We have many mature market clients who have hesitated when our team at Love and Company recommend that they “give” something of value away for free. “Tom,” they say, “we’re in the business of making money.” However, cost sensitivity is now the new norm. Regardless of age, upper-class consumers have joined the middle-class and lower-income in being price sensitive and value minded. And as we know, the mature market (boomers and beyond) is even more cynical and cautious, because they have seen it all. And, they have the patience and intelligence to gather information in a thoughtful manner.

We had one retirement community client tell us that their prospects were too refined for the word “FREE.” In this case, we were recommending that they give away a FREE retirement information kit. They had a hard time understanding that socioeconomic distinctions are rapidly becoming blurred. Cost sensitivity and cautious buying are now typical of all income brackets. Fortunately, their results dramatically improved when we were finally able to sway them.

In short, today’s market place is all about creating relationships. All of which brings us back to incentives. Incentives are a great way to start a relationship AND engage the power of reciprocity. That being said, there is a distinct difference between giving something of value away to potential customers and giving the farm away. My analogy is that we should make the first hurdle for entering a relationship as low as possible, this motivates them to reach out to you and to become acquainted.

Free offers can be as simple as a customized monthly newspaper, an e-newsletter, a white paper, a contest, a promotional item, or a seminar. The goal here is to have the incentive create a legitimate lead. This is particularly important in today’s world of permission marketing. Incentives should require your prospects to give something in return, namely their name and contact information. You won’t capture every visitor but those that do submit their information are serious prospects if your incentive offer correlates to your product or service in a meaningful way. For example, we use this offer for a FREE marketing audit on the Mature Market Experts site.

In this example, when I wrote the copy for Inter-Continental Hotels I used a double incentive - free information and a chance to win a free vacation.

By doing a lot of testing on your incentive offers and forms, you can typically increase your conversion rate significantly, capturing more leads from the same overall amount of traffic. Some of the things you might want to test are your incentive offer, the length of the form, putting a link to your privacy policy on your information submission form, adding a customer testimonial with a picture or video, and the form’s design.

Also, remember, there is a direct correlation to the number of landing pages (which improves your natural search engine optimization) plus, the number of incentive offers you have … to web traffic and leads.

Sadly, most websites do a poor job of capturing the traffic that comes to their door. Make sure that your organization is not one of them!

Important Note About Responding To Sales Leads:

How you respond to these leads is VERY, very important:

According to an MIT Study with InsideSales.com, 78% of sales that start with a web inquiry go to the company that responds first.

Of those surveyed by sales lead expert Mac Macintosh, 23% had bought the product or service they were inquiring about within 6 months. The other 67% still intended to purchase, but were not yet ready.

According to DemandGen Report, nurtured leads produce – on average – a 20% increase in Sales Opportunities vs. non-nurtured leads.

Source: HubSpot

Sadly, there are 5.3 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s and every 70 seconds another American is captured by this deadly disease. By mid-century someone will develop Alzheimer’s every 33 seconds. By 2050 there will be nearly a million new cases per year. In short, we are in the grip of a horrific epidemic.

After my Mom was diagnosed and passed away with Alzheimer’s, I became acutely aware of my increased odds of also getting the disease (in fact, recent research suggest that Alzheimer’s has a maternal link). Fortunately, at this time I also met Bruce Findley, the founder of the not-for-profit behind Super Noggin, a brain fitness lifestyle program. Bruce introduced me to two sources of information that shined a bright ray of hope on my fears … and sparked my desire to get involved with Super Noggin.

The first source of information he introduced me to was the Nun Study, a decades-long longitudinal study of 678 religious order nuns who agreed to be studied while living AND after their deaths (biopsy remains the surest way to identify Alzheimer’s). The second was The Anti-Alzheimer’s Prescription, a book by Dr. Vincent Fortanasce, a renowned practicing neurologist. Both of these incredible resources suggest that while we can’t prevent Alzheimer’s/dementia, we can reduce the effects of these diseases by up to 70 percent!

While we can’t change our genetics, we can positively change our lifestyle. That’s what Super Noggin is all about.

Click on the image to view this TV news segment on Super Noggin, a brain fitness lifestyle program.

All of which leads me back to my original paragraph. The not-for-profit that I mentioned earlier, LEAF Ltd., is dedicated to serving boomers and seniors by utilizing the latest research on brain health in a unique and fun brain fitness lifestyle program. They would like to offer you complimentary materials to answer the question “Why should I exercise my brain?” This 45-minute class includes all the components you’ll need to lead a class including the script, PowerPoint, handouts for activities, and resources. Just click here, and you’ll be granted instant and FREE access to the course’s materials. I guarantee your residents or members will find the content both enjoyable and enlightening.

Averting dementia goal of program built around brain games

By Tracie Dungan Monday, February 21, 2011

Photo by William Moore Sherri Napier, director of the Fayetteville Senior Activity and Wellness Center, handed out papers filled with brain games during Tuesday’s Super Noggin program.

FAYETTEVILLE — The class of 32, mostly silver-haired students, listened as the instructor explained terms like “neuroplasticity” and proceeded to tackle one brain-teaser after another.

“Your handout is upside down,” Sherri Napier said after handing out papers that, at first glance, appeared to have funny-looking type.

“I do not want you to turn it right-side up. Read it, starting from the bottom right hand corner and proceed to the left.”

On another handout, Napier directed the students: “Find the C in the sea of O’s.”

(There also was a sea of 9s overwhelming 6s and a haystack of M’s masking a few N’s.)

“Many of us look for ways not to challenge our minds,” said Napier, director of the Fayetteville Senior Activity and Wellness Center. “We are more comfortable with what we have already learned.”

Photo by William Moore Charlotte Tipton, 74, of Greenland participates in the Super Noggin program Tuesday at the Senior Activity Center in Fayetteville. Super Noggin is a program that helps improve brain fitness.

The brain games are just a few of a wide variety of mental exercises, memory-training techniques, puzzles and physical activities that are part of the “Super Noggin” class, a year-long program that began in January for the nine-county Area Agency on Aging of Northwest Arkansas, which is based in Harrison.

The program follows in the footsteps of a number of scientific studies in the past decade suggesting that Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias might be delayed or prevented through brain workouts, physical activity, social interaction, proper nutrition or restful sleep.

The most common form of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, afflicts 5.3 million Americans – about 200,000 of them younger than age 65, according to a 2010 report from the Alzheimer’s Association.

The degenerative disease of the brain destroys memory and thinking abilities, and there is no cure.

The Fayetteville senior center is among the first groups to begin the program in the agency’s nine-county area, said Angie Dunlap, adding she believes the agency, which covers Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Madison, Marion, Newton, Searcy and Washington counties, is the first in the state to adopt it.

The Super Noggin curriculum was developed by the 501(c)3 nonprofit Leaf Ltd. of Oostburg, Wis., and involves training for its instructors.

It and programs such as Conductorcise are among a national trend toward more so called brain aerobics classes,as well as dance and healthy living classes for adults – particularly the elderly.

Super Noggin markets itself as suitable for adults of any age – a nod to the reality of early onset Alzheimer’s and other cognitive impairment that can strike the relatively young.

“It is not designed for those already diagnosed with cognitive decline,” the program says on its website, supernoggin.org, which has sections such as: “How can Super Noggin decrease my risk of Alzheimer’s?”

Not so fast, say scientific researchers who’ve studied the studies.

While brain fitness and similar courses likely can’t hurt, they’ve concluded, the hard science is not yet there to conclusively prove these activities will stop or slow Alzheimer’s or other dementias.

“Do we have the studies there to say they do? The answer is no,” said Laurie Ryan, program director for Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials at the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

The studies that have indicated links between mental work and preventing dementias have been what are known as observational studies of people, she said.

That is not the same as a randomized clinical trial involving one set of people given a particular activity, treatment or medication and a second, “control” group that is given a placebo activity, treatment or medication. A number of such small- and large-scale clinical trials seeking the dementia answers are in the works, but the results are at least two years away.

“That’s the gold standard,” Ryan said Friday of clinical trials.

In August 2010, a “jury” of 15 impartial medical scientists placed on a panel by NIH arrived at the same conclusion after evaluating the studies, according to The New York Times.

But no one seems to be faulting the programs like Super Noggin for trying.

“There’s certainly no data that keeping mentally active hurts,” Ryan said. “And the epidemiological data suggests that keeping mentally active, keeping physically active and socially active are good for overall health. There’s also some suggestion that what’s good for the heart is good for the brain.”

Such activities also could ward off depression, she said: “Depression itself has been shown to be a risk factor for dementia. I think the jury’s still out on exactly why that is.”

The Area Agency on Aging’s Dunlap said her group decided to use some of its “health and wellness” funding on a brain health program. It researched some programs and settled on Super Noggin, spending about $5,000 on training expenses to get started. All together, it has received $30,899 for health promotion for fiscal year 2010-11 as part of the Older Americans Act of 1965.

The Super Noggin classes will take place mostly at local “senior centers,” she said, but also at places like the Schmieding Center for Senior Health and Education in Springdale.

In January, senior centers in Elkins, Fayetteville and Marion, Newton and Searcy counties started the program, with others in the remaining nine counties scheduled to rotate starting their programs between now and the rest of the year.

In the past, Dunlap’s agency had participated in another program involving “brain aerobics” puzzles and trivia questions it offered to its affiliates for their newsletters, she said.

“One of the best brain activities is ballroom dancing,” Dunlap said, adding that thinking about the dance steps combines with getting the body moving.

Super Noggin has physical aspects as well.

“Not only does your brain need that cognitive thinking to get those neurons firing – but it requires physical components.”

Napier told her Tuesday class that the ability of the brain to change and adapt is known as neuroplasticity.

To accomplish this, she assigned homework.

For the right-handed, it was writing one’s name 20 times with the left hand, and vice versa: “It takes practice – just like it took practice to learn to write in the first place,” she said.

The same goes for eating with a non-preferred hand, combing one’s hair, listening to music you normally don’t try and the order in which you tackle the aisles of the grocery store. Just generally, doing mundane tasks in a different way and shaking up the routine.

“Brush your teeth with a different hand,” Napier said.

Charlotte Tipton, 74, of Greenland said she learned about Super Noggin while participating in activities such as Wii bowling at the Fayetteville senior center.

“The Greenland Senior Center doesn’t have enough action for me,” joked Tipton, a native of Berlin, Germany, who has lived in Northwest Arkansas since 1958.

Tipton, who still speaks with a pronounced German accent, decided to give it a try. She planted herself on the front row of Tuesday’s class, leaned forward in her seat and participated actively in the discussions.

“I just said, hey, anyone can need help with their brains – including me,” she said with a laugh during a break in the lessons.

Tipton sometimes has trouble remembering names.

“Especially when you meet a lot of people all at once – oh my gosh,” she said.

Sometimes, even her friends’ names can escape her momentarily. “Maybe after this class, I will remember better.”

Phil and Dianne Zimmerman of Fayetteville said they were inspired to take the class after watching a public television documentary on brain fitness.

“We both have mothers who have signs of dementia,” Dianne Zimmerman said after class, adding that she learned from Napier the effect this could have: “Thirty percent is heredity.”

“We’re aiming for the 70,” chimed in Phil Zimmerman.

“Plus, it can’t hurt,” his wife added.

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.

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: stats and news you can use on boomers, seniors and the mature market – How To Get Free Advertising – The media campaigns you pay for could also be earning free market presence. If baby boomers are discussing your advertising on social media or watching parodies of it on Saturday Night Live or YouTube you could be reaping exponential rates of exposure from your initial investment. The catch, of course, is that is has to be thought provoking or entertaining enough to merit that consideration. And the icing on the cake – unpaid comments on social media are more credible than paid advertisements. So the next time you plan a marketing campaign to reach seniors, angle for a creative solution with the potential for going viral. For example, The Heritage’s reveal of its groundhog! To read more about earned exposure click here.

Apple Inc.'s new iPad can make web browsing easier for aging eyes.

Mature Market Experts: stats and news you can use on boomers, seniors and the mature market – Will the iPad Attract Seniors to Your Website? Maybe your business has nothing to do with computer technology, but everything to do with advertising to Baby Boomers. According to nielsenwire, the last five years has seen a huge growth in the number of seniors actively using the Internet (more than 55 percent, from 11.3 million active users in 2004 to 17.5 million in 2009).

So, what does Apple Inc.’s latest product, the iPad, have to do with you? If you are unfamiliar with this gadget, imagine a hybrid of a tablet computer, the iPod and select features of the iPhone (its not a phone).  It’s screen size is comparable to a small laptop. Yet, it only weighs 1.5 pounds and is a mere half inch thick. The large Multi-Touch screen is extremely easy to use and allows boomers to view vibrant, sharp web pages in their entirety. Making things very readable for senior eyes! Instead of using a cursor, just touch with a finger tip. It comes off the shelf with features that enable people who have vision impairment or are deaf or hard of hearing to use the iPad. So, those in the 65+ group that are currently put off by computers may soon be viewing your web site and internet advertising. Watch this Steve Jobs’ video, it’s as he’s talking directly to and for boomers.

How to capitalize on this new opportunity? Allen Moon suggests in his article, How the iPad Will Change the Way You Do Business, “Make sure your site has a blog that features regularly updated articles your target audience will find useful and entertaining. You can even create videos… include more interactive social media features on your site. These features are the most effective way to encourage your users to pursue an ongoing relationship with you and your other customers, and form a community around your business.” Marketing to seniors via the internet may become easier as the iPad’s popularity grows. Even online reviews, from sites such as sites like Yelp, Citysearch and Yahoo! Local, will be more accessible to boomers as they can easily read enlarged e-mail messages while on the go with this mobile device. A smart marketing plan will take these developments into account in order to take advantage of this technology in the next few years.

sources:
www.apple.com

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: More news and stats you can use on boomers, seniors and the mature market – Number of Baby Boomers Tweeting Doubles. Fall 2009 has seen a marked increase in Twitter use, according to the Pew Internet Project. While  the headlines dwell on the phenomenal usage among the young, mature marketers should note that use by those in the 55-65 age group increased from 4 to 10% in less than a year, and in the 65+ group, Twitter use rose from 2 to 4%. The simultaneous rise in popularity of other social networking sites may foreshadow that Twitter’s senior membership ranks will swell in the near future as this age group acquaints itself with this latest trend. To learn more click here.

To follow TR Mann Consulting on Twitter click here.

Mature Market Experts: more news and stats you can use on boomers, seniors and the mature market – How to Be Sure Your Web Page Has Enough Color Contrast for Greatest Legibility.  The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which sets technical standards for the web, has come up with a formula to check that your site has enough contrast between the foreground and background colors, or when viewed in a black and white mode, to ensure legibility – critical when marketing to boomers, seniors, and the mature market.

Several programming companies have taken this a step further and created a formula to automatically adjust foreground colors to pop against background color as it is chosen by the program user. To learn more about this click here.

From the W3C website: “Two colors provide good color visibility if the brightness difference and the color difference between the two colors are greater than a set range.

Color brightness is determined by the following formula:
((Red value X 299) + (Green value X 587) + (Blue value X 114)) / 1000

Color difference is determined by the following formula:
(max (Red 1, Red 2) – min (Red 1, Red 2)) + (max (Green 1, Green 2) – min (Green 1, Green 2)) + (max (Blue 1, Blue 2) – min (Blue 1, Blue 2))”

There are some fascinating entries here, including evaluating legibility with color blindness (according to W3C  one in twenty people have some form of color vision deficiency), low vision and other disabilities – perfect for those marketing to baby boomers, seniors and the mature market. To see the complete list of web accessibility evaluation tools put out by the experts at W3C click here.

Technical stuff, I know, but making sure your designers (both print and web) have an empathy towards the mature market’s vision issues can make all the difference. For a less technical discussion on understanding vision and contrast, here’s a video of me discussing the issue with the marketing group from T. Rowe Price.

Mature Market Experts: more news and stats you can use on boomers, seniors and the mature market – Selling to seniors? Why hire a marketing company instead of an amafessional? Amafessionals, amateurs empowered by the computer and internet to reach sometimes professional looking quality, are quickly escalating in number. Though profit motivates many, others do it purely for enjoyment. The Wall Street Journal reports that thanks to technology, this up and coming group is encroaching on many fields that were formerly the exclusive domain of the professional, such as musical performers, writers, critics, and yes, advertising. 

What differentiates the professional marketer from the hobbyist who has learned how to utilize advanced graphic programs with seemingly competitive results? Are these efforts achieving your marketing goals? Your marketing or advertising agency must provide knowledge based on understanding the key concepts of human behavior; a strong, diversified team of marketing professionals with experience in what works; design professionals that understand what attracts the human eye and visually conveys your message. Even better, find the niche advertising agency that excels at reaching your target market. The amafessional is learning as they play. Can you afford to be their guinea pig? To read more on the topic click here.
Related stories:

The Secret to Selling to the Mature Market

The Best Type Font to Use on a Website Targeting Seniors

At TR Mann Consulting, we specialize in marketing to boomers, seniors, and the mature market. For us, it’s not about about winning awards for a pretty page or website layout, its about focusing on winning customers. For more on communicating with the mature market and understanding seniors click here.

As, I’ve posted before, and will repost today, the hip/cool ad agencies on the coasts are somehow just missing it.

Seniors, road rage, IPod phones, consumer products and why older women rule the world!

One of my favorite movies scenes of all times is when middle-aged baby boomer Evelyn Couch (Kathy Bates in the movie Fried Green Tomatoes) is waiting patiently for a parking spot in a shopping center. Just as the spot becomes available, two young girls in a cute little car cut in front of her and steal her parking spot.

Evelyn Couch: “Hey! I was waiting for that spot!”

Rude Girl: “Face it, lady, we’re younger and faster!”

Then, Evelyn calmly and coolly reeves up her car and then repeatedly rams her car into the back of their tiny VW Bug, smiles and says, “Face it, girls: I’m older, and I have more insurance.”

As our population ages, and as the senior population continues to possess the lion’s share of our country’s disposable income, it becomes more and more apparent to me that the mature market rules — or can choose to rule as Kathy Bates’ character did — which is why two years ago we created a firm specializing in marketing to boomers and beyond, TR Mann Consulting.

Research from Harris Interactive says that retirees feel that Madison Avenue has forgotten they exist. The study, commissioned by the TV Land cable network, shows that two-thirds of adult TV viewers say that most television programming and advertising is targeted at people under 40.

In cities around the county, an eye-popping 80+ percent of mature market respondents over 40 claim they can’t find TV programming that portrays their lives. The sooner programming reflects seniors’ interests, the sooner they will buy the advertised products. OK, maybe they aren’t rushing out to buy IPhones yet (although they might if more apps were written for them), but the mature market still buys a ton of consumer products.

I think these PowerPoint slides  accurately capture the insanity of this situation.

Truth be told, I could care less if the mature market buy doesn’t buy products from marketers who are asleep. But I’m smart enough to know that economics is very often the driving force behind our society. How much longer will society devalue the mature market’s contributions (current and future)? If we are going to climb out of this recession, we need to recognize both the economic and social value of the mature market.

How come the only boomers or seniors we see on TV are buying products of weakness (Depends, Viagra, etc.)? Listen up people, the mature market has the money and they buy stuff. Lots of stuff!

Bing Visual Search of Dogs

Mature Market Experts: more news and stats  you can use on boomer, seniors and the mature market -Bing’s Visual Search Engine Could be Marketing Gold Mine. On September 14, 2009 Microsoft introduced Bing’s Visual Search Engine at TechCrunch50. This powerful tool will eventually allow consumers to visually compare products and pricing right on Bing’s home page. At this stage of development you can access the service in beta, with Silverlight, Microsoft’s version of Flash, at bing.com/visualsearch. The computer giant will be adding more categories each month to the initial 50 offerings. Will your client’s consumer goods show up? Not unless they are listed by major retailers or industry data sources. To learn more click here.

This will be an interesting battle to watch between Microsoft and Google. Bing is particularly good at travel searches, which as you all know is a favorite category of boomers.

Mature Market Experts: more news and stats  you can use on boomer, seniors and the mature market – Study Finds Affluent Boomers Are Returning to Spending. Bob Shullman, president of Ipsos Mendelsohn, reports that the well off (households with incomes of $100,000 plus) are still planning to buy expensive consumer goods. He notes that this study reveals an increase in the affluent’s economic optimism in the period ending Sept. 1, 2009 – 54% up from 50% in April and July. The economy has not altered major plans, such as retiring, of very wealthy baby boomers. Also, unaffected by hard times is the number of publications read, which actually increased form 8 to 8.5 in 2009; issues actually read jumped from 17.9 to 19.2. Many business magazines and newsweeklies increased their readership (including TR Mann Consulting’s client GRAND Media) this past year in this specific group. To learn more about this study click here.

Mature Market Experts: more news and stats  you can use on boomer, seniors and the mature market – The Best Type Font to Use on a Website Targeting Seniors? The Software Usability Research Laboratory (SURL) at Wichita State University recently completed a study to determine which type fonts and sizes were most readable to older web site visitors. The results were surprisingly contradictory to conventional graphic design wisdom. The fonts used in the investigation were Georgia and Times New Roman (Times), and the sans serif fonts were Arial and Verdana.  The fonts were displayed in 12 and 14 point type, making a total of eight variations. Predictably, the 14 point type was the most readable and most preferred. Serif type was read faster and sans serif was preferred by the volunteer testers. Click here to learn more.

At Love and Company, we stress the importance of clean design. Tell your design firm or advertising agency to forget about winning awards and focus on winning customers. For more on communicating with the mature market and understanding senior vision click here.

Mature Market Experts: more news and stats you can use on boomers, seniors, and the mature market – Becoming A Wellness Sherpa - The International Council On Active Aging (ICAA) recently published an article I (Tom Mann of TR Mann Consulting) wrote on marketing for fitness centers and retirement communities. Here’s a link to a PDF of the article, I hope you find it helpful.

Warmest regards,

Tom

Mature Market Experts: more news and stats you can use on boomers, seniors, and the mature market -  5 GRANDparent Facts You Should Know - (1.) The average age of a first time grandparent is only 48. As baby boomers find themselves grandparents, they’re “thinking outside the rocking chair,” reports Linda Matchan of the Boston Globe and rejecting traditional stereotypes in favor of a younger, hipper image. They like adventure, iPods, even Facebook. And, whatever you do, don’t call them “Grandma” or “Grandpa”. (2.) Grandparents are expected to spend $2 trillion on consumer goods this year alone according to a report by Peter Francese, founder of American Demographics Magazine.  (3.) 55% of grandparent homeowners do not have mortgages. (4.) 75% of the wealth in the U.S. is controlled by grandparents. (5.) 72% of grandparents take care of their grandchildren on a regular basis.
 
If you’re not marketing to grandparents yet, contact GRAND Media today and let Christine Crosby, the publisher, help guide you to them.

Mature Market Experts: more mature market news and stats more often – Economic Downturn Has Spurred Grandparents’ Giving – The mature market continues to utilize their financial power to support their kids. Almost two-thirds of America’s grandparents have provided financial support to their grandchildren during the last five years, 40% for general purposes and 26% for education, according to the MetLife Mature Market Institute’s QuickPOLL, Grandparents: Generous with Money, Not with Advice. The average amount provided was $8,661, or about $370.7 billion total in the last five years. One-quarter (25%) say the economic downturn has caused them to increase the help they give to their grandchildren.

The 2009 Grandparents Poll revealed that grandparents prefer to help their children and grandchildren while they are alive, rather than leaving a lump sum in a will, an interesting phenomenon.

In addition, the data indicates that those with less income and net worth are giving a higher percentage than they did before the most recent economic downturn – and some of them are feeling the pinch, with more than one in five (22%) overall reporting that their generosity has had a negative impact on their own financial picture.

“The survey points to the universal bond between grandparents and their grandchildren, and the generous nature of grandparents, regardless of asset and income levels,” said Sandra Timmermann, Ed.D, director of the MetLife Mature Market Institute.

“Grandparents are more willing than ever to help their grandchildren, even though they may be suffering economically. While they clearly want to make sure their grandchildren are financially secure, only a small percentage of those polled said they have talked to their grandchildren about the importance of hard work, saving for a rainy day and intelligent use of credit.”

Other information learned from the 2009 Grandparents Poll includes the following:

• Of the minority who do impart advice to their grandchildren, the most common missives are to save and invest early (85%) and to stay out of debt (75%).

• Those grandparents with at least a college degree are more likely to support education (37% vs. 24% of those without a college education).

• Nearly half of education supporters (46%) set up a college fund; 26% are paying for pre-college expenses and 24% help with college tuition or loans.

• 83% are giving cash; in-kind gifts like cars and computers rank second.

• Half of those polled (52%) say their children are raising their grandchildren differently than they raised their kids. Of that group, 64% say their kids are more lenient with their children than they were and 55% said the youngest group has fewer household responsibilities.

• 30% of those polled have encouraged or have spoken to their adult children about life insurance as a way to protect the future of their grandchildren.

• The majority (78%) say it’s more important to distribute smaller gifts throughout their lifetimes as needed, rather than leaving a larger sum of money as a legacy at death.

“Like grandparents in earlier generations, today’s grandparents want to be involved in their grandchildren’s lives. What may be different today is that grandparents are helping their children and grandchildren to meet immediate financial needs,” said Dr. Timmermann. “Grandparents with the financial resources will want to make more long range plans too, assuring that their grandchildren have enough money to fund college tuition and that the family has the financial security should something happen to one or both parents. Grandparents are also in a unique position to provide another valuable legacy, that of helping grandchildren to understand the value of a dollar and the importance of saving money.”

Methodology
The 2009 Grandparents Poll was conducted by Harris Interactive in May 2009 via its QuickQuerySM online omnibus service. Participants included 1,077 U.S. adults age 45 and older who have grandchildren age 25 or younger. Data were weighted to be representative of the total U.S. population on the basis of age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, region, household income and the propensity to be online.

For more information about the MetLife Mature Market Institute, please visit: www.maturemarketinstitute.com.
Grandparents: Generous with Money, Not with Advice can be downloaded from http:// www.maturemarketinstitute.com under “What’s New.” It can also be ordered by e-mailing, maturemarketinstitute@metlife.com, or by writing to: MetLife Mature Market Institute, 57 Greens Farms Road, Westport, CT 06880.

Editors note:  I love the folks at The MetLife Mature Market Institute. They do great work and their press releases are full of great findings (as you can see by this one). As I have blogged before, Grandparents are a major consumer market. There were 69 million U.S. grandparents in 2000, a number expected to grow to 80 million by 2010, and they spend a median of $489 per year on their grandchildren, about $30 billion annually. Source: AARP Special Study, 2002

U.S grandparents and the mature market:

- Over 75% of the 50+ market are grandparents

- Average age of the first-time grandparent is 47

- Over 70 million grandparents in the U.S. (More than the entire population in the U.K.)

- 4,000 Baby Boomers become grandparents every day

- The 50+ population is projected to grow to 23% in the next ten years while growth in the 18-49 segment will be flat

Source: GRAND Magazine

PS    GRAND Magazine, one of TR Mann Consultings’ clients, offers an exceptional opportunity for marketers to capture an audience at a highly defined stage, at an exceptional cost per thousand. Grandparents will continue to spoil and spend money on their grandchildren even in the worst economy.

The memoir, which recounts Orsborn’s tumultuous journey through recessionary times, is the first title to be released by VibrantNation.com’s VN Books, the first multi-platform publisher exclusively targeting the growing marketplace of women over 50.

The book will be released as both a trade paperback and electronically, including free syndication on DivineCaroline.com, the flagship site of Real Girls Media Network and an integral part of the Meredith Women’s Network. Through its online relationships, VN Books will reach in excess of 5 million potential readers with its first release.

For information: http://tinyurl.com/mc4m3m

Mature Market Experts: more mature market news and stats more often – Vitality Calculator – I’m fascinated by the “vitality calculators” popping up on all the mature market sites. From a marketing perspective, it makes absolute sense to try to engage your site visitors. People want to be reassured that they will live forever. That being said, I can’t imagine anyone being motivated to change their lifestyle from a “calculator” as simplistic as this . . . or as computer programmers used to say, “garbage in, garbage out.”

I like to remind TR Mann Consulting’s clients, that clicks don’t equal satisfaction . . . don’t insult the intelligence of your readers . . . they won’t come back.

If sold properly, elevators could be a common occurrence in Boomer households.

Here’s some mature market products that can help boomers and seniors stay in their homes (The Today Show). If only companies understood how to market these products . . . they would be selling the hell out of them.

And in case you were wondering, TR Mann Consulting can help.

Not only are groups like The Eagles playing longer, their mature market fans are still buying.

FACT: The mature market loves their music AND they have the disposable income to buy it (as opposed to pirating it).

“More than 70 percent of the 76 million baby boomers in the U.S. report buying music in the past year, making it the most important buying segment for CDs and an increasingly important market for digital downloads, according to a new study. Consumer surveys focusing on music purchasing habits of baby boomers were conducted by The NPD Group for the “Boometrics” study, on behalf of National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) and AARP.”

Source: “Boometrics” Study Sees Billion Dollar Market Potential for Music Sellers

Regardless of what you are selling, don’t belief the myths that are often attached to the mature market (for example, seniors are not interested in new music . . . seniors are not buyers). They have more money than anyone else and should be highly respected. The last time you were in a music store, did it feel like it was designed for the mature market or someone way younger? I think you know the answer.