Through Their Fingertips— Incorporating Social Media Into Your Marketing Mix for Selling To Seniors

While some may regard social media as a “young person’s arena,” its popularity and reach extend and fit well into the marketing of senior living communities. The question is, “How do you navigate the maze of social media sites, applications and tools to find the right mix for your marketing message?”

Past Love Reports have examined how seniors respond to various media, including direct mail, print advertising and Internet Website marketing, with the consistent goal of closing the gap between what marketers think seniors may respond to, and what actually moves them to take action. This report is no exception.

Our Research Process

To complete Phase One of this study, we created a comprehensive survey to help determine senior respondents’ knowledge and use of various social media venues, including e-mail, social networking sites, blogs and podcasts, online chats and webinars. Two versions of the survey were produced to target two different groups—those who already reside in a senior living community, and those who do not. The second group included individuals on lead base lists, wait list members and age- and income-qualified prospects. A total of 38 senior living communities participated in the survey process.

Phase Two of the study involved Love & Company personnel training a group of residents of a senior community to blog, forming a resident blogging group to share insights about living in their community. In addition, we surveyed communities with Facebook pages to discover how they are using Facebook in their marketing efforts and what success and benefits have been derived from using the social media site.

What We Did

Participating communities were provided with a PDF of the cover letter and survey, which they printed and distributed to the various audiences. Respondents were given the option of responding electronically through a direct link, or completing and mailing the paper survey. We received a total of 2,603 responses to the surveys.

What We Learned— Optimize and Conquer

First and foremost, we discovered that over 86% of both survey audiences use Internet search engines, with over 28% taking notice of the sponsored results near the top of the page and on the right-hand side. Over 75% of respondents report starting at the top and viewing each result until they find a match. This includes viewing the sponsored links that appear at the top of the page before the organic results. These responses underscore the importance of optimizing sites to appear at or near the top of the most important search lists, as well as considering the use of search engine marketing (SEM) to have your sponsored link appear at the top of the page.

Embrace Email

Over 98% of senior respondents reported that they use e-mail, with between 78% and 86% reporting daily use. Because the vast majority of those who received the non-resident survey are using e-mail to family—also known as your target audience! Over 50% of these respondents indicated they would forward to their friends an invitation from their community to attend an upcoming event, and they felt that at least half of those friends would welcome the invitation. This can be a great—and low cost—way to increase attendance at marketing events.

Among both survey audiences, nearly 50% indicated they forward unsolicited jokes or humorous e-mail messages to friends and family, thus offering another avenue of communication. Creative use of viral marketing campaigns can move your message to reach an audience you may have considered outside your marketing scope.

Network Carefully

Our survey results indicate that Facebook and YouTube are the most popular social networking sites, and that many also use Skype to communicate with friends and family via the Internet. This offers a great opportunity to promote a community through posting of community event videos or testimonials on YouTube or Facebook. Other ideas could include “video demonstrations,” such as sharing recipes, community tours, profiles of unusual resident hobbies and more. Brainstorm ideas and topics and have a ready library of videos and posts from which to draw.

Most communities are using Facebook to share news and images with prospects, or to target adult children. Content is often very lifestyle-oriented, with more factual information still reserved for the community’s Website. Consider a Facebook page when advertising an upcoming social event, or to recap resident activity or offer an overview of a community.

In our surveys, 74% of participating communities report spending only up to two hours each week updating their pages. They currently report promoting their Facebook page in printed marketing pieces and print advertising, or including the logo in an e-mail signature. In addition, don’t forget to add the Facebook link to the home page of your community’s Website.

Blogging is a Personal Process

While over 72% of non-resident survey respondents are familiar with blogs, just 19% report following one or more online blogs. Currently their three top blog subjects are current events, financial information and academics. As mentioned earlier, Phase Two of this report involved training a group of senior community residents in Ohio to establish a community blog. As of November 2010, the group had been blogging for nine weeks, the team members were enjoying the experience and the group was about to expand.

We learned several things during the formation of the blogging group. When encouraging community residents to initiate a blog, take care in selecting the team. Choose members who enjoy the Internet and like sharing social news and expressing their views. Give them the foundational information they need, teach them the process and have them try it out for themselves. Then leave them alone. Blogging is a personal thing, akin to keeping a diary, and you just can’t force it. The benefit of the hands-off approach is that candid, unsolicited insights are shared about the community in which the residents live.

What We Concluded

• Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) are critical to being “found” on the Internet. Make sure you’re noticed on key searches.

• E-mail is a powerful tool when senior living residents are included and drawn into the “marketing circle.” Remember their willingness to forward messages to friends.

• Viral videos can be fun and effective ways to communicate the news and personality of a community. Create a library of them and release them during key marketing periods.

• Prioritize your involvement in social networking sites, and then commit to using them for a variety of marketing purposes. Always include a strong call to action and an easy way to respond.

• Blogging is something that seniors enjoy and will use to communicate their own life experiences to others. If you take care in selecting the blogging team, they can be your best ambassadors!

Remember To Track Your Results!

All marketing professionals want to increase ROI (return on investment). The goal is to increase results while spending the same amount or less. This is where tracking the performance of marketing efforts becomes so important. The better your organization is at tracking the sources of leads, the more effective your advertising becomes. And effectiveness equals success. Allow time and budget dollars to track the number of new customers visiting your blog, or the ones who are linking to your Website because of search engine marketing. You may find that the cost of other budgeted initiatives can be reduced while maintaining or growing your ROI. Here are some simple steps to take:

• Specify landing pages on your Website for prospects to respond to marketing pieces and advertisements, such as direct mail, print advertising, web advertising and e-mail blasts

• Add Google Analytics to your Website – it’s free!

• Track visitors to your blog by using a built-in visitor counter

• Use an electronic response form on your Website to help track how respondents learned about you

• Constantly fine-tune search engine keywords to get the best mix

The social media research project was lead by Jessica Kraft, senior marketing account manager, and Emily Harman, media manager.

October 6, 2011 – Update – One of the nation’s greatest boomers and inventors, Steve Jobs, has left us. I hope his vision for living doesn’t. 

(Originally posted Feb. 25, 2009) Mature Market Experts: more mature market news and stats more often: Yesterday Baby Boomer and cancer survivor Steve Jobs turned 54. As one of the people most responsible for shaping a generation, Steve offered some incredible insight on two important topics . . . how to get back up after getting fired (a pretty timely subject in this economy) and the power of death. This commencement speech which he gave at Stanford University is worth the 15 minutes of your time.

PS Steve, if you read this, please fix this IPOD problem for your Baby Boomer fans.

PPS I like Mr. Job’s mention in the video of the “Google” predecessor.

Look more closely at the 65+ age range. Not a trivial group — 39 million last year, a mere 13% of the US population today, but surging forward with bulging baby boomer segment additions. Of the current 39 million, 5.8 million are 85+, representing the fastest-growing age cohort in the US. What do the 85+ have in common with the 65-75-year-olds? Aside from being lumped by NPD and media into one bucket, that is. Survival, for one thing — if you live to be 65 in the United States, the odds are good that you’ll make it to at least 83.5 — for those who reach age 85, women will live another 6.8 years, men between 5 and 7 more years. Oops. The spread between 65 and 90+ is looming a bit large — a 90-year-old may very well have children who are 65 to 70.  Surely, these two ends of an age spectrum need different products, but more to the point, so many in the range of 65-and-beyond will need to care for and help those with long life expectancies, not to simply survive, but to live as well as possible (seeHuffington Post and Silver Planet for some inspiration about living those extra years).

Reading about the crisis in Japan, let’s not abandon the real elderly. Left behind in retirement facilities, nursing homes, perhaps making up a disproportionate percentage of those who are counted among lives lost, one has to wonder. Consider those in the US — in senior housing, retirement communities, and condominium complexes throughout places like Arizona and Florida, where the adult children may be unlikely to reside; where hurricanes, tornados, flooding, sudden cold, or failing air conditioning are crisis conditions for the elderly. Does everyone who knows someone living alone and away from their family also know what the escape or support plan is to help them in the event of a disaster? What are the top ways to monitor and stay connected to them?

Hearing, monitoring, seeing, connecting. These are key tasks that matter as life span lengthens and maybe even marketers get wise to sub-segmentation of the oldest age ranges — the upper end of the 65+. So usable telephones (land and cell) top the list, usable for those with arthritis and Parkinson’s, able to persist on battery, with multiple and easily charged mobile batteries. Captioned telephones for the hearing-impaired — many of whom do not wear hearing aids until long past the point of enjoying phone conversations. Then add magnification and Internet-enabled cameras — I was pleased to see that the latest Humana/Care Innovations pilot of Intel’s Health Guide includes a camera — hopefully the pilot in Tampa will include a sizable number of the real elderly. But then add computers and Internet service for the real elderly so that they can see and be seen on webcams — what’s it mean when a Google search of ‘Help seniors access Internet’ returns three Australian web addresses in the first seven results? Or check out SeniorNet (targeting the 50+? Huh?) when there is no listed Florida Learning Center and only 2 in Arizona? When (Pew Research) reports that only 30% of those age 75 and older go online and only 20% have home broadband (eliminating the usefulness of Skype and clear images of family members). When AARP lumps the real elderly into the 50+ Digital Divide and, unfortunately, appears these days to set survey (and enrollment) sights set on the 45+?

If you think the Internet doesn’t matter for the real elderly, think again. I am also reminded of one of the big disasters in the US — 9/11 — and how cell phones and land-lines services that day became useless as networks clogged under the weight of worry. But as I recall, AOL Instant Messenger was up and accessible by dispersed family members throughout a very long day. And I think about Facebook messages from Americans in Japan alerting their families when they became unreachable by phone. And I wonder how many of the real elderly were reachable through an Internet connection during either crisis?

• Remote home monitoring got buzz and investment. Venture capitalists stepped up for remote monitoring: Healthsense received venture funding, as did WellAWARE. Numerous news outlets pointed a consumer flashlight onto GrandCare Systems and this still fairly narrow market, now blurred further this year with remote health monitoring (aka telehealth, wireless health) — now in some cases reimbursed due to vital sign monitoring during post-hospital rehab stays.

PREDICTION: 2011 will further blur the distinction between remote health monitoring and passive activity monitoring. Given the fertile health technology marketplace of grants for trial projects among non-profit organizations, my take is that vendors would do well to add device enablement (like blood pressure and weight scale), seek FDA approval and throw in the towel on preserving a standalone category.

• The PERS market got a Philips auto alert boost. In January, Philips launched Lifeline with Auto Alert for automatic fall-detecting PERS devices, likely at the expense of its own Lifeline device sales. By creating market awareness (yuk, that home page is still bleak, bleak, bleak!) about passive fall detection and notification, Philips offered help for competitors Wellcore, Halo Monitoring and others with fall detection capability. Meanwhile, mobile PERS with GPS location identification continued its move (pun intended) forward and outside the home — striving to appeal to a younger and more out-and-about population.

PREDICTION: In 2008, PERS market growth was predicted to be flat — Parks Associates asserted a $600 million flat line, supplanted by a corresponding growth in passive remote monitoring. Not so, it turns out. Today PERS is approximately a $1 billion market — and while there are a number of new remote monitoring entrants, passive remote monitoring is still below the adoption radar. What’s next? I am waiting (and may have to wait well past 2011) for elder-focused applications and trained carrier call centers that leverage the built-in accelerometers, GPS trackability, and (ha, ha!) ease of use of cell and smart phones. In the meantime, PERS sales will grow, not as fast, but steadily as the population ages into frailty — remembering that 85+ is the fastest growing segment, that PERS contracts typically last only for two years.

• Games got gestures — someday seniors will benefit. With the launch of Microsoft’s Kinect interface, teens got a chance to jump higher while playing group Xbox games, including the ability to play group games simultaneously from separate locations.  But speaking instructions and using hand gestures is an important user interface change that can transform the accessibility of apps — check out this MIT Kinect browser navigation accomplishment posted just minutes (it seemed) after Kinect sold out at Target.

PREDICTION: Hand gestures, recognizable features, and spoken commands — app vendors, go forth and create! At least 5 vendors focused on the older adult market will offer a Kinect-enabled application by end of 2011. Throw in specific health and chronic disease management — many times five. Design-for-all apps, lots and lots.

• The iPad marginalized the need for an annoying PC operating system computer. In January, the iPad announcement looked pretty impressive… and the screen looked very pretty.  Well, doubt no more about boomers — these things are everywhere, boomers seem to love them and they (or their many, many imitators) are migrating into the homes and lives of older people — someone besides Apple will tell us how many.  These types of devices will, over time, make us forget that we used to need simplification software to overlay on top of complex and consumer-hostile devices.

PREDICTION: In our near-term lifetime, older adults depending on your children or Best Buy to upgrade Windows patches may become a distant memory. The same Microsoft that brought this brilliant Kinect interface into the market will hobble out its own tablet next week at CES. Maybe it will be foisted on enterprises through IT mandate, but among an older population for home use, forget it. Even though folks may have told AARP they won’t buy one, they just didn’t know what they were saying — AARP surveyed too early (June) about a product that had just began shipping (late March).  Newer products from other vendors will also make the concept of an operating system upgrade either quaint or invisible.

• eReaders eliminated the need for reading glasses. Meanwhile, as you can plainly see in airports, planes, trains, and TV commercials, the eReader (Nook, Shmook, etc.) is taking a big chunk out of physical books. As my husband has noted with his free Kindle reader for Blackberry, if you like to read, eReaders mean never having to search for your reading glasses.

PREDICTION: We are in a silly ‘i-this’ and ‘e-that’ phase right now — vendors may fight to the death to keep it that way, maybe even giving eReader devices away with a purchase of 10 or more books? But in the end, it’s pointless — eReader software will be on all tablets, game controllers, portable and phone-like devices.

• Caregiving software — is this really a standalone market? Along with initiatives to help caregivers, caregiving applications sprouted in 2010, but is this a category? With software as a service, these apps really seem to be functionality that is part of a larger caregiver portal, possibly white-labeled by a service or healthcare insurer/provider (like Kaiser Permanente) or offered by a home care agency as part of a solution that includes devices — including home health monitoring and/or web cameras.

PREDICTION: For those caregiving applications that are part of the professional caregiver services toolkit, 2011 will be the year in which the largest home care agencies (family/companion and health) expand their tech reach. They will include standard caregiving functionality that updates and includes family participation. They will consider Skype (or its equivalent) to be a core competence of Geriatric Care Managers — as with SeniorBridge. They will replace the requisite post-visit telephone call tag with the kind of simultaneously-viewable update that families can create with a portal like CaringBridge.

• Dementia undermines aging in place. All remote, health, and gadgety tech notwithstanding, let’s consider Alzheimer’s and the CDC’s statement that “nearly half of those age 85 and older may have the disease.” (Feel free to spend some time online trying to nail down that definition, the percentage, and/or its source, but I digress…) Wander prevention technology presumes a willing and available responder to receive those close-by alerts or forming a relationship with the local police to find the missing. It presumes someone is wearing a tag, device, necklace or bracelet. But we’re better at locating prisoners and dogs than we are at preventing people from wandering to the point of danger.

PREDICTION: During 2011, more vendors will emerge with unobtrusive tracking devices linked to smart notification software that incorporates a hierarchy of responders and a multiplicity of ways to reach them. Hey, maybe we’ll even see that GPS shoe (as of today predicted by Foot.com to ship in early February 2011). If there’s no associated service, though, the shoe will be absolutely useless.

• Vendors of age-related products and services still struggle to address the market properly. The pathway to sales is littered with the simultaneous obstacles of poor economic climate, limited funding, few solutions-versus-products, long sales cycles in many cases, complex decision-making relationships (adult child? senior? professional caregiver? who?) and new management learning curves. To tackle some of these obstacles and promote sharing of lessons learned, last year’s Silvers Summit spawned an AgeTek Alliance of vendors and supportive organizations, which will this year will hold training and networking sessions at CES.

PREDICTION: 2011 will (hopefully) see more coherent and reusable channel cultivation, more multi-vendor product bundling, growth in training of service providers and resellers, and greater awareness of appropriate tech among referrers like doctors, GCMs, and senior housing organizations. In 2009, I speculated about certification of service providers in technology for aging in place — in 2010, NAHB’s CAPS — Certified Aging in Place Specialist) program wisely split into two parts — Marketing and Communication Strategies for Aging and Accessibility (CAPS I) and Design/Build Solutions for Aging and Accessibility (CAPS II) — the latter includes an assessment of needs which will, hopefully, include tech communication requirements. In 2011, there will also be forward movement that exposes minimum product requirements — like usability, ease of installation, and ease of operation — through ever-greater exposure of actual user experiences. Although it makes sense to consolidate objectives and outcomes among age-related consortia and groups, that is highly unlikely in the near term. Finally, for those of you considering entrance into this market, please follow these Ten Tips.

• Bad prescription — hospitals and the elderly. Maybe you missed it a few days ago — more than 1 in 5 of those admitted to hospitals (2008) were over the age of 75. And those aged 85+ were 2.5 times as likely to need nursing care upon discharge as those age 65-74. Interestingly, Microsoft’s HealthVault Community Connect, “a portal solution that helps connect healthcare institutions to their referring communities and patients,” according to Microsoft’s Luisa Monge, is just beginning to be deployed as part of hospital admission — where discharge planning must begin if it is ever to function properly.

HOPE: To get to the hospital, someone has to call 911 (or drive in the car). My dream is that whoever does the calling or driving has the ability to produce a list of current medications on a sheet of paper that has all identifying information, including the name of the doctor, next of kin and contact info. This is so low-tech — if the very old can’t stay out of hospitals, can they at least arrive armed with their own data?

• Design for all or design for aging? Finally, let’s tackle the thorny issue of whether there is such a thing as ‘tech for seniors’ or should all tech incorporate certain core principles — in effect, ‘design-for-all?’  How about devices with good lighting, adjustable font, audible display options, color adjustments? And as Dr. Joseph Coughlin noted, shouldn’t tech be more FUN to use, not just utilitarian?

HOPE: In 2011, let’s hope that marketing senior-related products doesn’t have to be fear-focused to effectively reach the consumer.  Let’s hope that it becomes less and less important to design tech exclusively for the use of older adults. Let’s hope that everything we use is wonderfully easy to figure out, that the buttons on our new TV remotes are bigger, that configuring web-enabled television can be done in fewer than 5 perilous steps (this requirement was comfirmed by Best Buy), that the user manual is only a nice-to-have that comes with our phones, readers, tablets, and games. Let’s hope that if we want the full-featured, heavy-duty sophisticated options — or we want tech to be friendlier in the event that our dexterity, vision, or hearing declines ever so slightly — that even though you can’t always get (exactly) what you want, you can usually get what you need.

Editor’s Note: If you haven’t visited Laurie Orlov’s blog, Aging In Place Technology Watch, you should. When it comes to understanding technology as it relates to aging, there is NO better source of information.

I (Tom Mann of Love and Company) recently presented “Improving Marketing and Sales for your Retirement Community, CCRC, Assisted Living, or Skilled Nursing Care Facility” at the LifeSpans educational seminar. Here’s the PowerPoint I presented with transcriptions!

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.

Boomers and seniors flock, and maybe they stay – who knows? So we know that baby boomers and seniors represent the fastest-growing (not largest) age group flocking to Facebook, because this is an oft-quoted statistic that is surprisingly tough to nail down. Here’s a 2009 stat on women age 55+ as the fastest growing demographic, for example. According to Nielsen, seniors age 65+ pick Facebook as one of their top Internet destinations. And according to eMarketer.com in December, 2009, 46% of online boomers age 44-62 and 36% of those 63-75 had a social networking site profile. Note the word ‘online’. So far, I have not seen a report on frequency of update or access — hope eMarketer.com checks that out this year.

Now comes the AARP Loneliness Study. AARP is pushing down the survey age and definition of ‘older’ people, from 50 down to 45. Pretty soon no one will be younger than all of these so-called older people. Published last month, a survey of 3012 adults age 45 and above revealed that 35% are lonely (using UCLA’s index of attributes of loneliness.) Surprisingly, and supported by the Gallup study about overall happiness, those in the younger age range of 45-49 were lonelier (43%) than those age 70-plus (25%). According to the study, those married, wealthier, healthier, who volunteer more and have been in their homes more than one year are less likely to be lonely. Maybe the older folks are onto something — 62% of the 65+ population isn’t online. As for the use of social media (aka Facebook), lonely respondents were more likely to agree with the statement “I have fewer deep connections now that I keep in touch with people using the Internet.” Interestingly, AARP’s website did not report that 57% of both categories of responders, that is those self-identified as either lonely and not lonely, said that they never participate on social networking sites. Note the word ‘never’.

Facebook manages the Rolodex of acquaintances. There’s something ironic about Facebook terminology — ‘friends’ who you ‘poke’, versus the more civil LinkedIn use of the phrase ‘trusted connections.’ In the October 4th New Yorker article, Malcolm Gladwell draws a distinction between actual activism and what he describes as ‘weak activism’, observing that “Facebook activism succeeds not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but by motivating them to do the things that people do when they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice.” And his comment that “Facebook is a tool for efficiently managing your acquaintances, for keeping up with the people you would not otherwise be able to stay in touch with” resonates with me, especially after watching this movie. Young people are resilient: maybe they know that their hundreds of Facebook friends aren’t the same as actual friends who would join you at a meeting or in a volunteer effort, help you move your belongings to a new location, or even eat a meal with you on a Sunday night. Older people are less resilient and perhaps after registering their profile, they secretly wonder to themselves — what’s the point of this, life is short, let’s go out for lunch.

Editor’s Note: Carolina’s calling. If you have anything to do with active aging or retirement communities, you don’t want to miss the  National Active Retirement Association Conference in Columbia, South Carolina – Wednesday, October 20 through Friday, October 22  at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. I hope to see you there!

PS    If you are going, be sure to drop me a line at Tom(at)TRMann.com.

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 Vice President of Strategic Marketing Services for Love and Company, 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.