What’s a fair wealth distribution?

I have written on a couple of occasions about the issue of intergenerational fairness. The last time was in response to a particularly daft article in The Observer.

Once I can get some time I want to read David Willett’s book, The Pinch, that is all about this subject. Yesterday, the author was speaking the LSE about the plight of younger people and their inability to mirror the wealth of their parents and grandparents.

The graphic is taken from this session.

A question that I wish somebody would answer is if the wealth distribution is unfair – what would be a ‘fair’ distribution?

Of course I don’t expect anybody to answer this question, so let me ask a harder one. If there is zero inflation then you probably could hazard a guess at the answer, unfortunately inflation varies and nobody living to day has a clue what it will be in five years time.

So, let’s say we have period of very high inflation (yesterday UK inflation hit 3.5%). When I was 26 the UK inflation rate hit 25%. An older person, who has not source of income and is dependant on their wealth to fund the rest of their life, was seeing it evaporate in front of their eyes.

So I ask the question again, considering that nobody has the foggiest idea what inflation will be in the future – what is a fair distribution of the wealth today. Dick Stroud

Words of guidance about the design of mobile apps

Some more words of wisdom from Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, this time about the design of mobile apps. As with most of Nielsen’s comments they are most definitely worth the read. Here is what he has to say.

Most mobile applications are used only intermittently, so they must be especially easy during initial use. In particular, upfront registration shouldn't be required before users experience an app's benefits.

His "master guideline" remains the same as in 1986: don't port a UI from an old interface paradigm to a new one. In the past, this meant not slapping a GUI on top of something that was inherently a clunky mainframe flow. Now, it means not adding touch-screen access to a desktop-oriented direct manipulation design — users can't touch as precisely as they can click, so the number of manipulable graphical objects should be much smaller (so that each one can be much bigger). This is particularly valid for older users.

Nielsen’s main conclusion from watching iPhone app users is that they suffered much less misery than users in our mobile website tests. In fact, testing people using iPhone apps produced happier outcomes than testing people attempting to use websites on the same phone.

On mobile devices, applications are easier to use than websites. Browser-based sites would be easier to use if designers started following more mobile usability guidelines.

Why are apps better than sites for mobile? Because the more impoverished the device, the more the design must be optimized for the platform's exact abilities, instead of bowing to a cross-platform common denominator. Wise words. Dick Stroud

A "little something" for when I die

Many of my parent’s generation had insurance policies so that when they died their children wouldn’t have to pay for their funeral. It was just the way it was.

Being concerned about the "final day in the ground" comes way down my list of financial priorities, but as I know so well, you cannot extrapolate the desires of the market from your own opinions.

Clearly, there are a lot of people, like my mum and dad, otherwise LV= (the worst corporate name in history) the finance group wouldn't be launching this TV advertising campaign to promote its '50 Plus plan'.

As I watch the ad I wonder who it is aimed at. Is it the children, to try and get them to encourage their parents to take out a policy or the parents themselves? A bit of both I guess.

The Creative Director of the advertising agency said: "It's a new approach that takes the tried and tested formula we know customers like and uses it in a dynamic and emotive way". A splash of guilt and a dash of the promise of fond memories all packaged in a suitable multi-cultural ad.

Apparently the advertisement was previewed on Facebook and YouTube in December 2009 before being launched on terrestrial, satellite and cable channels in January 2010. Interesting. Dick Stroud

Well done to the Bookbite team

A while back I spent some time working with the people behind a campaign to encourage older people to join book clubs and to write their own books. I have never really understood why by the name of the project is Bookbite. 

Considering the very short time and limited budget they had to get the project airborne I think they have done a good job. The BBC certainly thought they had. Dick Stroud

Business of Ageing conference in Dublin

On March 3, I will be speaking at a conference in Dublin called Business of Ageing.

In addition to the conference web site you can get some good background information about what is happening in Ireland, with regard to the 50-plus, from this excellent article that was published in The Sunday Post.
 
Naturally, I am going to say it was an excellent article since it has lot of quotes from me! Dick Stroud

Mobile apps for Boomers

A month or so ago I launched a test blog that was dedicated to all things to do with mobile apps and older consumers.

I have made a few tweaks, and still have a few more to make, but this is near to the finished format. So as the domain says apps4boomers. Dick Stroud

50-plus web site for sale – one careful owner

I was vaguely aware of The Silver Surfers Guide web site. It was one of the many sites that appeared like a fresh crop of mushrooms during the period when people thought that all you had to do was put '50-plus' or 'Boomer' on a site and zillions of people would come clicking.

Well the site is up for sale. Here is what the blurb says. The website provides good returns from online advertising and other revenue streams, such as its incorporated over 50's dating site.

The dating site alone currently generates in the region of £5000 per annum, with sufficient refinement of marketing this figure could be much greater. There is genuinely no limit to the potential scope for this business, particularly for someone keen to move towards the increasingly more popular social networking arena. The business started trading in November 2008.

Trading was temporarily suspended between January 2009-August 2009 due to site redevelopment and recommenced in August 2009.

Turnover during the 9 months of active trading is £27,388.34 ex VAT. The site averages 12,000 unique visits every week and approximately 30,000 page impressions.

By my calculation this means the site is making £0.045/unique visitor. Mmmm

Full marks for the guy/girl for trying to sell it at this price. My bet is that they would be open to offers. Remember the old saying: "Buyer Beware". Dick Stroud

AXA launches motor insurance brand with 'pavement rage' ad

AXA is launching a £10m marketing campaign to support the launch of its new direct motor insurance product targeting older drivers. This is AXA’s first foray into the direct insurance. Previously it had focused on the broker market.

I am quoting from Brand Republic that: “AXA Car Insurance will target older drivers who feel they are not catered for by other brands, by offering them a 90% no claims bonus.”

The TV ad shows pedestrians bashing into one another on a busy city-centre
pavement. A voiceover then states, ‘You wouldn't behave this way on foot, so why would you when you are driving?'

The tagline for the campaign is: ‘AXA drivers get up to 90% discount on their car insurance. Disrespectful drivers don't.'

In parallel TV celebrity Charley Boorman (who you might ask is he) will front a PR push, including a website inviting consumers to air their views on the state of behaviour on the road today. How weird.

As you will see from the ad, the big punch line for Axa is - Redefining Standards. I mean, that is going to really get grampa out of his seat and punching the air.

Some obvious observations. This is a covert campaign that selects the older age group on the basis of their long driving record without a claim. I can see the strength in that argument. So unlike RIAS there is no mention of 50+ or anything to do with age.

But, my hunch is that by making the creative so confrontational – literally – the message about 90% discount is going to get lost. I am still thinking about attractive oriental looking lady, the short guy and the lunatic looking women.

And, one thing that older people (who I wonder do they mean as older) tend not to like is confrontation and aggression (yep, I know a bit generalisation). I think a lot of people will have switched off their engagement with the ad before it gets the thing that really matters – money off their insurance.

I guess the smug looking George Clooney lookalike is the visual anchor to the 'older' person.


Sorry guys. I reckon it’s a lemon. What do you think? Dick Stroud

Are you a digital adult or digital novice – Wells Fargo has the answer

Wells Fargo has been doing some research about digital literacy. Apparently we all fall into one of three groups.

Digital Adults - people who use advanced online tools for daily tasks, interaction and entertainment

Digital Novices - people with a general understanding of online tools who use them to manage basic tasks, but don’t interact with others online or manage complex tasks on the web

Digital Teens - who fall in between novices and adults?

In the UK we have 10,000,000 people who are not connected to the Internet. I guess they are Digital Babies?

The “Adult Group,” digitally speaking, is not twenty-somethings but thirty-somethings. While twenty-somethings led in the use of advanced online tools for entertainment, with such activities as watching television online and social networking, thirty-somethings are more likely to use advanced online photo and video technologies, career networking services, and financial management services.

A similar pattern emerges with banking and managing finances online.

The survey apparently shows that Youth is loosely correlated with digital adulthood and that digital sophistication generally declined with age.

This is all interesting stuff but it totally ignores the main thing that determines the type of Internet use – education. This applies to all ages.

I suspect this PR research is more to do with getting people to the Wells Fargo site, to find out their digital age, than to extending our understanding about the segmentation of Web use. Dick Stroud

Blame it all on your dad

This amusing article appeared in in the Sunday papers about a hapless Yoof who blames his workless plight on “the boomers”. A bit like wasps, every year we get a swarm of these articles, all whining about the same argument.

This sentence gives you a feel for what is to follow: “a university-¬educated man shouldn't experience this (unemployment). I amassed student debt in the belief that graduation would be followed by a huge bubble bath filled with sexy young jobs and beautiful, cigar-smoking status symbols.Not joblessness.”

Words like naïve, fool, dimwit and cretin start forming in my mind. Words like certifiable half-wit start forming when you then learn that our “university educated man” has a journalism qualification from Darlington College. That is not Darlington College Oxford or Cambridge it is Darlington College Darlington.


The article then moves on to the blame game.

"People are feeling incredibly angry," Wes Streeting, president of the National Union of Students, told me. "They have debts in excess of £20,000 after being told they would get a job at the end of their degree and earn more money. Instead they're just heavily indebted."

The anger is due to intergenerational unfairness. Baby boomers had free education, affordable houses, fat pensions, early retirement and second homes (150,000 at the last census).

This emotional waffle is not worth the time rebutting. During one of the previous bouts of Booomer bashing I had a letter published in the FT that provides some of obvious responses. This might be on subscription only.

In February, David Willetts (a senior and very bright Conservative MP) has a book being published called "The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Children's Future - And Why They Should Give it Back”. One thing is for certain; his arguments will be worth the time understanding. I suspect I may not agree with him but you can be certain they will be marshalled with precision.

Do we have a problem with youth unemployment – absolutely? So somebody must be to blame, mustn’t they? The reasons we are where we are results from a much more complicated set of interactions than our chum with his 2:2 in journalism is likely to understand. That fact alone is part of the problem.

Let me give you an example. Every month the Office for National Statistics publishes a detailed analysis about the employment scene in the UK. Every month there is one section of the analysis that always seems to be ignored by the media. I quote from the January bulletin: “The number of UK born people in employment was 25.31 million in the three months to September 2009, down 457,000 on a year earlier. The number of non-UK born people in employment was 3.68 million, down 45,000 from a year earlier.

Look at the way the recession seems to have had a disproportional impact on the UK’s indigenous population compared to those not born in our shores.


Maybe, just maybe, part of the explanation for our journalistic chum’s plight is the 3,680,000 people who now work in the UK who were not around when his dad was looking for a job. Secondly, maybe, just maybe, this group have a better work ethic than a lot of my fellow Brits.

Belive it or not, I do feel sorry for this guy and those of his generation, but trying to apportion blame, in this crude idiotic way will not help him one jot.

If you have stuck with this stream of consciousness then there is one 50-plus marketing message to take away. Is it better to spend your marketing bucks targeting our Darlington College graduate or his parent’s generation. Dick Stroud