Max-Wellness a new oldies retail group

This looks interesting. A new retail chain (Max-Wellness), aimed at the older consumer, is being established by the guy who started OfficeMax, a large chain of office products retail outlets and a catalogue business.

The founder must have the experience and I assume the necessary funding. One to watch. Dick Stroud

The Future Perfect Company

Ages ago I talked with a lady called Philippa Aldrich who had an idea to create a web site to sell products that were designed to be useful to older people.

Unlike most people who have a good idea that never progresses beyond a hazy concept, this one has become a reality.

The Future Perfect Company has just launched its web site. I reckon it is well designed and is definitely age-friendly. Very best wishes to the company. Dick Stroud

Supermarket own label brands keep powering on

Earlier in the year I conducted a research project with Mature Marketing to understand the impact of the recession on the 50-plus.

One of the headline findings was the way that older people were switching to own label brands.

So it is not surprising when you read that share in McBride jumped almost 10% on Monday after another stronger-than-expected performance. I bet you didn’t know that McBride is Europe’s largest provider of private label household and personal care products.

Analysts raised their profit forecasts for the third time this calendar year on the back of rising sales and, more importantly, an improved product mix that lifted the group’s operating margin.

Rather than straightforward goods such as bleach and fabric softener, McBride is now shipping more complex products like five-in-one dishwasher tablets – watch out Finish. The company’s MD said that recession-hit consumers continued to prefer retailers’ own-brand goods to those with “fancy packaging that does nothing for the product” - “We see no let up in the demand from retailers for great value and great performing products”.

So will this switch from the premium priced brands being a transitory thing or are we witnessing a mega shift in consumer habits. This is an age-neutral question since the migration to lower priced products seems to be something that knows no age boundaries.

My bet is that we are witnessing a fundamental change in behaviour. Dick Stroud

What a future - prunes, mincemeat, denture cleaners and adult incontinence

The Nielsen Company’s Homescan consumer facts mid 2009 report contain the most depressing fact I have read in ages. Forget the horrors of the recession or the impending doom of cataclysmic climate change. Forget the threat of Pakistan descending into chaos. Forget the trillions of debt owed by the bankrupt UK.

This fact trumps the lot. There seems to be a high correlation between the food-beverage and general merchandise items that senior (65+) couples buy, and the ones that empty nest couples (50+) buy. This suggests that people start to acquire these tastes as long as 10 to 15 years before they collect their pension.

Look at the list. Good grief is this what my supermarket trolley will (is) containing? What hope? Dick Stroud

The tough retail environment

Business Week has a good article about the impact of the recession on US retailers and some of the techniques they are employing to keep people coming through the doors. It all sounds pretty good news for the consumer since most of the marketing efforts result in lower prices. Dick Stroud

Mockery + price fighting - a positive strategy or fight for survival?

This posting has little or nothing to do with the 50-plus but a lot to do with marketing and hopefully has an amusing twist.

There is store chain in the UK called Dixons. It is from an old era when you could get the best discounts on the high street. Times have changed but memories persist of its rather dowdy stores, even though the company has evolved from bricks, to bricks and clicks, to clicks and clicks.

The recession has made it OK to shop for rock bottom prices and the new Dixons ad campaign is relying on this emotion to overcome our hesitancy to deal with a somewhat shop soiled brand.

The campaign mocks the affluent culture of two of the UK’s premier stores, John Lewis and Selfridges, by suggesting the consumer use them as an expensive showroom and “Then go to Dixons.co.uk - the last place you want to go”. You can either see this as inspired advertising that has tapped into the post-credit crunch consumer psychology or a last ditch attempt to keep trading.

Some wag from the advertising world created a spoof version that appeared in Campaign, the Ad World’s trade mag. Something to make you laugh and think. Many thanks to Reg Starkey for telling me about the campaign and the spoof. Dick Stroud

Why are Talbots and Abercrombie & Fitch suffering a retail nightmare?

If you are interested in retail then this is a must read article.

2009 has been a brutal year for both companies. Abercrombie & Fitch same-store sales have dropped by 29% - the apparel sector as a whole has declined by 6.4%.

For the second quarter ended Aug. 2, Talbots reported a 25% decline in same-store sales.

Why are Abercrombie & Fitch and Talbots, retailers at opposite ends of the demographic spectrum experiencing such a nightmare? Read the article if you want to find out. Dick Stroud

Kimberly-Clark and Walgreens try and understand the older consumer

It looks as if Walgreens, the US drugstores, is beginning to take the impact of the ageing population a bit more seriously.

This is taken from an article in the WSJ – sorry subscription

Some senior Walgreen executives have been getting a feel of what it is like shopping with poor eyesight and gloves that simulate arthritis. The program is run by Kimberly-Clark. How interesting that it a supplier of products that is taking the lead with this.

One of the changes that Walgreen intends to make is to install call buttons near heavy merchandise like bottled water and laundry detergent in some stores. It also will put magnifying glasses on store shelves and make its aisle signs clearer.

The WSJ makes a very strange statement: “Industries throughout Western Europe and Japan have been adjusting to accommodate aging populations” – not as far as I can see.

Lee Memorial Health System provides the kit of stuff that enables young people to see and feel the world as an elderly people perceive it. Cardboard glasses in the kits simulate common vision impairments including glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration and yellowing of the eye lens. Large rubber gloves simulate the limited manual dexterity brought on by arthritis.

Kimberly-Clark introduced its elderly-shopper training for developers and marketers working on its Depend brand.

It appears that half a dozen retailers have participated in the program over the past two years.

Not surprisingly the guys at Walgreen found it difficult to read the small copy and that yellow labels disappeared against a bright yellow background and that many older shoppers couldn't distinguish between green and blue. Spending a few hours talking to older shoppers would have saved them going through this process. I guess there is nothing like experiencing it yourself to make it real.

Great to see a consumer goods company and retailer taking their older consumers seriously. Dick Stroud

Even Google talks nonsense

The Google Retail Blog contains a post titled: “Lucrative Adventures in Neverland: Understanding and Reaching the Boomer Consumer.” It is dreadful. It looks like it was written in 10 mins after a rapid canter through Wikipedia.

I loved the last pearl of wisdom that was left with the reader:

Recently, we've seen nostalgia-themed advertising campaigns for companies like Target, Coke, and Nationwide Insurance; marketers' goal in revisiting the past is to distil the economic anxiety of the present.

Some of these campaigns involve combining the best of the past and present in order to bring in younger audiences, but boomers, in particular, tend to benefit from nostalgic targeting that reminds them of their youth.

Google – if this is the standard of your analysts I suggest you stick to technical stuff. Dick Stroud

What happened to Senio the German franchise chain for senior products?

I was recently contacted by somebody trying to find out the reasons why Senio, the German retail company selling products for seniors, went out of business.

The company was founded in 1993 and by 2002 was a chain of stores with plans to open a further 8 shops. Apparently it implemented a number of different sales concepts including retail shops, shop in shop systems, sales representatives, mail order catalogues and an on line store.

The Senio chain was wound up this year (2009) having been sold by the founder to a subsidiary of the troubled Arcandor Group in 2008.

So what went wrong? Bad business model? Recession? Poor implementation?

Anybody with any knowledge of the company's demise please leave a comment. Dick Stroud

 

Age friendly supermarkets

Many thanks to Martijn de Haas for telling me about this video of a senior’s supermarket in Germany. It might be a couple of years old but the issues it covers haven’t changed – they have got a couple of years older.

Hopefully somebody from Tesco, Sainsbury, Waitrose or Asda is reading this blog. Dick Stroud

Reality or dream?

Marks and Spencer is something of a bellwether of where the wardrobes of Britain's women are heading. From its recently released range it looks like middle England is turning its back on glamour in favour of safe, classic choices.

Executive chairman Stuart Rose explained yesterday's launch :"Customers are buying on a more considered basis," he added. "Men are buying versatile suits rather than loud ones; women are buying solid colours rather than exotic prints."

Is this code for saying in dark recessionary times we want dark and sombre clothing?

Unfortunately, I am the last person on the planet to be able to answer this question.

The more interesting thing (for me) is that the flagship of the new M&S strategy is the launch of a new mini-brand called ‘Portfolio’. This is aimed at the core M&S customer base - in the words of the Guardian newspaper: “women in their forties and fifties who, while not quite ready for elasticated waistbands, are more concerned with looking ‘coordinated’ and in a forgiving fit, than with looking fashionable.”

The publicity surrounding the launch of the range gave provides an opportunity to graphically illustrate one of the questions I am most often asked: “Should companies use models of the age of the customers or go for a glamorous portrayal of the clothes?”

The model on the left is from the PR launch pack for the range. The lady on the right is Emma Soames, the editor of Saga Magazine, who is well within the target age range of the brand. The lady on the left is a model of unknown age.

So who portrays the product the best? Bottom line – who is most likely to ignite the interest and create the intention to go and look at the product? Mmmmm I wonder. Dick Stroud

New retail concept - the Brain Store

As the name suggests, the Brain Store is a retail outlet for products that stimulate and strengthen the brain. The press release says.

Our message to you is “outsmart your age” and our mission is to help you succeed, and have some fun while you’re at it.

I really like the company’s web site that contains photos of the business founders, who look anything but the forgetful types.

It could be an interesting concept to franchise.

A couple of the thoughts that went through my head whilst looking at the site (well the two I can remember) :

1. I wonder how much of the business will come via the site rather than through the door.

2. I wonder what the age profile of the customers will be? My guess is younger than older.

I wish them well. It will be fascinating to hear how it does. Dick Stroud

If Green fails go Grey

Tesco, the mega UK supermarket group, has just announced that it pulling out of building an eco-town.
Overseas readers - you really don’t want to know about eco towns other than to say it is a UK Government initiative that has created widespread anger and derision. Corporates who were daft enough to become associated with project are now doing the proverbial rats and sinking ship trick.


It was announced last week that the Tesco had decided to join the exodus.

In the same week I noticed the company has submitted plans for a 60,000sq ft store in Newcastle that will be the UK’s first pensioner-friendly supermarket.

Apparently the store will feature extra wide aisles, anti-slip flooring and trolleys with locking wheels and built-in chairs.

The store would be based on the Kaiser supermarket, near Berlin - the first to offer facilities for "silver shoppers". The supermarket is likely to be a partner in a deal with Newcastle University and the city's NHS Foundation Trust.

Now here comes the interesting bit. Under the plans, the hospital, close to the city centre, would be redeveloped and in its place would be the supermarket and the multi-million pound Institute for Ageing and Health. How convenient, a nice prime city site for a supermarket.

I have the highest regard for Tesco. It is a real world class company.

Am I being a tad cynical seeing alternative motives in Tesco’s actions? Have the company's directors really concluded that they: must do something about the ageing population”?

Whatever the reason I do hope the project goes ahead since Tesco might discover that whilst its decision, to cater for the older market, may have been for the wrong reasons it was a very sound commercial decision.

Maybe Grey is destined to become the same as Green and appended to planning applications in the hope of increasing their chances of success. Dick Stroud

B&Q = 10/10 ...Marks & Spencers = 1/10

Yesterday I attended an event run by Help the Aged described: “What Older People want and expect from the High Street". The companies providing speakers that caught the eye were Marks & Spencer, BT and B&Q.

Well it didn’t turn out as I expected. Firstly, the speakers (with one exception) either came from or talked about older consumers from the perspective of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Thus it was not about treating older people as consumers but as people that needed to be “included” not “excluded”.Something like the equivalent of a carbon neutral foot print for oldies.

The event was made worthwhile by the story that B&Q had to tell. Clearly this company means it when it says it takes older people seriously – both as customers and employees. Not only has B&Q discovered that it makes sound commercial sense to employ older staff but it is also worthwhile stocking and having products designed that match their requirements.The company has a new range of products that are soon to be released. I am sure I will talk about this venture some more.

The big disappointment was Marks & Spencer. I have a great deal of time for this company. Their advertising is brilliant; they have come close to capturing their old status as the UK’s best retailer. But, the speaker addressing this event gave a "bog standard" presentation about M&S as an environmentally concerned company. Either he was at the wrong event or decided to use the standard presentation and add a bit of ‘oldies’ customisation on the fly. It didn’t work - big time.

If companies agree to speak at an event, especially when people are paying good money to attend, they have a duty to take some account of the brief they are given.
BT didn’t have much to say. Help the Aged who ran the event are a nice bunch but do themselves no favours by the quality of the presentation material. Amateurish is being kind.

It was worthwhile attending to see a professional company like B&Q talk about their activities. Dick Stroud

The Forth & Towne market revisited

It looks like Ann Taylor (US clothes retailer) is attempting to have another go at the “Forth & Towne” segment that Gap gave up earlier this year.

Apparently in the second half of 2008 Ann Taylor will open a new chain of stores targeting women in their 40s and 50s: “the modern boomer category”.

No name (or at least one that has been released) for the stores but the company has the top man (and I mean man) in place to run the business. An interesting new retailing development to watch. Dick Stroud

Flying Brands swoops on over 50s for future growth

Flying Brands is a UK company valued at $130 Million. It’s declared focus is the 50-plus.

I am not sure what it tells us about this age group (or the part of age group this company focuses upon) but these are its brands:

Flying Flowers - postal flower service.
Cards For All Occasions - continuity greeting cards business.
Gardening Direct - top quality bedding plants.
Garden Bird Supplies - wild bird and garden animal feed.
Sarah Raven's Kitchen and Garden - unusual plants, gardening hardware and kitchen accessories.
Listen2 Audiobooks - nostalgic music and classic DVDs.
Benham - First day cover stamps, coins and other collectables.

Flowers, greeting cards, plants, pots and pans, stamps and audio books.

It looks to me that it is mining a rich vein of the 50-plus who are happy using the Web to shop. Dick Stroud

US Boomer retailer

Christopher & Banks (CBK) is all about female baby boomers, with three retail brands.

The Christopher & Banks brand is the flagship, positioned as a "missy moderate" concept. (target customer is 50 years old, with an average household income of $82,000)

The C.J. Banks brand is designed for the same customer, except she is a ‘plus’ size.

Acorn is a lifestyle-driven concept for more affluent boomers, with household income between $80,000 and $100,000.

This article in fool gives an excellent insight into how a US retailer is targeting the older market. If you are in the retail business it is a must read. Dick Stroud

Shopping at a Lifestyle Center

A reaction against the mega-malls and a return to calmer, smaller times seems to be the logic behind the ‘Lifestyle’ shopping centers that are appearing in the US.
AARP has an article about it in this month’s e-newsletter.

A company with the splendid name of Poag & McEwen operates six such centers across the US and reckons that 43% of its shoppers are over the age 45 years old.

Here are the microsites for a couple of the company’s developments The Promenade and The Avenue.

Apparently 10-12 such centres are built each year in the US. I am not sure how well this model would translate to Europe. We will see. Dick Stroud

The older German market

In Germany there are 82 million people of which 16 million are 65+ and 30 million are 50+.
Yesterday the BBC had an interesting story about some of the things going on to cater to this huge number of older people. Go to this link – and fast forward for 20 mins. Dick Stroud

Boomer Shoppers Today and Tomorrow: Following the Money

It sad that one is surprised when companies do things well.
Unilever USA recently issued a press release about research into Boomer shopping habits and how these are likely to develop in the next ten years. This looked to be interesting stuff.

I contacted the company’s press office and asked for a copy of the report. Much to my amazement I had a reply within a couple of hours from the Unilever’s PR company (Burson-Marsteller ) saying that they had already read my the blog posting and would send me a copy the report when it was available. True to their word a copy arrived.

So full marks to Unilever/Burson-Marsteller – that is how it should be done.
Most companies and their PR companies have not realized that there is a community of bloggers who can do a lot to promote their message. I would like a dollar for the number of times a company issues a press release, then never puts it onto their own web site, dosen't monitor what bloggers are saying about it and then fails to respond to e-mails.

Now to the report itself – it is excellent.

Unlike the vast majority of research that companies churn out with banal, motherhood conclusions, this report really adds something to our understanding of the 50-plus and how their shopping habits are likely to change.

I don’t agree with all of the conclusions but it is a significant contribution to the body of knowledge about Boomers/50-plus retail futures. Download it and read it! Dick Stroud

Not a good time for companies targeting the over-50s

Readers of this blog will know about the demise (‘rationalisation’) of Heyday. Last week Gap pulled the rug under Forth & Towne and now a UK company called Dream Direct is re-evaluating its future.

Dream Direct specialises in leisure and entertainment products targeted for the over 50s.

One of its companies sells DVDs. If you look on the Razamataz web site you will see that the featured DVD, called Downfall, costs £17.99. The price on Amazon.co.uk is £7.97 (No not £17.97)

You have to offer a lot of additional “over-50s” benefits to justify that price differential!

I hate seeing any companies have problems but the reasons are normally very simple and obvious. That applies as much (if not more so) to over-50s companies. Dick Stroud

Gap to Close Forth & Towne Stores

Gap has announced plans to close its Forth & Towne division, which catered to women ages 35 and older, saying it would instead focus on turning around the company's struggling flagship and Old Navy brands.

Forth & Towne was launched 18 months ago in New York and Chicago. Locations in Houston, Atlanta, Seattle and across California followed over the past year. The chain has 19 locations, and Forth & Towne President Gary Muto once said he planned to have 25 stores by the end of this year.

Gap said it will close its Forth & Towne stores by the end of June.

It is difficult to know what lessons to learn from this venture. Last year sales at Gap stores in North America, open at least a year, fell 9%, while at Old Navy that figure dropped 10%.

Gap has said that the problems with the main rump of the business are demanding their full attention. In addition, Forth & Towne was not "demonstrating enough potential" as a long-term investment.

"There's so much to fix in the core business," said a senior analyst with Forrester Research. "I think it would've been a management distraction to keep going with Forth & Towne."

So was it a bad idea – was it badly implemented – was it a sacrifice for the greater good of Gap. I guess we will never know.

You can read more about this in Forbes and Advertising Age. Dick Stroud