09 November 2009

A Potential Boom from Baby Boomers: Universal Design & Aging in Place

For advertising folk, one of the most useful attributes of the internet is being exposed to online trade mags – ones you’d probably never see otherwise.  With a new client, or if you’re pitching, you need to find founts of knowledge fast.

I’ve been quoted in a few trade mags I’d never heard of until they contacted me:

image Boomers in Candyland

Boomers Beyond: Marketing to a 50-Plus Audience

Savvy sleep that knits the ravelled sleeve of care.

While fiddling with the ether today, I happened upon this piece in Kitchen & Bath Design News:

Look for a Potential Boom from Baby Boomers
DPH Perspectives
By Melissa Allen
image Where can boomers turn for help with customizing their homes so they can stay where they are? Big-box stores offer deep inventories and economies of scale, but don’t provide carefully chosen collections of truly outstanding products or the expertise to help boomers combine products and solutions to meet age-related needs.

image… Boomers want knowledgeable and trustworthy professionals they can work with in upgrading their homes, and they’re worried that they won’t be able to find them.

This spells opportunity for our industry.

First I had to figure out what DPH meant. Wikipedia was no help.  With some scrolling and deep deciphering, my incredibly big brain finally got it: Decorative Plumbing & Hardware.

More from the article:

“In our showroom, we’ve found that semantics are as important as the products themselves. References to limited mobility or handicapped products are not well received by this generation. Sales professionals need to understand the importance of nomenclature. They need to emphasize that these products add beauty, safety and enhanced functionality,” Miller says.

Aging-in-place products are becoming more attractive. For instance, grab bars were once very utilitarian looking. “Now, grab bars come in multiple finishes and styles, and different lengths and widths, and can be high end as well as basic,” Miller says. “All of a sudden, we’re able to provide people with products that don’t remind them that they’re getting older. We’re not only able to provide safety, we’re able to provide safety in beautiful products.”

That sounds like a chapter in my book:

image

I’ve updated the chapter and put together a PDF about Universal Design/Aging in Place and advertising to Baby Boomers.  Click here to download.

A previous post with some good links:

UD, Aging in Place, and My Dumb Noggin

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06 November 2009

Television, Movie, Pop Stars Least Persuasive

Sort of an interesting survey (for two reasons) by Harris Interactive and Adweek Media:

imageBusiness Leaders Considered Most Persuasive in Ad Endorsement (PDF)
The issue of celebrity endorsements is something a number of companies grapple with as they are planning their advertising campaigns … One quarter of those aged 18-34 (23%) say television or movie stars are most persuasive while only 15% of those aged 55 and older feel the same way.

Sort of interesting survey reason #1:

I’ve talked about this for years when advising clients about reaching Baby Boomers.  In an online presentation a year ago there’s a section all about celebrity endorsements.  I used Liberty Medical as an example of a company that (at the time) needed to update its image. The section is about 19 minutes in:

Two graphics from the above presentation:

image

image

 

 

 

 

So you don’t have to sit through it, basically I say that it would be a mistake to find a ‘new’ Wilford Brimley. 

Sort of interesting survey reason #2:

CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS THAT ARE MOST PERSUASIVE

image

Odd that Harris Interactive would stop delineating demos after age 55, as if all people over that age are the same: simply old

Of course, this myopia is nothing new:

The Jitterbug Phone
The real issue: Marketers assuming that if you're over fifty you're automatically a member of one and only one age demographic - all with the same needs and wants.

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05 November 2009

Tungate in Paris. Tungate in Istanbul.

A few years ago I met Mark Tungate:

ADLAND by Mark Tungate

image Mark Tungate, I find out after our brief rendezvous at Bayard Presse in Paris, after returning home and reading his book, after jumping on the web and scurrying around, after emailing a few friends in France and England, is a heavyweight in the ad world. He's written a bunch of books, loads of articles for advertising and general interest magazines, has a TV talk show. He puts together the text for an 'everybody in the industry has to pour over it every year' annual overview of European advertising …

Since then Mark has written two more books:

Branded Male: Marketing to Men
image Branded Male discusses the evolution of the male consumer and the desire of marketers to tap into the still underdeveloped male market. Crammed with facts and anecdotes, Branded Male analyses how to effectively brand products and services for the male market.

Luxury World
image With wit, accuracy and insatiable curiosity, Luxury World takes us on a voyage around the luxury universe, slipping behind the façades of the world’s most sophisticated businesses to show the reader how they function.

In December, Mark is taking his road show to Istanbul:

image

The event is produced by IMI Conferences:

image IMI Conferences organizes Guru Events, Market Specific Conferences and Up-To-Date Panels … on topics that are of interest to the world and to Turkey. Its most fundamental target is to inform the business circles in Turkey of Global developments and trends.

While probably not quite arriving in the style Oprah did recently, no doubt Mr. Tungate will leave Turkey with almost as many new fans.

02 November 2009

Television: It’s still a passive activity

From The New York Times:

DVR, Once TV’s Mortal Foe, Helps Ratings
By BILL CARTER
Published: November 1, 2009

old-TV In what may seem a media business version of the Stockholm syndrome, television network executives have fallen in love with a former tormentor: the digital video recorder … more people seem content to sit through the commercials than networks once thought.

image … The most basic reason, according to Brad Adgate*, the senior vice president for research at Horizon Media, a media buying firm, is that the behavior that has underpinned television since its invention still persists to a larger degree than expected.

“It’s still a passive activity,” he said.

I’ve yakked and yakked about passive and active activities and advertising.  A few years ago it was about magazines (and television):

Positioning Magazines for Baby Boomers
image At some point you have to climb out of your frenetic digital nest and concentrate on one thing. It might be reading a book, watching a TV show or movie, listening to music, looking out the window.

Or immersing yourself in a magazine.

This isn’t ‘down time’ (that would be sleeping), but nourishing your psyche by absorbing and not actively being involved …

_____

* It was 2005 when I first pulled a quote from Brad Adgate:

Over 50 and Out of Favor: by Meg James, LA Times

Another one:

Where’s the TV for us?

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01 November 2009

NABBW Teleseminar: The Path from Job Loss to Re-Employment

image The National Association of Baby Boomer Women is sponsoring a teleseminar this month with friend and colleague Dr. Carol Orsborn, along with Amy Hoster - someone I don’t know but it sounds like we all should:

Baby Boomers: The Path from Job Loss to Re-Employment
Date: 11/17/2009
Time: 3:00 PM EST

image Listen in as Boomer expert, veteran marketing executive, and author of The Year I Saved My (downsized) Soul: A Boomer Woman's Search for Meaning…and a Job, Carol Orsborn, Ph.D, discusses the top five things one should do immediately after a job loss or the looming fear of one, and as she explains why attitude has so much to do with successfully becoming employed again. Orsborn, who has appeared on Oprah and The Today Show, and in the pages of People Magazine, Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, understands firsthand what Boomer Women face when caught up in a downsizing, and is ready and willing to share all …

imageOn the call will also be Amy Hoster … who's been involved in the recruiting industry since 1999. Amy promises to give our callers specific tools they need for re-employment; like how to make sure you've got the right kind of resume, the all-important interview; what to say and what not to say, and also how job fairs can benefit you.

image Dotsie Bregel founded NABBW
I remember hearing from Dotsie when NABBW was simply an idea and a web page.  Now it’s all over the place.

Watch a ton of videos about The National Association of Baby Boomer Women.

Sign up for the Teleseminar.