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Mature Market Experts’ Gem of The Day: Beyond Banner Ads

Tom Mann — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 15:38:41 +0000

Is a game the way to consumers' hearts?

Mature Market Experts: more boomer, senior, and mature market news and stats you can use – Beyond Banner Ads. The yet fully unrealized potential of internet advertising hangs just out of reach as a tantalizing fruit for advertisers, as television advertising once did at its inception. The challenge is for advertisers to crack the code – how to get online users to pay attention to their marketing message. Especially, how to get the lucrative, savvy, mature baby boomer market to heed commercials as they browse the web, with real increases of sales in consumer goods and services. Some think the key to unlocking this elusive riddle will be to integrate enhanced interactive systems such as Microsoft’s new Kinect with the internet experience. To see a demo review of Kinect in game form click here. To read more on its advertising potential click here.

Don’t laugh, boomers and seniors have been big fans of augmented reality games from the beginning. An now, brain fitness programs like Super Noggin are incorporating games like these into their programming. It won’t be long before we see advertising as part of the environment.

Minor rant: I recently pulled out the instructions for my Jawbone headset … ugggg! Are you kidding me! The smallest, most impossible font I have EVER seen made the directions impossible to read! AliphCom, who do you think is buying these expensive bluetooth headsets? Let me give you a hint, they’re older and they have money. Please, please, please have your designer call us before you create your next packaging.

Aging In Place: Home Renovators and Retirement Communities Benefit From A Certified Aging-In-Place Specialist (CAPS)

Tom Mann — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 13:52:31 +0000

Great Grabz Wave grab bars offer beauty and safety

This past holiday, I took my Dad over to my sister’s house for a family get-together. My father now has macular degeneration and is on oxygen, so he is often reluctant to leave the comfortable and familiar surroundings of his beautiful apartment home at a nearby retirement community. That being said, we wanted to celebrate his 80th birthday on the 27th of December and that just wasn’t going to be possible in his apartment. There are six of us kids, then add spouses and grandkids and pretty soon you are talking about the population of Rhode Island.Anyway, he reluctantly agreed to the three day trip.

I had often wondered about his growing reluctance to leave his house. After all, doesn’t he get sick of being in the same place ALL the time? Yes, I understand he is blind. Yes, I understand that being dependent on oxygen makes being out in public less and less appealing. But I was still shocked. After all, my Dad is still sharp and loves engaging people in political and sports talk.

On the ride home, I asked my Dad if he had enjoyed the festivities and he had. My sister’s first floor accommodations with a private bathroom made life easy for him. But then he told me about two subtle things in his apartment design he had missed. First, were the strategically placed grab bars … especially around the toilet. The second, and this really surprised me, was that his doors at home had a gap between the bottom of the door and the floor (by design) so that his oxygen tube could go under it. This allows his oxygen generator which is slightly noisy to be left behind in another room while he wanders about. Hmmm.

The funny thing is that when he first moved into Charlestown, no one had explained the purpose of this gap to him. Up until he needed it, he had assumed sloppy craftsmanship. But now, he had come to truly appreciate the builders and designers who have allowed him to gracefully age in place.

Thoughtful design and your ability to explain that design will become critical to the sales success of your remodeling, retirement community, assisted living, or skilled nursing care success. Not to mention our nation’s ability to surviving the coming age wave. The NAHB Remodelers (National Association of Home Remodelers), NAHB Research Center, 50+ Housing Council and AARP have created the Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS) designation. The graying of the baby boom generation has led to drastic increases in demand for professional remodelers and designers with expert training in refitting homes, and creating senior communities and assisted living homes that are safe and comfortable for the mature market. To this end, the Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS) designation is awarded to those professionals who successfully complete a three-day training program. Incorporating these crucial tenets will lead to increases in the renovating business and senior housing sales. To learn more about this program click here. To learn what can go wrong with a remodel click here, or how to do it right read here. For articles on design that satisfies both senior needs and desires for beautiful surroundings see The Age of Aesthetics: Turning Obstacles into Beauty and Aging with Style Means a New Luxury Market.

Mature Market Experts’ Stat of The Day: Does the Medium Effect the Message?

Tom Mann — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 14:03:40 +0000

Mature Market Experts: more boomer, senior, and mature market news and stats you can use – Does the Medium Effect the Message? Like all advertisers, you need to reach your audience in the most cost effective way possible. But are numbers the only consideration when determining where to place an ad? In other words, are all ad spaces created equally? Is reaching 1 million internet viewers the same as a television audience of 1 million? A recent AdweekMedia/Harris Poll, indicates that different consumer groups self report connecting more or less effectively with various media forms. While it may go against intuition, the baby boomers (55+ group) found search-engine ads more helpful than younger groups (20% compared to 16% of 18-34 year olds, 18% of the 35-44 and 19% of the 45-54 age groups). Conversely, the youngest group was most likely to respond to television advertising (34% of the 18-34 age group), with effectiveness of television ads declining with each age group. Of course, there are ways to increase a medium’s marketing prowess. For example, while 15% of respondents said they found newspaper advertising helpful when purchasing consumer goods, having a dedicated tabloid with no competitive advertising in it, will increase your ad’s power tremendously.

For more information on the study click here.

To read more on creating a customized 8 page newspaper click here.

Attention Wellness Directors: You owe it to your residents to introduce them to Super Noggin and Conductorcise in 2011!

Mature Market Experts’ Gem of The Day: Defining the Senior Market

Tom Mann — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 13:16:03 +0000

Mature Market Experts: more boomer, senior, and mature market news and stats you can use – Defining the Senior Market. Baby boomers, seniors, 55+, 65+, the mature market … all of these terms are rather nebulous when it comes to marketing. What exactly is the senior market? Undoubtedly there are differences between a 65 year old and a 112 year old. The NAHB Research Center (a subsidiary of the National Association of Home Builders) breaks the senior category into 4 groups: the Baby Boomer Generation, born 1946 to 1964; the Post War Generation, born 1928 to 1945; the World War II Generation, born 1922 to 1927 and the Depression Generation, born 1912 to 1921. Among the more senior seniors internet advertising may be ineffective, while for baby boomers it may be highly productive. Read here for a different perspective on defining your target audience. Also consider cultivating new lead sources in the senior provider community. The Older Americans Act mandates that every community has an Area Agency on Aging (AAA). This is a great network to be a part of. To be included, your business must earn the trust of the AAA.

Editor’s Note: Wow! Hard to believe another year has blown by! Happy holidays to all. The team at Love and Company wishes you an awesome 2011!

Mature Market Experts’ Gem of The Day: Harnessing the Marketing Power of Cultural Movements

Tom Mann — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 11:41:08 +0000

Mature Market Experts: more boomer, senior, and mature market news and stats you can use – Harnessing the Marketing Power of Cultural Movements. Like “skitching” (holding onto a moving vehicle while biking or skateboarding), advertisers that can somehow link their product to a cultural movement will gain its momentum. Imagine selling consumer goods to the senior market while only footing a small part of the advertising budget! Rising into cultural awareness is a difficult feat, but well worth the exposure to consumers. Highly successful examples of this include The Pepsi Refresh Project and “Replay” from Gatorade. To read more about this elusive yet potential marketing gold mine click here.

Editor’s Note: Who’s headed to sunny San Diego for the International Council on Active Aging Conference (ICAA) this week? Our team (TR Mann Consulting) will be at Booth 1748. Please feel free to stop by and introduce yourself, or call us at 410-292-4333 for a personal (and complimentary) appointment to discuss how we can assist you with our marketing services … or the services of our two ICAA preferred vendor clients (Super Noggin and Conductorcise). We’ll also have our new clients, NatraCure in town with us.

Mature Market Experts’ Gem of The Day: Web Images, A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

Tom Mann — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 13:55:32 +0000

Mature Market Experts: more boomer, senior, and mature market news and stats you can use – Images: A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words. Have you ever gone to a website only to be tempted to abandon it because the downloading of images seemed to take forever? And when it finally appeared on your computer screen, realized that the image was not worth waiting for? Not a scenario you should be putting current or potential clients through. As the proverb goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. But, in advertising it has to be the right picture. If the image is free, great; but has it been overused? The viewer will recognize it and not give much credence to your website or printed material. Images need to speak about the product – and assuming market leader and uniqueness are desirable attributes – they should not seem generic. If you are advertising to baby boomers, you need to consider if a photo of vibrant, natural looking, mature grandparents is more appealing and realistic than one of a campy forty year old couple? And remember, even the best image will be a turn off if it slows down the loading of a web page, so be sure images are optimized for the web. In any media, image excellence is essential to convey the message of quality.

For more tips on selecting and using the right photo click here.

Mature Market Experts Gem of The Day: Google Analytics and Analyzing Internet Data

Tom Mann — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:03:00 +0000

Mature Market Experts: stats and news you can use on boomers, seniors and the mature market – Google Analytics and Analyzing Internet Data – Internet technology has become a tool that businesses selling to seniors can not afford to ignore. As boomers, seniors, and the mature market rely on it for everything from social networking and entertainment to price comparisons and online purchases, a side benefit is that enormous amounts of information becomes available for collection and analysis. Businesses and advertisers marketing to the baby boomer consumer could design their product and message based on these statistics. Last week’s 27th annual symposium of the University of Maryland’s Human-Computer Interaction Lab brought government researchers, business financial analysts and computer scientists together to debate how to organize and display this gold mine of information in a beneficial way. To learn more about how this endeavor may help your future business click here.

At a minimum, you owe it to yourself to look at your Google Analytics to see if you are focusing your website’s keywords on the right terms (this assumes that you’ve been paying for Google Adwords …. if you haven’t been, it is worth doing just to see what valuable information you can glean). And while you’re at it, plug your website’s url into www.websitegrader.comfor an eye-opening view of your website’s flaws.

Mature Market Experts Gem of The Day: Online Reviews Can Make or Break You

Tom Mann — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:08:53 +0000

Mature Market Experts: stats and news you can use on boomers, seniors and the mature market – Online Reviews Can Make or Break You – First there were websites, next came banner ads, now enter the powerful online review. Online review sites are gaining popularity and consumer influence. Many customers, including technically savvy baby boomers, review consumer goods and services such as restaurants and stores. For certain boomer products and services, it’s essential to be paying attention to your online reviews. Following your online reputation, and addressing any complaints, can be an incredible boon to your business and a more direct way to reach your market. In fact, some business owners report growth of more than fifty percent after positive reviews. But don’t be tempted to astroturf (falsely inputting rave reviews). Also, be sure to talk to your staff about the importance of ethics (I once had an over-ambitious intern decide to get creative on their own). Remember, at the end of the day, the best way to get good reviews is to provide a great product or service. The vast majority of your company’s time should be focused on providing greatness to your customers.

In this economy, who can afford to ignore such a powerful tool? To learn more. here’s a NY Times article about how to manage your online business reputation click here.

Read cautionary tale.

Mature Market Experts Stat of the Day: American Baby Boomers’ Retirement Horizons Shifting With Home Values

Tom Mann — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:57:15 +0000

Mature Market Experts: More news and stats you can use on boomers, seniors and the mature market – American Baby Boomers’ Retirement Horizons Shifting With Home Values – According to an October newsletter from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, American baby boomers just reaching retirement age are far more likely to be in debt (and have much higher levels of debt) than past generations of seniors. For those in the retirement community industry, this poses a serious threat (as does new technology that will allow seniors to age in place). Time to start thinking of /creating a new model that doesn’t rely on the transfer of home equity to cover the entire entrance deposit or complete purchase price of their new home. In fact, the recent recession and decline in housing values is proof that the time is now for this new model. Retirement community industry experts are starting to see some innovations, such as introducing seniors to life settlements to supplement the home sale price. While tools like life settlements are EXTREMELY helpful, my suspicion is that it’s going to take more than this.

On the good news front, TR Mann Consulting’s retirement community clients saw an uptick in sales at the end of 2009, hopefully foreshadowing a Happy 2010 for all of us that sell retirement communities! Much of this recent success is due to a newfound willingness by potential retirement community residents to set and accept a realistic price on the sale of their houses. How have sales trended in your neck of the woods? I’d love to hear from others responsible for advertising or marketing active adult retirement communities, continuing care retirement communities, assisted living, and skilled care.

Mature Market Experts Stat of The Day: Mature Market Experts Hits 500 Members!

Tom Mann — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:57:19 +0000

Mature Market Experts: stats and news you can use on boomers, seniors, and the mature market – Mature Market Experts LinkedIn Membership Leaps Hits 500! I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the growth of our LinkedIn networking group. We are the largest networking LinkedIn group for people serving the mature market. Our group connects investors, bankers, real estate developers, consumer goods companies, health care professionals, journalists, advertising and marketing experts who are interested in serving the boomer and senior marketplace.

Joining Mature Market Experts is simple and free:

To join the Mature Market Experts LinkedIn Networking group just click on the following link: http://www.linkedin.com/groupsDirectory?results=&sik=1228175683442 and type in to the search box “Mature Market Experts.”

As a member of the group, you’ll get to enjoy LinkedIn’s useful discussion tool that allows you to post questions for the group, as well has have text conversations.

To subscribe to the Mature Market Experts blog just click on the following link: www.Mature-Market-Experts.com

To follow us on Twitter click on: http://twitter.com/trmann

Thanks again for being part of the discussion, and feel free to contact me with any ideas or suggestions.

Warmest regards,

Tom

Tom Mann
Managing Partner, TR Mann Consulting
410-292-4333
Tom (AT) TRMann.com

Mature Market Experts Event Alert: ICAA Conference – Invest In Results

Tom Mann — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:40:03 +0000

With the economy flat and budgets tight, it’s important to weigh decisions about where to invest in staff and operations. Get the most bang for your educational buck with the International Council on Active Aging (ICAA) Conference 2009. It’s an investment that guarantees results.

The conference’s thought-provoking education includes techniques, strategies and resources that get results today and prepares your organization for tomorrow. Gain tools to become more versatile in your offerings and more adaptable to needs and circumstances. Discover best practices, case studies and ways to improve your business and marketing models. Plus, talk to industry leaders, experts and colleagues from diverse older-adult settings, to learn what they’re doing.

To view conference schedule and full session descriptions, visit http://icaa.cc/convention/sessions.htm

Maestro David Dworkin the founder of Conductorcise with Dr. Roger Landry, President of My Masterpiece Living. The Maestro and Dr. Landry will both be presenting at this year's upcoming conference.

To register by phone, CALL ICAA TOLL-FREE at 866-335-9777 or 604-734-4466. To register online, visit http://icaa.cc/registrationForm.asp

Note: I (Tom Mann of TR Mann Consulting) was recently elected to the ICAA’s Visionary Board. This is an incredible organization that puts on some of the best run conferences in the country. This year, I will be speaking on the topic of “Becoming A Wellness Sherpa” which is all about relational marketing and becoming a trusted advisor. I hope to see many of my friends from Mature Market Experts in sunny Florida this December.

Mature Market Experts: Mature Market Experts LinkedIn Membership Leaps Past 400!

Tom Mann — Tue, 12 May 2009 15:31:50 +0000

Mature Market Experts: more mature market news and stats more often – Mature Market Experts LinkedIn Membership Leaps Past 400! I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the growth of our LinkedIn networking group. We are now the largest networking LinkedIn group for people serving the mature market. Our group connects investors, bankers, real estate developers, consumer goods companies, health care professionals, journalists and marketing experts who are interested in serving the boomer and senior marketplace.

Joining Mature Market Experts is simple and free:

As a member of the group, you’ll get to enjoy LinkedIn’s useful discussion tool that allows you to post questions for the group, as well has have text conversations.

To subscribe to the Mature Market Experts blog just click on the following link: www.Mature-Market-Experts.com

To follow us on Twitter click on: http://twitter.com/trmann

Thanks again for following us, and feel free to contact me with any ideas or suggestions.

Warmest regards,

Tom

Tom Mann
Managing Partner, TR Mann Consulting
410-292-4333
Tom (AT) TRMann.com

Mature Market Experts Stat of The Day: Mature Market Experts LinkedIn Membership Climbs Past 300!

Tom Mann — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:38:29 +0000

Mature Market Experts: more mature market news and stats more often – Mature Market Experts LinkedIn Membership Climbs Past 300! I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the growth of our LinkedIn networking group. We are now the largest networking LinkedIn group for people serving the mature market. Our group connects investors, bankers, real estate developers, consumer goods companies, health care professionals, journalists and marketing experts who are interested in serving the boomer and senior marketplace.

Joining Mature Market Experts is simple and free:

As a member of the group, you’ll get to enjoy LinkedIn’s useful discussion tool that allows you to post questions for the group, as well has have text conversations.

To subscribe to the Mature Market Experts blog just click on the following link: http://maturemarketexperts.wordpress.com/feed/

To follow us on Twitter click on: http://twitter.com/trmann

Thanks again for following us, and feel free to contact me with any ideas or suggestions.

Warmest regards,

Tom

Tom Mann
Managing Partner, TR Mann Consulting
www.TRMann.com
410-292-4333
Tom (AT) TRMann.com