The caveats and conundrums qualify each rendering of buzz. The Hilary Stout article cited several of the almost clichéd concerns expressed by various University research experts: worries about privacy (‘big brother is watching you’), false alerting (70-year-old mom was painting the sun room, not having a heart attack), parental resistance to the tech (being bothered by it, or being bothered by their children who want them to use it.)  Meanwhile, the Leland article raised cautions about price and lack of reimbursement, whether the technology monitoring would let adult children off the hook for visiting their parents. And in September 2009, Business Week quoted IDC’s Scott Lundstrom, vice-president for research at IDC Health Insights: “Right now this is a niche market made up of affluent people who want to monitor their parents. The technology is going nowhere without a reimbursement model that supports it.” Yeah, yeah, yeah, but why?

So let’s swat our way through the thicket of buzz and caveats.  What will make the market for technologies for aging in place, or the inverse, technology to help with caregiving of aging parents, or the market’s largely overlapping segment, telehealth, become mainstream enough to be a given, expected to be available, and NOT newsworthy as a ‘new’ category? 

1.  Wanted, a viable channel strategy.  While it is possible that family members may hop onto the Internet and search for a remote monitoring system for their aging parents, more likely a member of the senior value chain (the industry) finds families like those in the Times article through local activities and local contact.  Systems need to be installed; high quality service must be provided; products must be leasable and returnable; pricing must enable revenue sharing; products must have easy-to-integrate interfaces — see more of this very important list provided on this blog by contributing integrator, Susan Estrada from Happy Home.

2.  Wanted, insurance reimbursement or viable pricing.  Studies continue to launch here there and everywhere to re-prove yet again the benefits of telehealth and remote monitoring of all types.  Because insurance companies and government agencies are not yet convinced, even with FCC and FDA enthusiasm, technologies that include or integrate with chronic disease monitoring fall into (or are placed there by vendors, actually) into health, disease management categories that health professionals must quantify financial benefits again and again to convince those who may be perpetually doubtful, possibly due to lack of endorsement.  As one research interviewee told me once: a dollar saved in the healthcare industry is a dollar lost by someone.”  In the absence of this elusive reimbursement, pricing must fit into the budgets of families or those who provide services in order to become mainstream.

3.  Wanted, a tech-smart senior value chain.  Hopefully some of the buzz from the Times caught the ear of what I refer to as the ‘senior value chain’ – the multiple and diverse organizations and people who really want to help support aging seniors. These include: caregivers, geriatric care managers, social workers, discharge planners, home care agencies, independent and assisted living providers. Do all members of this chain view staying current and knowledgeable about technology tools as part of their job? Even as aging in place (aka not moving) becomes a near-national mantra among families and seniors, even as home care agency businesses grow at the expense of nursing homes and assisted living, the technology categories described in the Times articles (past and present) are not mainstream among home care agency providers, for example. So families mull over what will be happening in this largely tech-free world on the off-days, and off-hours when aides are not present or don’t appear.

4.  Wanted, the ‘right’ products and services.  So let’s say the above 3 issues were all non-issues. We still have no really clear expectations of what we (the senior value chain) want from the products and services themselves.  We have phones with no GPS, we have GPS tracking without phones, we have PERS devices that are mobile without fall detection, we have products with fall detection that not mobile-enabled. We have remote monitoring devices that cost hundreds and remote monitoring devices that cost thousands of dollars. We have HIPAA-compliant and FDA-approved, and we have no-and-no to either. We are targeting markets of the still-well-enough to drive, or is it the frail-enough to be home bound? Products can be marketed direct to consumers, or no, should vendors seek distribution? Vendors must decide, channels must be recruited, manufacturing decisions must be made, but this is an industry of uncertainty about the correct strategy — because the market expectations are not yet ‘mainstream’.

The technology isn’t really new, but a mature market isn’t really here, either.  I love buzz — it is energizing, exciting, and validating for what those who are working hard in this industry — and it energizes me as well. But a few (how many?) years from now, it would be great to read stories about how adoption of all of the technology categories discussed in the two Times articles last week grew by leaps and bounds, practices are standardized, training of professionals incorporates those practices, senior well-being is clearly better in the study groups versus the control groups, and the young engineering talent of the world recognizes the opportunity to enter this well-established and mainstream market.

Line up to learn your longevity likelihood.  Aren’t you just loving the opportunity we will soon have to download that free genetic marker test kit, the one that with 77% accuracy will tell whether we will live past 100? Boston University scientists have ‘no plans to profit’ from the results, but they will make the kit available later this summer. (Warning: analysis of the results will be costly.) I am so struck by how the law of unintended consequences could play out, especially in areas of insurance — as with a home test kit for Alzheimer’s, people might be more likely to purchase long-term care insurance. With a longevity test on the market, how long will the term need to be in term insurance? Taking it a step further, should insurance companies offer free kits as a marketing device? Should your doctor know that you’ve taken such a test? Should a health insurer know? What happens to rates, deductibles and lifetime caps? What kind of housing and support systems would we want if we knew we could live to 100 or more (or if we knew we would suffer from Alzheimer’s)? What would our families do with that information?

Which brings me to home care — what we want. So let’s just imagine that many more of us are going to make it to 100, that we fear nursing homes and obsessively want to stay in our own dangerous-but-familiar houses. Of course, we will want to be there all alone in our later years, visited only by home health or companion aides from the growing home care industry (hopefully they won’t visit us too often, though, and draw attention from the SEC). Hopefully the aides are background-vetted, well-paid, well-trained, dedicated and conversational, and are the low-turnover folks. Hopefully they will take us out to events and social activities, make sure that we are well-monitored and Skype-connected to our far-flung relatives, if not in the home then by driving us to places like this just-opening and Skype-enabled Clearwater Aging Well Center.  Hmm. Do you believe this?

We have the time to craft a better experience. Let’s face it, the lonely boomer at home at 100 is unlikely: our mis-managed bodies may not permit it — even if the above scenario was realistic. That doesn’t mean we aren’t going to live far beyond ye olde expectations. If we knew how long we might live, we also need to imagine and advocate for lower-cost, longevity-friendly housing for those ‘middle’ decades of the 70′s and 80′s, but that will house us when we’re 95 and low on money. We need a rethink of nursing homes, blending them into services for seniors in a community — so that they move past the current shrinking anathema status. That might mean more consolidation, along with blending of skilled services first into communities, and then those services into group housing that will match our budgets and interest profiles. 

Care we want — can we get it? Where we’ll be living, the aides are kind to us: they form friendships and support each other and are well-supported by management. They enable us to find friends and continue to do activities we like — with others, not alone. Where we’ll be living, monitoring our well-being will be welcome and standard; enabling our tech-connectedness will be understood and supported by management and staff. When we move in, we won’t need to take our tech gadgetry with us — they’ll be part of the residence, with Kindles and Nooks in the library, wireless in our home, and appropriate use of video. Maybe useful and friendly robots (not just Paro-fluffy-friendly) will free up the repetitive and low-skilled labor, doing so at a low cost, freeing up staff to focus on higher-skilled tasks. This has happened in every single other industry in the past 50 years — why not this one?

We are in a crisis of mistaken expectation — thus tech opportunity.  In today’s economically challenged world, we suffer from a lack of product and service marketer realism (see Tom Mann’s Mature Market blog about senior housing developers) all along the continuum of care to the consumer. Everyone wants things the way they were (as in the above senior housing example) or they don’t know what they want but are shocked at what they actually get, whether it is with the doctor, the hospital, or the home care agency. Those who are creating and selling tech-enabled products and services have an opportunity to sell into the gap — whether it is in cost-reduction, family expectation management, or enabling standardized back office consolidations for service providers — who want to enable a better longevity experience at a lower cost.

Mature Market Experts: more boomer, senior and mature market news and stats you can use, more often: AARP Responds To Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter- AARP’s updated website (www.aarp.org) reflects its 276,000-member online community’s growing appetite for social networking. More than 27% of American boomers already are using sites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter. The importance of online social networking among its target audience prompted AARP to ensure that its website can share content between the various online sites. Improved navigation and search capabilities have also been incorporated. Within the next month consumers will be able to access online content with hand held devices, such as smart phones, mobile phones and e-readers. This premier senior organization is responding to the hurdles some elderly experience when using computer technology. See our blog from June 15th, 2010,  Mature Market Experts Stat of The Day: Mature Market Frustration with Technology. Apple Are You Listening? If you want to effectively reach the 50+ audience, take heed.
To read more click here.

PS  I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Mature Market Experts has added Twitter and StumbleUpon widgets in the upper left hand corner of our site.

Mature Market Experts: more mature market news and stats more often – Mature Market Frustration with Technology – Despite the fact that over 50% of the households in the US are now headed up by someone over 50, tech companies just don’t seem to be thinking about the details that should imply. A perfect example, it requires super human skills to read the serial number on the back of my IPOD. Think about it, if you are going to ask me for a number so that I can register, make it so that I can actually read it. Steve Jobs . . . are you listening? Trust me, this won’t offend your younger audience. (I should note, that I’m a huge fan of Apple’s designs skills, even the best sometimes stumble.)

Advertising Age recently noted a study by the Consumer Electronics Association and TNS Compete of 3,135 adults in November of 2008: “Older consumers also reported a higher level of frustration with the complexity of technology. Sixty percent of consumers 50 or older identified feature-laden products as a main source of frustration with technology, compared with 39% of consumers 18 to 49.”

Personally, I don’t think most of the fixes require huge technical advances but rather a little empathy. So how about you, do you have any examples of STUFF that drives you crazy?

Originally published 1/12/09 – Republished when dropped from site

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 – more news and stats you can use on boomers, seniors and the mature market – The BBC Brain Training study — let’s flip it around: There’s no such thing as bad publicity.  This study is being reprinted on every website that has even a remote connection to boomers, seniors, or game-playing or is suffering from a slow news day. (Although you have to wonder how senior housing executives will react to seeing it published in McKnight’s). So I am not going to set foot into the quagmire about whether this is a good study or a bad study — as observed by Alvaro Fernandez of SharpBrains and Steven Aldrich of Posit Science.  I will also bet that this study will not slow the cognitive fitness market down, which SharpBrains sizes as $1 billion within 5 years — you have to work hard to slow a market that fits so well with the fear, uncertainty, and doubt of baby boomers about aging and brain-related impacts. And like all studies (wine is good for you, wine is bad for you, more exercise, but not too much), no doubt there will be another study contradicting it soon enough. Instead, let’s turn it around.

Those who surfed the web for general knowledge improved at finding it.  Looking at the BBC study news item, let’s read this sentence: “A third control group was asked to browse the Internet and seek out answers to general knowledge questions. The results are clear,” said Adrian Owen, a neuroscientist at the Medical Research Council, in a statement. “Statistically, there are no significant differences between the improvements seen in participants who played our brain-training games, and those who just went on the Internet for the same length of time.”

What’s that mean? So let’s just assume that surfing the Internet reduces risk of depression, that looking for information online improves your skill at finding it, that taking advantage of access to 62,000 health-related websites makes one a better-informed healthcare consumer, that using connected health technologies can help us ‘age well in a connected world’ (Cisco). To name just a very few endorsements of Internet access for older adults. What if we use the BBC study to confirm that healthy older adults who surf the web seeking knowledge will get more skilled at doing this if they practice — and that if they practice, they might learn a new skill, reduce depression, or even connect to other people who share their interests?

That sounds like a GOAL to me.  Maybe a computer, a broadband connection (see Project Goal), and some training could help older adults just improve the quality of their lives? What if warding off brain-related problems and decline could be improved simply by access to knowledge and something interesting? Now that Project Goal has launched to improve broadband access and use among older adults in the US, how about its sponsors getting together to launch a baseline study that evaluated all of these factors before and after acquiring broadband access? Who knows, maybe a side effect of that access will turn out to be improved cognitive health?

Colin Milner, Founder and CEO of International Council on Active Aging

Medicine And Technology Advancing At Record Pace, ‘Middle Age’ Extended

Colin is the founder and CEO of the International Council on Active Aging (ICAA). He and his organization are dedicated to changing the way people age by working with professionals in the retirement communities, assisted living, and wellness fields. ‘Wellness’ refers to the expanded focus of health professionals on promoting life and vitality, and not just on avoiding disease. Colin believes the wellness trend will expand in the years ahead.

New Insights About The Body … And Mind

“With so many people in the industrialized world having issues with physical energy levels and depression, science and fitness will begin to look for holistic ways to boast your energy levels,” Colin says. “We’ll begin to look at exercise, diet, and sleep on a personalized level with measured results. The difference from today’s approach is that we will soon look at each of these variables (exercise, diet, and sleep) not as individual variables but as highly intertwined variables that affect each other.” This change in focus will encompass not just the body, but the brain as well.

“One in eight baby boomers is expected to have Alzheimer’s by 2050 and one in five adults over 50 has memory issues,” Colin says. “Just ten hours of the right brain fitness exercises can have a significant and long lasting impact on health care costs and outcomes, according to a report in the ACTIVE study funded by the NIH and published in BMC Health Services Research. “The National Institute on Aging recommends keeping the brain active because mental exercise lowers the risk for developing Alzheimer ’s disease by 47%. The body of evidence linking mental activity to the delay or even prevention of dementia continues to grow. All of which means that preventive measures or brain fitness present a huge opportunity.

“Yes, there are some companies already focused on brain fitness, but we have to do better,” Colin points out, noting that it will take more than scientific studies to induce people to modify their habits. “We have to make brain fitness fun, if it’s going to become part of a true lifestyle change,” he says. “If it’s not fun, people will quit after a short spell, just like they do with a restrictive diet plan. Right now, most of the programs are too rudimentary, too scientific, and too boring! The ICAA’s three preferred providers — LEAF Ltd., Conductorcise, and Cognifit — are doing some very innovative things and I expect to see other companies join them in this very competitive field.”

‘Participation’ vs. ‘Engagement’

Companies which provide services to seniors will need to look beyond traditional approaches to aging, Colin notes. “There is a difference between participation and engagement,” he explains, pointing out that ‘engagement’ will become more important in the years ahead. “The example I always use is my school career. While I was a participant, I was not engaged and my grades suffered. Similarly, it’s not enough for seniors to be enrolled in a health plan’s fitness plan or be just living at a retirement community. People are looking to be fully engaged because they understand that engagement is a key component to being healthy.

“Technology has already changed how we are aging and we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg,” Colin continues. “I think one of the most exciting possibilities rests in 3D Holographic projection. Just like we used to see in the old Star Trek adventures, soon your fitness instructor will be projected into your home to work out with you. The technology is not that far off. Don’t believe me, just check out what Musion Systems Ltd. is doing!”

Effect On Companies

Colin believes that companies which don’t adjust to the new expectations of people entering their retirement years are likely to struggle. “Today’s mature market has very different expectations for how they expect to age,” he says. “The dinosaurs of the last generation — like outdated senior centers and retirement communities — are a complete turnoff. In fact, just string the phase ‘senior center’ in front of most boomers and you’ll see a clear reaction. For example, retirement communities and golf destinations are being replaced by urban, multi-generational settings with proximity to restaurants, shops, gyms and theaters. Simply put, outdated products with obsolete names and terminology must change … or face extinction.”

So how does Colin and his wife, Julie, try to age well? “First, we try to create new experiences. Because I’m on the road so much, I rack up frequent flier miles which we try to put to good use. My wife, kids and I each get to choose one place to travel to for a new adventure, which is important for the brain,” says Colin. “I also try to exercise, with some form of cardio exercise five times a week, while at the same time trying to reduce stress in my life.” Colin continues, “I’m a lucky man. I love my job, I love my wife, and I’m doing something that really contributes to society. What more could I ask for!”

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: stats and news you can use on boomers, seniors and the mature market – 5 Important Trends for The Ages - Ever since I wrote Death of the Continuing Care Retirement Community on our Mature Market Experts blog, people have been asking me what the future holds for our aging population. Here are some trends I see that will change the lives of aging baby boomers and seniors:

1. Virtual communities – With the help of technology, organizations such as the Village to Village Network are successfully changing how seniors age in place. By offering a wide variety of services – from in-home preferred vendor lists, cultural and social events and member-to-member volunteer opportunities … to health and wellness programs, educational and special interest programs and community service – all accessible via phone or computer – organizations such as these are making it easier for people to successfully age in place.  Beacon Hill Village in Boston, founded in 2001, is a great example of this, as is the newer Mill City Commons.

Please note, that I said, “successfully” age in place. Adding elements such as common dining tables and happy hours at local partnering dining establishments, along with the transportation to get there, adds an important social element that was previously missing from this sort of offering.

Baltimore/Washington has become a hotbed for these villages. According to a recent Washington Post article, there are six in Washington, DC, at least two in Fairfax County and eight others in various stages of development in Montgomery County. I expect the rest of the country will soon follow important trend.

2. New Urbanism – This “new” trend was supposed to happen a long time ago. I think a couple of things are finally conspiring to make it more likely to happen now:

a. Urban land values have dramatically dropped, allowing creative developers to take advantage of better pricing

b. Towns and cities have become desperate for tax revenue making them more amenable to developers’ designs

c. The recent recession has altered the “bigger is better” mindset that had taken over housing … which means the more modest square footage available in urban living is becoming more acceptable (that being said, I wouldn’t build anything less than 2 bedroom floor plans if at all possible)

d. Boomers don’t want to move to a “retirement” community and understand the benefits of urban life

Again, smart retirement community developers will understand these trends and meld them into their plans. A perfect example of this is the The Cardinal at North Hills, which is a full-service retirement community being built in the heart of North Hills, a newly revitalized part of Raleigh, North Carolina. North Hills’ wonderful array of new shops, restaurants, and entertainment venues become tangible amenities of The Cardinal and a key component in their marketing.

3. Technology – The key to executing excellent ideas like virtual communities is efficiencies. Technology provides the efficiencies that allow models like this to work for the very first time. Just as important, the technology now allows for the monitoring of a senior’s vitals (and non-vitals). According to a recent report, Caregiving in the US of 50+:
• 23% of caregivers reported utilizing an electronic organizer/calendar
• 16% use an emergency response system
• 12% utilize electronic information with their doctor or care manager,
• 10% reported using electronic sensors to detect safety problems
• 7% said they use website/software for health records

Again, just as important is the use of technology for social contact, for example email and Facebook. Recently, my children introduced visual Skype to their grandparents. It is advances like these that mitigate some of the risks associated with social isolation.

Look for investors to continue to pour money into health care/social issue technology.

4. Mini-retirements/lifelong employment – Boomers tell us they’re going to work far beyond age 65, for two reasons; necessity and fulfillment. Yes, boomers and seniors have been hit extremely hard by the recent recession … but I also believe that people are beginning to understand that life “engagement” is essential to good health (this is particularly important for the brain). As a result, I believe many boomers who would have previously turned to retirement will turn to “mini-retirements,” meaning vacations of one month or more. These longer vacations allow for the opportunity to invigorate the mind and soul in a more meaningful way than the traditional vacation (this concept was first espoused by Tim Ferriss, who wrote an interesting book called the 4-Hour Work Week).

Today, it’s a lot easier to slip between the world of work and play, thanks to technology. It’s now just as easy to get most work done from the sunny Caribbean as it is from DC, New York, Chicago, or LA. I predict that we’ll see this as a growing trend … longer careers dotted with mini-retirements.

If you operate a retirement community with monthly service fees, make sure you offer an adjustment for these long lapses in their occupancy. Otherwise, you might be scaring off some of your younger residents who like to travel. In addition, make sure that your community offers administrative services, that working residents can utilize at a cost. Making it easier to maintain their business, will make it easier to choose your community.

5. Health care plans will begin to pay for prevention – as I discussed in the point above, research is beginning to show us that if you don’t use it, you lose it! Health care companies will begin to focus on preventive health care rather than reactive health care. Expect to see more health plans adopt programs like Silver Sneakers. Why? Because it saves the plan money, helps with new member recruitment, while at the same time assisting in member retention.

Brain fitness will be a key component of this plan, as the costs of Alzheimer’s and dementia threaten to ravage the US health care system (there are now nearly a half million new cases of Alzheimer’s each year; and by 2050, it is expected that there will be nearly a million new cases per year).

Developers of retirement communities and active 55s would be wise to partner up with these preventative programs, as they will become an increasingly important marketing “amenity” in your community. Note: I recommend reading The Anti-Alzheimer’s Prescription.

Remember, when it comes to building housing for seniors, it’s all about control. A senior who is tackling the aging process is looking to remain in control of their life. That’s hard to do, when your body is letting you down. Anything you can do as a developer/operator that enables them to maintain that goal gets you closer to a sale.

About the author: Tom Mann is the Managing Partner of TR Mann Consulting, a marketing/advertising firm that specializes in marketing to boomers and beyond.  In the last ten years, he has helped sell over 7 billion worth of retirement communities. He is also the co-founder of Mature Market Experts.

Mature Market Experts: More news and stats you can use on boomers, seniors and the mature market – Incline Elevators Lift Retirement Real Estate. Many seniors dream of a lakeside home to retire to. Their search may lead them to the perfect house – except it is located on a steep hill. Incline elevators (which look like a small private tram) can overcome these barriers for the elderly, scaling 45 degree angles, and delivering them, and the grandkids to the lake below. While they can be costly (averaging $50,000.),  home buyers may be able to find homes at reduced prices because of the difficult retain. To read more click here.

Mature Market Experts: More news and stats you can use on boomers, seniors and the mature market – Boomers 55+ Housing Wish List. Just what are baby boomers looking for in the real estate market? And what are they actually willing to pay for? According to a recent survey prepared by NAHB (National Association of Home Builders) and the MetLife Mature Market Institute, “55+ Housing: Builders, Buyers and Beyond,” here are the key findings :

• Where Are They Now? Roughly 9% of the respondents live in an active adult age-restricted community, 7% live in a community that is not age-restricted but where most buyers are 55 or older, and 28% live in an independent living community. However, many would consider other options.
• Stay or Go? About two-thirds of respondents (63%) plan to age in their current homes, while 12% plan to buy another home. About one-quarter (26%) are not sure.
• Suburban Life Preferred: The majority of respondents prefer a home in a suburb, with 32% wanting to live in close-in suburbs and 31% in outlying suburbs. In comparison, 28% prefer a rural community, while only 9% want to live in a central city.
• One-Level Living: Respondents overwhelmingly prefer a single-story home (79%) over a two-story home (15%) or a split-level home (7%).
• “Same-Sizing” the New Home: The median size of the respondents’ present home is 1,886 square feet, compared to the median 1,903 square feet they want in a new home. More than half of respondents (51%) prefer three bedrooms, while 18% want four or more bedrooms. About three-quarters prefer the master bedroom on the first floor.
• Downsize on the Price: The median price respondents expect to pay for their next home is $189,426, which is less than the median price of $198,119 paid by those respondents who bought a home within the last three years. This compares to their current home, which has an average market value of $267,401.
• Top Five Inside Features: The five features rated most important were: washer and dryer in the home/unit, storage space, windows that open easily, master bedroom on the first floor in a two-story home, and  easily usable climate control (thermostat).
• Green Is Good, but Not Key: About one-quarter of 55+ respondents do not care about the impact building a home has on the environment. While another 23% said they are concerned about the environment, it does not drive their decision to purchase. Only 12% said they would pay more for an environmentally friendly home. Respondents are willing to pay an average amount of $6,732 (median $4,000) if it would save $1,000 annually in utility costs.
• Top Five Green Features: Respondents cited energy-efficient appliances (79%), followed by solar heating (63%), water filtering systems (58%), allergen-free/chemical-free building materials (42%), and open space (37%).
• What’s Close By? Most respondents listed proximity to a shopping center as influencing their choice of a new community (57% noted it as Somewhat to Very Important), followed by proximity to a hospital/doctor’s office (55% rated it as Somewhat to Very Important).
• Online Is a Must: Technology features are important to 55+ consumers, with 83% of respondents rating high-speed Internet access as Somewhat to Very Important. Also earning high ratings were home security systems and structured wiring (a system of low-voltage wires designed to carry electronic signals throughout a home).
• How Buyers Are Paying for Home: Nearly half of the 55+ respondents (41%) prefer a 30-year fixed loan when purchasing a new home, followed by a 15-year fixed loan (38%). A small number (5%) preferred a reverse mortgage, some type of adjustable rate loan (5%), or an interest-only loan (3%).
• Less Maintenance, More Family Are Top Motivators: Builders were asked to indicate their 55+ customers’ motivations for relocating. Sixty-three percent of builders reported a desire for a maintenance-free lifestyle from their customers, 46% a desire to move closer to children/family, and 32% a desire for lower living costs.

If you are in the senior housing industry (whether you are building, selling or renting active 55+ retirement communities or continuing care retirement communities), this report is a must read.

About:

The MetLife Mature Market Institute®

Established in 1997, the Mature Market Institute (MMI) is MetLife’s research organization and a recognized thought leader on the multi-dimensional and multi-generational issues of aging and longevity. MMI’s groundbreaking research, gerontology expertise, national partnerships, and educational materials work to expand the knowledge and choices for those in, approaching, or caring for those in the mature market.

MMI supports MetLife’s long-standing commitment to identifying emerging issues and innovative solutions for the challenges of life. MetLife, a subsidiary of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET), is a leading provider of insurance, employee benefits, and financial services with operations throughout the United States and the Latin American, European, and Asia Pacific Regions. For more information about the MetLife Mature Market Institute, please visit: www.MatureMarketInstitute.com.

Contact:
MetLife Mature Market Institute
57 Greens Farms Road
Westport, CT 06880
(203) 221-6580 • Fax (203) 454-5339
MatureMarketInstitute@MetLife.com

National Association of Home Builders

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is a Washington, D.C.-based trade association representing more than 200,000 members involved in home building, remodeling, multi-family construction, property management, subcontracting, design, housing finance, building product manufacturing, and other aspects of residential and light commercial construction. Known as “the voice of the housing industry,” NAHB is affiliated with more than 800 state and local home builders associations around the country. NAHB’s builder members will construct about 80 percent of the new housing units projected for 2009.

Contact:
National Association of Home Builders
1201 15th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 266-8200, x0 • Fax (202) 266-8400
www.nahb.org

Sun's Streamway3

Mature Market Experts: More news and stats you can use on boomers, seniors and the mature market – Bike Market Adapts for Boomers. As baby boomers age they are searching for ways to stay healthy with excercise, save gas money and go green. Many are looking to purchase a new bike, but one that accommodates the needs of aging bodies. This new category has acquired the labels of “Lifestyle” or “Comfort.” I particularly like the stable Rayos Electric Tricycle for the mature market. To read about all the wonderful new adaptions available click here. 

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 – Are Online Video Viewership Claims Realistic? The October 28th issue of Advertising Age raises some very interesting questions for marketeers to consider before purchasing online ad space. By asking some very pointed questions, author Jim Louderback (the CEO of internet video network Revision3) analyzes the validity of self reported viewings. Sites can claim a viewing even if it was watched for only a second, if a viewer has technical difficulties and repeatedly clicks on play, or even more egregiously, if the video starts automatically when entering a website. Would Nielson TV ratings include channel surfing for less than a second as a viewing? Advertisers wouldn’t stand for it, but they are being duped into just that by allowing the current self reporting to continue to mislead them (wittingly or not). Louderback suggests you ask the following questions when analyzing a site:

“How about multiple views from the same user?”

“How many views do you get for each episode?”

“Is viewership growing, shrinking or steady?”

“How do you count unique viewers?”

“Where do the views come from?”

“Do you pay for any views, or are they all organic?”

How important is this for the mature market anyway?

Keep in mind, that according to Pew that although internet viewing is not the norm among seniors, the 50+ segment of online video viewers continues to grow. In fact, among users ages 50-64, viewership is up 34% from just last year with 41% of this age group now saying they watch video on sites such as YouTube. In 2009, 27% of seniors 65+ now watch videos online, as compared to just 19% last year.

To read more click here.

Even centenarians read e-mail and web surfing keeps the aging brain active. The Evercare survey of 100 healthy hundred-year-olds could really look like a trend to technology optimists like me. You may remember that 19 percent of responders use cell phones and 7% were using e-mail. And of course we know (studies show this through age 76) that surfing the web is good for the aging brain. But let’s not confuse technology optimism with reality. Questions in my mind remain about the oldest among us:

1. Who is the customer? I visited a Selfhelp independent living complex in Queens today, where I had a pleasant chat with a 90-year-old woman who still walks 6 blocks to the library for a concert, plays Mahjong with her friends daily and does her own shopping. She had QuietCare motion sensors throughout her apartment. I tried to interest her in the concept of a cell phone since her friends have them — no need, she said. Her dial wall telephone kept her nicely in touch with her adult children — when she is in. What about a computer?  She smiled very graciously and told me that she took the training and can’t see the point. Online Mahjong? Order her groceries? E-mail with her kids? No thanks, she smiled. [Note: And Selfhelp has the wonderful benefit of a full-time tech administrator]. 
2. What is the profile of those most served? On the other hand, home bound seniors — those who are visited by care or case managers, who don’t get out of their apartments to the library or anywhere else — seem like obvious candidates to use technology. But could you push a Quiet Care (or WellAWARE or  Healthsense or GrandCare) system into the home of the most stubbornly independent? Who will pay for a home bound 90-year-old’s system? How will they find out about such a risk-avoiding technology? And as in this example, if they are healthy and active, is it necessary? Reassuring? Superfluous?
3. What is the compelling argument about cost of computing? Let’s assume that you could persuade a) the very independent that they would enjoy a computer, that you could encourage the b) frail and home bound (or their families) that an enormous social benefit could be realized with a computer or c) that hospitalization could be avoided with home monitoring, as studies have shown.  Who buys the computer? Who pays the bill for tech support?  Who provides the tech support arrangement or covers the ongoing service fee? Perhaps grants and state funds can help — as in the case of Selfhelp in New York and NewCourtland in Philadelphia. 
4. Are adult children the right customers for home monitoring? I was reminded of this when a friend told me about his still-sharp 94-year-old father and 89-year-old mother who has mild memory impairment — both of whom separately suffered bad falls in their house — neither were discovered right away. She wasn’t noticed by her husband who had the TV at high volume and can’t hear well. And on another day, he fell backwards off his chair and couldn’t get up until someone looked in on him.  Meanwhile, the adult children are trying very hard not to interfere with their parents’ ‘independence’ and denial, recognizing a crisis is looming.

For the oldest, the profile of receptiveness and access appears narrow. So I wonder. Today, if you have technology advocacy in senior housing AND social work AND seniors are receptive AND family members are aware and interested AND a payer can be found, then 85-and-older individuals may encounter the risk avoidance of home monitoring systems. Similarly, access to a computer and the internet is constrained by awareness, financial capability, availability of tech support, and, not least, adequate training. 

Solutions — more needed. Here are a few thoughts. I would like to see large corporate users of PCs examine their technology refresh cycles (typically 3 years) and donate their computers to senior centers. I would like to see volunteer networks of tech-smart individuals (including retirees) formed into well-organized clusters around neighborhood senior housing, homecare organizations and senior centers. AARP could be that organizing entity, although its center of age gravity appears headed downward.

I would like to see computer vendors like HP, Microsoft, Dell, IBM, follow the example of Verizon and HopeLine (for victims of domestic violence): donate technology to senior centers, but go one step further — and donate train-the-trainer time and fund videos of training that can be circulated. Pay for public service advertising that could get the attention of adult children. Remember that 1 out of 2 baby boomers has at least one living parent. The odds are good that this parent may be one of the 5.3 million age 85 or older, the fastest growing age segment.

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.
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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.

Mature Market Experts: more news and stats you can use on boomers, seniors and the mature market – Here comes “Nana Technology.” Andrew Carle, assistant professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, uses the term, nana technology (as opposed to nanotechnology), to describe the technology being developed to assist baby boomers as they age. We’ve all heard of life line pendants, that can send an alert when an elderly or disabled person needs assistance. Carle and Russell Bodoff of the Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST) relate how future technology will offer many other forms of help to seniors. Several companies are creating intelligent phones that could help those with memory loss by showing a picture of the caller, their relationship to them, and notes on their last conversation. Smart walking aids will be able to avoid obstacles, come when summoned and perhaps even detect irregularities in gait (that may predict a fall), along with a locator beeper so the device can be found if misplaced. In as soon as two to three years, robotic “nurses” may be available to help lift a patient. Shoes that aid balance, trackers for Alzheimer’s patients, smart pill dispensers and medicine cabinets are all in development. To read more in an  click here.

It will be interesting to see how these products are marketed.

Mature Market Experts: more news and stats you can use on boomers, seniors and the mature market – ‘Personal Mobility’ Devices Target Baby Boomers. Honda recently introduced its prototype of the U3-X, a “personal mobility” device similar to the Segway, adding another prospective competitor in this emerging market, which anticipates the needs of the growing elderly population. The U3-X is much smaller and dexterous than the Segway, but may be trickier to ride, at least in its current incarnation. Riders sit on a unicycle-like device and need to balance themselves. It moves at 3.7 miles per hour, far slower than the Segway’s 12 mph. There is also a third product in development, Toyota Motor Corporation’s Winglet, which is similar to the Segway in that it is meant to be stood upon. But it only moves at 3 mph. The Winglet comes in three sizes, with variable handle bar heights. Currently Segway is the fastest and most stable device, and has the largest range, but is also the heaviest and largest of the three. The Winglet and U3-X are much smaller and lighter, but have less range and require more operator coordination. The U3-X can move sideways. All three have rechargeable batteries and move intuitively, responding to the rider’s body movement. To learn more about this innovative technology click on the following links:

U3-X

Winglet

Segway

All three should seriously consider retirement communities as their ideal marketing grounds where flat, controlled terrian make these practical tools for residents.

People will age longer at home, but it won’t be pretty. This year we know according to an AARP public policy study, that 89% of people of age 50+ want to stay in their own homes. MetLife Mature Market Institute found the same thing. News article after article has confirmed that aging in place is a trend that is happening, maybe fueled by a real estate slump. Remodeling of Peter Pan houses is taking off.  Meanwhile, January 1, 2011, the first wave of baby boomers turns 65. Despite our never-get-old mentality (60 is the new 40, 80 is the new 60, etc), when you’re not 64 anymore, you slip into a new and not entirely problem-free life stage.

The post boomer demographic is becoming senior. That’s the age in which the majority will have 2 chronic conditions — perhaps arthritis, diabetes or heightened risk of heart disease. It’s the demographic in which risk of Alzheimer’s disease spikes (1 in 8 are likely to acquire, putting the total for baby boomers who suffer from it or a related dementia at 10 million, or twice the current population with Alzheimer’s of 5.2 million). It’s likely that 4.3 million of us (you) will have severe vision impairment. Bad knees, weak hips, poor balance, shaky memory, and fading eyesight.

What technology you need.  Let’s just make a few assumptions. Just to chat with your dispersed family members, never mind research your looming medical issues on the Internet, you need broadband, a home network, a reasonably lightweight laptop, a printer, maybe a touch screen, maybe a built in camera, a decent cell phone with built-in GPS, a low-cost but high function home security system that watches out for your environment, and a good long-distance dialing plan. You are quite willing to plug everything in and turn it on, or maybe hire someone to show up and do it. As you become somewhat frailer, you want a small amount of home automation that doesn’t require an engineer to manage — perhaps automatic temperature controls (you’re in, heat’s on, along with the lights; please reverse this when you’re out.) Eventually you and your family want home monitoring with integrated web camera, motion and fall detection, plus extended PERS (beyond 500 feet).

How about some help from your favorite vendors? Unfortunately, once you own all of the above, from that point on, if it’s computer-related, it’s all about fear and loathing of this ever-more-frustrating junk-to-be. From the ‘Send error report to Microsoft’ to the gotta-hire-a-geek-just-to-print. The silence is deafening from large US-based vendors on how to tackle this pending incompatibility between what we want and how we live with our gear. The super successful Cisco offers only networking products that confound both novice and technical people in their homes. Microsoft is committed to health care, but it’s Guide for Aging Computer Users hasn’t been updated in a year and a half — and there is no other public clue that the company cares about its aging-in-place customers. Meanwhile, Intel cares about aging enough to fund virtual boatloads of research — but actual product development into the market — basically zero. Silence from HP and Dell.  Maybe that’s because only 25% of Windows-based laptop purchasers are over age 50? But 25% is still quite a few laptops, more than 5 million, for example, in 2007 alone).

And a word about Apple. So we know that Apple’s personal computer marketshare has grown to exceed 10%.  And surprisingly, 46% of its buyers are 55 and older (which could possibly be because it’s perceived to be easy to use…but I digress.) Yet Apple’s marketing. Now there’s a contrast.  Baby boomers? Seniors? Aging? Not on your stylish pink MacBook life. How silly is it to ignore nearly half of your buyers and design for appeal to teenagers? Do they think that their 55+ customers just want to look cool? Maybe if they acknowledged the AARP demographic, they could grab another 10% share.

Big vendors should invest in small vendors. This blog is filled with numerous mentions of vendors who offer all of the pieces and parts that we’ll need to age in our own homes. But they’re mostly small. With an infusion of cash (not research… cash!) from the large vendors (like Cisco, Dell, HP, Microsoft, Intel, Apple) — the small vendors could be intentionally included as members of the large vendor’s ‘ecosystem’ (to quote Microsoft). One reason Microsoft invests in Health Vault is because its leaders acknowledge the health-related implications of an aging population. Ditto with Intel (Health Guide) and Cisco (Health Presence). But we’re not going to be sick all of the time! We’re just going to try to live in our homes as connected to others as we can be. Maybe we just need a few investments in the innovations of small startups to ensure that we can.

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.

Should the old get out of the way to make more planet room? Dr. Rich observed that by 2030, 84% of those 65+ will have completed high school and 24% will have a bachelor’s degree, compared with 15% with a college degree today. She noted that tomorrow’s centernarians will be very comfortable with smart phones, Internet, and whatever else is around to enable them to access any information resources — including being very demanding healthcare consumers. She worried that the planet cannot accomodate all of what she terms ‘Geezerdom’ and that perhaps it would make sense for the old to voluntarily ‘get out of the way’ to make room for everyone else.

Evercare’s ‘healthy and articulate’ 100-year-olds are engaged in life now. Who would have thought that half of centenarians are familiar with Ninetendo’s Wii Fit, 21 percent go online, with 10 percent using e-mail weekly, 5 percent watching TV shows, 4 percent downloading music, 3 percent use Twitter, and 2 percent would want an iPod if stranded on a desert island.  Half are walking and hiking, more than half watch quiz shows, and 77% read to stimulate their minds. Both the centernarians and college seniors talk to friends and family to manage stress. Somewhat worrisome for our future, 63% of 100-year-olds said they ‘do something to help others’ as a secondary stress reliever, while 78% of college seniors report that they resort to ‘me time’ to manage stress.

The Judith Rich column includes advice for extending your life span. She quotes a laundry list of widely publicized advice on how to increase your lifespan (15 minutes a day laughing, not smoking, and having a positive outlook add more years). But that list doesn’t include staying connected to community, doing something to help others, staying on top of current news and world events, or using a computer to stay connected to family. Let us remember that the Evercare interviewees are already 100 years old — and this is what a surprising number of them do. Maybe if we want to live to 100, we should emulate them. This being a tech blog — here’s my twist:

Own a computer. I am still hearing that tired line from vendors who make proprietary (non-PC) products that 65+ customers are baffled by computers — that’s why their product isn’t built on a PC. It’s especially ironic to me that telehealth vendors send technically knowledgeable people into the home of 65+ to install monitoring units, will train them on the use of those products, but the PC is just too overwhelming a platform. Enough already. Ignoring the communication needs of your ‘patients’ by giving them single-purpose devices is, politely put, insensitive. Telehealth nurses tell me that patients appreciate monitoring because it shows that someone cares. Imagine their enthusiasm if someone showed them how to use a touch screen for email, sent them some e-mail and showed them how to join an online community for PatientsLikeMe?

Stay informed — news and new ideas. Despite my fondness for them, we probably won’t be reading paper newspapers too much longer — too hard to distribute, too expensive to buy, and tough to get rid of when you’re done reading. But even if you’re still buying them, you can still set automatic e-mail feeds from newspaper companies, set Google Alerts for topics that interest you, and keep up on what’s what in the world of trends and ideas.

Get exercise — physical and brain.  It doesn’t really matter what you do as long as you propel yourself out and about, get your heart going, and give your bones enough stress to keep them from thinning. If where you live means Wii Fit, so be it. And give your brain a workout while you’re at it — anything that involves stimulating, including training your brain to keep your driving skills, or learning something. See stay informed.

Buy smart phones – and keep them charged. No point in getting lost on our way to age 100 — might as well get a BlackBerry or iPhone that gives you portable e-mail access, but where you can also be guided with directions, find a restaurant or gas station, chat with your grandchildren, and even use the phone to call 911 in an emergency. They’re useless when the battery runs out, so manage a charging lifestyle habit early — required for the computer too. See own a computer.

Find like-minded communities. The ‘Lifespan’ advice in Dr. Rich’s column said that going to church regularly adds 3 years to life expectancy.  If we broaden that advice to suggest finding like-minded people — in person, online, on the phone — engagement with others is the key. If we are like 50% of those over 65 today, we will have 2 chronic diseases — even more important to find others who have figured out how best to manage them. See stay informed, buy a smart phone, own a computer.

Consider online medical services. As we near 100, there will be no reason to feel trapped in the house, unable to access medical advice. We can subscribe to online services (phone, e-mail, virtual visits) from companies like TelaDoc or American Well, or LiveNurse on a Jitterbug phone.

My thought — being 100 in this scenario overcomes some of the physical isolation that can result from physical frailty (and losing your nearby friends and family). To me, that looks like a better deal than Dr. Rich’s idea of checking out in order to free up space.

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.