Club Industry 2012 education session

1. Riding the Age Wave:
Will your club sink or swim?
Christine Thalwitz

2. Who are these “older adults”?
Greatest
Responsible Generation
Generation (1901-1924)
(1925-1945)
Boomers
(1946-1964)
50+

3. Is your company ready for the “Age Wave”?
 Approximately 78 million Boomers & 32 million from
the Responsible Generation
 Within 20 years, the age profile of America will match
that of Florida: 1 in 5 Americans over age 65
 Boomers who are age 65 can expect to live another 17
or 18 years
 80% of all the population growth between now and
2040 will be from the over-50 crowd
Sources: PBS.org, “Boomer Century”, Ken Dychtwald, author of Age Wave, and
U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services, Audience Insights: Communicating to the Responsible Generation
(Aged 64-84) http://www.cdc.gov/healthcommunication/Audience/AudienceInsight_adult.pdf

4. Boomer Stats: Fact or Fiction?
 T/F: The majority of boomers are empty nesters
◦ False! Only one in four boomers fit that profile
◦ 37% still have children under 18 in the home
 T/F: One third of boomers are single
◦ True! And divorce rates are trending up
 T/F: There are more boomer females than males
◦ True! But only by a little…51% female, 49% male
Source: U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services,
Audience Insights: Communicating to Boomers (1946-1962)
http://www.cdc.gov/healthcommunication/audience/audienceinsight_boomers.pdf

5. The Responsible Generation: Fact or Fiction?
 T/F: Women outnumber men
◦ True! 54% women compared to 46% men
◦ This trend will continue with increasing age
 T/F: More women than men influence
household purchasing decisions
◦ True! 71% of women compared to 59%
 T/F: Make up less than 2% of the workforce
◦ False! 8% of this generation are in the workplace
Source: U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services,
Audience Insights: Communicating to the Responsible Generation (Aged 64-84)
http://www.cdc.gov/healthcommunication/Audience/AudienceInsight_adult.pdf

6. Factors Reshaping Supply & Demand
 The new “old” is 80, living to 90 – 100 is
commonplace
 Life is no longer linear, it’s cyclical with new adult
lifestages: empty-nesting, caregiving,
grandparenthood, retirement, mature singlehood &
“rehirement”
 Marketing epicenter will shift from trendsetting youth
to the 40-, 50- and 60-something “influentials”
Sources: Interview w/Ken Dychtwald, http://jw.intelligence.com &
Ken Dychtwald’s blog at http://huffingtonpost.com/ken-dychtwald

7. Root Motivators
 Autonomy & independence
 Social connectedness & relationships
 Altruism & responsibility
 Growth & experiences
 Revitalization
Sources: Jim Gilmartin, The Parting of the Ways: Why Communicating with Baby Boomers & Senior Customers Is Different
http://www.comingofage.com/wp-content/themes/coa/articles/The-Parting-of-the-Ways.pdf

8. Would you like to live to 100?
 67% say yes!
 Biggest worries about longevity:
◦ Losing their health
◦ Being a burden on family
◦ Running out of money
 Benefits of longevity:
◦ Continuing to remain productive
◦ Developing deeper relationships
◦ Watching the world evolve
Source: Ken Dychtwald’s blog at http://huffingtonpost.com/ken-dychtwald

9. Health Satisfaction Gaps
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Very Satisfied Very Important
Source: National Marketing Institute
2011 Healthy Aging Boomer Database

10. Health-related behaviors & attitudes
Boomers Responsible
 35 - 50% are willing to pay  50% are willing to pay
anything where it concerns anything where it concerns
their health their health
 73% believe they should  About 40% say they exercise
exercise more than they do on a regular basis
 68% try to eat healthier foods  Most frequent injury is from
these days and 41% consider unintentional falls (46% men
their diet to be very healthy & 60% women)
Source: Experian Simmons National Consumer Study
as reported by the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services,
Audience Insights: Communicating to the Responsible Generation (Aged 64-84) & Audience Insights:
Communicating to Boomers (1946-1962)

11. People don’t want drills, they want holes!
Older adults don’t want gym memberships, they want:
(fill in the blank) ____________________________
What are their key emotional drivers?
Needs, wants, desires, problems, fears
How have you positioned yourself as the answer,
pathway or solution?
What business are you in?

12. Improve health
Get healthy & stay healthy
Independence & quality of life

13. Be part of a community

14. Look and feel good
 Health-oriented
◦ Embrace aging
and/or
 Self-image
◦ Want to defy the aging process
…but wisdom & experience are
valued over a return to youth!

15. Have fun

16. In club experience

17. Programs

18. Training

19. Service

20. Perceived value of the marketing mix
 High Value
 Personal experience
 Special marketing event
 Referral or recommendation from family or friends
 News story or press
 Research and consumer reports
 Talking with a rep during the sales process
 Mass media advertising
 Low Value

21. The Boomer Brain
 Thinks big picture
 Values experiences over material things
 Rejects absolutes
 Is sensitive to subtlety and nuance
 Relies more on intuition, less on reason
 Is skeptical, must earn trust
 Processes objective information differently
 Wants more content than younger consumers
Source: Jim Gilmartin, Tell Them a Story,
http://www.comingofage.com/wp-content/themes/coa/articles/To-Increase-Sales-to-Baby-Boomers-Tell-Them-a-Story.pdf &
The Parting of the Ways: Why Communicating with Baby Boomers & Senior Customers Is Different,
http://www.comingofage.com/wp-content/themes/coa/articles/The-Parting-of-the-Ways.pdf

22. Spending Habits
of the Responsible Generation
 Generally cautious and conservative
 Willing to pay more for items they deem worthy
 Nearly 70% believe it is worth paying extra for quality
 More than 50% indicate that they do not base
purchases on ads alone, but they do believe ads help
them learn more about what is available
Source: U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services,
Audience Insights: Communicating to the Responsible Generation (Aged 64-84)
http://www.cdc.gov/healthcommunication/Audience/AudienceInsight_adult.pdf

23. Tell a story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXrMzOnz-fY&feature=share&list=UUu4s1wmtCITLyYbTpTxupVg

24. Testimonial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFeb6rk2TtU&feature=share&list=UUu4s1wmtCITLyYbTpTxupVg

25. PREP program ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTgUEDNZscM&feature=share&list=UUu4s1wmtCITLyYbTpTxupVg

26. Design considerations
 Font
◦ Serif or Sans Serif ?
 Size, Size, Size
 Spacing
Inset paragraphs
can help the reader
focus on important
points or lengthier
sentences.
 Colors Count

27. Image is everything!

28. More on images
“It’s a sensitive zone, because how does one communicate with
people at different stages of life in a way that allows them to
feel spoken to and respected, celebrated, but not necessarily
put into an older age bucket?
“A lot of people who are 60 and 70, they
listen to the language, look at the
models and look at the ads, and they
feel offended. That’s Marketing 101:
Respect your customer. Marketing 102
is ‘Celebrate your customer.’”
Source: Interview w/Ken Dychtwald, http://jw.intelligence.com

29. “Transgenerational marketing”

30. Advertising & Promotions
 Simplify
 Less is often more
 Make it meaningful
 Consider the medium
 Give the user autonomy
 Remember the call to action!

31. How to LOSE the sale
 Rattle off lists of benefits and features
 Neglect to build a relationship
 Push information rather than responding to pull signals
 Speak quickly
 Jump from topic to topic
 Fail to ask open-ended questions
 Treat older adults as part of a single “senior market”
 Embellish and hype
 Stress self-indulgence

32. Older Adults & Social Media
 53% of American adults ages 65 & up use the internet or
email and of those online users, 70% go online in a
typical day
 Seven in 10 seniors own a cell phone
 One in three online adults use social networking sites
like Facebook and LinkedIn
 #1 reason for use = stay connected with family
Source: Pew Internet Research, http://pewinternet.org

33. Celebrate their success

34. Connect them to the community

35. Feedback

36. Thank you.
Christine Thalwitz
christineot@acac.com