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Retailers
Redesign As Boomers Hit 60: But Marketing to the Aging Group Is Tricky By Ylan Q. Mui, Washington Post
Staff Writer, Tuesday, January 17, 2006; D01 §
The new Good Grips rip claw hammer has a fiberglass core and a non-slip
handle, to lighten shock and prevent injury. §
Whirlpool Corp. has created a front-loading washing machine mounted on a
pedestal to reduce back strain. §
Moen Inc. has designed a new line of shower-stall grab bar that tries to
mask its purpose -- to prevent people from slipping -- behind sleek metallic
finishes and special detailing. As the baby-boom
generation starts turning 60, it is prompting retailers to redesign basic
kitchen tools and even high-tech electronics with a new end in mind: selling to
older consumers who don't want to concede they are older. The conundrum was at
the forefront of this year's National Retail Federation convention, which
opened Sunday in New York, where designers and marketers wrestled with the fact
that it isn't enough to manufacture, say, a can opener that's easy for someone
with arthritis to use. It has to be marketed without mentioning arthritis, or
even age. "You'll see a
shift in focus," said Patrick Conroy, a consumer business analyst for Deloitte
& Touche USA LLP who said retailers are only now adapting to the fact that
today's 60-year-olds lead different lives than the previous generation.
"If they ignore it, they'll do so at their own peril." People older than 50
account for almost half of total consumer spending in the country, according to a recent Deloitte report
entitled "Wealth with Wisdom: Serving the Needs of Aging Consumers."
The firm estimates that their spending power is $1.7 trillion. Yet
retailers have been reluctant to embrace the demographic, preferring instead to
focus on younger consumers to develop brand loyalty. The irony, said Gretchen Addi, a senior executive at design firm
Ideo Inc., is that the boomer generation is the one that forced retailers to
pay attention to the youth market in the first place. "The problem
is that this marketing hasn't grown up with them," she said at the NRF
convention. "A lot of [retailers] are afraid that if they go to an older
market, they'll lose the youth market." The issue is
further complicated by the tricky tactics required to target the boomer
generation, people who refuse to believe they're over the hill until they're
six feet under it, said Matt Thornhill, president of the Boomer Project, a consulting firm. Labels
such as "senior citizen" are immediate turnoffs. Instead, retailers
must appeal to boomers' interests, lifestyle, values -- anything but age. "With today's
60-year-old, it's a very different generation of 60-year-olds than the last
generation. These guys are riding motorcycles," said Alex Lee, president
of OXO International, which
manufactures Good Grips cooking utensils. "The last thing they want is the
kind of patronizing, help-me-do-something kind of tools." Good Grips was founded by housewares giant Sam Farber after he
noticed that his wife, who had arthritis, had trouble using everyday cooking
utensils. The company now has more than 750 easy-to-use tools, such as a can
opener with oversize handles for better leverage, that also boast sleek design.
In October, Good Grips launched a line of 22 handtools at Lowe's. "We have
almost a cult-like following among older consumers," company spokeswoman
Gretchen Holt said. "At the same time, we have just as strong a following
from people in the 20-to-40 age range because the products look cool." Even youth-oriented
companies are feeling compelled to market "older." Sportswear company Fila has begun targeting 30- to
50-year-olds after several years of flirting with younger shoppers, spokeswoman
Amy Dimond said. To reach this new demographic, Fila has begun using an ad
showing an anonymous skier rushing down a mountain. The skier could be 20, 40,
or even 60 years old--the face is hidden, encouraging consumers to envision
themselves rushing down the mountain instead of fixating on the age of the
model. The company has also introduced a line of sportswear dubbed
"benessere," or "wellness" in Italian, designed to look
good on a range of physiques. Dimond calls it the "mind and body collection." "We're here to
enhance the natural performance features of the human body," she said. Gap Inc., which built its brand on the youth market, opened its
first stores targeting women ages 35 and older in August in New York and
Chicago. Called Forth & Towne, they feature central fitting rooms with
three-way mirrors in every stall and adjustable lighting. Sweaters and T-shirts
are cut longer to avoid embarrassing exposures. Employees are dubbed
"style consultants" and are all within the retailer's target age
range -- no gum-snapping high school students sullenly ringing up your
purchases here. "The store is
really designed for mature, confident women. For grown-ups," Forth & Towne President Gary Muto said. The boomers'
influence is seeping into many categories of the retail industry. Home builders are beginning to offer houses with two
master bedrooms to accommodate older couples who sleep separately because of
restlessness, achiness or snoring, said Denver architect Mike Kephart. Moen's
new grab bars, meanwhile, look stylish but can also hold up to 500 pounds. "People want to mature in their
homes but don't want it to look institutional," said Gary Pember, director
of marketing and product development for Moen. Even the tech industry, long the province of the young and
dexterous, is reaching out to boomers. According to a recent survey by
Deloitte, a third of people ages 55 to 64 would rather shop online than
in stores. They own
an average of 5.9 high-tech gadgets.
So when America Online and Warner Bros. teamed to create their new
online TV service, it was a no-brainer to include vintage shows such as
"Welcome Back, Kotter" and "Wonder Woman." Many music download
Web sites also make certain to include a core roster of artists with boomer
appeal, such as the Beach Boys, David Bowie and the Rolling Stones. Microsoft
went out of its way to pitch its new Xbox 360 as a device even parents can
enjoy when it debuted a few months ago. Looking even
further down the line, the tech industry is scrambling to build prototypes of
gadgets to aid boomers when they need more health care. Chipmaker Intel Corp., for example, has an entire
think-tank team devoted to getting microchips into walkers and medicine cabinets. The idea may not be
as far-fetched as it seems. Sean Callahan started a magazine titled GeezerJocks last spring, focused on
athletes such as 80-year-old Robert McKeague, who finished the Ironman
triathlon in Hawaii, along with not-so-famous older athletes who are
"still mixing it up under the hoops and throwing elbows and all
that." Another popular
feature is the column "GeezerJock Doc." One recent installment
answered this question: "My orthopedic surgeon told me I have severe
arthritis and need to have a knee replacement. How will this affect my athletic
lifestyle?" Thornhill of the Boomer
Project said this attitude defines boomers' mindset and will allow them to
reshape the retail industry, from apparel to consumer electronics to cookware
and beyond. "They are the first generation to hit age 50 and now
age 60 with a high degree of confidence that they're going to live another 35
to 40 years," he said. "They know they're not going to get
old until the very end." Callahan said
working on GeezerJock has helped him look at his own life in a new way. He
turns 41 at the end of the month, putting him at the tail end of the boomer generation. "It doesn't make 40 or 41 seem so
daunting, I think. I can still do the things that I love to do," he said.
"It's encouraging." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/16/AR2006011601073.html |
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