates, to splater much of the Sunday press with a campaign about its caring and green credentials. The series of ads started with the one above then moved into product specific pitches.

About a year back I sat through a cringe-inducing presentation by a guy from M&S who was selling this “doing the right thing” concept. The audience included a large number of older people. It didn’t go down a storm.

I would be fascinated to know how this new campaign is being received by the older demographic. My hunch is with eye-rolling indifference but I might be totally wrong. Dick Stroud

It might make Microsoft try a bit harder

Back in February I was berated by a lady from Microsoft for suggesting the company wasn’t doing very much to help people suffering from the physiological effects of ageing.

I was wrong and I listed some of the things the company was doing to make using computers a little easier. I think the real problem is that few people know about the existence of these features.

The launch of the Go Computer might make MS think a little harder about this issue. The product provides:

• large-letter keyboard
• easy-rolling trackball mouse
• zoom feature that magnifies up to 200%

These are the easy bits that anybody could add to a computer. The thing that might make it really different - beware the devil’s in the detail - is a:

New operating system based on a "GO" screen concept, backed up by immediate phone access to around-the-clock U. S.-based remote service and assistance.
A computer you can’t break, crash or confuse; a computer that won’t lose what’s put into it, and that’s protected from viruses and spam! Welcome to the world of a failure-free and fear-free computer.

Guess we will have to wait and see just how easy the product really is to use. It is not cheap $800 and I would expect a lot of "ease of use" at this price. Dick Stroud

What a waste of talent

Martha Lane Fox is an incredible lady. When I taught at LBS I sat through a session of her talking to a group of senior partners from PWC when she explained how she went about setting up and running Lastminute.com. She was amazing.

After her company was floated she left and was at the point of entering upon what would have been an amazingly successful role as a major UK businessperson. Tragedy struck and she suffered a horrible car accident that has taken her out of the public eye for a few years.

I was so sad to hear that she appears to become the latest secondee to our failing Government in the role of “Digital Champion”. This is another one of those fruitless exercises to give the impression of Government action that is all spin and no substance.

I was recently sitting having a coffee, in one of the places that provides the people to come up with these daft ideas, when I overheard conversation where they were talking about “Rebooting Britain”. God save us!

The idea is to ‘empower’ the digital “have nots” – a large number of them being in the older age group. This is such a waste of her talent.

Not that the cause of getting more people (of any age) online is not a good one but because it is being done for all of the wrong reasons and is destined to failure. It will disappear into obscurity like all of the Government ‘initiatives’. There is also the fact that this Government is in disarray and will not be around for much longer.

Miss Lane-Fox, you are an ultra smart lady, why get involved? A senior female minister has recently resigned from the UK Government saying she was only chosen to be “window dressing”. She was dead right. Surely you can see what is happening?

If the stories are true then the first person that she should contact is Emma Solomon who runs the Silver Surfers events and who knows more about the reality of getting older people online than anybody else I know. Martha, there is still time to change your mind. Dick Stroud

Seniors as entrepreneurs - their time has come

Business Week has an article about the growing number of older people who are starting their own business. I have to say the article is a content-free zone but the point it is making is an important one.

Companies that provide services and products aimed at assisting older people to run a business have a booming market that will boom even faster in the future as a result of the recession.

Marketers in financial services, franchise and business services companies should be exploiting this opportunity. Dick Stroud

Watching web video is becoming age neutral

According to Nielsen Online, YouTube continued to rank as the No. 1 video Web brand with 5.5 billion total streams in April 2009. During this month, people between the ages of 35 and 49, was the fastest growing demographic in time spent viewing per viewer, increasing 29% during the past six months. This was 13% higher than the growth of time spent viewing per viewer for the overall market, which increased 16% over the same 6-month period.

It’s great to see this increasing acceptance of Web video by the older age group since I own a video production company (InTwoFocus) that specialises in this market. Thanks to Reg Starkey for telling me about this research. Dick Stroud

New HSBC report about retirement

HSBC has published its fifth annual Future of Retirement study.

All a bit doom and gloom. The results show that nearly 9 out of 10 people are not feeling fully prepared for their retirement. I would have thought it would have been 9.9 out of 10.

The bottom line of this document is that most people are clueless about their pensions, they don’t have enough saved and have no idea how they will support themselves during retirement. What the report doesn’t say is that the same comments apply to most of the national governments.

A nice glossy report with lots of graphs etc but doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know. Dick Stroud

A car for the green Boomer?

It would seem that Tesla reckons that their Roadster sports car should be attractive to the older ‘green’ conscious 50-plus. Let’s hope the potential customers aren’t viewers of the UK’s favourite car programme.

My abiding memory of this car is that it is powered by the equivalent of 6,831 laptop batteries. I am not sure if that is an apocryphal story or not but it certainly conjures up an interesting image. Apologies to non-Brits, some of the humour is very UK-centric. Dick Stroud

Self indulgent twaddle

This is mainly a gripe/moan but there is a serious point about the idea that there are collective generational attitudes.

Today the WSJ has an item titled: “Boomers to This Year's Grads: We Are Really, Really Sorry” in which it lists some of the comments being made at US graduation events. Obviously, the article is going to be selective in the quotes it uses but the message it conveys is one that keeps popping up in the US and to a lesser extent in the UK. These quotes give you a feel for the sentiments:

The collective advice for the class of 2009: Don't be like us (Boomers).

We have been self-absorbed, self-indulgent and all too often just plain selfish.

The grasshopper generation, eating through just about everything like hungry locusts.

We have limited the potential of future generations by burdening them with our poor choices and our unwillingness to make tough ones.

Most of the speakers were from the world of politics, academia and the media (i.e. the ‘chattering’ class).

One contributor to the article said about this collective spasm of self-flagellation: “You think about what an apology does, it allows you to maintain the moral high ground."

Here is how I see it.

Firstly, this bunch of worthies has the arrogance to think they can make pronouncements about “their generation”. Wrong. The belief that you can extrapolate your own attitudes and beliefs to the rest of the planet, because they happen to be born at the same time as you, is plainly daft.

Secondly, these self appointed generational spokesman (I specifically mean ‘man’ not spokeswomen) inhabit the small enclave of people that are continually represented in the media. The more they appear, the more they appear, the more their views of the world are taken as ‘fact’.

Finally, this group share a common trait. They rarely allow reality to encroach and influence their ‘ideals’. What I mean by this is that 30-40 years ago these same people would have been nattering on about whatever the ‘radical’ issue of the day happened to be. They started with unrealistic ideals and are astonished they haven’t been attained. As they push their zimmer frames around they will still be blathering on in the same way.

Lesson for the day. Marketers must look beyond the media pronouncements about generational issues – and any other issue come to that. Dick Stroud

Internet use - all about age and socio economic class

This report contains a lot of words (187 pages) to tell use something that I think we all understood.

The reasons why people don’t have Internet connection at home is because they cannot afford it or don’t see the point.

People in their 70s and 80s, who were brought up in an era before PCs, have the hurdle of both understanding computing and the Internet and are less likely to be connected.

Social Class and age (over 75) are good predictors of Internet use.

What more is there to say? If we are looking for budget cuts then Ofcom might be a good place to start if they think it is worse spending so much money telling us the obvious. Dick Stroud

Is it surprising that UK pensions are in such a mess?

This has nothing to do with marketing to over-50s. It is a simple but heartfelt moan.

We all know about the financial issues of the ageing population and the impact of the recession on pensions. There are no simple answers.

The “big issues” are simple to understand but beneath them is a complex web of factors that takes time and intellect to understand.

Following the recent convulsions of the Government we have had our 11th minister put in charge of UK pensions. The previous incumbent (anybody remembers her name) was only appointed in October 2008.

It is not surprising that the situation of the UK’s pensions is in such a mess. On average ministers spend about 12 months in the job. That’s even less time than your average brand and marketing manager! Dick Stroud

Insights into the recession’s effect on older consumers

There has been little detailed research done into the impact of the recession on the UK’s over-50s. I decided that it was time to do something about this and joined with Mature Marketing to undertake a survey of over 1,600 older people, using Mature Time’s national newspaper and web site.

I reckon this is most current and thorough research on the subject.

The results are fascinating. Here are a few factlets to whet your appetite.

Over 25% say the recession has had little or no effect with a third reporting that they have not changed their spending patterns.

Over 60% say the recession has resulted in them only making a few cutbacks in their expenditure.

Despite older people holding 80% of savings and investment assets in the UK, the fall in interest rates has seriously affected only 20% of respondents.

Not all of the news is so positive - 12% have cut back drastically on spending.

The banks and the Labour Government are blamed for the economic problems resulting in a significant swing to the Conservatives and minority parties.

The 50-plus are giving far more financial support to their families than they are receiving.

Charitable donations have been badly, and I mean badly, hit by the recession.

If you want to read the detail then all you need to do is download the report. What could be simpler than that? If you would like a PowerPoint version then send me an e-mail.

All I ask in return is that if you use the results that you attribute the research to 20plus30 and Mature Marketing. Dick Stroud

Closure on the Heyday disaster

Every time I say: “that’s the last time I write anything about Heyday” something else emerges that warrants a blog posting.

This time it is the publication of a report by Sir Christopher Kelly (The chairman of the NSPCC and of the Committee on Standards in Public Life) and was written at the behest of Age Concern. Well done Age Concern for wanting to get all of the mess out into the open.

This report should/must be mandatory reading for any management team intending to have a punt at the 50-plus market. I squirmed as I read it.

Here are a few quotes from Sir Christopher Kelly:

"A classic case study of what not to do if you want an organisation to succeed".

"There was a significant failure of governance", and Heyday was "planned and implemented in a way that was almost bound to fail".

"Heyday was a high-profile programme by a major charity that went disastrously wrong and ended up costing the charity significant amounts of money," said Kelly. "Not to account for that in an intelligible way to their own members and supporters, still less the wider public, seems to me to be untenable."

He was "struck by an element of defensiveness in the ACE culture, and by what I see as an unwillingness on the part of some, until very recently, to face up to the reality of what happened with Heyday".

"There was a strong element of wishful thinking in the charity's approach" and "some of those concerned became carried away with the strength of the vision". There were "potentially important lessons here for other charities" to learn, he added.

For the first time, it is possible to see a detailed breakdown of the £22m losses incurred by Age Concern that includes £6.7m on an IT system commissioned from IBM that did not work properly and £7.3m on employing staff.

I am ashamed of that my ex-employer was involved in this mess. It must have been clear that the Heyday staff didn't have a clue about IT but IBM kept sending the invoices.

What a nightmare. Being able to say: “told you so” gives me absolutely no pleasure. Dick Stroud

Marketers focus on the short term

A survey by the US Association of National Advertisers found that the recession has forced two-thirds of marketers to shift their focus to short-term strategies.

Relatively few respondents reported that any marketing initiatives had been shelved or delayed, but many are being reduced, including:
• Media budgets (56%)
• Production budgets (50%)
• Sponsorship/events activities (41%)

The activities most likely to be maintained throughout the recession include:
• Research and development (47%)
• Public relations (42%)
• Innovation/test/learn budgets (33%)
• Promotion activities (33%.

The activities most likely to be increased in the current economic environment are:
• Pricing deals (47%)
• Social networking and word of mouth activities (26%)
• Public relations efforts (23%)

This survey was conducted online in April 2009 among 129 members of the ANA Brand Marketer Leadership Community panel.

I am not sure what to make of these numbers since its was a small and highly selective research group. However, it provides a set of numbers against which to compare your own budgetary cuts. Dick Stroud

Usual ad – unusual location

Following on from the previous blog posting.

I was flipping through Saga magazine and amongst the usual array of age silo advertising I found this age neutral ad from Panasonic.

As far as I can remember this is a first for Panasonic to select media that targets an older demographic. How interesting. Dick Stroud

Vendors who should target boomers and seniors

If you are interested in the role of technology for the older person then visiting Laurie Orlov’s Ageing in Place Technology blog is a must.

This posting is typical of the style and content that you find on this blog. Orlov makes the case why tech vendors should get their act together and realise that they are already selling a pile of product to an older consumer and if they diverted a fraction of their Yoof marketing budget they might sell a lot more.

Companies discussed are Adobe, Cisco, iRobot, Sony, AMD, Apple, Dell and Verizon. Dick Stroud

Pressure on public spending – portents of the future?

I have been wittering on about the consequences for the UK’s future when public spending is slashed to reduce the fiscal deficit. Here are a couple of examples of what this means in reality.

Headline: Elderly left at risk by NHS bidding wars to find cheapest care with reverse auctions

An online auction system developed for councils to buy the cheapest refuge bins and stationery is being used to buy end-of-life and dementia care for vulnerable elderly people. The NHS in London has held a series of 30 “reverse e-auctions”, where bids are driven down instead of up, for £195 million worth of contracts for palliative and dementia care for patients leaving hospital.

The Times reports that standards and quality have deteriorated rapidly where these auctions have been used and in one case a company that won a local authority’s auction was struck off the national register of approved providers weeks later because the care it offered was of such poor quality.

Headline: Age Concern threatens to sue PCT over loss of contract

A regional division of Age Concern has lost a palliative care contract to Allied Healthcare. A charity spokesman said that many other charities were losing tenders because of the pressure on councils to cut costs. "What councils call 'best value' often means cheapest."

OK, OK so what does this mean? It means that if you supply services directly or indirectly to the public sector you will come under extreme pricing pressure. If you are interested in the 50-plus then this might well apply to you.

Terrifyingly, these two examples come from the era before the real pressure to reduce public spending started. Dick Stroud

What Mr Occam can tell Web designers

Every so often you read a blog posting and wish you had written it. This one is about the lessons that can be learnt from the logic of Occam’s Razor. I first came upon Mr Occam in the film ‘Contact’ with Jodie Foster, in which she says that: “it is the scientific principle that, all things being equal, the simplest answer is usually the right one."

Well strictly speaking this is not true. Mr Occam actually said: “"one should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything." If you want to get into the absolute details of what he said have a look at the Wikipedia definition

Anyway, the blog post uses the idea of Occam to make some extremely sensible conclusions about how it applies to online design. This should be mandatory reading for all Web designers. Dick Stroud

What’s in a name?

At the recent Older Richer Wiser conference there was a presentation from Warner Leisure Hotels.

One of the slides was about how to refer to the over-50s - answer - don’t use Baby Boomer, Pensioner, Third Ager and Silver Surfer. Dick Stroud

What not to do with branded content

Many thanks to Reg Starkey for sending me this video link. Highly amusing but with lessons for us all. Dick Stroud

Finerday is working

Way back in July 2007 I wrote about a new web site called Finerday.

My next posting was in September 2007 when I gave a more detailed commentary.

A lot has happened in the last 10 months.

I must congratulate the guys on producing a truly innovative web site that provides both a really simple interface for older people whilst making the site attractive to the younger person.

Believe me that is no small feat.

Along with getting the basic functionality to a working state the site now provides very effective screen capture videos in its “how to do” section.

I still have my concerns and doubts but we can leave those for another day.

Finerday has produced a communications engine that could enable older people, who might never use generic communications software, to get the advantages of messaging and networking with their friends and family. Well done. Dick Stroud

A joke is a joke but this is a pantomime

This is blog posting is about the marketing environment in the UK and is not specific to the 50-plus.

If you are a Brit you will know that we are living in weird times. Sorry, that is a daft understatement. We are living in terrifying times.

If you are gazing at the UK from overseas you might be picking up on the horror of a country where the 'ruling' political party is in terminal meltdown.

The news is dominated by the comings and goings of Labour MPs as Gordon Brown convulses and staggers to his ultimate demise. It is an unedifying and desperate sight.

During the past month we (Brits) seem to have forgotten that we are living slap bang in the early phases of long drawn out recession. Yes we have lots of “green shoot” stories and indeed things have stopped deteriorating at the same pace. Unfortunately, the UK’s future, for the next 5, maybe 10 years, will be one of a country with a horrendous fiscal deficit (i.e. we are spending far more money than we generate).

Last week Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator for the FT said: “The debate on how to curb public spending is, quite simply, the central issue in UK politics – the issue to be debated; it is not MPs’ expenses. It is how to share out the seemingly inescapable pain.”

Marketers in the UK, and US, had better start living in a world where taxes increase and government spending declines. Not for a year but for a decade. You had better be sure you know how this is going to affect your target markets.

If you think I am being overly pessimistic read this report from Policy Exchange and the IMF’s view of the UK’s future prospects. Dick Stroud

The more retro the better?

Retro advertising is back with a vengeance.

I have already talked about the way that Hovis’s new ad is an extrapolation of its classical old creative that fast forwards to today. Some might call it age neutral creative?

Hovis is not alone. Brent Green has a very interesting blog posting about the new Bacardi Mojito ad that uses a very similar approach.

Not to be outdone, Marks and Spencer is using Twiggy (age 59) as the core of the company’s 125th anniversary advertising. Same format, flashbacks from the “good old days”. There are a couple of other ads (names of companies escape me) that are using exactly the same format.

This blog posting provides another interesting take on Retro Marketing.

I suspect you can have a bit too much of retro, even for the over-50s market. Dick Stroud

Ageing and travel business

I have recently had another encounter with the hospitality and travel industry.

In a fit of idiocy I was persuaded to do the Three Peaks Challenge.

A word of advice - if anybody suggests you do this walk think of a good excuse. Failing that think of a bad excuse!

Seriously, it was a great experience and I am sure at some stage I will stop hobbling.

I took a train from Glasgow to Fort William, where the walk starts. It is one of the most beautiful train journeys in the world. I couldn’t resist doing a quick survey of the age profile of the passengers. I reckon between 60% - 70% were 50-plus.

Before the walk I stayed at the local Youth Hostel. Here again I reckon the age profile was well into the majority being 50-plus. Makes a bit of a mockery of the name ’Youth’ hostel.

I wonder if either the Scottish Youth Hostels or the local rail company had thought through the implications on their business of ageing population. I doubt it. Dick Stroud

Marketing in the Hotel Industry recession

At the end of May I was asked to present to the general managers and marketers at Classic Hotels, about the joys and heartbreaks of marketing in the Hospitality Industry during the recession.

It is a raw PowerPoint presentation but I thought it might be of interest.

Not surprisingly, I believe that parts of the over-50s market are reasonably recession-proof, however, this presentation is not limited to the older market. Hope you find it useful. Dick Stroud