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 February 19th, 2010
Following the playground for adults in London in my last post, here’s an idea for Canada as well.
According to the Calgary Herald, the marketing of the Greater Forest Lawn Senior Citizens Society as the Greater Forest Lawn 55-Plus Society indicates a whole new attitude. The official name of the Calgary club with the mention of Senior Citizens no longer reflects the vibrant and active lifestyle of many of its members. The word ‘senior’ scares a lot of people because some lucky baby boomers are starting to retire and they still want to play. Club activities range from card games and tai chi to ballroom dancing and floor curling. To further diversify the entertainment, the Society is working on establishing a computer course. For members wanting to get away from it all, the Society also puts on bus trips to fun destinations such as Las Vegas, New York City and others.
According to the Society’s administrator, a lot of people have misunderstandings that places like this are like a seniors’ residence. True enough, seniors’ residences have recreational activities too. The differentiation is in the marketing and the branding – try set up a recreation club catering to boomers who want to stay active and have fun and market it that way. The results will be different and the misconceptions will be addressed.
Lina Ko February 12th, 2010
According to The Canadian Press, London, U.K., will soon launch a park for the capital’s aging baby boomers. This specially-designed outdoor playground will offer low-impact exercise equipment to help older people improve their balance and flexibility and tone muscles that may not have been tested for decades. The Westminster City Council is providing funding for the playground, which is planned for London’s popular Hyde Park. The new playground, due to be built by this spring, will have six pieces of equipment bought in Denmark, including a stationary bicycle, a cross-trainer and a sit-up bench.
This seems like such a great concept as every park usually has a children’s playground, but very few have playgrounds for adults. I’ve always observed that seniors are often behaving like kids, and for them to have their own playground just makes a lot of sense. But once again, are we confusing boomers with seniors? Is this playground targeting seniors and the elderly, or are they aiming at boomers who refuse to acknowledge they are old? It’s always a good idea to encourage older people to exercise and socialize. But to name it the ‘Hyde Park Senior Playground’ even though it welcomes anyone of any age to use it is a kiss of death to attracting boomers.
More and more fitness clubs are catering to boomers who found gyms too intimidating in the first place with too much firm flesh. It will be interesting to see how successful the Hyde Park playground will be for boomers rather than seniors.
Lina Ko February 2nd, 2010
Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of baby boomers reading their e-books on trains and airplanes. Once again, contrary to popular belief, boomers do embrace technology. I recently purchased the Kindle 2 from Amazon and am loving every minute of it. No more papers piled at home or at your doorstep, but I can still skim through headlines in major newspapers before I go to work. The Kindle also offers free newspaper subscriptions for two weeks, and this successfully hooks me up to paying a monthly subscription of The New York Times. I’ve also cancelled my home subscription of The Globe and Mail because I now have the daily version wirelessly delivered to me on my device at half the price of the print version.
For people who love the smell and touch of printed volumes of books, an e-book might not be to their liking. But I think this is one of the most innovative devices for consumers – no more book shelves and no more yearning for library space at home. I can now create my own electronic library capable of storing up to 1,500 books – the Complete Works of Shakespeare, the Bronte collection, the Holy Bible, The Complete Charles Dickens Collection, the Works of Oscar Wilde and other literary greats – and carry it around with me to anywhere in the world when I travel because of the Kindle’s 3G wireless capability. I can wirelessly shop for new books, download them in less than 60 seconds, and read them in more than 100 countries.
Boomers are likely to be attracted to the six types of text sizes to choose from – no more squinting your eyes to read small type fonts in most printed books. The six-inch electronic ink display reads like printed words on paper because the screen works using real ink and doesn’t use backlight, eliminating the eyestrain and glare associated with other electronic displays. And at times if you’re tired of making your eyes work, you can always get Kindle to read to you out loud with its Text-to-Speech feature.
When Apple’s iPad becomes available in March, Kindle might face some stiff competition since the former can offer an all-in-one mobile device including an iBook Store in colour. But for people like me who only want an e-book, a slim and trim, 10-oz Kindle is good enough. If Amazon can continue to keep the e-book prices lower than the print versions; when more quality magazines such as The Economist become available on Kindle; when new books can be accessible to us e-readers even faster, I’m sure more and more boomers will replace printed volumes with the sleek reading device.