The Tech Tango, Urban Legends, The Longevity Economy

Laurie Orlov is the go-to person for all things AgingTech. Bookmark her.

For boomers, there is no such thing as keeping up with tech change
Sun, 10/22/2017 by Laurie Orlov
… Tech change is occurring faster than boomers at 64 or 84 will want to use …

Sounds familiar.  From Advertising to Baby Boomers ©2005/2007:

“The computer/internet ethos for most Baby Boomers is that they pick and choose what technology they want to use, buy, or install. Some are all over Skype, video and music uploading and downloading, research, education, travel planning, shopping—while eschewing blogging, communities, and web page design. Or it’s the other way around. Or variations thereof. When it comes to new technology, most Baby Boomers learn only about what interests them, what they believe will be useful. They don’t feel the need to know everything there is to know about technology, computers, and the web.”

Another recent post from Ms. Orlov:

Five technology offerings for older adults from Connected Health Boston 2017
…. An odd mix of technology service providers, health tech vendors (multiple categories), and startups …

Dick Stroud tweeted:

 

Yours Truly likewise wonders.

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I featured Rick Moody in an August post:

Disillusioned
Harry (Rick) Moody, former Vice President and Director of Academic Affairs for AARP, tackles disillusionment in an engrossing piece for The American Society on Aging.

Here’s a fun list of age-related Urban Legends put together by Rick. Patrick Roden’s Aging in Place blog:

Urban Legends on ainginplace.com

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Joseph Coughlin of MIT AgeLab has written a new book. He just received a box full of’em:

The Longevity Economy
Over the past two decades, Joseph F. Coughlin has been busting myths about aging with groundbreaking multidisciplinary research into what older people actually want—not what conventional wisdom suggests they need. In The Longevity Economy, Dr. Coughlin provides the framing and insight business leaders need to serve the growing older market…

They Laughed When I Sat Down To Write Long Copy…

Tweet/retweet from Kevin Lavery:

The Sell! Sell! Blog
by Richard Shotton
… It reminded me of one of my favourite quotes, from Howard Gossage: "People read what interests them, sometimes it's an ad".

It’s what I’ve been saying for years (but not quite as long as Howard Gossage, John Caples, David Ogilvy, I’ll stop here or this post will end up being long long copy).

From Advertising to Baby Boomers © 2005:

“Baby Boomers do love to read, often chewing on every single word in a brochure or print ad. They want to know everything about a product.”

”The  real  reason  is that our attention spans are longer. We want to know  more. We need to know more for a product or service to be imprinted.”

Ninety years ago…

"They Laughed When I Sat Down At The Piano - But When I Started to Play!"

The Press Release Parade: Halloween Personality Profiling

Has it been this long? 

28 July 2011
The Press Release Parade
I’m on the list.

That doesn’t make me special by any standards. Press Releases are like virtual confetti nowadays.

Nowadays still applies. Astoundingly stupid stuff is still sent to me.

For entertainment purposes only, every so often I’m going to feature the silliest ones.  They’re so silly I don’t even have to comment. Here’s the first in a series (with pics inserted by me):

Can the Apps on Your Phone Predict What Your Halloween Costume Says About You?
Hi Chuck--
I'm writing to suggest a Halloween story idea for Advertising to Baby Boomers on new survey tech that can predict what your costume says about your personality.

Consider this:
There are 11 personality types (or personas)—and each one maps to a different Halloween costume.

That's according to a new study by *******,  the world’s foremost mobile survey company—which used persona targeting to explore the relationship between Halloween costumes and personality. Its tech looks at the apps survey respondents have on their phones—and identifies their persona based on that information.

So, what does your Halloween costume say about your personality?

HALLOWEEN PERSONALITY SURVEY
***** surveyed 1,000 Americans about their Halloween costumes and used its persona capability to match them to personality type. Note that each respondent can have more than one persona.

COSTUME 1: SUPERHERO
53% of respondents planning to dress as a superhero are the "musicfan" persona type (i.e. they listen to music and follow music news). "Gamers" (19%) are least likely to dress as a superhero.
 
COSTUME 2: POP CULTURE RELATED
45% of people whose Halloween costumes are inspired by pop culture are the "value shopper" persona type (i.e. like to organize shopping lists and search for discounts). "Entertainment enthusiasts" (43%) are also likely to dress as pop culture icons.
(Note: That’s a Beatle.)
 
COSTUME 3: POLITICIAN
There's a 43% chance people who don this costume are the "sportsfan." The "traveler" persona (39%) is also likely to dress as a politician.
 
COSTUME 4: ANIMAL
38% of people dressing as an animal for Halloween are "socialites." "Sportsfans" (15%) are least likely to dress as an animal.
 
COSTUME 5: HISTORICAL FIGURE
Survey says: 51% of Americans dressing as a historical figure are "musicfans." "Productivity boosters" (41%) are also likely to dress as a historical figure.
 
For more information on *****  ability to target 11 personas in market research surveys, I'm happy to schedule an interview with ******* CEO ******. He is available for interviews by phone, email, or Skype until October 31.
 
Best,
********
Publicist, PR Hacker

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I’m giving him a call November 1st.

More PR shenanigans from the past:

02 November 2011
The Press Release Parade Marches On

19 July 2013
Do PR outfits vet press releases anymore?

And something about the silliness of personality profiling:

17 January 2007
Baby Boomers and The Joy of Tech: Part Two
… There are better ways of slicing and dicing cohorts from raw data than with dubious personality profiling. Such segmentation ends up being an admixture of astrology, psychobabble, and voodoo…

* The kid with the tail is yours truly.

NostraChuckus Scoops The New York Times.

Famed Soothsayer and advertising gadfly NostraChuckus has been startling the world for years with his mundane prognostications.

Almost every eve, The Great Seer stares into his Crystal Ball of Common Sense and sees himself – but in other guises. These strange visages look nothing like him – yet they do. It’s as if his magikal orb doubles as a phantasmagoric funhouse mirror.

Today, he stares into the undulating image of The New York Times…

Baby Boomers to Advertisers: Don’t Forget About Us
By Janet Morrissey
“Marketers have gotten so hot for the millennial generation that they have essentially ignored boomers” … “We’re here in the millions, and we have more disposable income, time and want to spend money. Yet they don’t give us the consideration that they should.”

Sounds eerily familiar. Download the first few chapters of Advertising to Baby Boomers (2005/2007).

“I’m here today to fix something that drives me completely crazy,” before criticizing his wireless competitors for deeming boomers as “too old,” “stuck in the past” and not interested in technology or the internet.

NostraChuckus, from the 2005 book:

“It will be the Baby Boomers who will be the first to pick and choose, to ignore or be seduced by leading-edge technology marketing. There’s a simple reason for this. We have the money to buy this stuff. Experts say we’ll continue to have the money for at least the next twenty years. Write us off at your own peril.”

14 November 2005
My Favorite Cyber-Myth
How I snicker and roll my eyes whenever I read about Baby Boomers fumbling around on computers, scratching their heads, totally flummoxed.

More from The New York Times:

He mocked some of his rivals’ senior phone plans for focusing on “big buttons”…

08 December 2007
The Jitterbug Phone
… Those numbers and buttons are big - like a toy phone … Boomers are tech-savvy, demand choices.

Right now, it’s mainly companies that make senior-related products, like life insurance, medical devices and reverse mortgages, that regularly target boomers.

16 September 2009
Boomer Backlash II
The Backlash: If every time someone over fifty sees a commercial targeting them and it’s always for an age-related product or service, pretty soon their eyes will glaze over, they’ll get itchy and grumpy.
The Real Issue: Marketing and advertising folks grasping the fact that Boomers will be buying billions (trillions?) of dollars worth of non-age related products for the next twenty-odd years. If you target this group for toothpaste, computers, clothes, food, nail polish, sporting equipment, toenail clippers - anything at all (almost), and you do it with respect and finesse, they will appreciate and consider your product.

“They want to market to the cool segment, the modern segment, the ‘in’ segment,” Mr. Light said of marketers, many of whom are millennials themselves.

The 2005 book again.  The introductory chapter, The Geritol Syndrome, is all about this.

19 August 2015
Folks Are Still Reading My 2005 Book
… It’s going to be up to companies to be proactive when dealing with advertising agencies. Quality control of your product doesn’t stop at the entrances of Madison Avenue’s finest, or at the doors of small local or regional advertising agencies. If companies put pressure on agencies, and demand 45-plus creatives for products aimed at the 45-plus market, then they will find out that Baby Boomers are still “the single most vibrant and exciting consumer group in the world.”

Automobiles is another category where boomers may feel underserved…

Too many posts about this.  Three:

12 March 2009
Who’s gonna buy this car?
In 2005 on The Advertising Show yours truly had a spirited discussion with hosts Brad Forsythe and Ray Schilens.  A chunky segment was about marketing autos to Boomers.

18 DECEMBER 2009
What Next From The Crystal Ball of Common Sense?

03 MAY 2012
67% Of All Sales…
… Those age 50 and older are buying more than three of every five new vehicles sold, or about 62% … For the Detroit Three, boomers now account for 67% of all sales.

NostraChuckus is getting tired now. The images are becoming jumbled, hazy.

The Great Seer knows he’s not alone. Other Great Seers have been staring into their crystal balls for decades: Kevin Lavery, Dick Stroud, Mary Furlong, John Migliaccio, Kurt Medina, Todd Harff, Brent Green, Carol Orsborn, Matt Thornhill, David Wolfe – just to name a few. 

16 NOVEMBER 2015
The Déjà Vu No New News
… It’s always a treat to get up, make some coffee, open the newspaper (pixels or pulp) and read nothing new.
Even that shticky opening sentence is nothing new.

At least it's nice to have The New York Times catch up with validate what we’ve been saying all these years.

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Just for fun:

Normal and Healthy is Scary
by Chuck Nyren
Is living forever going to suck?

The Pitfalls Of Social Media Advertising

Tony Mariani tipped me off with a tweet:

The Pitfalls Of Social Media Advertising (and LISTEN to it – it’s only 3 minutes long)
Many companies are investing money in social media to advertise new products. But they could be paying a hidden price for those ads.

Read more:

Wang, Shuting and Greenwood, Brad N. and Pavlou, Paul A., Tempting Fate: Social Media Posts by Firms, Customer Purchases, and the Loss of Followers (July 10, 2017). Fox School of Business Research Paper No. 17-022.

… We find that while social media posts do increase the retailer’s sales by 5% in the short-term, they also increase the followers’ propensity to unfollow the firm by 300%. Strikingly, results also indicate that social media posts cannibalize long-term cumulative sales…

Nothing surprising to me. I’ve been bellowing about this for over a decade. Stop bugging people when they don’t to be bugged. Only bug them when they want to be bugged. Simple common sense:

Digital Distractions
Advertisers are getting wise to the drawbacks of marketing in the digital nest. From 2007: Positioning Magazines for Baby Boomers

And now that I’ve totally trashed online marketing, here’s a good e-book about how to do it correctly:

Social, Silver Surfers: Where to find (and how to win) mature consumers online
By Erin Read and Kimberly Hulett
… The only longitudinal study of the online behaviors, marketing preferences and attitudes specifically held by older (40+) adults…