Lina Ko May 17th, 2010
When I was interviewed by BNN in March, I told my program hosts that a lot of baby boomers are on Facebook, but not me. I didn’t divulge my reasons on national TV, but my key concern is privacy. We worry about privacy – we were taught by our parents not to talk to strangers or talk politics or religion in polite company. Displaying photos of ourselves in public is simply not acceptable. As a result, Facebook scares a lot of boomers.
According to the StarPhoenix, Bill Clinton said there’s a ‘third’ way apart from limiting our Facebook access to just a small number of people; or just by not participating. Clinton said, “Just accept the whole darn thing is a very public, on-the-record soapbox and conduct yourself accordingly. If you wouldn’t say it or do it on the nightly news, don’t do it on Facebook.” Well this is coming from a guy who’s had sexual improprieties with an intern in the White House!
We need to bear in mind that almost every single component of the Internet has a privacy issue. Every time we post a blog, tweet, participate in Facebook or sign up for Foursquare, we give up some of our privacy. That’s why it is seldom impossible to track down an individual nowadays – just Google him or her and you will usually find more than half a dozen of such names. Try Google yourself next time, and you’ll be shocked by the results. But perhaps this is the privacy price we all need to pay to allow us to use the Worldwide Web as a powerful resource in our daily lives?
Lina Ko March 22nd, 2010
I was interviewed by Business News Network’s (BNN) Midday Markets last Wednesday, March 17, on marketing to boomers (www.bnn.ca). On a subject which is no longer new, the news program adopted an innovative approach. They put me next to a young trendhunter – Jeremy Gutsche, Chief Trendhunter of trendhunter.com.
I think it’s a very clever approach – instead of putting a whole group of boomers or a pair of mature experts to talk about marketing to boomers, the TV news program juxtaposed two generations of interviewees to discuss the potential of marketing to this important cohort. My young co-interviewee gave a couple of trends from his web site and even demonstrated with a couple of interesting commercials and ads. I, instead, communicated that we boomers defy aging and we love working with younger people – Gen X-ers, Gen Y-ers, Millennials – because we learn from one another and each generation works in synergy to give its best.
The trends mentioned on the program – Glamorization of Boomers and Ageless Inspiration – have both been posted by me on this blog before. Jerry Hall with a younger male model in a Chanel ad is not shocking because she’s constantly reinventing herself (see my blog dated October 26, 2009). Ageless Inspiration is a trend that pinpoints the limitless potential of boomers. As BNN pointed out, boomers are both the wealthiest generation as well as the largest in plain demographic size. I do not usually like the word ‘tsunami’ of boomers referred to by the media just because the term usually has negative, catastrophic connotations.
If marketers could capitalize on the potential of boomers, the ‘tsunami’ of boomers won’t be a disaster but, instead, a benefit to all strata of society. So to answer what the program host Howard Green asked, “Are we boomers in denial?” Well, of course, we are, but in a positive way by putting our words in action and demonstrating that we are not ready to ‘fade into the sunset’!
Lina Ko February 26th, 2010
According to the Calgary Herald, it’s time for boomers and seniors to rethink about what the aging concept really means since different age groups in our country are poles apart in how they view old age, and almost everything associated with it.
Retailers are struggling with understanding older consumers. A woman was recently in a shop enquiring about a particular blouse to which the salesgirl replied, “I think that blouse would be better on someone much younger.” Needless to say, the shopper was furious. Boomers and seniors are upset with antiquated attitudes, patronizing labels, stereotyping terminology and insensitive services that highlight ‘growing older’.
I’ve long blogged about the mistake to treat everybody over 45 as a homogeneous group. According to the Pew Research Center, an unbiased U.S. fact-tank that provides information on issues and trends shaping the world, we don’t even agree on when old age begins!
Young people believe the average person becomes old at 60, but middle-adults put it closer to 70, and those 65+ say old-age really doesn’t begin until about 74. We also now see ourselves in terms of our ‘felt age’ versus our ‘actual age’ and the gap between them widens further the older we get.
At least 60 percent of seniors say they ‘feel’ younger than their real age. And 50+ boomers report ‘feeling’ at least 10 years younger. Moreover, the upsides of aging are being revealed. Older adults are happy – at least as happy as everyone else. The same indicators of happiness among younger adults – good health, good friends and financial security – predict happiness among older adults too. One key difference, being married is a predictor of happiness among younger adults, but not among older adults.
The growth of the older population will continue for the next 20 years. Traditional concepts about aging no longer apply. It’s time for all of us to rethink and rebrand what growing older means today in our country.
Lina Ko January 27th, 2010
According to the Hamilton Spectator, affluent baby boomers intent on offsetting the ravages of time are leading a wave of anti-aging product sales worth billions of dollars. The global market for products ranging from skin renewal to brain games is already worth $160 billion a year and is expected to rise to $275 billion in 2013.
Currently focused on the new trend of edible beauty products such as collagen-infused coffee and anti-aging water to improve the skin, millions of boomers are joining celebrities like Mick Jagger and Sharon Stone in exploring how to fulfill the age-old quest for the appearance and feel of youth in their progressively mature years.
With the first wave of boomers in Canada now hitting 63, anti-aging products are projected to account for just under 20 percent of total skin care sales.
Growth in nutracosmetics – supplements that are ingested in order to change one’s external appearance – is also climbing. One of the newest developments in skin care is a little red pill, taken daily, that supposedly provides nutrients to prevent wrinkles by increasing skin elasticity.
If you’re still not yet convinced about the market potential of anti-aging products, the lineup for a recent Paris lingerie fashion show included new, anti-aging underwear, described as bras and undergarments designed with anti-wrinkle properties that help hydrate the skin. Even in men’s grooming, the fastest growing category is now anti-aging. With older men increasingly competitive with a younger generation, they have to look better.
So much for the body and complexion. What about the brain? The brain fitness market is also booming with new brain games to help boomers keep their minds sharp and boost productivity well into old age. According to a report by SharpBrains, a U.S. market research firm, the brain fitness segment – spending on games, computer programs, training systems and other anti-aging products – has the potential to grow to $5 billion by 2015. Brain maintenance will become a mainstream trend from retirement homes to gyms as boomers seek to give equal importance to cognitive fitness.
Buying time has never been easier!
Lina Ko September 29th, 2009
I read with interest Candace Bushnell’s article in the October issue of More magazine. For an author with her Sex and the City and Lipstick Jungle fame, I’m surprised that she’s a beauty scrooge. She welcomes Botox but draws the line at surgery. She doesn’t like cosmetic surgery because she’s too lazy. You have to interview doctors. You have to get blood tests. Then you have to undergo surgery yourself and then lie in bed with ice packs on your face for a week. It’s too much time and effort even for somebody as famous as Candace Bushnell who just turned 50.
But I do agree with her that we boomer women will have to get by in life without being perfect. ‘Change your looks and you can transform your life’ is not always true. I always say that women who keep changing their hairstyles every other three months are bored with their lives. They can’t find their own identities and, therefore, hope that their hairstyles will help define who they are. I agree with Bushnell that age itself is the great transformer. Over time, everything about us is going to change – from the shape of our faces and bodies to the hair follicles on our heads. But most importantly, age transforms what we feel inside. As we enter our boomer age, we should have a sense of what matters and an ability to let go of what doesn’t. As Bushnell said, “Personality and accomplishment and empathy seem much more interesting, and achievable, than the pursuit of a flawless visage.”
I agree that women should decide to spend more time doing what they want to do and less time doing what they don’t want to do – like keeping fewer, quality friends instead of acquiring more superficial companions. And we should stop worrying about how we look. Of course, we should still care about how we look; but stop worrying about whether we are still looking young or perfect. There’s no such thing as permanent youth and perfection. Instead, what we now have, at a boomer age, is more focus, concentration and drive than we’ve ever had before. That will transform our lives in a way that cosmetic surgery never could!
Lina Ko September 24th, 2009
According to the Globe and Mail, Canada is heading for a mini-baby boom as the offspring of boomers enter their childbearing years and women put their careers first.
Canadian women gave birth to 367,864 babies in 2007, up 13,247 babies from 2006 – the fastest annual increase since 1989, according to Statistics Canada. Analysts attribute the surge to two colliding demographics – ‘baby busters’ aged 33 to 41; and women born to boomers, the ‘echo’ generation aged 12 to 32, and now poised to give birth.
Professor David Foot, demographer and author of Boom, Bust and Echo, was quoted as saying that the children of the boomers are getting into their late 20s now and that’s when some people start having children.
The data revealed another shift: Women in their 30s bore more babies than women in their 20s, for the second year in a row. Women have been postponing their childbirth. Ten years ago, the highest fertility rate was between 25 and 29, and since 2006, the age group is 30 to 34. The increase of older motherhood points to the fact that most professional women choose to postpone their motherhood to pursue their career. According to StatsCan, total fertility rates – the average number of children per woman – increased to 1.66 in 2007 from 1.59 in 2006 – which is good news for an ageing country like ours.
Boomers’ grandchildren are also giving their grandparents a second chance to be more involved. There were a lot of boomers who were so focused on their careers that they might not have been the best of parents. With their grandchildren now, they get another chance to be more aware of the roles that they play and become more actively involved.
Lina Ko September 17th, 2009
I’ve just returned from Minneapolis visiting a very dear friend and can’t stop singing in praise of the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. If you think this is just another small town in the mid-West U.S.A., you’re wrong.
Minneapolis/St. Paul is full of pleasant surprises. Historically, it has been a trailblazing city in so many ways. The Mary Tyler Moore show was produced there; Billy Graham started his first following in the two cities; Walter Mondale, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Charles Schulz, the creator of the Peanuts characters, all used to live there.
From a business perspective, 20 of the Fortune Top 500 Companies are headquartered in Minneapolis including Best Buy, Cargill, General Mills, Target and 3M. The twin cities are also among the top five U.S. cities in corn and soya bean production.
Culturally, Minneapolis has a lot to offer for a city of its size. I visited the Weisman Museum designed and built by Frank Gehry in 1993 at the University of Minnesota campus. The building is almost as stunning as Bilbao. The 20th century art housed in the Walker Art Centre was equally interesting. But what struck me most is the Walker Sculpture Gardens which feature gigantic, larger-than-life size of open air sculptures. In the performing arts sector which is really my passion in life, the Guthrie Theatre downtown has Ella (a play about Ella Fitzgerald) and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest on their playbill. No wonder Minneapolis/St. Paul has been voted as one of the top 25 U.S. cities with the best architecture and culture.
The spotlessly clean city puts Toronto to shame. Minneapolis is now ranked the number-one cleanest city in the entire U.S. It is also such a foodie city although it lacks the Michelin star-rated restaurants in both New York and San Francisco. My friend took me to many delightful restaurants over the weekend and I’ve never had one bad meal. Wolfgang Puck’s 20/21 on top of the Walker Art Centre offers an eclectic Asian fusion cuisine and the night we were there, it was packed with beautiful people. Minneapolis is also home to talented artists such as the Prince and the Cohen brothers.
Minnesota is also known as the land of 10,000 lakes and a lot of them are in the twin cities with rivers and parks as well. The cost of living is extremely low when you look at the quality of life. For boomers, you may also want to know that Minneapolis/St. Paul is also ranked third as the best U.S. city to retire after Columbus, Ohio, and Dallas, Texas, in spite of its
Lina Ko August 13th, 2009
According to the Calgary Herald, the 20-something upstart has been held up as a model of entrepreneurial spirit. But contrary to popular belief, it is the baby boomer generation – 55- to 64-year-olds – that has the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity, according to a recent study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City, non-profit group that encourages entrepreneurship. The study predicts the U.S. might be on the verge of an entrepreneurial boom because of a growing ageing population.
With baby boomers living healthier and longer lives, they are no longer following traditional retirement paths and instead seeking second and third careers. Part of the wave reflects a shift from lifetime jobs with long-term employment falling for people aged 35- to 64-year-old during the past 50 years, according to the study. Boomers also have the experience, skills, contacts and other resources to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities.
Experts are not surprised by the risk-taking nature of baby boomers, whose childhoods in the 1960s and 1970s have helped form their attitude toward growing old.
There is a sense of ‘I will not age according to stereotypes,’ and part of that is ‘I’m not going to retire.’ They’re approaching ageing as the next step of development as opposed to the next period of decline.
Boomers, as always, are full of pleasant surprises!
Lina Ko July 27th, 2009
It’s well known that boomers are very health-conscious because they want to live longer and better than their parents. According to a recent Leger survey, when it comes to reading information on food packages, the majority of Canada’s baby boomers are all about the fats. Seventy-seven percent of boomers say they actively read the nutrition facts panel today as compared to five years ago. When asked to choose what nutrition information is most important to them, boomers mention fat most often (66 percent) followed by sodium (54 percent), calories (47 percent) and cholesterol (32 percent). Most seem to understand that saturated fats should be limited and trans fats should be avoided, but they don’t know that omega-3s should be sought out.
According to the Globe and Mail, another recent survey by World Action on Salt and Health (WASH) has indicated that cereals, burgers, submarine sandwiches and onion rings sold in Canada contain significantly higher levels of sodium than the same products sold in other countries. This leads to some serious concerns about efforts to reduce the country’s dangerously high salt consumption, a leading cause of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.
In every product studied, the survey found that the amount of salt differs from country to country. In many cases, sodium levels are highest in Canada and lowest in Britain, which launched an aggressive campaign several years ago to reduce salt consumption. But the problem isn’t in the salt shaker. Up to 80 percent of the sodium Canadians consume comes from packaged or processed food, including fat-free salad dressings, breads, canned vegetables and pre-made meals.
The good news is that boomers have made conscious efforts to better their dietary choices over the last five years:
- The majority agree that they look for more healthy food choices and they consume less saturated fat and trans fat
- 64 percent look for products that are rich in omega-3
- 58 percent follow Canada’s Food Guide more closely
- 59 percent consume more soft, non-hydrogenated margarine than butter in their daily diet
- 79 percent eat fewer foods that are high in sodium
We are what we eat. In addition to regular exercises, boomers need to watch their diet even more carefully to achieve their personal health goals. Food manufacturers who can come up with product solutions to help boomers do that would be overall winners.
Lina Ko July 13th, 2009
According to The Economist, businesses everywhere now realize that in future there will be a lot more older folks with money to spend. In most developed countries the baby boomers were more numerous, better educated and better paid than any generation before them. When these boomers retire, they will want to do it in style.
The glossy magazine published by America’s AARP, a powerful lobbying organization for the over-50s, and its Canadian counterpart Zoomer, published for CARP by ZoomerMedia, are bursting with ads. If those advertisers have got their market right, this group of customers can be persuaded to buy a variety of products, from travel and financial services, to mobile phones, medicines and comfy beds.
Some businesses are already adjusting their ranges to cater for the grey market. Volkswagen, for example, has developed a car called the Golf Plus that has higher seats and more space than the standard model. A number of consumer packaged goods manufacturers have started making smaller pack sizes for older, smaller households. Japan, which has already had lots of practice with older consumers, has developed some ingenious new products for the sandwich generation. They include a furry robot seal, sold as a pet substitute, that has proved a hit with lonely ‘mature’ folks.
As previously posted on my blog, advertisers are often accused of trying too hard to sell to the young when much of the spending power is now concentrated in older age groups. But marketing to baby boomers and seniors is not that easy. Attempts to ‘seniorize’ ads, for example, have mostly drawn a poor response because their targets think of themselves as younger than they really are. That refusal to acknowledge being ‘old’ will only get stronger as the boomers start transitioning to seniors.
There are many shades of grey as this is such a heterogeneous group. Barack Obama is a trailing-edge boomer while Hillary Clinton is a leading-edge one. Both ran for president of the United States and the former won. When boomers become seniors, some may already be in frail health and living in old-age homes; while others may still be running for president of the United States, as John McCain did last year.