Will new Depend ads appeal to boomers?

At a time when we keep hearing about marketing cutbacks, the announcement of a big  new ad campaign from Kimberly-Clark for their Depend brand is remarkable.   The campaign launches today and runs through December across a variety of media – TV, Internet, direct response, print and point-of-purchase.

 

The new ads are basic and focus on differences between men and women.  They feature a man and a woman standing in front of a white backdrop and talking about something that has nothing to do with incontinence. One features a discussion of whether men or women are better drivers.  The campaign is the launch of gender-specific Depend.

 

“One of the key elements of the new campaign is a certain level of authenticity — showcasing real people, since this is such a real issue for so many people. It’s not an aspirational category; nobody wants to have to use [Depend], but the fact is that 27 million people will be dealing with this, so part of the role of Depend is to provide normalization of the category, and part of the goal of the campaign is to humanize it — not only demonstrate that Depend understands the difference between men and women,” Blake Boulden, Depend brand manager told MediaPost.

 

Kimberly-Clark introduced the gender specific underwear in December noting that caregivers are an important target market. “Our consumer research has found that users and caregivers can be uncomfortable shopping for adult incontinence products,” said Mark Cammarota, Depend Brand Director. “Quickly finding the right product remains a vital step in living with incontinence, and with a variety of options on store shelves, our new packaging designs will offer a simpler selection experience at stores.”

 

The website provides consumers with information, coupons and ask the expert information. www.depend.com

 

It’s a sharp contrast to much of the advertising in this category that is more product specific.  Will it make boomers and caregivers feel more comfortable and confident with their purchase?

LinkedIn Grows – Are baby boomers using it too?

LinkedIn Grows as Economy Declines

 

Networking is more popular than ever.  As the jobless rate grows, more people are discovering the power of the Internet to keep in touch and get first dibs on the jobs that are out there or might be out there.

The growth of LinkedIn tells the story as uniques visitors steadily climb.  The average age of a LinkedIn user is 41.  But as you talk with boomers, more are discovering it as a way to connect with old colleagues.

Ellen Levy, VP Corporate Development and Strategy, LinkedIn will be joining us at the What’s Next Boomer Summit to talk about the phenomenal growth of LinkedIn.  Who is joining LinkedIn and how they are using it.  And,  how businesses can use it to build their brand. 

www.boomersummit.com

Join our group on LinkedIn — Groups – What’s Next Boomer Business Summit.

Baby Boomers Slower to Adopt Twitter

Boomers Finding Their Way to Twitter

Twitter is  primarily a younger person’s tool.  But then again, so was Facebook. 

A new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project provides a great glimpse at the Twitter user.The median age of a Twitter user is 31, users are urban, more ethnically and racially diverse than the population and are more mobile in how they consumer news and information.   They are significant users of blog content.

It’s a way of communicating that boomers are just discovering.  Just 5% of 45 to 54 year olds said they use Twitter; 4% of 55-64 year olds and 2% of those 65 and older.

Twitter allows users to send messages, known as “tweets” from a computer or mobile device.  Users of the service are asked to post messages of no more than 140 characters and those message are delivered to others who have signed up to receive them such as family, friend and colleagues.

Where should this fit into your marekting strategy if your target marekt is boomers?  Probably not at the top, but keep any eye on it.  Hear more about social media strategies among baby boomers at the What’s Next Boomer Summit (www.boomersummit.com). 

Speakers include:  Guy Kawasaki, author and entrepreneur on outmarekting your competition Ellen Levy from LinkedIn on using the service to build your network and your brand; Joe Cannella on how to use Google to reach boomers; David Weigelt tfrom Immersion Active and author of Dot Boom on how to create successful Internet strategies to reach boomers.

Find the report on Twitter usage here:

 http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP%20Twitter%20Memo%20FINAL.pdf

Baby boomers use of technology and online search strong

Lots of news out of the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas last week.  And a research study confirming what many of us know –older people are using technology and at similar rates to younger people.  They may be slower to adopt technology, but once they do, they integrate it into their life.

We’ll be covering boomers and technology at the Boomer Summit on March 19. The results of this survey confirm that technology can be a great way to reach this market and should be part of the marketing strategy of any company trying to cultivate boomer and senior customers.  So plan on joining us there to hear more about how boomers are using technology including online social networking and search. www.boomersummit.com

TNS Compete and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)® joint study, “Greying Gadgets: How Older Americans Shop for and Use Consumer Electronics” reveals that the age segments of 50-somethings, 60-somethings and 70+ use many technologies at or near comparable rates as younger age segments.

Consumers in their 50s are as likely to own, or plan on buying, an HDTV as those under 50.

 Eighty percent of 60-somethings used a cell phone in the past week, nearly equal the usage rates of 18-34 year olds.

 Additionally, 71 percent of 60-somethings and 52 percent of 70-somethings used a search engine in the past week, compared to 77 percent of 18-34 year olds.

Not all technologies have comparable usage rates among age groups. Younger demographics are much more likely to play video games, use portable MP3 players and visit certain websites, and their usage rates of social networking sites nearly double the older age segments.

“In any environment, but particularly one with difficult market conditions, companies need to learn more about how to effectively reach this critical segment of older consumers,” said Elaine Warner, director, consumer technologies, TNS Compete.

The study also showed that the majority of older Americans are comfortable researching and purchasing electronics products. Across all demographics, the Internet is an integral part of the research process. Older Americans do, however, rely more heavily on in-person information sources. Sixty-three percent spoke with a sales associate in-person when researching their consumer electronics purchase, compared to 47 percent of those aged 18-49.

Older consumers reported a higher level of frustration with the complexity of technology. Sixty percent of consumers aged 50 and older indicated that a product having too many features was a main reason for being frustrated with technology, compared to 39 percent of consumers aged 18-49.

“While satisfaction with CE products is high, frustrations do exist and this should be viewed as an opportunity for companies to seek ways to better address the technology needs of older Americans,” said Tim Herbert, CEA’s senior director of market research.

 A webinar on the survey is being held Thursday, February 5th at 2pm EST .  To register for the webinar visit: http://compete.na3.acrobat.com/cetech/event/event_info.html.

Some Marketers Moving to Lower Cost Digital Tactics

Marketing Adjustments in a Down Economy

With the downturn in the economy, every marketing dollar has to work harder.  Wondering what fellow marketers are doing to adjust to the current economy?  The chart above is the MarketingSherpa chart of the week.  It shows the percentage of marketers who are adding to or subtracting from their budgets (it’s not their total marketing investment).  It’s not specific to boomer market but we suspect many of you are thinking about similar moves.  More online marketing and more marketing to your current list.  Mail, TV and print are taking a hit.  So what’s winning are lower cost mediums where you can track results.  Losing out are some of the more costly, broad market channels, according to the MarketingSherpa survey.

check out their analysis at http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30925

What kind of changes are you making in your marketing tactics to reach boomers?  This is one of the issues we are going to be covering at the Summit in March.  If you have a case study you would like to present, let Laura know at boomersummitlwr@gmail.com

Retail spending trends: more coupons, less eating out

A new consumer spending tracking study gives us some insight into where consumers are making cutbacks in spending.  While the data isn’t specific to baby boomers, we suspect the patterns among boomers would be the same. Escape to video games and the movies seems to be big!

The NPD Consumer Spending Indicator reports that in October, consumers said they were most likely to cut back on dining out (with 57% saying they planned to spend less), followed by apparel at 54% and entertainment at 50%.  The least likely to be affected will be video games at 35%, toys at 39%, movies at 43%, beauty at 44%, and music 44%.

“Consumers are looking to spend less in the places they are able to find alternatives or ‘go without’ for now.” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst, The NPD Group, Inc., “Things like eating out less or at less expensive restaurants or going another season with the coat or sweater you bought last year are examples of where consumer behavior is changing.”   

The monthly survey also asks consumers if they plan to change shopping behavior to save money.  In October, only 35% said they haven’t changed their behavior, a seven point decrease since April.

Spending Behavior
	April	October
No Difference	42%	35%
Sales	25%	28%
Coupons	23%	27%

 “Each month one percent of our survey respondents decide to change how they shop, signaling there are lots of opportunities for the more progressive retailer,” said Cohen.

While consumers may intend to change how they shop, for now they are not changing where they shop. Forty-five percent of those surveyed said that current economic conditions will have no impact on where they will shop, compared to 44% in April.

Marketing to baby boomers in the new economy

What a year this has been!

For many – we have watched our 401k turn into a 201k. We have swallowed news story after news story about our economy. So – where can we turn for real business advice that can help us navigate through the economic changes?

We are pleased to be offering this conference as a place to learn real lessons from what is working in the marketplace. Boomers  still have over 91% of the net assets in the marketplace in the US. The What’s Next Summit is an opportunity for collaborative learning about what is working. How to get deals done; how to drive revenue though partnerships; how to use social media and the internet to drive ecommerce and brand awareness.

We are launching a new idea this year – boot camps around issues that are important to our community. We have chosen the topics of entrepreneurship and e-revenue. Why entrpreneurship? The SBA just launched a small business entrepreneurship center. Entrepreneurship is one answer as to how the boomers will finance their future longevity.

This is a market opportunity for companies that are supplying technology tools to serve this marketplace. It is also a market for service providers. At the bootcamp, you’ll learn how to launch and start a business as a boomer. We will also learn how to gain inroads into this small business opportunity for service providers.

E-revenue –a new concept  that was recently brought to life in the election when we watched candidates use mobile technology and the internet to drive fundraising and participation in events. Non profits need to learn how to leverage the web and mobile to diversity their business models and gain new revenue streams. Dancing with the stars made ‘texting to vote” something we all understand. Now – we will show how non profits are learning to make ‘texting to give” work for them.

In this economy – the key word is PIVOT. You need to be flexible and adaptive as you drive to business results. We will demonstrate case studies and lessons about how to target and serve the boomer, the senior and the caregiver. We have a strong history with this event.  We hope you will attend and participate in this thought leadership community. You will learn the research in the first hour by some of the best — for example:– You will learn from top evangelist, Guy Kawasaki, the latest in marketing.  You’ll meet Laurie Orlov, noted former Forrester researcher, who will share the results of her first major research report on Aging in Place. You will gain the best in branding from our keynote, Emilio Pardo, the AARP executive who has won awards for the AARP rebranding effort. . And, Miriam Rivera, former top Google executive, will teach us about the Art and Spirit of the Deal.

 

I recently attended the Online Community Summit in Sonoma. There were about 85 participants in the event. You could barely hear a pin drop there was such active listening in ‘what works’ as companies use online tools and community in an attempt to understand and serve their customer. We aspire the same type of quality – to bring the thought leaders together and to share best practices.

We know that in this economy – every dollar counts and so does every minute. Please consider attending our conference and sharing what you are learning and networking with the best. We have great rates….and when we break we can try and find a penny machine!

all best == mary