Our usual Monday Marketing links round-up was delayed a day so that Creating Results’ team members could enjoy Labor Day with their families and friends. We hope you did the same! But now it’s back to work … sigh.
1. MOST SHARED: Our blog and Twitter readers seemed to be excited by new statistics about American households by age and gender. There were multiple shares, favorites and clicks of a Creating Results’ blog post with key data from a new US Census Bureau Report.
Read it for yourself to gain some insights for marketing to older adults: http://1.usa.gov/17hHebj
2. MOST CLICKED: As you all know, what to call older adults is an ongoing debate. (Most recently explored in a July links round-up, “A rose by any other name …“) A Wall Street Journal reader recently suggested a new name for baby boomers. It made me laugh, and made our digital audience click:
“Generation Ex” – tee hee!
Creating Results may be known for our expertise in marketing senior living, but we also know dying is big business — an industry worth more than $15 billion a year. Ownership of US funeral homes and cemetaries is extremely consolidated. “Death care” chains target senior / retiree markets.
Meanwhile, baby boomers are reinventing death care, just as they have changed so many other industries. They are writing their own obituaries (TimeGoesBy: ow.ly/nDvxF), personalizing their coffins (NBC: ow.ly/nDvvG), and planning funerals that reflect their personalities (A Good Goodbye: http://bit.ly/19eK8gz).
Not for nothing that that last link came from a blog whose subheading is “Funeral planning for those who don’t plan to die.” 41 percent of baby boomers are estimated not to have a written will. Per Rocket Lawyer’s most recent survey:
This problem is not limited to the average Joe. A 2012 US Trust Survey found that “Despite their considerable resources, nearly six in 10 respondents overall do not have a comprehensive estate plan, including 66 percent of Baby Boomers, 70 percent of those under the age of 47 and 48 percent of those over the age of 67.”
I’ve been told I’m pathologically optimistic, so I just can’t leave this post on that bummer note. So here’s a happier thought — a post on the legacy my grandmother left when she passed away: A Box of Insights for Mature Marketing, courtesy of my Nana. Enjoy!