Aging Means Business E-Newsletter, Winter 2011

Aging Means Business E-Newsletter

Volume 1, Number 2, Winter 2011

This quarterly e-newsletter explores the intersection of business and aging. Installments highlight articles and reports that address the enormous potential for businesses to target seniors as both consumers and producers, spotlight select industries, and identify effective strategies for marketing to an older consumer.

The goal of this email publication is to reach teachers, students, researchers, and business professionals interested in understanding, attracting, and capitalizing on a growing senior market.

I. Comments from the Editor:

Perhaps it has something to do with the first Baby Boomers turning 65, but 2011 is showing signs that companies are rethinking aging. A recent New York Times article and a feature in Fast Company magazine (see below) spotlight companies that are developing “age-friendly” products and services. Both stories mention M.I.T. AgeLab director Joe Coughlin—a speaker at our 2010 Aging Means Business forum. In this newsletter, you’ll find a full recap of the conference, including links to YouTube video clips. In our next newsletter, we’ll announce details about our upcoming 2011 conference.

-- Greg O'Neill, PhD

II. Age Trends:

A. Older Population in the United States: 2009: The Census Bureau has released a series of detailed tables with data on a wide range of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of people age 55 and older. Topics include marital status, educational attainment, nativity and citizenship status, labor force and employment status, occupation, earnings, poverty and housing tenure. The data, collected by the Current Population Survey, pertain to the non-institutionalized population.

B. Six Disruptive Demographic Trends: What Census 2010 Will Reveal: Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have released a new report that identifies six major shifts in U.S. demographics and that outlines their implications for business, consumer markets, and the nation’s competitiveness in the global marketplace. The trends identified include a south-shifting population, the “browning” of America, an intermarriage increase, the “graying” of America, a gender shift, and more grandparent-headed households.

C. How Important are Inheritances for Baby Boomers? This Boston College Center for Retirement Research brief quantifies the aggregate amount of inheritances that Baby Boomers can expect to receive over their lifetimes, and concludes that, while inheritances will augment the resources of aging Baby Boomers, they will be insufficient to ensure secure retirements. A MetLife Mature Market Institute research report also considers the impact of inheritance and wealth transfer to Baby Boomers. Key findings include: two-thirds of Baby Boomer will eventually receive an inheritance; and the median amount Boomers received by 2007—adjusted for inflation—is about the same as that received by the preceding 1927-1945 birth cohort at the same ages.

III. Marketing to Mid-Life and Older Adults:

A. 2010 Review: National & International Marketing/Advertising to Baby Boomers: This online PowerPoint presentation by Chuck Nyren provides a 30-minute overview of marketing/advertising efforts to Baby Boomers in 2010. It includes commercials from countries around the world, and offers links to additional resources.

B. The New Retail Consumer: This Rapaport report argues that although positive economic predictions have switched from talk of recession to that of recovery, the effects of the past two years have made an indelible impact on today’s retail consumer. The report recognizes that while all consumers have felt the pinch to the pocketbook, how each generation is responding to the recovery is vastly different, and argues that retailers and marketers need to take into account the shopping preferences of the three major players in today’s marketplace: Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Gen Y.

C. 10 Behavioral Distinctions of Older Customers: This list, by Jim Gilmartin, succinctly identifies the basic differences in customer motivations and decision processes between younger and older customers. For example, older consumers—when compared with their younger counterparts—exhibit greater individualism in purchase decisions, show more response to emotional stimuli, and take a longer time to make purchasing decisions, to name a few.

IV. Industry Updates:

A. Product Design

1. Designing for the Retirement Boom: A recent Fast Company online photo slideshow illustrates how, as 77 million Baby Boomers near retirement, companies across all industries are designing products to suit the generation’s changing needs. Featured companies include GE, Boeing, MIT, and Volvo.

2. Connecting with Older Consumers: This article, written by Dick Stroud for Market Leader, addresses Apple’s success with its iPhone and iPad among consumers this year. He explains why these products are particularly relevant to older consumers, specifically citing how their design appeals to older adults on four primary levels: sensory, cognitive, functional, and philosophical.

B. New Coalitions

1. The Global Coalition on Aging: This new partnership consists of 11 members that specialize in health, pharmaceuticals, technology, and financial services. Through research, public policy analysis, advocacy and communication, the Global Coalition on Aging will bring forward innovative solutions for the 21st century's age-driven demographic realities, and work to ensure global aging is a path for fiscally sustainable economic growth, social value creation and wealth enhancement.

2. Intel-GE Care Innovations™: This new company, formed by GE Healthcare's Home Health Division and Intel's Digital Health Group, aims to change health care models by using technology-based solutions that give people confidence to live independently. Research goals include improving care in clinical environments, advancing personal health technologies for the home, identifying new care models and work practices, and promoting standards and policies that enable innovation and interoperability across the health care ecosystem.

V. Events & Worth Noting:

A. Aging Means Business Forum Recap: Last year’s Aging Means Business forum (review the agenda here), held in New Orleans on Monday, November 22, 2010, brought top-ranked academic experts on economics, gerontology, and consumer behavior together with national and local business leaders interested in understanding, attracting, and capitalizing on a growing senior market. Video highlights from the meeting are available on our YouTube channel. Clips from the following presentations are featured: David Lindeman, PhD, Director, Center for Technology and Aging, addressed “Tele Home Care: Current Trends and Emerging Opportunities”; Laurie Orlov, Founder, Aging in Place Technology Watch, discussed “Technology for Aging in Place—Why it Matters, Why Now?”; Lori Bitter, MS, President, Continuum Crew, described methods for “Marketing to Boomers and Beyond”; and Helen Foster, Principal and Lead Strategist, Foster Strategy, presented strategies for marketing to Boomers using as examples submissions to the Aging Means Business Student Ad Contest.

B. Aging is Good Business Summit: The Business of Health Care Promotion: This year’s UNCG Aging is Good Business summit is a pre-conference to the Southern Gerontological Society’s 32^nd annual conference. It will be held on Thursday, April 14, 2011 from 1:00pm to 4:30pm at the Raleigh Marriott City Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. Presentations will revolve around the theme, “The Business of Health Care Promotion.”

C. What’s Next Boomer Business Summit: Mary Furlong & Associates is gearing up to host its annual event that brings together the country’s top businesses and organizations leading the Baby Boomer marketplace. This year’s Summit will be held on Friday, April 29, 2011 from 8:00am to 5:00pm at the Parc 55 Wyndham Hotel in San Francisco, California as a post-conference event of the annual meeting of the American Society on Aging. The theme is “What’s Next: Dynamics, Deals, Differentiation and Disruption,” and topics include social media, alternate distribution, entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship, and others.

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Newsletter Editors: Greg O’Neill, Sarah F. Wilson, and Dani Kaiserman, National Academy on an Aging Society