Researchers at Fleishman-Hillard, a public relations agency, and NMI, a market research firm, have released the results of a recent survey of baby boomers. The survey affords a peek at what leading-edge boomers may be like when they start turning age 70 in 2016.
The researchers conclude that while baby boomers will continue the path-breaking ways of their youth, at 70 they will be more “retrolutionary” than “revolutionary.”
Dr. Carol Orsborn of Fleishman-Hillard said,
“…retrolutionaries are the vast majority of boomer-aged consumers who are aiming to get their monetary expenditures in better alignment with values formed at an earlier stage in their lives. Think the 2016 version of Birkenstocks and VW in the 60’s and 70’s: living affordably, but with style.”
The study concludes that baby boomers will become more pragmatic in their older age, especially when it comes to their finances. Here are some data points from the survey.
Today’s boomers predict that when they turn 70:
74% still won’t be describing themselves as old
86% will be more practical and pragmatic in their purchases, and much less concerned about trendiness and indulgences
76% will be using technology to stay connected with family and friends
93% will have more time to do things like travel, dine out and pursue hobbies
63% will be making some kind of move, but only 9 per cent of boomers now in their 50’s or older imagine themselves at 70 still in search of ‘the dream home.’
only 41% of boomers state they currently have a
secure, financially sound plan for retirement.
75% anticipate that “their best years are ahead of them.”
The researchers point out that not all boomers will be pragmatic retrolutionaries, but those 59% of boomers that say they don’t now have a sound plan for retirement will be, at 70, a whole lot more conservative in their spending. Nevertheless, boomers predict that, even after paying their bills, they will have, on average, 22% of their income left over for discretionary purchases.
The researchers conclude on a positive note, saying that,
“When the first boomers turn 70, there are still 18 years of the generation to follow, the vast majority of whom are wide open to new products and experiences in virtually every category—as long as marketers stay on top of the generations’ rapidly changing ethos.”
Resources:
Press Release about study. NMI, Natural Marketing Institute FH Boom, Fleishman-Hillard’s baby boomer focused division.
Chuck Nyren of Advertising to Baby Boomers has a blog posting about this research, while Matt Thornhill of the Boomer Consumer takes the contrarian view.
Some years ago I purchased a tape of a song personalized with my granddaughter’s name throughout. It was lovely…all about animals…and my granddaughter, Amanda (3-4 yrs old), loved it. She played it over and over and memorized the lyrics.
Now Flattenme has developed a line of storybooks that can be personalized with the photo and name of a child. The text and illustrations actually feature the child. Customers, such as grandparents, upload the child’s photo, provide their name and gender, and select a book. The book is delivered in about two weeks. Sample titles are Here There Be Pirates, The Potty Dance, and My Little Monster. The books are hardcover, full-color and sell for about $33.
The “FlattenMe” books have been featured on Good Morning America, Daily Candy, the Today Show, and in the Grandkid Gift Guide.
We found this idea at TrendWatching.com. TrendWatching calls products, such as these personalized books, examples of “status stories” since they make great conversation starters for consumers who want to tell “stories” about their unique belongings or experiences.
Status stories are sort of like “status symbols,” but different in that they don’t just speak of the consumer’s wealth but rather to their uniqueness and creativity as consumers. Products that enable status stories are often consumed in private, but then shared as stories so that they mimic the public presentation that “status symbols” demand in order to be counted as status symbols.
An example of a “status symbol” would be a fur coat worn in public. A “status story” might be about one’s great new hot tub even though few people see you in it; or your latest travel adventure to see the gorillas in Uganda even though only you experienced it. One can imagine a grandparent in the case of the “flattenme” books telling their friends about the great book they got for their grandchild, and basking in the glow of admiration as a fabulously creative grandparent.
The question for marketers to baby boomers and seniors is:
Does your product provide a “story” that your mature consumers can tell to their friends and family that enhances their “status” through their buying behavior?
Can you think of other examples of “status stories?”
Have you tried Hulu? It is a new online video service. Go to Hulu.com and you can watch full-length episodes of current and archived television shows, feature films, sports and news–for free.
Hulu has deals with a raft of content providers ranging from the major TV networks to cable channels to movie studios.
The interesting thing for us, marketers to boomers and seniors, is that early data indicate that Hulu is reaching baby boomers and older. The original target was young people who don’t usually watch TV but who might watch video on their computers. After all, they flock to YouTube.
Now, according to Silicon Alley Insider, 47 percent of visitors to Hulu are 55 and older, compared to only 17 percent between the ages of 18 and 34.
These are early numbers and the data varies according to who is collecting it. So we have to wait to see if older consumers really are watching online TV to this extent.
If they are, it further defies the stereotype of older consumers as techno-phobic geezers. On the other hand, watching TV does skew older and that is the content that is being offered on Hulu.
Interesting, in any case. And also something for advertisers in the mature market to watch. It might pay to advertise on Hulu.
Senior centers all across the country are looking for new ideas in an effort to modernize themselves and, thus, appeal to aging baby boomers who will soon be seniors. An article in the NYTimes explores the issue and looks at a number of ways senior centers are innovating.
The Transition Network (TTN) is organized to help professional women find new lifestyles following retirement from high-paced jobs. It was founded in New York City by executives Christine Millen and Charlotte Frank, and is now composed of local networks across the country. Today there are 3,000 participants throughout the country. The group is divided into networks of women who meet monthly in their local areas to discuss and learn about possible life transition activities, to engage in meaningful community service, and to do advocacy work.
Thanks to the Positive Aging Newsletter for this tip. To subscribe to this well researched and information rich resource, visit the HealthandAge.com subscription page.
Experience Corps provides opportunities for older people to do volunteer work in schools. They often help children learn to read, for instance. Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore is researching the impact of Experience Corp’s activities on its volunteers. So far, the research has found improved health benefits for participants.
There is still time to enter the 2008 Silicon Valley Boomer Business Plan Competition, sponsored by Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business and Mary Furlong and Associates. Two $10,000 prizes will be awarded in two categories. Check it out now.
The economic downturn is showing up at the grocery store, says Vertis Communications. A new study says that just one percent of adults say overall food quality is the reason they choose a supermarket. They are much more impressed by low prices and convenience (as in close to work or home).
Scott Marden, director of marketing research at Vertis, said “Economic factors, such as gas prices and the housing market, are changing shoppers’ habits drastically…and many are shopping closer to home, stocking up more and combining shopping trips.”
You can believe that baby boomers and seniors are price and convenience shopping along with everyone else.
What might this mean for your business or service to the mature market? We think that you might want to consider:
Weighting your inventory to less expensive items if you are selling a product, and providing some discounts for services should you be a service provider.
Consider going to the consumer, in places where he or she will be shopping or congregating, to cut down on travel. Even some services could go to retirement or senior centers or even to clients’ homes. Would it make sense to provide home delivery of your products?
Let your customers and clients know that you understand that times might be tight and are doing whatever you can to cushion the cost of services and goods. If you have a publication (mailed or online), provide cost-cutting tips and suggest bundles of products or services that cost less.
If you don’t have a website where customers can order your products, this is as good a time as any to put one up. People will be searching the Internet either to do their research before they buy, or to purchase online rather than driving the car to your operation.
Are you seeing the effect of the economy yet in your business? In what ways? Let us know in the comments.
Peter Shankman, a publicist, author and speaker, has created a “matchmaking” service for reporters. His “Help a Reporter” email service has become quite popular, among reporters and among potential sources.
The idea is that any of us can register for Shankman’s email list. Reporters send in queries, Shankman sends them out to us and we can answer those that are in our areas of expertise. Often, the query gives us the reporter’s contact information so we can contact him or her directly. But reporters can ask to be anonymous, in which case we send our info to Shankman who screens the replies and sends the most appropriate ones on to the reporter.
Reporters are looking for experts but also real people with experiences that the reporter is writing about. Just in the short time I’ve been receiving the emails from Shankman, there have been some inquiries about grandparents, older entrepreneurs, and baby boomers. That is no surprise since the world of aging is top of the news these days.
Beware though of wasting a journalist’s time. Read the rules at “Help a Reporter,” and scan Shankman’s personal blog for the back story of the site.
Read business reporter Marci Alboher’s NYTimes column for how she uses the service and then register at Help a Reporter.
Joseph Coughlin is the director of a fascinating place called AgeLab.
AgeLab is a research program at MIT that is in the business of making life easier for older people. AgeLab is working in the areas of transportation, health care and housing. The lab does more than just dream about nifty gadgets and futuristic technology. It works on likely-to-succeed, marketable ideas and then gets them off the drawing boards and into the marketplace.
Coughlin is one of 12 people the Wall Street Journal has profiled in an article called “12 People Who Are changing Your Retirement.” You likely have never heard of most of these folks but they are developing products and services for today’s and tomorrow’s mature consumers.
Get acquainted with the work of Coughlin and the others because they are where the older consumer will be spending his or her retirement dollars.
We don’t like ageism of any kind anywhere but we found this NYTimes article to be a fairly well-balanced look at the seemingly irresistible ageist jokes created by the presidential candidacy of John McCain.
It is unfortunate that, since gender jokes and racist jokes are off limits this campaign season, comedians feel age is fair game. It seems odd too since everyone will get old so isn’t the joke even on the person making the joke? Maybe that is why we let people get away with it…it is like an “inside” joke that we all share.
Luckily, McCain has a good sense of humor and is doing much to defuse the shenanigans of Jay Leno and his comedic brotherhood and sisterhood. McCain is following the path so gently and humorously laid out by Ronald Reagan when he was running for president at a slightly younger age than McCain.
Here is a video of a McCain spoof. We would embed it here but don’t want to give it any more viral authority than necessary.
The NY Times article points out, however, that older voters may have their revenge come November:
Anyway, oldsters might have the last laugh. Even though the youth turnout has been huge in the primaries, the over-65 vote is traditionally twice as large at election time, said Curtis Gans, director of the nonpartisan Center for the Study of the American Electorate at American University. If turnout is as high this year as some people project, it could be a record year for the older voting bloc. “They do have power over public policy,” Mr. Gans said. “They’re the ones that vote the most.”
What do you think of the torrent of jokes about age this year? Should we be up in arms or let it go? Younger people are likely to wonder what the big deal is. For us oldsters, it is a question of do we wish to scream? or play the “wise elder” card?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
Other opinions: Time Goes By, a blog by Ronnie Bennett
There is no doubt baby boomers are worried about having enough money for retirement. A recent survey by ScottTrade found that fifty-one percent of people 55 and over say they wish they had started at a younger age and 40 percent say they wish they would have saved more. Now another financial services company is jumping on the bandwagon to help the financially challenged of a certain age.
ING has made a brightly-colored swath across the Internet with its Orange Savings Account and other services. Now ING is debuting a new ad campaign aimed at the “on-the-cusp-of-retiring” worried boomers.
And the ads are orange, featuring people carrying around an orange set of numbers that represents the money people need to retire. The tag line for the tv and print ads is “Your Number.”
“The ads show professional, well-dressed baby boomers going happily about their busy lives — passing through airport security, crossing a Wall Street-type intersection, getting an ultrasound of a growing baby — all while toting a bright orange number with a dollar sign, like a flute case.
Guitar music reminiscent of the soundtrack to the hit film “Juno” adds an upbeat note to the sunny hustle and bustle. In the ultrasound scene, the number increases rapidly, a humorous nod to the cost of raising children.
Some of the orange numbers have five figures, and others have seven. The people carry their numbers everywhere, even to bed.”
ING is also setting up a website, www.INGyournumber.com that will let you calculate the amount of money you are likely to need to retire comfortably.
We like the Orange campaign. It addresses the problem of funding retirement in a light, breezy way that will make it seem easier and less gloomy to take on the actions needed to get to that “number.”
We don’t think scare tactics work well with boomers and certainly shaming will not. To compare approaches to retirement planning, take at look at Fidelity, Ameriprise, and MetLife. Which ones do you like the most? Let us know in the comments below.
Update: Here is a clever video of people carrying ING numbers in the Georgia Marathon.
Wow! We love the new website/blog by women we see all the time in the media who are celebrities, but of substance…women like Leslie Stahl, Peggy Noonan, Lily Tomlin, and Candice Bergen.
The site is called wowowow.com (the sub title is “The Women on the Web”), and is aimed at women 40 and older. It promises to be a doosie, letting us into the private thoughts and chats of these dynamic women. The group says on its about page:
It means a lot to us that the largest number of people coming on to the internet now are women like us – women who, to use a cliché, weren’t born yesterday, who are in their prime, who are involved in the world and have a bent for changing it as much as living in it. Women who want a place to look at issues in a new way, or gossip a little, or learn more about each other, or ponder how to make the world better. Women who live varied lives, as we do.
The site is wrapped around what is called “The Conversation.” This is a topic that all the contributors can weigh in on…not unlike TV’s “The View.” In addition, individual contributors will do blog-like postings. Readers will, of course, be able to leave comments and we expect there will be a lot of them.
A NYTimes article points out that statistics are in favor of such a site with women’s community sites growing by 35 percent between December 2006 and December 2007.
The women involved seem excited to be trying out a new medium and even being daring entrepreneurs. Will it succeed? We’ll see, although we think older women (maybe a bit older than the target demographic of “over 40″) will find it fresh and enticing.
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Fast Facts
*16 percent of the Millenial Generation reads a newspaper every day.; 72 percent of the World War II generation reads a newspaper daily.
*35 percent of baby boomers identify themselves as "conservative"; 25 percent of boomers identify themselves as "liberal"
Source: NewStrategist.com
*The population 65 and over will increase from 35 million in 2000 to 40 million in 2010 (a 15% increase) and then to 55 million in 2020 (a 36% increase for that decade).
*By 2030, there will be about 71.5 million older persons, almost twice their number in 2005.
*People 65+ represented 12.4% of the population in the year 2005 but are expected to grow to be 20% of the population by 2030.
*The 85+ population is projected to increase from 4.2 million in 2000 to 6.1 million in 2010 (40%) and then to 7.3 million in 2020 (44% for that decade).
Source: Administration On Aging
The economic downturn is showing up at the grocery store, says Vertis Communications. A new study says that just one percent of adults say overall food quality is the reason they choose a supermarket. They are much more impressed by low prices and convenience (as in close to work or home).
