Marketing to the Generations

Tech marketing to the generations

We tackle tech marketing to the 50+ generations this week in our post “Tech Company Valuation is Destroying Your Marketing.” Companies should not focus on their technology, and not focus on their products. Instead, for the 50+ generations, they should focus on the life benefits of using the product or service.

This applies whether you’re selling to consumers or selling to professionals.

An exceptional example of this is in a new feature in hearing aides. The campaign never shows the hearing aid hardware. There is no features list or spec sheet. There is one clear benefit, which we get to experience, beautifully.

Read: Tech Company Valuation is Destroying Your Marketing.

Political marketing to the generations

Boomers get more conservative.

The generational divide in last year’s election reflect how each candidates strategy of marketing to the generations and their ideological leanings:

Baby Boomers and their Silent Generation parents are more alike in their political ideology: they are conservatives and Republican leaning moderates. (Red box, below.) Boomers have become increasingly more conservative. The Republican Party – once more youthful than the Democratic Party – has aged rapidly over the past 24 years.

Millennials and Generation X are more liberal and Democratic leaning moderates. (Green box, below.) Gen Xers have become more liberal in their views. Better-educated voters are increasingly identifying as Democrats and expressing liberal attitudes across a range of issues.

A wider partisan and ideological gap between younger, older generations, Pew Research, March 2017.
Two Coalitions, Moving Further Apart, Pew Research, September 2016.

Note: marketing to the generations means accepting some fuzzy boundaries. All generational cohorts are defined differently by different organizations. Gen X has the fuzziest boundaries. Millennials are now 18 to 39, or 18 to 35, depending on who reports the research. Gen X is 36-39 to 51-53. Baby Boomers are 52-53 to age 70 (with 70 being the most widely used cut-off). The silent generation is age 71 to 88.

LGBT post rocks Generations Now Weekly

Looking for white space in the competitive landscape?

Start targeting LGBT seniors in your marketing if your competitors are not. Create a specific campaign with welcoming messages and targeted media channels.

One of the top articles on this site is about businesses opportunities for companies who welcome LGBT clients. The article was the most-visited report in last week’s Aging with Dignity newsletter.

Welcoming LGBT Clients, Generations Now Weekly.
Subscribe to Aging with Dignity newsletter, from the California Health Report.
Millennials are the Queerest Generation Yet. America is the most accepting that it has ever been. Pride.

B2B marketing to the generations

Law firm marketing

Segment the law firm’s customers by generation, and create marketing messages and use communication methods that speak directly to each cohort. Use a multi-platform communications strategy to speak to each target market in different ways. By doing this, each person will feel as though your law firm is speaking directly to them in a way that is very comfortable and suits them.

Boomers prefer in-person communication from legal counsel. Face-to-face or phone calls, and tend towards being more formal.
Gen X is both digital and analog, the bridge generation. Gen X is all about efficiency, email or text message or phone call.
Millennial generally prefer video communication or text messaging.

Communicating with Millennials: What’s the Preference?

Millennials turn 35, become B2B decision makers

Companies that fail to understand the dynamics of the digital generation may find themselves supplanted or disintermediated by up-and-coming companies that do.

(FYI, some organizations have Millennials turning 39 this year. Everyone draws their lines differently.)

Facebook was the most used platform for researching B2B products and services.
YouTube is also well used, especially among men.
LinkedIn is not used nearly as much as Facebook when it comes to reading and interacting with content about new products.
However, LinkedIn is used by nearly two-third of this cohort for networking.

Forrester: Channeling my inner Millennial.
IDG, Millennials B2B marketing influence (2016).

Housing: Marketing to the generations

Gen X rising, Millennials fed up with urban California

Gen X holds 14% percent of US wealth, compared to 4% held by Millennials and 50% by Baby Boomers. Xers will be important to the future of California housing markets, especially with 46% of Millennials ready to leave San Francisco.

Gen Xers Mark the Spot in California.
It’s so expensive to live in San Francisco, almost half of millennials want to leave.

Boomerang seniors come home, care for elderly parents

The very old are the fastest-growing segment of the population in most developed countries, with an expected increase of 51% of elders age 80+ between 2010 and 2030.

2/3 of these these very old have advanced-aged children, who typically serve as their primary caregiver. “Boomerang Seniors” are people 70 and over (the silent generation) that are picking up and moving their homes to be near their elderly parents in their 90’s.

Some families are “aging together” at the same senior living communities.
Boomerang seniors: Aging adults move to be near Mom or Dad, USA Today.
Life at Age 100: An International Research Agenda for Centenarian Studies, 2015.

Aging-in-place: younger than you think

Nobody wants to feel like they’re living in a nursing home. The design world is catching up. Aging in place remodelers and new home builders are now focusing on both improving mobility and lighting. Motion-controlled sensors replace light switches, and more lighting in the home makes up for vision loss.

The top 5 aging-in-place design additions are:

grab bars
entrance ramp
wider doorways
ground floor bathroom
lever handled doorknobs

Do you think these remodels are for the Silent Generation? Their children, the Baby Boomers (specifically, those 65 and under), do 56% of the hiring of professional remodelers for aging-in-place improvements. Generation X and younger accounts for 10% of this hiring.

73% of homeowners do their own hiring, and daughters do the hiring for 16% of the time.

Financial marketing to the generations: Baby Boomers

Reverse Mortgages, a phoenix from the ashes

The trade association for reverse mortgage companies has partnered with Next Avenue for webinar marketing. “What Questions Do You Have About Reverse Mortgages” will be presented by Richard Eisenberg, a senior editor at Next Avenue.

The reverse mortgage industry has made a marketing comeback. After the financial crisis, there was a lot of media attention given to “grandma evictions.” There are also drawbacks to anyone leaving their primary residence to enter a nursing home.

The industry’s marketing spend is heavy on lead generation through search engine optimization and google ads. Content marketing naturally downplays the risks. We call this “boring down” the risks. [Boring down the risks is when writers play up the “upsides” with catchy, colorful language, but characterize the risks in boring, unappealing terms that decidedly do not catch attention.]

Trade association for reverse mortgages is the NRMLA.
Webinar marketing partnership between NRMLA and Next Avenue.
Example of boring down product risks, in Next Avenue, and not doing this, in US News.

Healthcare marketing to the generations

Advertising works Boomer men into frenzy of Low T

Only 7% of men age 75 to 95 have low testosterone, but it’s a $2 billion a year industry, targeted at Baby Boomer men under 75.

An editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association claims there is no health or sex benefit to testosterone supplementation, but that the advertising encourages patients to act, and doctors to prescribe, testosterone.

Testosterone level had nothing to do with erection, orgasm, or ejaculatory control. The main causes of reported sex problems are not psychological problems or relationship issues but chronic health conditions: obesity, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, sleep disorders, and high blood pressure. And apparently, the best solution to low libido is to have a partner.

An editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association says the ads do not benefit public health, but the pharmaceutical industry.

Reuters: ‘Low T’ television ads linked to surge in testosterone use.
Psychology Today: The real sex lives of men over 65.

Lower cost hearing aids coming to market

For 40 years, the FDA has required that adults be examined by a doctor before purchasing a hearing aid, or sign a waiver noting that they didn’t want to take this step.

Last month, the agency eliminated that requirement for people over the age of 18.

Consumer marketers such as Samsung, Bose Corp., and Panasonic Corp. are readying new products to be sold over the counter. Customers will be able to test their own hearing with cell phone apps or online programs.

Cheaper Over-The-Counter Hearing Aids Could Be On The Way, Kaiser Health News.

Financial, Investment Banking, Private Equity

SEC moves to protect elders from financial fraud

Elder fraud concerns outweigh some privacy concerns. Starting in February 2018, investment firms will be allowed to:

“make reasonable efforts” to get the name and contact information for a “trusted contact person for a customer’s account” and
be allowed to put temporary holds on the release of funds or securities “when there is reasonable belief of financial exploitation.”

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Summary and Rule.

Brookdale senior living hires bankers to (likely) sell company

Brookdale senior living has hired advisors to help sell the company. BKD stock is down 31% since 10/1/16, after buying their rival Emeritus. So low that one investment banking analyst thinks the only direction is now up. Brookdale’s real estate is worth $13 a share, and its home health business is worth $2 a share, so the inherent value is $15 a share. This is just $2 over the company’s stock price of $13. Senior housing news.

Private Equity picks up investments in senior care

As of the third quarter of 2016, more than 50 home care and hospice transactions involved private equity buyers. Compare this with < 30 deals in the entire year of 2015.

Home care and hospice deals have reached a new peak. Senior care is a “local business,” said Arnold Whitman, founder and chairman of Formation Capital, a private investment management firm focused on senior housing and post-acute care.

Private Equity Investment in Home Care Hits New High.

Tech marketing to the generations