Marketing Senior

Woody Allen, about Ageing and Death

In a news conference, at Cannes, this summer, Woody Allen addressed many issues including aging and death.

Here are some of his ideas:

On aging: "I find it a lousy deal. There's no advantage in getting older. I'm 74 now. You don't get smarter, you don't get wiser, you don't get more mellow, you don't get more kindly. Your back hurts more. You get more indigestion. Your eyesight isn't as good. You need a hearting aid. It's a bad business getting older, and I would advise you not to do it."

On death: "My relationship with death remains the same. I'm very strongly against it."

US: Since the start of the Great Recession, more children raised by grandparents

Interesting survey by the Pew research Center about the increasing number of children raised by their grandparents since the start of the Great Recession.

41% of those children who live with a grandparent are also being raised by that grandparent. This figure, 2.9 million children, rose by 6% from 2007 to 2008.

49% of children being raised by grandparents also live with a single parent.

Just as the number of children being cared for by their grandparents has increased from 2000 to 2008, The corresponding number of grandparents serving as primary caregivers to their grandchildren increased 8%, from 2.4 million in 2000 to 2.6 million in 2008.

To make the situation even more difficult, the plurality of grandparents who care for their grandchildren have been doing so for a long time:

54% report that they have been the primary caregiver to at least one grandchild for three years or more and 23% have been the primary caregiver to a grandchild for between one and two years.

Pew survey

Rising numbers of multigenerational households in the US

Today 49 million Americans - more than one in six people in the US - live in households with three or more generations, according to the Pew research Center. The percentage is even higher for age groups 25-to-34 and 65 and older, where one in five, or 20%, live in these extended families.

This is specially true for people over 60 :

This trend is already impacting the age-qualified communities and may even impact the active adults communities. If I was in that business I would pay close attention to it. If this trend continues, it will question the viability of age qualified communities as we know them today.

The full Pew research Center report (here)

Territories and ageing of the population

I just reread a great book I recommend you "Les territoires face au vieillissement en France et en Europe : Géographie - politics and prospective"

Unfortunatly, this book is available only in French.

But for everyone working in government or local governments in Europe, this book is a must.

It was written by Gérard-François Dumont, expert of the DIACT (Territorial Observatory here ). It is a comprehensive survey of the consequences on the local territories, cities, regions, villages of the ageing of the population.

The survey covers France, but also has examples of Spain, Poland, Belgium, Italy and Germany

Here is the book cover 

 

The Alzheimer train

The Alzheimer train started its journey. Here is the map of the different stops

and the dates of the different stops:   

Mardi 7 septembre : Paris Est

Mercredi 8 septembre : Lille Flandres

Jeudi 9 septembre : Mulhouse Ville

Dimanche 12 septembre : Dijon Ville

Lundi 13 septembre : Lyon Perrache

Mardi 14 septembre : Nice Ville

Mercredi 15 septembre : Marseille Saint-Charles

Jeudi 16 septembre : Montpellier Saint-Roch

Vendredi 17 septembre : Toulouse Matabiau

Samedi 18 septembre : Nantes

Dimanche 19 septembre : Bordeaux Saint-Jean

Lundi 20 septembre : Clermont-Ferrand

Mardi 21 septembre : Paris Nord

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Health, 350 000 persons are suffering from Alzheimer in France. But, what is more puzzling, is that 165 000 new cases are diagniosticated every year.

Nestle Nutrition is partner of the Alzheimer train. On their booth, you will find information on their new service called Aidons Ensemble (here). You can also find information on denutrition, a consequence of the Alzheimer disease information on denutrition

More information on the Alzheimer train can be found at www.train-alzheimer.fr

  

Because there are lifes after 50 years olf

We chose to call our blog "because there are lifes after 50 years old"

The word "seniors" is so trivial, a big bag where corporations and individuals throw all together people of 55 and 85. You are "a senior", that's it.

There are only 3 things in commun between a 55 and a 85 y.o.: they are called seniors, they are aging and the 55 are often the children of the 85.

Between 55 and 95, one is able to have 3 or 4 different lifes, different stages in life, eah one with its own desire, needs, wishes, dreams and difficulties. And sliping from one stage to the next one can happen pretty fast when you retire or you get sick.

This is why we chose all these different pictures of "seniors", all involved and active even if they are in a different life stage.

Seniosphere launches The Blog Marketing Seniors

Seniosphere is a European Strategy & Marketing consultancy specialized in the 55+ and senior market. Based in Paris, France, with a truly international team, we provide our services throughout Europe.

As such, we decided to launch a blog called "The blog Marketing seniors", with a goal to provide and share with you ideas, informations, benchmarking results, that we find interesting and that deal with the aging population and the seniors.

Even if our main focus is on strategy and marketing, it seems essential to us to talk as well about topics such as the aging of the population consequences and opportunities, the social changes, new technologies. We will talk about the numerous benchmarking trips we make and the good ideas we find in these different countries.

This blog will be nourished by various contributors. The main acotrs will be myself, Cristelle Ghekiere, a benchmarking expert, as well as Sophie Schmitt, a marketing expert. But we plan on having contributors guests, on topics such as new technologies or prospective.

How to renovate our homes

the more I listen to women my age, the more I hear about stories of women who, at 45/50/55 years old, get a divorce.

Very often, they end up with a not too plush bank account and a home with more or less repairs and renovations to undertake.

That's exactly the story of Allegra Bennett. Allegra ended up with a house as a settlement of her divorce and a bank account full of holes.

Impossible to call upon the professional repair guys, way too expensive for her budget.

So she ended up taking on herself all the renovations, learning through the process, and loving it. She fixed one house, sold it, bought another one, fixed it also and became a serial home renovating woman.

She started writing articles, give workshops and realized that many, many women were interested by her experience and her expertise.

She has now a wonderful magazine, workshops, and site www.renovatingwoman.com

She just wrote a book : A guide to home repair, maintenance and real men............. and appears on TV shows.

Congratulations Allegra!

Taking care of ourselves

The 55+ market is attracting a whole lot of new actors who want us to purchase from them. We are an estimated 78 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964, and we flex about $ 1 trillon in annual spending power. That's a huge market!

The other day, I went to buy the C.O. Bigelow products, which I had often seen in an old apthecary in New York West Village. They used to carry only few products, but of high quality.

Bigelow features now an unparalleled assortment of health and well-being products, including entire homeopathic collections to high-end beauty products.

Clearly, Bigelow targets middle-age, affluent shoppers with premium-price goods to help them feel good and look better.

C.O. Bigelow began with a 166-year old apothecary tucked amid the bustling chic of New York City's West Village, that grew into an apothecary for health and wellness products.

Then, 3 years ago, Limited Brands approached Ian Ginsberg, the owner of the apothecary, inquiring about licencing the C.O. Bigelow name and developing more Bigelow products. The product development deal expanded into stores.

Limited Brands, who owns Bath & Body Works, has plans to open 25 stores after a period of test stores in various cities.

Limited Brands is hoping that Bigelow will become a baby boomer brand and complement their Bath & Body Works line of products which is more youthful in terms of a target customer.

Bigelow is part of the trend of big companies buying old brands that can appeal to us as they create nostalgia.

Have you examples of other old brands being revitalized to attract our attention?

Being 55 +

Well, finally, I made it. I entered the world of the 55 +.

I know I'm part of a huge crowd as we represent a good third of the population. And our importance increases with the time as our numbers sore rapidly.

But, still, it's a surprise to realize one day that I'm about to become a senior !

I have mixed feelings about it as so many different images come to my mind.

Images of old seniors who are only 60 but look and seem like they are 90. Images of young seniors who are 80 but look like they are 50, more energetic and healthier than so many younger people.

So I want to write about what it is to be 55 +, our references, our hopes, our needs and issues, our pleasures....

I want also to write about all the marvellous people and new ideas that I find while traveling back and forth between Europe and the US. Ideas of new products and new services who can help us in our daily life, who can give us more pleasure

I hope you will communicate with me, that we will be able to exchange ideas and feelings

and sorry if I make some mistakes while writing. English is not my 1st language