Boomer Marketer, Heal Thyself

The writer of this article makes an interesting observation.

Perhaps the problem (the lack of attention given to older consumers) was not the young agency creatives or the media planners but the Boomer experts themselves: perhaps, our own marketing practices contradict the very advice we dole out, serving only to reinforce rather than dispel stereotypes of what it means to market to Boomers.

Perhaps, if we want to convince the youthful decision makers, we should start with ourselves. We should look at our own sites, blogs and advice to see if we are "walking" the talk. Are we following our own advice?

The author then goes on to make three observations about bad practice,

1. Copy and creatives that equate a Boomer with a senior -- even though studies show that Boomers hate being labelled "senior."

OK, I have searched through my web site for the word ‘senior’. Other than where it appears as quote in a blog I don’t think I am guilty of that one.

2. Advice that highlights fear, not aspiration, to motivate Boomers.

I might be a tad guilty of this one, but then us 50-plus in the UK have a lot to be fearful about. If the thought of Gordon Brown being in anyway connected with running the country for the next 5 years isn't enough to make you fearful I don’t know what is!

3. An assumption that aging is a destination, not a journey.

Not guilty of this one. I perhaps wouldn’t use such a sickly phrase “destination not a journey” but I know what the author means.

I have my own views about what is wrong with the way many of ‘us’ talk about marketing to older consumers. Four years ago I wrote and article called “Not another article about marketing to the over 50s” that documented some of my gripes. I would change things a bit if I was writing it again but a lot of the observations are still true. Dick Stroud

50-plus web site for sale – one careful owner

I was vaguely aware of The Silver Surfers Guide web site. It was one of the many sites that appeared like a fresh crop of mushrooms during the period when people thought that all you had to do was put '50-plus' or 'Boomer' on a site and zillions of people would come clicking.

Well the site is up for sale. Here is what the blurb says. The website provides good returns from online advertising and other revenue streams, such as its incorporated over 50's dating site.

The dating site alone currently generates in the region of £5000 per annum, with sufficient refinement of marketing this figure could be much greater. There is genuinely no limit to the potential scope for this business, particularly for someone keen to move towards the increasingly more popular social networking arena. The business started trading in November 2008.

Trading was temporarily suspended between January 2009-August 2009 due to site redevelopment and recommenced in August 2009.

Turnover during the 9 months of active trading is £27,388.34 ex VAT. The site averages 12,000 unique visits every week and approximately 30,000 page impressions.

By my calculation this means the site is making £0.045/unique visitor. Mmmm

Full marks for the guy/girl for trying to sell it at this price. My bet is that they would be open to offers. Remember the old saying: "Buyer Beware". Dick Stroud

New business start-ups a growing business opportunity

For ages I have been going on about the market demand created by older people who are, and will increasingly, starting-up their own business. The reason may be necessity or for life style reasons, Either way, it creates demands for all types of business services.

Today’s FT reports that as a result of the recession the number of British businesses will hit record levels. The director of the Centre for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises at Warwick Business School said waves of redundancies were swelling the ranks of “necessity entrepreneurs”, who set up businesses because they have few other economic options.
If you want to look at the stats then read this paper on Business Demography.

A word of caution, especially for anybody who thinks this growth in start-ups will be the saviour of the UK’s unemployment problems. Today there is an article in Business Week - Beware the Freelance Economy.

This shows that in the US as employer businesses decline, non-employer firms are on the rise (i.e. lots of one-man/woman-bands but not companies that will not be hiring hoards of school leavers). Dick Stroud

A women worth listening to

I first heard about Carol Orsborn at the launch of her book “Boom: Marketing to the Ultimate Power Consumer” when I was attending a conference in New York. It was (is) a great book about marketing to older women.

Carol has been facing a situation that is common in the US and the UK. As the recession continues to strip away at service sector jobs it is having a horrible outcome for so many older workers.

For Carol this was not a theoretical subject but intensely personal as she was “let go” by one of the few large advertising agencies that had a specialist group focusing on the older consumer. Remember, one in four for people age 50 – 65 in the UK is economically inactive. I cannot believe the US is that much different.

So what do you do, aged 50, when trying to get reemployed in a youth-centric and contracting world of advertising agencies? Buy the book and find out - The Year I Saved My (downsized) Soul. Unfortunately, the book is still only available in the US but should be released in the UK "any time now" (so says Amazon).

I really enjoyed reading the book. Truly, I am not just saying that, I really did enjoy reading it.

Obviously, the book is from a women's perspective but I suspect that many of the emotions described are shared by older men. I know I have had a few of them!

In light of the current debate (if you can call it that) going about changes to the US health care industry and the UK's NHS it was also interesting to read how many times the link between employment and health insurance was mentioned. You need some radical thinking when you are approaching the Big 50, with no job and no health insurance.

I am so glad the story has a happy ending. You now read what Carol is saying at vibrantnation.com. I fear that her problem, fortunately past problem, is not going away anytime soon. Her solution, of kicking the corporate world and taking control of her own destiny will (hopefully) be the route that many older people take. Dick Stroud

Seniors as entrepreneurs - their time has come

Business Week has an article about the growing number of older people who are starting their own business. I have to say the article is a content-free zone but the point it is making is an important one.

Companies that provide services and products aimed at assisting older people to run a business have a booming market that will boom even faster in the future as a result of the recession.

Marketers in financial services, franchise and business services companies should be exploiting this opportunity. Dick Stroud

New ventures that target the 50-plus

Yesterday I attended an event by an organisation called NESTA - the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts. The organisation bills itself as: “a unique and independent body with a mission to make the UK more innovative.” You certainly cannot disagree with the organisation’s mission.

Yesterday’s event was all about a fund that NESTA is managing (£650,000) – that will buy you a detached four bedroom house in London – so not a lot of money. The purpose of the fund (titled Age Unlimited) is to fund ventures, each limited to £50,000 that will assist people in their fifties and upwards.

Part of the rationale for stimulating new thinking is NESTA’ view that: “Without bold new approaches, our public services will be over-stretched by the short-term demands of the recession and overwhelmed by the long-term challenges of the future. What alternative to radical innovation do we have?”

Gordon Lishman, the ex head of Age Concern, and not somebody I would normally agree with, made the comment that there is no shortage of “good ideas” or small community projects but the problem is scaling them up into something that can have any real impact. Absolutely right.

I have a couple of other concerns. Some of the ‘issues’ that NESTA identified, like age discrimination, are mega cultural factors that this programme cannot possibly hope to affect.

Secondly, many of the people attending this event don’t seem to have realised that we have reached the end “Government Funding”. The days of easy Government spending have ended for years, maybe decades to come.

I wish the NESTA venture good luck. Dick Stroud

The finances of publishing to target the older market

ZoomerMedia is a Canadian company that publishes ZOOMER magazine that is the largest paid circulation magazine in Canada for the older market and hits the streets 9 times a year. The magazine has a paid circulation of approximately 190,000 with another 50,000 copies going to news stands.

The company also derives royalty revenues from providing marketing and membership services to CARP and claims to be Canada's leading provider of online content targeting the 45+ age group.

ZoomerMedia has just published its results for the Q4 2008 that provide a fascinating insight into the actual workings of a paper and online media business targeting the older market.

Any budding entrepreneurs, thinking of having a crack at the old market publishing business, I suggest you have along hard read of the results. Dick Stroud

Boomers: The Next 20 years

Many thanks to Martijn de Haas for telling me about this report from the MetLife Mature Market Institute. Don’t be put off by the rather fancy title: “Ecologies of Risks.” This document contains some interesting and original ideas.

It starts with a depressing catalogue of all the risks that confront the Boomer generation. It is long and doesn’t even truly reflect the dire consequences of the recession. Nothing totally new in this section but it is a useful list.

Where it starts to get interesting is when it turns the corner from threats to opportunities.

For instance, the report believes that: “Boomers believe that their single most important future asset is themselves” and from this it deduces the opportunity is translating self-investment strategies into financial products and services such as health and long-term care insurance, reverse mortgages, and education loans for re-careering and lifetime income products.

One of the sites it uses to illustrate opportunity is Nifty after Fifty.

The report concludes that Boomers are grouping together, with like minded souls, to provide protection against the plethora of life's risks. The site it uses to illustrate this is the Lending Club

Two sites really caught my attention and that have the potential to tap a deep vein of fear, vulnerability and the need for support and knowledge.

Patients Like me as the name suggest is a place to find out from others suffering from the same conditions. Daily Strength has a wider remit beyond health to all sorts of issues.

All in all, it is definitely worth reading this Metlife report. Dick Stroud

Nine (not 8 or 10) Baby Boomer money makers

Forbes has an interesting article (s), some might say an idiots guide, to how to make money from Baby Boomers. If you don’t want to read the text, have a look at this slide show.

Can't wait to know what the 8 money winners are?

1.Nutrition/Weight-Management Consultant
2.Travel Agency
3.Errand Service
4.Financial Adviser
5.Specialty Contractor
6.Beauty Salon/Spa
7.'Cosmeceutical' Retailer
8.Health Club

The article has that “Friday afternoon” feel about it so wouldn’t give it too much credence, despite its well respected publisher. Dick Stroud

The market buoyant market for 50-plus start-ups

I know I have said this numerous times but once more won’t harm. There is business to be done targeting the 50-plus who want to start-up their own businesses.

Yellow Pages commissioned Kingston University’s small business research centre to look at the market metrics who found that a sixth of all new businesses are founded and run by people over 50.

Older entrepreneurs annually contribute £24.4bn to the UK economy with an average annual turnover of £67,500/business - 10% have revenues of £100,000+.
What motivates older entrepreneurs? Not surprising the desire to do something pleasurable (39%), followed by achieving a better work/life balance (29%) and not wanting to work for someone else (24%).

Nearly half of all entrepreneurs over 50 are happier that they have ever been, the study also found, despite the fact that 79% work alone.

These people need accountants, solicitors, franchise providers, office equipment, serviced offices – the list goes on and on. What companies are targeting this group? Dick Stroud

Buoyant market for 50-plus start-ups

I know I have said this numerous times, but once more won’t harm. There is business to be done targeting the 50-plus who want to start-up their own businesses.

Yellow Pages commissioned Kingston University’s small business research centre to look at the market metrics. They found that a sixth of all new businesses are founded and run by people over 50.

Older entrepreneurs annually contribute £24.4bn to the UK economy with an average annual turnover of £67,500/business - 10% have revenues in excess £100,000

What motivates older entrepreneurs? Answer, a desire to do something pleasurable (39%) followed by achieving a better work/life balance (29%) and not wanting to work for someone else (24%).

The study found that nearly half of all entrepreneurs over 50 are happier that they have ever been, despite the fact that 79% work alone.

These people need accountants, solicitors, franchise providers, office equipment, serviced offices – the list goes on and on. I cannot see anybody targeting this market. Dick Stroud

Start-up businesses for the 50-plus

Either for the reasons of need (no money) or boredom (finished work now what to do) or interest (done with 9-5 work now let’s have new career) their will be a massive increase in older people starting their own business.

Nice to see that there is now a bit of research that comes to the same conclusion. Interesting that Microsoft put up the money for the researchers.

The research reckons that the over-50s "olderpreneurs" (terrible name) can contribute an extra £2.5bn to the UK economy over the four-year period. I suspect this is a "finger in the air" estimate.

What is really interesting, and likely to be grounded in more of a factual base, is that 70% of businesses started by older people last more than three years compared with just 28% started by younger people.

All you companies selling franchises take note. Dick Stroud

Digital knowledge centre about the 50-plus

A new website has been created by the Dutch organization Route 50Plus and brings together news and knowledge about the over-50s.

Route 50Plus.com is a B2B site focused mainly on trade, industry and press - but is also contains resources for anybody wanting to be kept informed about the latest developments in the 50-plus market.

The following organizations are partners of Route 50Plus: Plus Magazine, 50 Plus Beurs, SeniorWeb, Nederland Bureau door Tourisme & Congressen, Omroep MAX, De Telegraaf, MediaPlus, and Booming Experience.

The more Web material about the 50-plus the better. I wish Route50Plus well. Dick Stroud

The entrepreneurial over-50s

The BBC recently had some stuff about how older people are setting up their businesses. It always amuses me reading and listening to the tone of the BBC since there is always a hint of surprise and amazement that older might possibly be doing such things. A fact I have repeated many times in this blog, and will so again: only 5% of BBC employees are 55+.

Anyway, enough of this moaning. What this article says - like the one I recently contributed to in Business Week - is that a lot of older people are setting up their own businesses. This is a mega business opportunity – is anybody listening.

Something else you should consider is their gender. As stated in the BBC article

Although older women start fewer businesses than men, women are twice as likely as their male counterparts to set up businesses following big life changes such as ill-health, divorce or moving house.

I bet my boots that the majority of people starting up businesses in the 50-plus category are women. Dick Stroud

The entrepreneurial over-50s – same message from Canada

Research from Ipsos shows that Canada's 50-plus have the same intentions as their Brit counterparts and are setting up their own businesses in droves.

Over 40% indicate the need to keep occupied was the reason why they intended to or have started their own business. Other reasons include fulfilling a life-long dream (29%), needing the money (26%), or just a general inclination between themselves and their partners to start their own business.

In terms of what line of work these Boomers are intending to or are involved in, (27%) indicate that they will become or are currently involved in consulting, while retail (13%), entertainment (4%) and hospitality (4%) make up the other main activities.

You will get a similar, if not more pronounced picture, from the US. Dick Stroud

At last some proof of the obvious

For the past couple of years I have been banging on about the fantastic marketing opportunity to provide products and services to assist the 50-plus who are starting their own business.

The US has been clearly showing this trend but few in the UK have picked up and done anything about. I have spoken with a few franchising companies but other than nodding sagely they didn’t change their strategy and target the older entrepreneur.

Yellow Pages has done some research and come to the conclusions that approximately one in six (16%) fledgling businesses in the UK each year are started by the 50-plus.

The most popular areas of business are:
1 Professional and business services
2 Retail, hire and repair
3 IT and Telecommunications services
4 Arts, sports and recreation
5 Media and creative services
6 Construction

I thought this was an interesting comment from the research: “The majority of senior start-up entrepreneurs view freedom and happiness at work as much bigger motivators than making money. More than a third of over 50s said the reason for setting up on their own was ‘to do something they enjoy’, while nearly a third again wanted to achieve a better work/life balance”.

Clearly a lot of this group is starting their business because they need the dosh, but a sizeable number are doing it for fun. Maybe now companies,who can assist start-up businesses, will take this group seriously. Dick Stroud

Second careers for the 50-plus

One of the themes I am always banging on about is the explosion of new businesses as the 50-plus ditch their corporate garb, have a ceremonial incineration of their neckties and take a pledge never to attend another brain numbing business meeting.

This wasn’t one of the ventures I had considered. This is what they say about themselves.

Just a group of today's middle class, baby-boomer professionals - a corporate CEO, a bank officer, a movie sound engineer, a doctor, a music teacher and a producer of advertising jingles.

What do they have in common?

30 years ago they were the young stars that played with your favourite bands, made the music at your school dance, went on tour with the biggest groups, recorded the records you bought and helped make Rock and Roll what it is today. They're back......and they are better then ever! The legends of Rock

I am not sure whether to wince of congratulate these guys. The serious point is that during the next few years there will be a surge in new businesses started by the 50-plus which in itself is a business opportunity. Dick Stroud