A not quite so perfect approach

Must be time to stop banging on about this topic but, every time you think you’ve seen the worst, someone else pops up with an even more irritating idea. This time the red rag is being waved by The Future Perfect Company which creates products for the over-50s market. Apparently they’ve decided to run a design competition with the University of Brighton that it hopes will throw up ideas that appeal to the baby-boom generation.

Staff and students at the university’s Faculty of Arts and Architecture and School of Environment and Technology are being invited to submit attractive designs that address one or more challenges associated with ageing such as short-term memory loss, failing eyesight and hearing, and problems with manual dexterity.

Future Perfect’s owner criticises the ‘uninspiring’ retail design of mobility shops, and observes that products for older people are ‘usually dull and clinical with very little emphasis on attractive design, making them “necessary evils” that highlight disability rather than aid and promote ability’.

Once again this raises the question “which older people is she referring to?” Very few of the baby-boom generation (around 50 to 70) visit mobility shops (unless on behalf of ageing parents) or suffer from the ailments described.  Had this been a competition for products for the elderly, all well and good. As it is, this shows a remarkable lack of insight into the market.

The Voice of Much Older People

I’ve just caught up with reading Dame Joan Bakewell’s first Annual Report as the Voice of Older People. I like Joan and from what I read in the report it’s clear she’s putting a lot of effort into doing the best she can on a range of issues flagged up to her by, and relating to, “older people”.

However, as I initially suspected, these involve in the main, the concerns of the elderly – caring provision, health standards, sheltered housing, public loos. There is little in there representing the concerns of today’s average 50 to 70 year olds (apart from a section on retirement age). Yes, younger “older” people may have raised some of these issues but in relation to their parents or other “old” people, not themselves.

Dame Joan herself is aware of this anomaly and deals with it in the introduction to her report by stating “The term ‘older people’ is self defining. I believe that if you consider yourself to be ‘older’ then you are. It might be in your early fifties, it certainly applies to the over eighties.”  That’s a bit of an unhelpful explanation really. Of course if you’re in your early fifties you will see yourself as “older” than someone in their thirties or forties even though you may have similar interests and attitudes and not really look that much different. But do you consider yourself “older” in the same way as an eighty plus year old? I doubt it.

I have no issue with the good work that Joan is doing. I just wish she would adopt a more accurate title.

http://www.equalities.gov.uk/news/voice_of_older_people-_annual.aspx

Fairness, equality and the lifecourse

Last week we attended the third in a series of seminars presented by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and Age Concern / Help the Aged (for whom a new name is imminent). Entitled JustAgeing: fairness, equality and the lifecourse the programme focuses on inequality over the lifecourse with this particular seminar being held to examine the notion of inter-generational equity. In what was an interesting but fundamentally academic discussion, a number of contentious issues were raised not least the assumed ability of particular generations (in this case “baby boomers”) to manipulate resources to their own benefit and the detriment of others. What emerged yet again however is that we lack an adequate vocabulary to discuss meaningfully today’s ageing reality – as revealed by a clear demonstration that the generation we think of as “baby boomers” in the UK is in fact two different cohorts who have been subject to different social, economic and environmental influences relating to the different years they were born. 

But the real issue which quickly emerged from the heart of the session was the extent to which we, as a society or as providers of services, can or should expect to be able to achieve inter-generational equity and the extent to which this is either achievable or desirable.  After all, individuals always have been and will be different. As we have said so often before, why do we expect them then to suddenly become homogeneous simply because of a shared age?  It was an interesting theoretical discussion no doubt, but unfortunately there was not a great deal of practical use to take away.

Goodbye 9 to 5 – on TV

Following on from my previous blog, this week I tuned into a new TV programme “Goodbye 9 to 5” aimed at those over 55 who have retired or are about to retire.

It can be found on “Information TV” (Sky 166 or Freesat 402) and is put together by Chris Gosling who runs the firm Serious Leisure TV from East Anglia. The programmes are low budget but very interesting and professionally put together, and obviously now need all the visibility they can get as they roll out their schedule.

55 is an interesting age to choose but we can fully understand why. There will be those who have retired and will appreciate the leisure aspects and also the injustices that some in retirement will have to face but there are many for whom retirement is not yet an option and those people will be looking for content of a differing nature. Advance notice of issues to come show that Chris is well aware of this and we look forward to watching the content develop.

Furthermore, there is also a networking site to back it up which is actively seeking feedback and suggestions from people regarding the direction the programmes should take – and even, maybe, the possibility of contributing to the programmes at some future date. Check it out and sign up at http://goodbye925.ning.com/.

We wish this venture every success and look forward to seeing it progress.

Another one bites the dust!

This week has seen the demise of yet another high budget, high profile over 50s social networking/lifestyle site – this time in the USA. Its name is irrelevant since it is now history.

Here, at in my prime, we carry out global research on a daily basis covering all kinds of issues as they relate to the world’s ageing population and to older people (whatever that might mean exactly). Some while ago we wrote here about the nature of sites for the over 50s and the genuine need for subject specific social networking sites, for example ones which might bring together those seeking employment or those who have been out of work for some time. This time can be very lonely, frustrating and depressing in which knowledge, advice and mutual support would be of tremendous value. We are still waiting to see one but we know it will come.

Websites, currently, tend to fall into a number of categories. There are a few sites or blogs, rather like ours, which are run by professionals in the field and which provide useful information and commentary on what is happening in the over 50s arena. I will come back to those in a future blog.

For the rest they tend to fall into three main categories.

There are some very good sites emanating from charities and central or local government which provide a wealth of information and advice and which all “silver surfers” should refer to. They tend, on the whole, to be geared towards issues affecting the more elderly end of the age spectrum.

There are sites which are run as a hobby by old codgers for old codgers. These are cosy, friendly and non-threatening but, in the end, there is a limit to how many times one can laugh at a joke about going upstairs and not remembering why.

And there are those, the ones now falling by the wayside, which are what one might call “lifestyle” sites. These are based on the false premise that “older” is a condition that you wake up to one morning having been “younger” the day before and from now on all your friends only fit into the “older” category and anything you buy must be purchased from an age-specific site – insurance, washing machines, holidays – anything. Why?

The mature market (mature meerkat?) does not operate like that and does not want to operate like that.

Power to the (older) people

We note with interest and enthusiasm the development and recent publication of VotingAge, a manifesto for older people, by the charity Counsel and Care. Although lobby groups and political parties have sprung up to argue their cases over issues such as “Europe”, and concerns about the environment, little if anything has been attempted in this arena, certainly not in this country.

While we would not wish the whole political spectrum to be defined along age lines we do see, with the demographics moving clearly in our direction, and a huge voting pool of conscientious citizens well used to harnessing the power of the ballot box, that this could prove to be a very influential way to change opinions and get things done.

Recent events have resulted in MPs and established political parties being held in very low esteem and they must work hard to re-establish faith in themselves and the democratic processes. And there is also now plenty of scope for new influences to enter the resulting vacuum.

As individuals, older people may be thought of by some as weak, vulnerable, insignificant and even invisible. We disagree and certainly, enfranchised and acting en masse, who knows, anything is possible.

For more click below.

http://www.counselandcare.org.uk/influence/news/

http://www.counselandcare.org.uk/assets/library/documents/VotingAge_Manifesto_final.pdf

Where’s the action on overcoming age prejudice?

Emma Soames, editor-at-large of Saga Magazine, writing in last Sunday’s Guardian (click here for article) expressed perfectly our sentiments about current attitudes towards age in the UK when she wrote:

“Our thinking about old age needs a serious overhaul, just as previous attitudes to sex and race needed a damn good slap around the face. Legislation can only go so far in introducing a cultural sea change…As the authors of the greatest social and sexual revolutions of the last two centuries, we baby boomers are famous for kick-starting change and confounding prejudice. Well, we had better get on and add another revolution to the list. It won’t be long before it’s too late.”

We’re right there with you Emma. Change isn’t going to come from the rest of society quickly enough or extensively enough. It’s down to us as the relevant age group to show our power and ingenuity and make it happen.

Maturity: a mystery for marketers

Our website www.inmyprime.info is now well-established and continues to be well-visited (go on, have a look if you haven’t already). As a result we are, on a daily basis, emailed and called by numerous marketing and PR people promoting products, services and stories relating to those of mature years in the hope that we will use their material.

We’re not complaining about this. Some of the stuff is very interesting and pertinent. Some of it provides us with knowledge, insight and substance we can use on the website or elsewhere. But unfortunately rather a lot of it has nothing at all to do with the market we operate in.

The array of material we get forcefully underlines just how little marketing and PR people in general understand age. The age group we focus on, as is clearly stated on our website, is 50 to 70. As such it is a totally different generation from the truly elderly which in itself is a group fragmented by health, wealth, and cognitive and other abilities. As our focus is on the mature market our only interest in products and services to do with the rather insensitively named geriatric market is in respect of things we might need or need to know about for our elderly parents or others of that age.

If this was acknowledged by hopeful young PRs we might be somewhat more receptive towards their material. As it is (without naming and shaming) we receive a load of old dross about comfy slippers, fluffy kittens, incontinence products, personal alarms… and far too many pictures of  white haired people in their seventies or eighties accompanying press releases containing the words “over 50s”.

Any PR or marketing people who would like to really make a mark on the mature market are advised to get in touch…