Archive for July, 2009

Making Healthy Food Choices

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.

From Rocking Horse to Rocking Chair

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.

No More Retirement?

Lina Ko July 6th, 2009

According to The Economist, when Otto von Bismarck introduced the first pension for workers over 70 in 1889, the life expectancy of a Prussian was 45.

Now retirement is for everyone, and often as long as whole lives once were. In Canada, the official pension age is 65, but the average Canadian retires at 61 even though there’s no more mandatory retirement age for many provinces. A retired Canadian at 61 can then expect to live for another 20 years. Average spending on public pensions across the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development is now the equivalent of more than seven per cent of gross domestic product. In some countries, the current figure could double by 2050, to say nothing of the cost of private pensions and extra spending on health and long-term care.

Whether we like it or not, we’re going back to the pre-Bismarckian world, where work had no formal stopping point. Life expectancy has been rising by two or three years for every 10 that pass, despite repeated forecasts that it was about to reach its limit. This imminent greying of society is compounded by two other demographic shifts. In most developed countries, women no longer have enough babies to keep up the numbers; and the huge baby boomer generation has begun to retire. In 1950 the OECD countries had seven people aged 20 years to 64 years for every one of 65 years and older. Now it is four to one – and on course to be two to one by 2050. That will upset the pay-as-you-go state pension schemes that provide the bulk of retirement income in developed countries. It has also been a worry in Canada that the ageing population will drain the CPP system.

So individuals, companies and governments in developed countries will have to adapt. Many employers remain prejudiced against older workers, but people past retirement age would not necessarily carry on the same jobs as before. In Japan, where pensions are scarce and lots of people are still working into their late 60s and even 70s, big companies like Hitachi have found ways of re-employing staff after retirement – but in a different capacity and, significantly, at lower pay.

Retailers in Britain and the U.S. have started hiring pensioners because their customers find them friendlier and more helpful. And skills shortages are already creating opportunities: in the past year or two, the lack of German engineers has caused companies to bring back older workers. Once labour forces start declining in about 2020, employers will no longer have much choice.

As for the older workers themselves, many of them seem keen enough to carry on beyond retirement. Many baby boomers say they never want to bow out altogether, though they would often prefer to put in shorter hours. Some are even willing to accept that pay can go down as well as up if they want to go on working. Two years ago when I blogged about allowing boomers to double-dip, one Millennial wrote me an angry response. But whether we like it or not, individuals, Corporate Canada and the government will all have to adapt for change.