Aging Means Business E-Newsletter, Fall 2010

Aging Means Business E-Newsletter

Volume 1, Number 1, Fall 2010

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

The goal of this email publication is to reach teachers, students, researchers, and business professionals interested in serving, targeting, and engaging the 50+ consumer market.

I. A Welcome From the Editor:

The aging of America promises to have enormous implications, as well as opportunities, for businesses over the next 20 to 30 years. Although the demographic shift toward larger numbers of mature consumers is quite predictable, the impact of this growth on business is not. To prepare, we must explore questions such as: Who are the aging consumers? How are mature consumers different than their younger counterparts? And how will businesses prepare for change ahead?

This newsletter is founded on the view that the quality of life of older Americans—and the bottom lines of companies that serve them—will benefit from gerontologists joining forces with those in the business sector to develop appropriate products and services. Toward this goal, this newsletter aims to survey and summarize the best of aging, economic, psychological, and consumer behavior research on the needs, wants, motivations, and life stage changes of 50+ consumers.

We hope you find the information useful to your work, and we welcome your input.

-- Greg O'Neill, PhD

II. Age Trends:

A. Demographic Profiles: A series of briefs from the MetLife Mature Market Institute examines characteristics the generations born since the early 1900s, including Younger Boomers, Middle Boomers, Older Boomers, and Americans 65+. These profiles pull together federal data on population, life expectancy, health status, marital status, housing arrangements, racial/ethnic composition, geography, employment status, income level, spending preferences, and generational influencers.

B. Older Persons as Consumers: This United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) policy brief describes older persons as constituting a growing consumer group with specific needs and significant purchasing power. It addresses issues such as demographic change; economic well-being and heterogeneity of older persons in the UNECE region; consumption over the life course; consumer behavior of older households; needs, interests, and preferences of older persons; examples of products for all ages; and policy implications. The brief urges policymakers to encourage companies to bring to market more products for all ages, and spotlights good practices from the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Romania, and other countries.

C. The 2010 Bundle Report: Annual Spending by Age: As a featured portion of the larger 2010 Bundle Report: How America Spends—a breakdown of American spending in 2009 into six categories of shopping, getting around, food and drink, travel and leisure, house and home, and health and family—Annual Spending by Age describes the spending habits of Americans 65+ and compares their spending habits to those of other age groups. The report features illustrated representations of data, and highlights other data subsets of interest, including the 25 Top-Spending Cities in the U.S. and a 50-State Breakdown of spending.

II. Marketing to Mid-Life and Older Adults:

A. Elder Care Marketing Industry Report: How Elder Care Marketers Grow Their Businesses: This SmartBug Media report explores the current state of senior care marketing. It examines the marketing behaviors of 166 business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketers and contains information about various marketing tools and their effectiveness, the length of sales cycles, the size of budgets, lead generation and management, and the use and impact of social media on senior care. Click here for a video tour of the report by Ryan Malone, president of ElderCare Marketer, the commissioner of the survey.

B. 2010 AAHSA Consumer Research Digest: This collection of resources, compiled by the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, contains credible and informative research that can shed light on the issues that older consumers will face in 2016 and beyond. Those future consumers will differ in important ways from current consumers. Resource categories include: characteristics of the future aging population, financial well-being of the future aging population, future retirement lifestyles, health status of the future aging population, and meeting future needs for long-term services and supports.

C. Protecting Senior Investors: Compliance, Supervisory and Other Practices Used by Financial Services Firms in Serving Senior Investors, 2010 Addendum: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, and North American Securities Administrators Association updated a joint report that outlines best practices being used by financial services firms and professionals when serving senior investors. Descriptions focus on communicating effectively with senior investors, training and educating firm employees on senior-specific issues, establishing an internal process for escalating issues and taking next steps, obtaining information at account opening, ensuring appropriateness of investments, and conducting senior-focused supervision, surveillance, and compliance reviews.

IV. Industry Updates:

A. Social Media and Technology

1. Older Adults and Social Media: A Pew Internet and American Life Project survey examines the social media use of adults age 50+. Key findings include: social networking use among internet users age 50+ has nearly doubled over the past year; and half of internet users ages 50 to 64 and one quarter of users age 65+ now use social networking sites. In addition, although email continues to be the primary way older users maintain contact with friends, family, and colleagues, many now rely on social network platforms to manage daily communications (i.e., sharing photos, videos, news, and status updates) with a growing network of contacts.

2. Boomers and Technology: An Extended Conversation: A joint AARP/Microsoft research report describes how baby boomers view and use technology, and predicts how boomers’ preferences will shape the future of technology. Findings include: boomers like to learn new technologies and share their knowledge; boomers want technology to be safer and easier; boomers expect technology to adapt to them; boomers embrace high-tech healthcare; boomers use technology and social networking to connect in new ways; boomers see technology as a tool; boomers see technology as a force for good; and technology opens a new world of leisure, creativity, learning, and income for boomers.

B. Housing

1. Slower Growth of U.S. Retirement Destinations Linked to Economic Downturn: This Population Reference Bureau analysis describes U.S. Census Bureau data that reveals that population growth has slowed in U.S. retirement destinations, despite the large cohort of baby boomers who have begun to reach retirement age. Counties that should be experiencing an influx of retirees have seen slower growth—or even population loss—since the onset of the 2007 recession. The population slowdown is most pronounced in retirement magnets in the Northeast, Midwest, and parts of Florida.

2. MedCottage: This CBS video introduces N2Care’s signature product, the MedCottage, a mobile, modular medical home designed to be placed temporarily on a caregiver’s property for rehabilitation and extended care. It is a state-of-the-art hospital room with remote monitoring so caregivers can provide the best possible care. The MedCottage is a response to the trend that as people age or require additional care, many treatment options take them away from their families; instead, the MedCottage gives families the ability to participate directly in their loved one’s recovery, rehabilitation, or extended care. For more information on N2Care or the MedCottage, click here.

V. Events & Worth Noting:

A. Aging Means Business Forum: Join us in New Orleans for a one-day forum to learn more about the changing consumer demands of the 50+ age group—and ways to better serve, target, and engage this growing market of baby boomers and older generations. Top-ranked academic experts on economics, gerontology, and consumer behavior will engage in dialogue with national and local business leaders. This year's forum will focus on aging-in-place technology, home modification, and housing. Laurie Orlov, founder of Aging in Place Technology Watch, will provide the keynote address. Other presenters include Joseph Coughlin, founder and director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab; Mary Furlong, president and CEO of Mary Furlong & Associates; and Gary Moulton, product manager in Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group. For more information or to register, click here.

B. Aging Means Business Student Ad Contest: We are pleased to announce our first Aging Means Business Student Ad Contest, sponsored by the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau. Undergraduate and graduate students will design original ads for a marketing campaign aimed at adults age 50+. This year’s ad theme is “Welcome to New Orleans, Baby Boomers!”; ads should promote tourism in New Orleans for adults age 50+. Experts in 50+ consumer marketing will judge the ads based on their ability to capture the target audience according to principles of advertising and consumer research. Judges include Lori Bitter, president of Continuum Crew, and Helen Foster, principal of Foster Strategy. The top two finalists will receive cash prizes and free admission to the Aging Means Business forum in New Orleans. For more information about the contest and to apply, click here.

C. Gaming on a Collision Course: Averting Significant Revenue Loss by Making Games Accessible to Older Americans: The AbleGamers Foundation and 7-128 Software have released a report that calls attention to the tech savvy baby boomers moving into retirement, and argues that because the chance of experiencing disability and chronic medical issues increases as people age, the current inaccessibility of video games might prevent this population from being peak consumers. The report asks and answers the question: how much money is the gaming industry losing by not addressing accessibility in general—and for seniors in particular?

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Newsletter Editors: Greg O'Neill, Sarah Frey, and Dani Kaiserman, National Academy on an Aging Society

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