Lori’s latest blog post for MediaPost Communications Engage Boomer blog, discusses the drumbeat of the ‘Move Beyond Age’ movement has grown louder throughout this year, with conversations ranging from how to “re-tool” senior products for Boomers, to how to appeal to the largest demographic in today’s marketplace. Friends and partners are shining a light on human-centered design and the aging population.

Read Lori’s MediaPost Communications Engage Boomer blog post Move Beyond Age – Let’s Talk Better Design here.

In A Brutal Economy, Boomers Rewrite The Next Chapter

11/16/2011
(This story appears in the Dec. 5, 2011 issue of Forbes.)

Date: Tuesday, November 15, 2011

In the short time since we acquired Eons we have been busy with two main priorities: the planned ‘refresh’ elements to the site, which are based on the members’ feedback, as well as another priority which was a concern for both me and many Eons members, and that was getting a better quality of advertisers on the site.

So much has changed since our last issue of C2! The one constant is that the economic outlook continues to provoke anxiety. Older adults appear to be faring better in some respects than younger generations, though our studies show they continue to live under a cloud of worry. Many are expressing this as the loss of the American dream for younger generations, particularly their children and grandchildren.

Continuum Crew has experienced positive growth as the mature consumer market continues to be able to spend on a number of products and services for themselves and their extended families. In fact, a new MetLife Report on American Grandparents (July 2011) notes that households led by those aged 55 to 64 increased their non-health related spending by an average of $11,700 over the past ten years, when their household income rose just $1,200. Further, in the same ten-year period 55- to 64-year-olds spent $7.6 billion on baby food, infant equipment and clothing, toys, games, and tricycles – a 71% increase. Household spending for the 25- to 44-year-old households with children present saw a far smaller rate of increase indicating that baby boomer grandparents are helping in all new ways. (Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Surveys).

It has never been more important to listen carefully to consumers to understand what they want from products and services, and how they want to be engaged. Continuum Crew launched Crew Media earlier this year to purchase Eons.com – the only baby boomer social network. Founded in 2006 by Jeff Taylor, also founder of Monster.com, Eons has more than 800,000 members who have started more than 1,700 groups focused on their passions and interests. Learn more about it from community manager Ri Regina on page 13.

Also under the Crew Media banner is our partnership with GRAND – the digital magazine for the grandparenting lifestage. As a first-time grandmother to baby Gabriel McClain, I am proud to be GRAND’s new publisher.

Another initiative we launched this past spring is Move Beyond Age, a coalition of individuals and companies who are committed to making smart design a quality of life issue. We are encouraging companies to design better products and services for older consumers, which in turn create better experiences for every generation. Take a look at Jeffrey DeMure’s article on the Bookend Markets, Bill Yates on GreatCall, and Stephen Winner on the Silverado Story, for examples of companies and thought leaders who understand the importance of designing smart products and services.

Also new to Continuum Crew is The Business of Aging radio show on WeEarth Global Radio Network – WGRN. The show is also available here on our blog and on iTunes. In this issue we share our first show of the season, an interview with Patricia Lippe Davis from AARP Media Sales on her view of the mature consumer marketplace. We are currently in our second season and hope you will join our listenership as we talk about successful strategies for engaging consumers over 40.

With that, I am pleased to present to you our latest issue of 
C2 magazine, Issue 27, Autumn 2011

Available for download here.

Thank you for your continued enthusiasm for our market and our work here at Continuum Crew!

Lori Bitter,
Editor-in-Chief, C2 magazine

The recently released MetLife Report on American Grandparents revealed that 1 in 10 households is headed by a grandparent with at least one grandchild living there. The study reports that part of the reason for this is high rates of unemployment among the children’s parents. Interestingly, in 1980 there were only 28 million Americans living in a household that included two adult generations or a grandparent and at least one other generation. By 2008 the number was 49 million Americans living inter-generationally.

In a recent New York Times story about this trend, Kermit Baker, a senior fellow at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard and the chief economist of the American Institute of Architects, said, “Immigrants are a source of growing demand (for intergenerational homes), and their household composition is different in fundamental ways from the domestic-born.”

[Read more →]

Parents and grandparents alike know that “pit of the stomach” feeling when a child grabs the keys and drives away for the first time. It’s both exhilarating to share their freedom and frightening to consider all of the things that could happen when they are behind the wheel.

A new study recently revealed that grandparents are increasingly paying for auto insurance for both children and grandchildren. A Bureau of Labor Statistics study shows that baby boomers spent $863 million on used cars given as gifts, suggesting that these cars are being purchased for grandchildren drivers. What does this mean for you as you prepare for your grandchildren to hit the road?

Check out these tips from my latest Allstate blog.

Do you have some tips of your own you would share?

It is the first show of our second season! For it we spoke with guest Jeffrey DeMure, an architect and founder of Jeffrey DeMure & Associates (J D + A).

For more than 20 years, he has been focused on residential and mixed use architecture and land planning throughout the United States. He and his team are responsible for some of the most forward-thinking planning and designs for housing the aging population.

Listen to the show →

Date: Tuesday, October 25
Time: 3:45 – 5:15 p.m.
Where: Hyatt Regency, Orange County, CA

This session will provide key strategies to effectively communicate with strong influencers in the decision making process – the adult children/caregivers, integral to the selection and sales process. Learn how understanding the values of decision makers and trends and differences in sentiment towards Assisted Living communities can help drive your marketing strategy. Discover a messaging framework needed to engage and increase your prospect base.

For our second show of the season we spoke with guest Jeff Rosenfeld, co-author of the new book Unassisted Living: Ageless Homes for Later Life.

Jeff is a PhD and director of the Gerontology program and the Gerontology Center at Hofstra University. He has a long-time interest in the interplay between aging and home design. Unassisted Living is his second book in collaboration with Wid Chapman, the interior design program chair at Parsons School of Design. The book is a visual feast! I don’t think I’ve seen any book that acknowledges the spirit of t baby boomer generation and how we actually want to live as we age. On our program Jeff explains the concept.

Listen to the show →