Google Shuts Down Medical Records And Health Data Platform

Well, well, well. This news doesn’t surprise me but I am disappointed – not that Google is shutting the venture (sound business sense) but it couldn’t gain enough traction to keep it going.

In the dim distant past, when I had a real job, I worked on a project to implement health records on things that looked like PCs. It isn’t a difficult job, as much as medics will tell you differently, it is getting people to use the thing that is difficult. We spent a few million pounds and gave up – just like Google.


This is a quote from the Google blog

There has been adoption among certain groups of users like tech-savvy patients and their caregivers, and more recently fitness and wellness enthusiasts. But we haven’t found a way to translate that limited usage into widespread adoption in the daily health routines of millions of people. That’s why we’ve made the difficult decision to discontinue the Google Health service.

You can read more about the decision on TechCrunch.

Microsoft is still having a go to establish its health records infrastructure. Good luck.

Motherknows is an interesting approach – medical records for the caring mother. Perhaps we need a carerknows.com service – maybe one already existing? Dick Stroud

New look Saga magazine and iPhone app

A Saga-Populus Poll of 11,289 Saga customers found that 21% owned a smart phone and 5% a tablet device.
Of those with a smartphone, 67% use it to access the internet, 39% have downloaded apps, whilst 76% of tablet owners use it for accessing the web and 60% have downloaded apps. Of those Saga customers who do not own a mobile device, 10% expect to buy one or receive one as a present this year.

OK, let’s condition these numbers. The sample group only included those who were already online. It would be interesting to see how these figures stack up against the total readership of the magazine.
Even so, these are interesting numbers.

Imbedded in the digital version is the new Saga logo.

I am not sure what to make of it. It is much softer than the existing logo. Lots of pastel colours and softer lines. Maybe this is Saga’s view of the UK’s 50-plus?

The app is not bad. I think it is a standard pocket-mags format but is nicely implemented.
There is no doubt about it, Saga seems to be getting its act together. Dick Stroud

Reaching Gen Y Through Mum and Dad

It has seemed pretty obvious to me that as the number of multi-generational households increases then there are lots of opportunities for cross generational selling of products. Since parents are increasingly contributing to their kids finances then why not use mum and dad as a marketing channel to get to the younger generation.

This article provides a good example of how this happening in the US with credit union.

A psychologist is quoted as saying : “We are seeing a closer relationship between generations than we have seen since World War II. These young people genuinely like and respect their parents.” Mmm I not so sure about that.

There are 19.1 million nonmembers under the age of 18 who live in a credit union member household. In other words, there are over 19 million kids under the age of 18 whose parents are credit union members but the kids aren’t. Can you say opportunity? Dick Stroud

Never been so fit - I am not so sure

According to a poll carried out by Engage Mutual, seven out of ten over-50s questioned said they did more exercise than in their youth, while one-quarter felt physical activity had become a key part of their social lives.

I am not so sure about these stats. All the research I have seen suggests that about 20% of the 50-plus are wellness-aware. A very different number to 70%.

Of course this could mean (and probably does) that the 70% didn't take any exercise in their youth. Dick Stroud

Guess who is driving the growth in UK Facebook and Twitter numbers

According to UKOM/Nielsen, older age groups are more likely to visit Twitter than younger age groups.Wow. The research company reports a 65% increase in 50 to 64 year-old men, and a 96% jump in women over-65 visiting the site helped boost numbers.

Nielsen also reckons that Facebook growth, despite reports earlier this month that its numbers had started to fall, was being driven by the over-50s. Since 2009, the number of 50 to 64 year-olds visiting the site has grown 84%.

These older age groups account for more new adults visiting the site in the last two years than the under-50s.

As a result, the membership of Facebook is now more representative of the overall UK population than it previously has been. Twitter, however, looks to become increasingly skewed towards an older age group, with under-18s less likely to visit it than they were two years ago.

Sorry, I haven't got any more details than this. Dick Stroud

Bridging the Retirement Gap With an Encore Career

Mark Miller is a good guy who really knows the financial issues of ageing in the US. We have spoken at the same conference always in nice places like Japan and Switzerland.

Unfortunately I couldn't embed this video so you will have to click through to this like to view it.

Mark is interviewing Marc Freedman, who is the author of The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife. The guy is CEO of Civic Ventures, a non-profit think tank, that's focused on advancing the cause of midlife career transitions.

Mr Freedman's proposition is that post work (or whatever you want to call the period) provides great opportunities for older people. There is no doubt that he is right. However, as I am always saying it does depend to a great extent on the state of your bank balance.

Retirement with zilch saving, debt and little chance of employment is very different to how you feel with a nice fat bank balance and a final salary pension.

Having said that, it sounds like he has some interesting ideas. I must get the book.  Dick Stroud






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Retire or (and) rewire?

Now this really is an interesting development. The Encore Career Institute, which launches today and will offer courses through UCLA Extension, the continuing and professional education division of the University of California at Los Angeles.

I quote from the press article:

Silicon Valley, Hollywood and the University of California are icons of innovation, and now their power players have combined forces to boost job prospects for America's powerhouse demographic group - the Baby Boomers.

The for-profit venture will offer customized curriculum, job-retraining classes and certificate programs in an online program intended to help America's estimated 77 million Baby Boomers pursue jobs in diverse fields such as finance, education, health care and environmental sustainability.

When you think how much educational stuff is sitting around that could be enable using Web 2.0 technologies and techniques then you can see why this is such an interesting proposition.

The demand is there – lots of older people either wanting new qualifications to ensure a decent retirement or for the intellectual fun of doing it.

The education content – the UK’s Open University should take note.

The delivery channels – all the tech goodies that we now have available.

This will be an interesting development to watch. Dick Stroud

Great news - fees have only fallen 4.5%

Healthcare Property Consultants have researched the amount of fees that local authorities will be paying for residential care of older people. The pie chart shows the distribution of the fees increase/decrease.

Terrific news - it staying about 0%. With Consumer Price Index running at 4.5% (April 2011) and a minimum wage increase in October 2011 of 2.5%. With stagnant fees and rising costs will be the pattern for the next two or three years. Sounds like trading hell to me.

The next time you read a story about the problems in residential care homes remember the part that Local Government is playing to reduce the quality of care.

I have made my views clear to my contacts in Central Government that the only way to get any control of the care nightmare is to dictate the level of fees paid. This way Local Government will be forced to find ways of really reducing their costs of operations rather than taking the easy option of reducing care for the elderly.

I very much doubt if anybody will listen.

The bottom line message for all care providers is to get the hell out of providing public care as fast as you can. Either that or propose a radically new way of delivering basic quality care for a lot less money.

Just after I wrote this blog posting another bit of news popped up on my screen. According to Age UK, care budgets for older people have been reduced by 8.4%. The Government has disputed these figures that have been gathered from Local Authorities under the Freedom of Information Act.

Based on the responses of 110 authorities, the figures were reached after comparing the net expenditure on older people's social care between 2011/12 and 2010/11.

If these numbers are to be believed (and I do) in 2011-12, the net annual expenditure per person over the age of 65 is falling to £791 continuing a downward trend from £864 in 2010-2011 and £872 in 2009-10. Don't forget that these figures don't take account of inflation so the situation is even worse.

Let me say it again. Either central government ring fences this spend or it will have to deal with continuing stories of private care companies going to the wall and atrocious standards of care being given to the elderly.

Private care companies that are reliant on public funds are in for a dreadful time. Dick Stroud

Cloud+Apps = better healthcare

The examples of where apps and cloud are creating new ways of doing things are coming fast and furious.

The Open mHealth project, provides a set of tools for building cell-phone apps that collect health-related information. You can read about it in Technology Review.

The data can include information entered by users and also such things as smart-phone GPS- and accelerometer-tracking information. One pilot project is studying the diet, stress, movement, and exercise patterns of overweight new mothers. Users have control over what data is captured and get to choose with whom it is shared.

Hospitals, health-care providers, and startup companies could design additional apps to draw on the data.

It is a no-brainer that we will have medical records that are accessible from our smart devices. At the moment when you go to a NHS hospital you enter a data free zone. Even though you may have only just been discharged it takes days for your data to catch-up with you.

I guess that it will be private medicine and care services that will be the first to start using these applications. Sometime in the future the cumbersome public care system will get hold of the technology.

Once we get an accepted data structure (I know that is a big ask) then the apps will follow. Dick Stroud

Boomer consumers come of age in AsiaPac

This article is about my mate Kim Walker’s venture that covers the Asia Pacific region.

It is pretty clear to anybody living in the West that unless we start to exploit the growth of China, Singapore and all of the other Asian tiger economies we might as well shut up shop and join the Greeks.

What I think is poorly understood is that some of these economies are, like the West, ageing fast and hence provide a huge opportunity for exporting Western knowledge, services and products.

You need to get an understanding of these markets. Reading this article is not a bad place to start. Dick Stroud

All you want to know about Boomers in one image

Boomers in a single jpg.  You will need to click on the image to view. If you want a king size image then go to here. Dick Stroud

The Power of the Post-Recession Consumer

The title of this blog is the name of a report by Booz&Co.

I don’t think I would call it the post-recession consumer more like pre-stability consumer.

The premise of the article is the following

Consumers are now more focused on community, connection, quality, and creativity. People are returning to old-fashioned values to build new lives of purpose and connection. They also realize that how they spend their money is a form of power, and are moving from mindless consumption to mindful consumption, increasingly taking care to purchase goods and services from sellers that meet their standards and reflect their values.

I have to say that all sounds a bit like wishful thinking and somewhat moralistic. The idea that hardship “brings out the best in people”.

The research believes that these changes apply across the gender/age/income spectrum, which is an interesting, conclusion.

I am a great believer that upheavals in the financial markets and the impending sense of doom about the fast unravelling national budget deficits is having a significant impact on consumer spending.

However, I think the consumer reaction will depend greatly on the financial stability of the individual. There might be some mega waves of change that affect all consumers but I cannot believe they are significant compared with change factors that are lifestyle specific. Dick Stroud

I shouldn’t tell you about this

Sometimes you discover a service that is so good that you hesitate telling others about it. You know, the knowledge is power syndrome.

A while back I discovered the VAS service from 3M.

Read this article for more details but in a nutshell it enables you to rapidly analyse a website, brochure, label, mailing item to understand how it will be viewed.

A very powerful and inexpensive tool.

OK now I have told you so please do what most people do when reading a blog posting and promise yourself that you will look in more detail in the future and then never get around to doing it. Dick Stroud

Why "Brain Gyms" May Be The Next Big Business

I just noticed an article in the FAST COMPANY about “Brain Gyms”.

What a nice idea.

The article talks about a company called Lumosity that provides a web site and apps to provide brain services.

Just get your head around this:

Over 14 million people in 180 countries either subscribe to Lumosity’s website or have downloaded one of its iPhone apps. And revenues have grown 25% every quarter since its launch.

It would be fascinating to know the demographic split of their users. Sounds to me like an idea that’s time has come, especially for older people. Dick Stroud

The UK Care Industry splitting into public and private

Most care in the UK is provided by private companies or not-for-profits. This applies to both domiciliary (care at home) and residential care.

Most of the funding for care comes from the state and is administered via local authorities.

Theoretically, older people should have a lot of say about where their care spend is spent but in practice they do what the local authority tells them.

Even before the economic mess, local authorities were doing their damnedest to reduce the amount of money they spent on care. This resulted in the amount spent per person being cut. The recession has accelerated this trend.

The reason I am telling you this is that state funded care is evolving into a first rate disaster.

Yesterday the Equality and Human Rights Commission said that elderly people who receive care at home are having their basic human rights “overlooked” by being neglected, left alone for long periods and not given adequate help to eat and drink.

We are talking about the UK – not some failed state.

The knee jerk reaction is to blame the big bad private companies that deliver this care. OK, some of them poorly run but the reason older people are being neglected is that the carers are supposed to rush around like demented flies trying to get to too many people in too short a time. Add to that the fact that these people are paid minimum wage and hence will not be seeing this job as a long term career gives you some idea why things are as bad as they are.

The reason I am relating this is that as more horro stories appear, and there will be a lot more, the more likely that older people and their kids will pay themselves and get the service they require.

The delivery of care in the UK is dividing into a very basic level that will be provided by the state (absolute miniumum) and decent levels of care that comes at a price. Both types of service can be profitable for the supplier but only if they are honest about what they are providing.

At the moment it is a bit like saying that a child can go to Eton or the local comprehensive and they will get the same education. That is plaining daft. The same applies to care. Dick Stroud

The aging of America | Wellness, not just thinness

If you are interested in retail in the US then I guess you already know about the Lempert Report.

Sometimes this daily report covers issues that are specific to the 50-plus. Today's video looks at how ageing and race are interlinked - especially about obesity levels.

Unfortunately, there is no embed feature with the video so you will have to link to this page to view. Dick Stroud

Cloud + App = The future ?

Normally when I start a blog posting – “this has nothing much to do with the 50-plus” – it is because I am about to start a personal gripe. Not this time.

I am have been looking at the perfect match between Cloud computing and iPads. OK, the combination of technologies is not a solution for all applications but it could certainly change the way a lot of are done.

For those of you who are interested in techy stuff you might want to have a quick read of this article from the FastCompany.

I have been looking at how iPads can be used for market research as a data collection tool. It is a no brainer. They would be a brilliant tool. Dick Stroud

The business potential of older women living alone

I really should go to Jo Coughlin's blog (Disruptive demographics) more often. This is an interesting insight into the number of older women that live alone and the implications this has for business. Interesting to see that Greece and Spain have the lowest percentage.

I wonder if their financial difficulties are going to change this as grandchildren flock home when they are broke?

There is another interesting blog posting about the issues of older people being employed in the US. Dick Stroud

Surprise and delight me - never fails

Another bit of research that I have been meaning to write about appeared on the CMO site. Simple stuff that looked at how age impacts brand choice.

I am always cautious about the accuracy of this type of research since it gives no data about the margin of error on the reported figures (i.e. is 64% +/- 10% ?)

The important thing that it shows is that there is not that much difference between the 35 years olds and those nearly double their age. This should not surprise us.

The interesting measure is "Are Optimistic" with a 12% difference. This I can understand. I think as you get older you want to hope that tomorrow will be better than today although you might well have your doubts.  Dick Stroud

How to fund retirement

This research was published by Standard Life back in April 2011. It shows how the over-55s plan to fund their retirement. Well how the 1.200 people in the survey said they plan to fund their retirement.

The two elements that interested me were that 24% thought they would use an inheritance and 10% stated they would use equity release.

On the basis that most older people have very little idea about their pension and how they will fund their retirement I wouldn't read too much into the figures.

The 10% figure for equity release is higher than I have seen before. Maybe it slowly dawning on older people that for many the only way they will fund the 70s and 80s will be by using their home. Dick Stroud

Unemployment data for the 50-plus is worrying

As you can see, it is the older workers that are now the hardest hit by the UK recession. This is a different situation from a few months back when it was younger people who seemed to be suffering the most.

Unemployment stats are complicated and volatile so we need to wait another couple of quarters to see if there has been a lasting change to the UK employment scene. Dick Stroud

Update from a couple of colleagues in the US

Brent Green has undertaken an ambitious task of interviewing on his Web radio station those of us who are involved in the Boomer / 50-plus business.  He is not restricting the interviews to the US and has talked with my chum Kim Walker in Singapore and last week to Arjan in’t Veld who runs an agency in the Netherlands, focused on the older consumer.

It is a first rate interview and gives an interesting insight to the older market in Holland.  You can link to all of the interviews from Brent’s Facebook page

  

I have already blogged about David Weigelt’s weekly video update about events associated with the older market. That doesn’t stop me mentioning it again. 

Viewing the video will take 3 mins of your life. Well worth the investment. Dick Stroud

They (we) just don’t get it

This morning I listened to an interview with a young Greek professional guy – I think he worked in IT. He sounded bright and very understandably worried about what was happening in his country.

What was shocking was his total lack of understanding of why all of the hardships were happening. He was blaming his Government for “paying the IMF” rather than “paying the citizens of Greece”. The fact that the IMF is lending Greece money to pay for the schools and hospitals to be kept open was beyond his understanding.

The reason I tell you this story is that I think the same level of ignorance exists in the UK and probably the other European countries.

The chief economic editor of the FT reckons the UK will suffer a decade he has named Nasty (nightmare of austere and stagflationary years). If this is the case in the UK then heavens knows what it will be like in Ireland and Portugal.

We need to radically rethink all our assumptions about the levels of consumer spending and its implications on the business and marketing models.

Personally, I think this is a great opportunity for marketers. Those of our trade who recognize the real state of the world and how it will change what people buy will make a killing.

Those, the majority, the reckon life is just going to go on as it has for the last decade are in for a terrible shock. Dick Stroud

The UK Apprentice tries to selling and oldies free magazine

The task was to come up with the concept for a new free magazine and then to pitch it to three media agencies.

One of the groups decided that an oldies magazine had the most potential. This video shows the results. There is a very short break between each of the pitches.

I think it is useful seeing just how strong the oldies stereotypes are in the heads of some young people and just how much work is needed to align their ideas of the world with reality.

Needless to say, this group lost. Dick Stroud

The importance of the older female buyer

Media Post contains some stuff about research into the importance of the female buyer. Nothing that will surprise anybody who reads my blog – that said – it is nice to see the same messages coming from other sources.

Q: So what's the biggest misconception marketers have these days about women shoppers?

A: Misunderstanding generational differences. For example, advertisers are constantly aiming for younger women, when it's pretty clear that Baby Boomer women are the most influential shoppers. And there's this idea that older women are less tech-savvy, but the digital divide is decreasing across generations. Almost 60% of Gen Y and Gen X women read inserts and direct mail, for example, and Gen Y women are the most likely to actually take a piece of direct mail with them when they go into the store. Gen Y women are the most likely to watch TV, and say that TV is important to them.

I don’t think you will be surprised with any other of the research’s conclusions. Dick Stroud

Older Facebook Users Catching On to ‘Liking’ Brands

I am sure this chart should tell me something that I could do something with but I just don't get it.

It is always interesting to see some showing the changing habits of older Facebook users but the observation that they are increasingly ‘linking’ to brands just doesn’t fill me with wonder and amazement.

The really interesting thing would be to know what the value is of user ‘linking’ to a brand. I guess it depends on who the person is and to what depth of linking they commit.

You can read about the research in eMarketer. Dick Stroud

Fitness apps from a couple of boomers

This is an interesting story about a couple of ex-HP guys who saw the potential of developing apps, formed a business, produced the product and seem to be doing well.

There are zillions of fitness apps out there but these guys seem to be holding their own.

Their company, Abvio, is a nice story of how older guys can still cut it in start-up tech companies.

I would think their apps will certainly be designed with the needs of Boomers in mind. Dick Stroud

Watch out Apple Genius Bar the O2 Gurus are coming

I guess there is no compliment like being copied. Yesterday, I had a problem with the dongle I use with my Mac. It had worked well but then stopped.

I was passing an O2 store and thought it was worth asking if they had any ideas about the problem.

An attentive young man said he had no idea but he knew somebody who would and so would I like to book an appointment with an O2 guru. You bet, but how long would I have to wait? When I heard that the wait time was less than 5 mins and there was a nice comfy sofa to sit on I accepted the offer.

The bottom line to this story is that the guru sorted the problem in about 30 secs, much to my embarrassment. The young man was excellent, not just technically but in understanding all of the soft skills of customer care. So from that experience, O2 gets 10 out of 10.

Other companies, with ever increasingly complex products, should learn from the Apple Genius Bar and O2 example. I am sure it is costly to provide but I would think it delivers huge benefits in how customers perceive their brand. The fact that I have just told you this story illustrates the point. Dick Stroud

MetlLife report about the financial cost of being a carer

I am often asked why I write so much about the US. Unlike a lot of my friends, I don’t think the difference between Brits and Americans are as large as either nationality would like to think. So what happens in the UK has lessons and implications for the UK. Secondly, there is no doubt that the best research about older people is done in the US.

For all I know, Germany may be drowning in research but since I cannot speak German I will never know.

MetLife is one of the US companies that consistently comes up with insightful stuff. The most recent report about the cost to children of care giving to their parents is no exception.

A couple of facts to mull over.

The percentage of adult children providing personal care and/or financial assistance to a parent has more than tripled over the past 15 years. Currently, a quarter of adult children provide these types of care to a parent.

The total estimated aggregate lost wages, pension, and Social Security benefits of these caregivers of parents is nearly $3 trillion.

Just think, if you have products and services that make this care giving experience less hassle and less costly then you have one hell of a big market. Am I right or am I right? Dick Stroud

Bad news if your customers are zombie consumers

Do you know when you know something but don’t know what to call it?

Today, a journalist in the FT gave it a name. In his words: “the global economy is being hobbled by a new generation of zombies — the economic walking dead.”

For the 13 quarters. since the beginning of 2008, inflation-adjusted annualised growth in US consumption has averaged just 0.5 per cent. Never before in the postwar era have US consumers been this weak for this long.

US consumers have hardly begun to pay-down the debt they acquired during the “good times”. Household sector debt came down to 115% of disposable personal income in early 2011. This is a hell of a long way away from the 75% average for the average of the 1970 to 2000 period. Since 2000 the ability of the US to compete and add jobs and prosperity has taken a nosedive.

The next time you have some strategic look at your customer base you should ask yourself the question: “what percentage of our hard earned customers are zombies.”

All this logic applies equally to the UK. Time are tough and getting tougher. Dick Stroud

The NHS - is so depressing

This is something of a rant and is very UK centric. There is a 50-plus issue but not one that will interest most young marketers. If you are feeling healthy and happy with life I suggest you go and make a coffee and get on with the day.

What religious sect has done the most damage to the UK? I will not mention the most obvious one that comes to mind but one that you haven’t thought about – the devotees of the NHS.

When I am in the US I always watch (for a very short time) a few of the religious programmes to marvel at the way that presenters wrap themselves up in the Christian religion for their own benefit. How they can rant against the world and all its evils and then offer the viewer a road to salvation – with the aid of a credit card donation.

During the past few months we have been going through a media feeding fest with countless devotees of the NHS religion claiming it’s under threat but that they have solution. This invariably means spending more money on them and not changing a jot.

The trade unions (that includes the porters, doctors and nurses) don’t want change and claim that it is evil. Assorted politicians, who are either fighting for their few minutes in the sun of media coverage (Shirley Williams) or failed politicians (Nick Clegg) want to wrap themselves in the NHS flag and claim they are saving our souls. The dreadful Labour Party claim that the "NHS is only safe in their hands" even thought their 13 years in office bequeathed the mess what we have today. Health academics can see their nice fat research grants and position in the health establishment under threat and want to keep the status quo and claim any change is not just unnecessary but the work of the devil ‘profit’.

The poor old patient, especially the older variety, has to put up with diabolical treatment but does want to be called a heretic by criticizing the holy NHS.

Any poor sap that comes along and tries to change thing is on a hiding to nothing as all of these devotees followers – all with their vested interests – close ranks to protect their self interests and to “save the NHS”.

A journalist in the FT sums up the state the UK now finds itself after the Government caved-in to the devotees and became converted to the sect

This is a recipe for sclerosis and bureaucracy, not for innovation and change. Much talk, endless challenge, little action.

I appreciate that this statement could be made about almost all of the UK public sector but it matters more when it is the health of the most vulnerable at stake.

It is so depressing. I will be coming back to this subject again – not in the form of a blog posting but a short paper titled: “The NHS – a case study in institutional indifference.” I will let you know when it is published



Just to lighten your mood and too look at what can happen in an innovative organization, you must look at this video of a new search feature from Google. This enables web pages to load instantaneously. Google comes up with these innovations time after time after time. When they don’t work they are dropped. When they do work they are scaled. Dick Stroud

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should

Because anybody who reads this blog is technically literate you will not need me to tell you that the black and white boxes that seem to be festooning ads are called QR (quick response) codes.

You'll find them in the corner of newspaper and magazine ads, in department store aisles, on product displays and price tags.

The one in this blog posting is of my web address. If you possess a smartphone with the appropriate app you just point it at the code and like magic it will decode it to reveal www.20plus30.com.

According to this article, the number of QR scans recorded by the industry's leading code maker has soared to 2 million a month, nearly double the rate last year, and up from 80,000 a month in 2009.

An analyst, of something or another, said: "They love QRs because they're cheap and easy to deploy, and you can put them anywhere from print ads to the back of stadium seats."

Well the industry might like them but consumer awareness still lags behind. Only 5% of total smartphone owners in the U.S. have scanned a QR, according to Forrester Research. But it's on a sharp curve upward. About 25% of Android phone owners and 7% of iPhone users tried out a QR in the second quarter of 2010, and that number is expected to rise this year, Forrester said.

Like so many technologies there is a tendency of marketers to use it just because they can not because they have a good reason.

Don’t get me wrong, I can see loads of applications for the codes, especially for providing easy to read information for older people and feel reasonably certain that they will be widely used. But right now I get the feeling that it is a technology in search of an application. Dick Stroud

Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence and what happens to them when you age

There is an article in yesterdays WSJ (Sorry – paywall) about the broader implications on the US economy of the deterioration in the cognitive abilities of older people.

A Harvard Prof was speaking to a group of financial advisers about the: “Age of Reason.” Well it probably should have been re-named the "Age of Confusion.

A lot of what the Prof said can be found in a previously published paper. The argument goes something like this:

About 35% of wealth is controlled by those 65 or older (approx $18 trillion)

Fluid intelligence (new term to me) is the intelligence displayed in things like memory tests — decreases dramatically with age. In fact, “it’s all downhill from age 20” said the good Prof.

Crystallized intelligence (another new term to me) — memory, wisdom and so on — does increase over time, but less so, on average, in senior years.

All told, the point at which we make the best financial choices is 53 years old, according to his data.

That is a bit too precise for my liking but I get the theory.

The Prof believes that many seniors end up in a state called cognitive impairment without dementia that isn’t quite dementia, but still (as the name implies) a deterioration of memory. In spite of this, people still may make financial decisions on their own. He estimates that 16% of those 71-79 years old, 29.2% of 80-89 year olds, some 38.8% of those over 90 years old are in such a state.

The bottom line of argument is that a great sway of US wealth is in the hands of older people who are not going to make the smartest financial decisions.

I don’t want to put words into their mouths but I think a retort they may give is: “well we cannot make more of a mess of things than our grandchildren and children have done.”

There is a serious issue for marketers. Undoubtedly, cognitive change (I hate the word decline) is a big, big factor that we spend far to little time understanding. It impacts all factors when marketing to older people. Dick Stroud

What's different between urban and rural older people

The International Longevity Centre publises good quality (free) reports. The one I have recently been reading is called: "Can Localism work for Older People in Urban Environments? Perspectives from the British Social Attitudes Survey."

Marketers should understand the trends about where older people are going to live and the differences between urban and rural old.

For instance, less than one-in-twenty older people (aged 65+) in urban areas had a household income of £44,000 or above, compared to one-in-ten in rural areas; similarly while only a quarter of older people had an income below £15,000 in rural areas, this rose to almost half (46%) in urban areas.

Whilst marketing to an urban audience might be easier it might be a lot harder if they happen to be older people. Dick Stroud

Look - nfpSynergy have done my PEST analysis'

What are the key political, economic and social trends are influencing the ways in which
charities work today? What relevance – if any – do low interest rates, migration or
technological innovation have for non-profit organisations seeking to meet
contemporary challenges head on, make the most of their resources and continue to
serve their beneficiary groups?

The nice people at nfpSynergy have saved you the trouble of doing the research. What a good idea for a white paper.

Interesting to see that one of their recommendations is that the over-65s are overlooked and for charities to stop stereotyping people as they live longer and longer lives. The report goes on to say: "Indeed if there is one thing to come out of this report, it is that there is as much difference within generations as between them."

I think we would all agree with that observation. Dick Stroud

Google Insights

This is an impressive slide from the Google research into how Boomers use media. 

There are lots of other excellent presentations about demographics, industry and technology on the Google site. Dick Stroud

I am not sure if this is age-neutral but it is very funny

Brand Channel has some commentary about this Hahn beer ad. Dick Stroud

Excellent OECD report about the Care Industry

The civil servants who advise the UK Government about all things ‘old’ would do well to look at the work done by the OECD to study the issues of long-term care and what to do about it. Rather than producing documents that are primary about showing that “something is being done” the OECD has got to grips with a hugely difficult problem.

The results of this work is a complex 330 page document. Even the summary and conclusions is long.

I think the document deserves a wide audience so I have produced a short paper (3 pages) containing what I thought were the highlights. This is a very subjective judgment so if you are interested in the care industry I suggest you download the document and make your own decision.

What screams out of the OECD analysis, other than the enormous financial and infrastructure issues, is the demand for staff that the care industry generates. This is going to be made worse as fewer people care for their older relatives.

There is going to be a fortune to be made for organisations that have products and services that can squeeze genuine productivity improvements out of care staff. Right now little attention is being paid to this issue. Also, very little attention (in the UK) is being paid to getting more staff into the care industry.

I am sure that out of the million young Brits who are not in work or education there must be some with enough brain cells to work in the care industry. I fear what will happen – already is happening – is that overseas workers will take the majority of the jobs.

You then have to ask yourself the question that if old Brits are being cared for in the very expensive UK by overseas workers why don’t they move to a low cost country and get even better care. You have heard of Health Tourism – the next stage is Care Tourism.

Note

I have stopped commenting about the disintegration of Southern Cross and its implications. I have also stopped talking about the utterly useless way in which the care industry is regulated/inspected. Unfortunately, the press commentary has degenerated into political position-taking and buck-passing with everybody offering their simplistic solutions. Out of this mess should come a lot of new business opportunities. I doubt if they will come from within the care industry. Dick Stroud

Why bother?

I never expect much to come from the ‘interventions’ of Government (of any political hue) and in this respect I am rarely disappointed or surprised.

Back in Feb 2010 the Government launched a discussion process about the economic value of an ageing population.

Since then there has been lots of papers and ‘engagement from stakeholders’ and all of the other stuff that surrounds these ventures. I bet there have been kilos of cheap biscuits and hundred of litres of insipid coffee swilled in debate and discussions from all and sundry. The same old subjects and the same old answers.

The results of all of this effort? Not much. Have a read but don’t expect to see anything you could have got from a cursory 30 mins using Google on a wet Sunday afternoon.

Makes you want to weep. Dick Stroud

Energy shots for the 60-plus

A US company called Living Essentials makes a drink called 5-Hour Energy. Initially this product was aimed at students and people who work long hours.

Last October, the company handed out thousands of samples at the annual AARP convention in Orlando. Then in January, 5-Hour began running full-page ads in the AARP Bulletin.

This strategy seemed to work since the annual sales of the product is now about $1 billion.

Some smart thinking by the company’s marketers to start targeting older people. Dick Stroud

Oldies catch the divorce habit

For some time the stats have shown that older men are divorcing in increasing numbers. The same pattern is shown in the 2009 data released by the ONS.

Why is this? I could offer a lot of explanations but all of them would pure speculation. For each divorce there must be a number of separations that don’t show up on the official stats.

No wonder the oldies dating sites are doing so well. Dick Stroud

Go south and live long

The first chart shows the difference between the North and South of the UK for likelihood of men living beyond 75 years. What a difference. This data comes from the ONS.

Whenever I talk to clients about the problem of using averages I know they really don’t “get it”. Maybe this chart will help make the point.

It is interesting to combine this data with the stats from the “Living longer and prospering?” report from the Oxford Ageing Institute.

Click on the charts for a readable size version.

What we can now see is what chance different geographic groups of the UK have for a disability free life beyond 75 years.

Of course I am making the same mistake of using an ‘average’ for healthy life expectancy. My guess that this number will be much lower in the North to the South.

Conclusion – move south. Dick Stroud

AARP’s new promotional campaigns

AARP has a new B2B campaign targeting advertisers, ad agencies, and media planners. Chuck Nyren has already covered this news so it is much better if you read his blog for a full account.

The above B2C ad is from another campaign that I have only just seen. I don't think this is a campaign that Age UK should think about replicating.

AARP certainly are making a lot of noise. Dick Stroud

Experian has some interesting things to say about the state of US households

This is the press release issued by Experian.

The geodemographic structure of America is changing. For instance, fewer than one-half of U.S. households are headed by married couples, yet more generations live under one roof than anytime in modern history.

In an attempt to re-formulate the Experian lifestyle groups to reflect contemporary US there are some new groupings - for example "Boomers and Boomerangs". These people are four times as likely to contain young adults living with their parents. However, not all of these young adults are recent college graduates. Many have previously started out on their own but have returned home whilst attempting to gain the traction necessary for making ends meet.

These Boomers and Boomerangs are reasonably well-off with 85% aged between 51 and 65 with a household income slightly under $100,000.

If you are interested in geodemographics then you should read this release. Knowing Experian, I am sure there is a lot more information on their web site. Dick Stroud

Age-friendliness you either have it or you don't. Most companies don't

Kim Walker and I have been doing a lot of work on the concept of age-friendliness and how this very nebulous term can be transformed into something with meaning that companies can measure and act upon.

For some insights into Kim’s work in AsiaPac have a look at this blog entry. The same findings apply to the US and Europe. This is a subject you are going to hear a lot more about.  Dick Stroud

LV can be relied upon to darken your Monday mornings

Just in case you are feeling a bit too chipper this Monday morning and want a dose of bad news to darken your mood then have a read of LV's press release about the plight of older Brits. I know that it is along the same theme that I have been developing for the past year or so but it still is no less concerning for that.

What we are seeing is a slow evaporation of wealth as it is converted into income to fund day to day living. The cycle of wealth creation and wealth conversion to income has always existed. My fear is that the second part of the process - the wealth creation bit - is happening less or not at all.

A fifth of Brits in, or nearing, retirement have cut their retirement savings by an average of £342 a month
Public sector pension-holders have cut pension savings by an average of £321 a month compared to cuts of £434 made by those with private pension plans
17% of over-50s do not want to work past the age of 65 but may be forced into doing so due to a lack of pension funds

Still feeling bright about the prospects for the next 5 days? OK, let me mix in a bit of bad news about the employment prospects for the over-50s.

This analysis, by IPPR, shows that all age groups have increases in long-term unemployment, with the largest rises for the over 50s. Nearly half (45.9%, 182,000 people) of all those unemployed over 50 have been unemployed for over a year, up from 31% in 2009.

Have a good week. Dick Stroud

Innovation in the 50-plus insurance market

Aegon, the financial services company has launched a new insurance product/company targeting older travellers.

The innovative thing about the product appears to be that you can pay per day rather than in 5, 10 day blocks. Sounds interesting. I guess it depends what premium you have to pay for this flexibility.

What a strange looking logo. Dick Stroud

Is Retro back in fashion?

This WSJ video and article (behind paywall) is about examples of companies going back to the “good old days” when men were men and packaging was packaging.

I think it is interesting to look at it the other way around and question what was it that made the brands change the packaging in the first place. What aspect of design was it that caused the fonts, colours and images to change?

Is the purpose retro to re-ignite memories in the heads of oldies about the packaging of their youth? To appeal to a slightly younger audience who can only have the faintest memories about the original packaging? Or is it to appeal to the young who wouldn't have any memories but might dream about days when the believe world was good and they would have had money to spend? I am not really sure. Dick Stroud

Internet use stats by age for the UK

Just about everything you could want to know about who isn't using the Internet in the UK. This is the latest release of stats from the ONS. Dick Stroud

RNID = Action on Hearing Loss

The RNID has for as long as I can remember been the Royal National Institute for Deaf People - in the same way as the RNIB is the Royal National Institute for the Blind.

Why the name change? I can understand the argument that says that so much of what the Institute does is for people with hearing loss, not ‘deaf’ people. As the population ages this will account for a large number of the population.

On the other hand, it is a lot of brand recognition and Google visibility to chuck away.

I think it is the wrong call since words like ‘Institute’ still mean something positive to a lot of people, probably inaccurately and even though I am not deaf, they would be first organisation I would contact for advice about hearing loss. The new domain is hearingloss.org.uk.

So how could we rename the RNIB? Action on Sight Loss? Well the domain sightloss.org.uk is still available. Any marketers from the RNIB reading this blog? If I were you I would get that domain before it is grabbed – maybe by me. Dick Stroud

Immersion Active Video newsletter

This is the first time I have seen David Weigelt’s video newsletter. Looks great.

Do check out David’s company Immersion Active. Dick Stroud

Prudential research the reality of retirement

We all know that PR research, like that done by Prudential, is likely to result in the conclusion that we should save/invest more. This research needs to be handled with care but it often does include useful insights into what is happening in the 50-plus market.

Prudential has released two press releases (one two) highlighting different implications from the financial plight of many older people. I think these two tables say it all.

For years I have been arguing that companies should pay more attention to the older consumer and now I seem to spend a lot of my time spelling out reasons why so many of this age group will have (are having) financial problems.

Relative to other age groups many of these consumers are doing brilliantly, however, let’s keep our feet on the floor and deal in reality rather than get carried away with nonsense that is talked by politicians and journalists.

Marketers cannot afford to ignore the huge convulsions that are taking place to the UK’s ownership of wealth and how, when, where and by whom it will be translated into income. Dick Stroud

The launch of High50 - will its benefits bundle be enough?

Back in April 2008 there was an announcement that a new agency was going to have a crack at the 50-plusers. There was lots of coverage about the new venture tgi50 and then - nothing.

I revisited the subject after 12 months and it seemed that tgi50 had slipped away without trace.

Back on the 1st April, Campaign announced that another company, with the same founder as tgi50, is about to “take on Saga with new 50+ online community”.

Before blogging about this I thought I would wait to see if this venture went from “nice idea” to reality. As reported in brandrepublic - the venture is live. A new web site, called High50, has been launched with the tag line “age has it benefits”. I would say that it is more a portal than a community - but then it is early days.

Now it doesn’t take a marketing genius to know that the long-term viability of this venture depends on them piling-high enough of these benefits to make it worthwhile for me (as a genetic older person) to give them my attention.

So far the benefits appear to include deals with Kuoni, Champneys and Global (a knife company).

The guys who have started the company know the facts of marketing life. You have a short window of time to get it right – get high profile brands on board – attract the audience – use the audience and the existing brands as the driver to get more brands and more eyeballs. Simple stuff.

I am sure the company is has learnt the lessons from the Age Concern Heyday experience. Whilst this was an appallingly managed venture a contributing reason for its failure was it didn’t generate momentum, fast enough.

Let’s hope that High50 doesn’t suffer the same fate.

As always, I wish the founders lots of good luck and hope it goes well. Dick Stroud

Getting the best from iPad applications - important for the older user

I am a great fan of Jakob Nielsen. He always talks a great deal of sense about usability and has been around long enough to witness all of the cycles of fashion in design in user interfaces.He very kindly is making available, for zilch, a really detailed report about iPad usability.

I thought this was an interesting comment from the report.

Even though this report is free, it is still copyrighted information, so we encourage you to not distribute it on the Internet—or otherwise—but instead link to its home on our website where other readers can download it if they are interested. Please do not link directly to the PDF file, but rather follow the guideline to reduce “PDF shock” by linking to the gateway page that summarizes the report within the format of a simple Web page: http://www.nngroup.com/reports/mobile/ipad/

I have to say it is the first time that I have ever thought about “PDF shock” but I can see what he means since the document is 10 Mb+.

If getting the most out your iPad (and iPhone) applications is important then download. Dick Stroud

Over-80s using an iPad

I read about this video on Ageing in Place Technology blog. It is delightful.

The video is embedded on the new Elder Gadget web site. Wow it looks really good. Well done to the people at Elder Gadget. Dick Stroud