The great water conspiracy

On one hand I think the preoccupation of always associating Boomers with water is a trivial issue. On the other hand I think their must be a rationale other than annoying the hell out of me.

Maybe it is to do with the idea that human race emerged from the water and as the years creep by we return to it? Maybe the number of photos in the photo libraries of older people and water has reached a tipping point so that instead of creating new ones it is easy to produce another variant on the same theme. Weird.

This one is published by grandparents.com – worth a look as it contains some interesting data. Dick Stroud

A good Australian TV ad

Kim Walker has a good description and YouTube examples of Telstra (Australia's leading telco) TV ads that are targeting the granddad generation. The campaign centres on the theme 'Don't let your family grow apart'. Anybody from BT reading this blog posting? Dick Stroud

Ageing in place comes of age?

Business Week special edition about “Ageing in place”

The Ageing in Place blog has some interesting comments about the story.

It is not the content that matters, although that is important, it is that Business Week thinks this is an important enough subject to devote so much space. As the blog posting says: “a market undescribed doesn't exist.” If this is a market that interests you then both the blog and the Business Week articles are a must read. Dick Stroud.

Hell's granddads

Here is a factlet to drop into conversation - approximately 700,000 over-50s in the UK drive a motorbike and another million wish to do so. So says Saga and it should know about these things since provides a lot of the 50-plus transport insurance. Dick Stroud

Digidads from Sony

Sony has teamed up with some high profile dads who are avid bloggers and is launching a three-month DigiDad project. Each participant will be loaned Sony products and given different assignments that capture their family experiences using the products. Yawn.

That’s about all Sony is saying of the venture at this stage. This video shows one of the Digidads strutting his stuff.

This got me thinking. How about digigrandparents. Come on Sony, Panasonic… forget this Gen X bunch who are in state of recession angst – goto the guys with the loot – the grandparents. Dick Stroud

Grandparents provide $370 Billion support to their grandchildren

Almost two-thirds of America’s grandparents provided financial support to their grandchildren during the last five years, 40% for general purposes and 26% for education, according to the MetLife Mature Market Institute.

This is press release and here is the full report.

The research indicates that those with less income and net worth are giving a higher percentage than they did before the economic downturn - and some of them are feeling the pinch, with more than 20% reporting that their generosity has had a negative impact on their own financial picture.

My findings in the UK show a similar picture.

If you ever needed evidence that the financial dynamic between grandparent and grandchild is important than this research provides it. Dick Stroud

1.8 million UK grandparents save for the grandchildren

The importance of grandparents' spending and wealth transfer to their grandchildren must not be undersestimated, or worse ignored.

Grandchildren are important to their grandparents. Day in and day out, gramps and granny are spending large amounts of dosh on their kids children.

This bit of research from Saga concludes that 13% of the grandparents (1,800,000) regularly save money for their grandchildren and that 20% of grandchildren will receive a pots of £10,000+ when they reach adulthood. The way the UK economy is going they will need it!

I would have thought this intergenerational dynamic is of great interest for the Financial Services Industry. Dick Stroud

Grandparents want more than minding the kids

Grand Breaks, the holiday specialist for grandparents and their grandchildren, has completed a research study in association with the University of Brighton about how today’s grandparents like to spend leisure time with their grandchildren. Here are some of the findings:

66% of grandparents want to try new activities, share experiences and discover new things together with their grandchildren, rather than be observers or bystanders.

Age was no longer seen as a constraining variable to travel, or to have any significant influence on the pursuit of outdoor activities. Perhaps not surprising the top activities that grandparents wanted to pursue with their grandchildren were going to the seaside (2nd) and eating out (1st). Less expected was outdoor activity like cycling, walking, sailing and swimming being the third most popular. What surprised me was how low down the list came “Participating in sports”.

Grandparents, who live close to their grandchildren and get involved regularly in the day-to-day tasks (i.e. the school run, preparing evening meals supervising homework) want a break from routine and the chance to spend some ‘quality time’ and just have fun with their grandchildren.

Charles Grimaldi, the founder of Grand Breaks said: “The research shows a more fun seeking, adventurous and younger at heart style of grandparents that has sparked images of today’s grandparents as the ‘Peter Pan generation’ of grandparents!”

This is the first research I have seen done on this subject. Well done Grand Breaks. Dick Stroud

How to market to Grandparents

MarketingSherpa has an article with tips and Q&A about how to market to grandparents.

A couple of facts to get your attention. In the US, the average age that a parent becomes a grandparent is 48. Grandparents purchase one out of every four toys, four out of every 10 children’s books, and one out of every five video games.

Grandparents are interested in financial products to help fund their grandchildren’s education. Grandparents are interested in having holidays/short breaks with their grandchildren.

All in all, grandparents should be taken seriously. As the article makes clear, becoming a grandparents is nothing to do with age but is all about the bundle of emotions and needs that descends on somebody when their child phones to say: “I have got some good news for you”.

A few sites worth looking at – the Grandparent Marketing Group - Grandparents.com and the UK's own Grand Breaks. Dick Stroud

False teeth and a smoking mermaid

I have already written about Charles Grimaldi’s innovative company Grand Breaks that provide holidays for grandparents and their grandchildren. I didn’t realise that Charles and his son were behind, what can only be described as a “beautiful book”, called False teeth and a smoking mermaid.

The book shows the immense importance of the grandparent/grandchild relationship and reveals the memories of an eclectic mix of 80 people ranging from Mrs Thatcher to Jordan.

In case you were wondering where the reference to false teeth came from it was Ricky Gervais (the guy who created and stared in The Office): “She'd show me that she'd taken her false teeth out. It was like an effect out of the Matrix, I’d go into super slow motion and do a complete 180 degree turn and then - wow - I was off like a shot.”

Not only is it an enchanting read but it brings to life for marketers the massive opportunities that exist by tapping into this immensely strong family bond. Dick Stroud

Grand Breaks – what a grand idea

I have always believed that there is money to be made from the special relationship between children and their grandparents.

It has all of the right ingredients. For most people it is powerful and special relationship, the grandparents have the time and money (many of them) and most importantly they (the grandparents) are open to guidance about the products their grandchildren will enjoy.

This week I met somebody who I think has created a brilliant product for this market. Charles Grimaldi’s company Grand Breaks provides short break holiday customised for grand parent/children. What a great idea, but there is more.

His great grandfather was the inspiration for the company. He lived in far off places before the era of the Internet and air mail. He was determined to be part of his grandchildren’s lives and taught himself to draw and sent illustrated cards and letters to each grandchild every week for years.

Some of them included imaginary outings to the zoo, park or seaside – places which he longed to visit with them, but rarely could. Charles discovered over 850 letters and cards. You can see a small part of the correspondence on Ultimate Grandparent.

The company is currently in a soft launch with the full launch scheduled for next Feb or March.

Grand Breaks is a natural for attracting PR coverage, which it already has, and I expect it will do very well. I wish them the best of luck, although I don’t think that is something they will require. Dick Stroud

The best bank in the world – “bank mum and dad”

Today the BBC has article about the way that parents fund different aspects of their kid’s life.

The costs of bringing up a child do not end when they enter adulthood - parents end up spending an average of £21,540 on adult children. The YouGov poll of 1,184 people with children aged 18 and older found 94% helped them pay for education, housing and cars. And 55% admitted to helping their grown-up children with general living costs.

Take a moment to digest this result: “Nearly half of the over-70s were still helping their children.”

Things are no different in the US.

Think about these couple of research conclusions.

BIGresearch's study among 7,000 adults showed that boomer grandparents planned on spending more on back-to-school items than did parents of school-age kids.”

Grandparents, especially baby boomers, spend on average $330 annually on their grandchildren’s clothes which is not far behind the $570 spent by parents with kids under 17 living at home.

The message is clear. The 50-plus buy things for their kids and grandchildren. Now us canny marketing types should register that and ensure that we reflect this fact in the way we promote our products. Do we do it? You bet we don’t. Dick Stroud

SKI is alive an kicking

The dreadful term Spending the Kids Inheritance (SKIing) is one of the few age-jargon phrases that has stuck in mainstream language.

I am always very caucsious of taking too much notice of research from organisations with a vestied interest in the outcomes, but I must assume there is a grain of truth in the findings from SAGA’s equity release (reverse-mortgage) group. In summary the survey of oldies found:

12% said equity release products were not an option for them because they believed assets like a home should be handed down to their children as an inheritance.

12% answered that they had released equity from their home to pass on to their family as a pre-inheritance.

25% said they would use the equity tied up in their house to enhance their retirement regardless of their younger relatives' expectations of an inheritance.

What the other 51% thinks remains a mystery – good old SAGA refrained from publishing a press release about the research (daft).

18% of the over-65s said they considered equity release to travel around the world, a figure that doubled in the age group between 50 and 54.

Not that great a reading for kids and grandchildren. Dick Stroud

Getting grandpa wired

The FT is still a subscription publication so I am not sure how long this article will be accessible.

As the name suggests it is all about technology and the old. Not their use of the Internet but the supportive technologies that enable them to “age in place” (i.e. remain in their own homes).

The above video is from the Center for Ageing Services Technologies. It goes on too long and could be cut in half to still convey the same messages but it does show what is already possible.
As the article says.

The goal is to enable the elderly to live safely and independently at home for longer. For their adult children, the point is peace of mind.

I think the benefits of the technology for the kids are probably more than for the parent. It is all about minimizing the ‘guilt’ of not being able to physically do more to help the aged parent.

From a marketing point of view it is clear to me who the customer is for these technologies. Let me give you a clue – it is not the parent.

A couple of the companies mentioned in the article are Grandcare and AttentiveCare. Worth checking out the products and services they provide. Dick Stroud

Paying back debt into retirement

We all instinctively know that it is daft talking about a ‘generation’, since any large group of people fragments into zillions of sub groups. If we want to justify an argument we can talk abut the 50-plus as a bunch of property rich people set on enjoying their retirement consuming their kid’s inheritance.

You then encounter the figures that were published this week by Scottish Widows in their 2007 UK Pensions Report.

Grandparents in debt to tune of £57 billion
1 in 5 retired homeowners (1.1 million) still have a mortgage
Average outstanding mortgage debt is £38,000
1 in 3 have carried over credit card or personal loan debt for the last 3 months
Average outstanding non mortgage debt is £5,900
1 in 12 retirees have financially dependent children

The study also shows that many of those aged 50 to 59 are a long way from owning their own home. 42% still have a mortgage with an average debt of £54,300.

So there you are. Not a very rosy picture for a large sway of the UK’s 50/60-plus.

So are your customers in the this group of the Charmed Generation, with lots of dosh? I hope you know.

A word about Scottish Widows. How encouraging to encounter a company that ensures it has a press release on its Web site when the news is breaking. This report was featured on the BBC news. Secondly, to encounter a PR department that responds to e-mails within 30 minutes (even at 8.00 in the morning). Well done. Dick Stroud

New Web site to help Baby Boomers with their parents

Thanks to David Weigelt, from immersionactive.com , for telling me about this new magazine and Web site.

ELDR's mission is to: " help baby boomers and their aging parents deal with the challenges (and opportunities) of aging by providing the most useful, thought-provoking and trusted information available anywhere". Well that is what the Web site says. We will have to wait until June 2007 to find out if that is true. Dick Stroud

The 'old and bold' looking for love

This is part of Channel 4’s Bafta award-winning 'Only Human' series and destroys many of the stereotypes of old age. The result is a film which is funny, poignant and surprising. It was broadcast on the 5th March. For those of you who want to watch, it is available via the Channel 4 web site. It will take a while to get the download software loaded but it will then give you access to most of the channel’s broadcasting. You can rent the Silver Surfers programme for $2. Pretty good deal.Dick Stroud

Multigenerational toys for grandparents

The importance of grandparents was evident at this year’s Toy Fair in New York.

Head honcho of marketing at Sababa Toys said: "Marketing to grandparents is huge .. Grandparents are young - they have a lot of money - a lot of time - they are online and want to spoil their grandkids”.

What better way of appealing to this group than re-launching toys that will be familiar and engender sentimental memories with the grandparents and appeal to the nippers.

So you have toys like the

Chatter Telephone: Introduced in 1962, the Chatter Telephone was designed with a rotary dial to teach children how to dial a phone. Today's Chatter Telephone makes children smile just the same with eyes that roll up and down, and a dial that rings. This friendly phone is being re-introduced for a whole new generation of children to enjoy!

For the older grandparent there is

Snoop 'n Sniff that was introduced in 1938 as "Snoopy Sniffer," this charming pull-along pup found a home with over five million families. Now the long black and white hound is being re-introduced for a whole new generation of children to enjoy!

There is Dr. Duck (Introduced in 1931) and Bouncy Bee (Introduced in 1950) and so on and so on.

I suspect that little Jonny and Jill would much prefer to have Samsung’s latest Black Carbon mobile rather than a weird looking phone from pre-history but who can tell? Since the grandparents are buying the thing for themselves, as much for the kid, does it matter? Dick Stroud