Yesterday's New Research on Retirement

This study was done for a coalition called "Americans for Secure Retirement" and funded by Ernst & Young. The Washington Post and others reported on it yesterday.

The key finding, as reported in their press release, is that middle class Americans don't have enough money saved for retirement. And, according to the study:

"Middle-income Americans entering retirement now will have to reduce their standard of living by an average of 24 percent to minimize the likelihood of outliving their financial assets."

We guess these same middle class Boomers didn't read the McKinsey study that said if they put off retirement by a few years, the "outliving your assets" problem shrinks, if not disappears.

Probably not, because that isn't the solution offered. Instead, this coalition wants Congress to give anyone who buys an annuity a tax break on the income paid out by that annuity.

We're not sure what to make of this study and report. Not new news, as we've said before. And not a broad enough solution being offered. What middle class Boomer can afford to buy an annuity?

The public radio show Marketplace reported on this story and the reporter's last line, meant as a throw-away was "Well, I guess we could all sell the country home... [to fund retirement.]"

We don't know about you, but few middle class Boomers have "country homes." Ugh.

New Retirement Research (No, This isn't a Repeat)

This time the study is across all generations, sponsored by Charles Schwab, the financial giant, and conducted by Ken Dychtwald's Age Wave and Harris Interactive.

Called "Rethinking Retirement," it provides a comprehensive look at how all four generations -- Silent, Boomers, Generation X and Gen Y -- think and feel about "retirement."

The Web site and information in the report are very well presented and informative. But at first glance, it feels like more of the same (even if it isn't).

Over the last few years we've been telling financial services clients that consumers of all ages no longer view "retirement" as an event of short duration (10-15 years), funded by others (company pensions and Social Security). Instead, consumers today see "retirement" as a life stage lasting 25-30 years and primarily funded out of their own savings (or continuing income).

To us, then, this "rethinking retirement" isn't news at all. But there is some news in their findings. For example, the Schwab study reports that most people think "old age" begins at age 75. That ground has been covered elsewhere. But interestingly, the study asks at what age one should be able to start getting money from Social Security, and consumers say that age is much, much younger than "old age" -- it is 63. The conclusion, mentioned almost in passing, is that today consumers think the "old age" benefit of Social Security is an entitlement due 12 years before you get to "old age."

That's a key finding to us. In fact, we suspect it will be the lead in most stories about the study, if reporters are on their game. One would think that such a finding might empower politicians to address Social Security. We wish Schwab had come down hard on this particular point. It's an opportunity to get action, and it's been underplayed so far.

One aspect of the Schwab study and the Web site that we like: They are trying to move beyond reporting on research to focus now on what to do.

Chuck Schwab and daughter Carrie Schwab Pomerantz have a section on the site where they comment on the study, and the need to provide more financial literacy education in schools, as well as change the financial services industry.

These are good steps, and we encourage Schwab to keep pushing for more steps.

Our belief is that research is only good if it leads to action. Let's hope this study generates some.

A Business about Heading for the Exit

We're always on the lookout for smart entrepreneurs who have interesting ideas about tapping into the Boomer market. Here is one we like:

TheCheckoutLine.org -- a Web site offering advice on managing terminal illnesses, mostly for friends and family.

Run by Judy Bachrach, a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and former reporter for the Washington Post and other newspapers, it offers advice to help Boomers through critical issues where little support can be found.

She named her new site TheCheckoutLine because it is the one area where no one's pushing really hard to get to the front ( so true, so true).

We like the idea because it fills an important need. We aren't sure how Judy will make money at it, but maybe that isn't her goal. Yet.

Reading through some of the questions found there, and her answers, we're holding out on whether or not she'll find traction with advertisers.

Although she should be talking with the folks at LifeGem, who make man-made diamonds from the carbon remains of loved ones (we're not making this up). Imagine: "Oh, what a lovely diamond necklace, is it a family heirloom?" "You could say so. It's my grandma." Creepy.

On second thought, Judy shouldn't pursue that synergy.

The Crowded Boomer Financial Services Market

Let it be known that July 9, 2008 was the day that two large financial services firms, both starting with the letter "P," launched new tools for consumers and financial advisors related to Boomers and retirement.

Prudential launched their Retirement Workbook, "a newly designed personalized enrollment guide that delivers simplified, reader-friendly content for participants in defined contribution plans who are transitioning to Prudential Retirement or for new hires joining existing plans."

Principal Financial Group launched Retirement Readiness Reviews, a guide that helps financial professionals walk their clients through retirement planning.

The products are different, but that's hard for the average reader to discern. It just goes to show that the financial services industry has a long way to go before it is less complicated and confusing. At the very least, perhaps the next firm developing a Boomer retirement-oriented product will peer out of their window to see what the consumer sees and try to differentiate more. Please.

Boomers Skewered in the Washington Post

No wonder Boomers aren't happy these days. It's articles like this one in today's Washington Post pointing out how unhappy Boomers are that is doing it. To wit:

Perpetually restless, utterly mysterious and so very multitudinous -- 76 million -- that the rest of us are doomed to study them, analyze them, wave shiny objects around for them. ...It's all part of the frantic tap dance of figuring out how to raise boomers' tender and flagging happiness, when what we want to say is, BUCK UP ALREADY.

The reporter, Monica Hesse, according to one source, is a twentysomething up-and-comer at the Post. Her story is about the recent Pew Research study that concluded Boomers are gloomier than other generations. We have been thinking about offering up our take on the Pew findings, and will weigh in with a separate post.

Hesse had contacted us last week for a comment, but we didn't connect and she proceeded with her piece. She mentions our Boomer Consumer book -- not exactly in the best context, but we'll take the publicity.

We sent Hesse a note and told her to expect an outpouring of comments from Boomers -- mostly defensive, but also agreeing with her. The reason Boomers will respond is that they don't like being generalized and labeled. Labeling them "whiners," as Hesse does, will surely stir the pot.

Sure enough, take a look at the growing number and intensity of comments the article has generated. There are too many great ones to share here, so here's two:

What an astonishingly ageist article. It would have had more impact without the snark factor, Monica. The way you've written it, the one who comes off as immature is you.

And this one:

My, the writer seems to have "issues" with the Baby Boomers. I thought the whole point of true journalism was to at least try to keep your own attitudes out of your stories - otherwise, there is another venue. It's called an "editorial." Might I say, however, that if the writer's attitudes HAD to have been incorporated, it would have been much more efficient just to say "neener neener neener" and let it go at that. The stick-your-tongue-out immaturity would still have been conveyed.

Gotta love those Boomers. Quick to defend their turf. And predictable.

Demography is Destiny, Again

Peter Francese, founder of American Demographics magazine (now owned by Advertising Age), has a long and fact-filled story in this week's Ad Age called The Changing Face of the U.S. Consumer.

If you're a marketer, you better read it. Especially if you're under the age of 40.

That's because it will tell you the important things you need to know about the future.

It's funny, of all the prognostications we see about Boomers and the future, only one is accurate: In 2028, twenty years hence, all of those Boomers who are still with us will be between the ages of 64 and 82.

The "age wave" rolls onward.

Francese's article has far too much to summarize here. So go read it.

New Boomer-Focused Snack Food is Nutty

Frito-Lay has ventured into Boomer marketing with its first line-up of snacks targeted to Boomers. Called "True North," the line of all natural nuts and nut-based snacks are intended for Boomers who are looking for a more sophisticated and refined snack experience -- and can pay for it.

You can read about this week's launch at Brandweek.

Or venture over to the True North Web site for more information.

We'll be on the lookout for the print, TV and online efforts, to see how exactly Frito-Lay tries to connect with today's Boomer Consumer. At first glance, from the quotes in the Brandweek story, we're a little worried they've gone over the deep end by linking the current Boomer mindset towards self-fulfillment and self-respect and their line of nutty snacks. If they are treating it as a tongue-in-cheek connection, then we'll be okay with it. If they are serious about it, we're going to freak out about it.

People, get a grip. It's only a snack food.

The good news in this is that it is one of the few major players in consumer products to attempt to target a new product line entirely at Boomers. This could start a trend.

Boomers Buying Brain Exercise

Data is in that the "brain fitness" software category is a $225 million industry, doubling the last two years, according to this article by the Associated Press.

By 2010, we think the entire "brain fitness" category, from software, books, gyms and who know what else, will be many, many times larger. Those same Baby Boomers who invented the physical fitness boom in the 1970's as young adults are going to spend billions on mental fitness as older adults.

Example: SF-based vibrantBrains -- which seems to have a good idea, but not an award-winning tagline:

A Health Club for Your Brain
Where the Sweat is Figurative,
but the Results are Real

Maybe their copywriter needs to use the brain gym a little more and try again...

"Aging Boomers" are Going to be the Death of Us All

The good news is that this isn't a post about how Boomers are financially unfit and unprepared for retirement. The seemingly thousands of stories appearing every day are starting to get on our nerves.

The bad news is that this post is about the other major topic covered in the media daily about Boomers: we're getting older and unless we do something about it, we're all going to die some day.

Oh, the irony.

Two news items today reveal the broad scope of coverage. First, a nutty press release from a travel insurance consolidator and seller, SquareMouth.com. It warns that "Aging Boomers May Prompt More In-Flight Health Crises." Then it states upfront that "Most of us will fly our whole lives and never experience a medical emergency. In fact, airlines typically don't even collect data on the numbers of passengers who become ill while taking to the skies because life-threatening situations on planes are so rare."

Okay, so it isn't a problem. So why is it news and why might "aging Boomers" turn it into a problem? According to the release, "Older passengers and those with pre-existing medical conditions are especially vulnerable to the impact of altitude."

Last we checked, most flights have a take-off AND a landing, so the altitude situation is temporary. Good grief. Talk about inventing a condition in the minds of consumers just to sell more product. Shame on them. Especially for trading on aging Boomers as the reason. As if we're senile enough to believe this. Ugh.

The second story is about the Kronos Longevity Research Institute's new "Gray is the New Gold: State of Science Report on Aging." Their goal is to understand how and why we age, and then to slow it down. This is going to be a big business over the next 40+ years as Boomers push longevity as long as possible.

We expect an endless stream of "news" about longevity tips and techniques over the coming years, from brain fitness products to the impact of bright lights on dementia.

We're dying to keep you informed about all of this. Even if it kills us.

When "We" Boomers are "They"

Today in The New York Times, columnist David Brooks writes about "The Great Seduction." Money. Wealth. Debt. He writes:

The United States has been an affluent nation since its founding. But the country was, by and large, not corrupted by wealth. For centuries, it remained industrious, ambitious and frugal.

Over the past 30 years, much of that has been shredded. The social norms and institutions that encouraged frugality and spending what you earn have been undermined. The institutions that encourage debt and living for the moment have been strengthened. The country’s moral guardians are forever looking for decadence out of Hollywood and reality TV. But the most rampant decadence today is financial decadence, the trampling of decent norms about how to use and harness money.

Brooks cites a new report by the Institute for American Values and other think tanks called, “For a New Thrift: Confronting the Debt Culture.” He points out that our debt culture has made millions for many, and made the less fortunate more vulnerable.

Social norms, the invisible threads that guide behavior, have deteriorated. Over the past years, Americans have been more socially conscious about protecting the environment and inhaling tobacco. They have become less socially conscious about money and debt.

Blame gets placed just about everywhere: the federal government, Congress, the White House, state governments (lotteries), payday lenders, credit card companies, Wall Street and so on. Brooks also points readers to another article, "A Nation in Debt" by Barbara Whitehead, that summarizes the report.

What strikes us in all this is the people in charge of all of those institutions over the last 30 years haven't been Boomers. But "we" Boomers are now considered the "they" running all of those institutions now. It's going to be up to us to fix these things.

Unfortunately, our track record to date has been poor. Fareed Zakaria, an author and editor for Newsweek, in a story about "Getting Back to Growth" quotes David Gergen:

“With the end of the cold war, we saw a new, destructive kind of partisanship,” says David Gergen, who has worked in Republican and Democratic White Houses. “And for much of the past decade, we’ve kicked the can down the road on our big problems.”

Some of this is because of the narrowcasting of American politics, a process in which the extreme ends of the spectrum have been magnified and the center gets lost. Part of it, Gergen argues, is generational. “I have a distinct memory that the World War II generation really put country ahead of party. That is simply not the case with the generation in power now."

He's talking about Boomers. So are we going to do anything about it, or simple move aside?

Boomers, TV and Digital

The New York Times reports in "More Channels are Coming. Will Anyone Be Watching" that the move to the all-digital TV world opens up more channels and more opportunities for channels than ever before.

In some markets, local stations are already broadcasting 24-hour weather reports on their new digital channels.

A reader asked us today if this new availability will open up new opportunities for Boomer-focused content. The short answer is "yes," provided there are local (and national) marketers interested in a Boomer audience. Without advertising sales, it is hard to run a TV network for very long, no matter how large a niche it occupies

Already there are major media players (and others) investing in created Boomer-focused content. The largest and perhaps leader is Viacom's TV Land brand, which created new programming for the "TV Generation" like "Family Foreman," a reality show launching in July about the hijinks of George Foreman and his ten children (five of whom are sons named George II, III, IV, V, and VI). And don't miss the 2008 TV Land Awards on June 15th.

Then there is Retirement Living TV ("TV for Your Freedom Years"), the brain child of innovative senior living developer, John Erikson. Much of the programming feels older than Boomer-specific, but they have a new half hour newsmagazine show called "My Generation," produced by AARP at their world headquarters in Washington, DC.

The third player is American Life TV (with a vanity URL of goodtv.com), which runs classic TV as well as original programming. If you haven't seen an episode of "Land of the Giants" in the last 40 years, well, now you can. Our money isn't on these guys, yet.

The broader point is that the first generation raised in front of the TV isn't done with it yet.

Age Power: Boomers (and Older) Drive Box Office

This summer's initial blockbusters have starred older actors and actresses. Robert Downey Jr of Iron Man is 43. Harrison Ford of Indiana Jones is 65. The Sex and the City foursome are 43-year-old Sarah Jessica Parker; 42-year-old Cynthia Nixon; 43-year-old Kristin Davis and fabulous 51-year-old Kim Cattrall.

To mainstream media that means this is a trend. Read "Gray Becomes the New Black" which originally ran in the Detroit Free Press.

We saw this coming four years ago, and are delighted that Hollywood is waking up to the economic power of today's older Boomer Consumer. It is encouraging how far Hollywood has come in the few years since Roseanna Arquette's 2002 documentary "Searching for Debra Wringer" lamented how actresses over 40 were invisible in Hollywood.

Here's what we said back in August 2004 about the coming trend:

Hollywood, like Madison Avenue, loves youth and the young. Or at least that's been the case for the last forty years. But the success last year of "Something's Got to Give" with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton, will spawn a new era in Hollywood where movies for maturing audiences, featuring (gasp!) maturing actors and actresses, will grace cineplexes everywhere.

The rest of our prediction back then was that once movies featured older actors, representing the Boomer audience, then shortly thereafter so too will mainstream TV commercials (beyond financial services and pharma).

We'll keep our eyes peeled for examples and report on them accordingly.

Meanwhile, we'll see you at the movies.

More "Age Wars" as Gen Xers Attack Boomers

Last week Gen Xer Meghan Daum penned an Op/Ed for The Los Angeles Times called "The millstone of Boomer milestones."

It's a doozy. Some snippets:

As a member of Generation X, I should know -- I've been strong-armed into an appreciation of '60s and '70s pop culture my whole life. There are an estimated 76 million boomers (10,000 babies a day on average, born between 1946 and 1964), while we Xers (born between 1965 and 1982) number a paltry 48 million. So boomers set the tone for everyone. Their tastes, needs and values are considered America's default setting. They turn 60, and it warrants magazine covers. They get a cold, and the world sneezes with them.

So privileged is this group, they've been allowed to change generational labels the way they changed their (always "groundbreaking") clothing styles. They've been known, in whole or in part, as the Dr. Spock Generation, the Free Love Generation, the Generation That Changed America, the Me Generation, Hippies, Yuppies, Bobos and, to certain members of Gen X, "moronic aging hippie posers." Despite having grown out of the category years ago, they remain, thanks to a certain iconic TV show, etched in the popular imagination as forever "thirtysomething."

But wait, there's more. The piece generated a firestorm of mail -- almost from Boomers, navel gazing and complaining.

We find this "war of the ages" amusing. Under someone loses an eye.

Five Things Retailers Need to Know about Boomers

We were recently interviewed for the June cover story for STORES magazine, the trade publication of the National Retail Federation.

You can read the entire article here.

The "five things" are:

1. Boomers have two faces -- that is, there are leading edge and trailing edge Boomers, and because they are at different life stages, they have different needs from retailers. Don't treat them as a single group.
2. Single Income = Multiple Prospects -- fully One-third of Boomers – some 25 million people – head up single-income households. Careful, though: that doesn’t mean there’s only one person in the household, just one less person. More importantly during these difficult economic times, single-income households don't have brand preferences that are as strong as dual-income households. That means retailers trying to gain share from a competitor might be more successful luring uncommitted single-income Boomers. But what retailers out there are marketing to single-income Boomers?
3. Boomers are Zealots About Media -- they consume it all, but do so differently than younger consumers.
4. Grandparent Boomers are Nana from Heaven -- over 37% of Boomers are already grandparents. The average age of a Boomer who is a grandparent is 53. Oprah is 53. We're not talking about Estelle Getty from The Golden Girls. We're talking young, vibrant, active spenders -- especially on their new grandkids. Opportunities abound.
5. Target the Pepsi-Turned-Pepcid Generation -- There is a large underserved "middle market" of Boomers (McKinsey calls them "U-Boomers"). Figure out how to target them and you'll be in business.

Let us know what you think of the article, and tell us about any retailers you've come across that seem to understand the Boomer opportunity.

Boomers and Vacations with a Purpose

"Voluntourism" is another trend we've talked about for some time (we profiled Habitat for Humanity's Global Village trips program back in 2005) that's really taking off are vacations where you can volunteer and do something to benefit the local community. "Voluntourism" even has its own Web site.

You know it is a trend with legs now that Ritz-Carlton has gotten into the act with their Give Back Getaways program.

Once more, Springwise spotters write about it here.

Life-Long Learning Requires Boomers as Teachers and Students

One trend we expect to see growing rapidly in the coming years is educational opportunities for Boomers -- so they can keep learning new things.

Unlike previous generations, who were educated in the first 20 or so years in life, and then plied a trade until retirement, Boomers have kept on learning. The education has been both formal in the classroom with advanced degrees, or informal like cooking classes or photography at local community colleges.

As Boomers reach age 50 and beyond and find themselves with more time for mental self-improvement, we (and others) expect life-long learning to take off. Already we're seeing some local community colleges developing new curriculum to attract Boomers. One college even got a grant to develop such a program.

Now there's a new Web site starting initially in Seattle called TeachStreet that is a match-making service to link together local teachers with people looking to learn something new. The options range from the obvious -- language skills, cooking, piano -- to the not-so-obvious -- rope tricks, surfing, poker. Read this description from the sharp eyed people at Springwise.

This idea, if executed well, should take off, and Boomers will be the biggest benefactors both as teachers and students.

The Rise or Fall of the Millennials?

The power and influence of the Boomer generation began in earnest in the late 1960's when they followed Silent Generation leaders and protested the war in Vietnam, fought for Civil Rights and women's lib, began Earth Day and rocked out at Woodstock.

The power and influence of the Millennial Generation, those born in 1983 and later, is coming into focus as that generation reaches their late teens and early 20's. But it doesn't look like it's going to be similar.

First, Bob Hebert's op/ed in The New York Times "Here Comes the Millennials" points out, this generation faces tough times, and will want the government to provide significant help:

This is a generation that is in danger of being left out of the American dream — the first American generation to do less well economically than their parents. And that economic uncertainty appears to have played a big role in shaping their views of government and politics...

...Younger voters struggling with the enormous costs of a college education, or trying to raise families in a bleak employment environment, or using their credit cards to cover everyday expenses like food or energy costs are not much interested in hearing that the government to which they pay taxes can do little or nothing to help them.

That doesn't sound like the future facing Boomers in the late 1960's and early 70's.

Even less promising is Mark Bauerlein's new book, The Dumbest Generation, about how the digital age is a good time to be young as long as you don't mind a tendency towards empty-headedness. This review, "Can U Read Kant?" in today's The Wall Street Journal sums it up:

Adults are so busy imagining the ways that technology can improve classroom learning or improve the public debate that they've blinded themselves to the collective dumbing down that is actually taking place. The kids are using their technological advantage to immerse themselves in a trivial, solipsistic, distracting online world at the expense of more enriching activities – like opening a book or writing complete sentences.

Mr. Bauerlein presents a wealth of data to show that young people, with the aid of digital media, are intensely focusing on themselves, their peers and the present moment. YouTube and MySpace, he says, are revealingly named: These and other top Web destinations are "peer to peer" environments in the sense that their juvenile users have populated them with predictably juvenile content. The sites where students spend most of their time "harden adolescent styles and thoughts, amplifying the discourse of the lunchroom and keg party, not spreading the works of the Old Masters."

We aren't sure what the future holds for the Millennials, but we hope it is better than this. It has to be.

Boomers' Political Influence Emerges Slowly

Here is a link to last week's op/ed we wrote for the Richmond Times-Dispatch about the surprisingly weak influence Boomers have as a group when it comes to politics.

The point is this: the 78 million Boomers are too large, too diverse and too different to share a single political agenda. Therefore, they really have not had a unified voice politically (and won't this election year either).

But there will come a time when we will unite, and that future is not too distant.

You can read the story online here. Or download a PDF version.

This is a Post About Boomers and....uh...oh yeah, Memory

One area we have been predicting will be big for marketers and smart businesspeople is helping Boomers exercise their brains (we wrote about it last year, for example). This article from The New York Times earlier this week sheds new light on the opportunity.

Boomers were the generation that created and embraced the fitness craze in the 1970's and 80's. They made it acceptable for adults, grown-ups that is, to keep wearing sneakers and gym clothes, long past their last official recess or gym class. As David Brooks pointed put in his 2001 book Bobos in Paradise, Boomers turned what was once called "playing" into "working out." That's right, we made play into work. Our Puritan forefathers must be laughing at us from above.

Mental gymnastics will prove to be a big business as Boomers see their parents living well into their 80's and 90's, with the body parts holding up while mental acuity falters. For those of you looking for inexpensive ways to exercise your brains, try this book, Keep Your Brain Alive, and master neurobics.

Or do some jumping jacks.

Raising the Next Generation

For most Boomers, the task of raising kids is nearing the last phases. The majority of Generation Y were born to Boomers, and the next generation, those under the age of 7, which have yet to be named (appropriately, it's too early to label them), are being raised by Gen Xers.

If you're a Boomer, perhaps you've heard of the term "helicopter parent," a term that describes those over-anxious parents (Boomers) who literally hover over their kids at every step of life, from the first one to the most recent one into their first post-college job. The worst kind are called "Blackhawk helicopter parents."

Finally, there is some backlash to this style of co-dependent parenting. Lenore Skenazy, an op/ed columnist for The New York Sun, has launched Free Range Kids, a blog designed to free parents and kids from paranoia. Read the "For or Against" section for horror stories about over-protective parents.

It started with a column in which she shared a story about recently allowing her 9-year-old to ride home on the subway in New York all alone. Before she knew it, she had been labeled "America's Worst Mom."

She retaliated with this brilliant piece on parenting and paranoia.

We're not going to take sides in the argument. But in our work we have seen and studied the impact of parenting decisions on each generation. Boomers were raised by parents filling new homes in new suburbias across the country with modern electronic appliances paid for with newfangled credit cards in the 1950's and early 60's. The result: we're a generation of adults all about instant personal gratification. We're spenders not savers.

Gen Xers were raised by dual income, or single parents, and were the latchkey kids of the 1970's and 80's. Now, they are independent, self-sufficient adults.

Gen Y's had parents who told them they're "special" and give them full credit for just showing up: Remember youth soccer? Most programs don't keep score; everyone participates equally and gets a trophy at the end of the season. No actual performance required. Now those Gen Y's are young adults entering the workforce and looking for credit for just showing up.

Now we have the next generation being raised under a cloud of paranoia. Wonder how that's going to work out.

We Boomers remember the Kinks' Destroyer, which reminds us "Paranoia, will destroy ya."