NextAge Resources

Below is a sample issue.

• Marketing to Older Adults
• Revisioning Retirement
• Finding Balance in Caregiving
• 122 Year Old Man
• The Boomers Are Coming
• Financial Advising
• Better Board Meetings
• Aging and Creativity
• The New Middle Ages
• Do You Feel Old Yet?
• Helen Thomas: "I'm Still Learning"

MARKETING TO OLDER ADULTS

David Wolfe, author of SERVING THE AGELESS MARKET and founder of National Senior Living Industries, offers some wise observations:

"Most of what marketers know about marketing was learned when youth dominated the marketplace. The worldviews, needs, motivations and needs satisfaction approaches of the young are quite different from those who are in the second half of life. Because most adults are now over the age of 40 the current adult median age is 44 much of what once worked in marketing no longer does.

I believe companies are largely ignoring the largest and richest customer group in history for three reasons. First, stereotypical beliefs about older customers paint them as resistant to change, so why bother. Second, there is widespread uneasiness about how to market to older customers, so let’s spare the pain of failure. Third, people under 40, who are not in the same mental space as members of the new adult marketplace majority, dominate marketing processes. They relate most comfortably to customers of their own ages or younger.

The median age will continue to rise for another 15 years or so, peaking at around 50. Markets over 40 will grow at a far faster clip than markets under 40. Willie Sutton, the famous bank robber, answered a reporter who asked why he robbed banks, 'Because that’s were the money is.' Today, and for the next several decades, most money will be in 40-plus markets. However, to take greatest advantage of the potential of those markets, marketers need to go to school and learn how the rules of marketing are quite different for older customers."

David Wolfe offers a workshop series under the title "Brain Science for Marketers" on how to build empathetic bridges to consumers' minds. For more information contact:

Wolfe Resources Group, 11525
Hearthstone Court, Reston, Virginia 20191
Telephone: 703-758-0759
Visit his website at: http://www.idrm.com

David Wolfe is a member of the NextAge Speakers Bureau and offers presentations to groups around the country. For more information, see http://www.nextagespeakers.com/dwolfe.htm.

REVISIONING RETIREMENT

Futurist Ken Dychtwald offers some new data on "Revisioning Retirement" based on recent consumer research. He points to a new retiree segmentation paradigm including four groups: "Ageless Explorers," "Comfortably Contents," "Live for Todays" and Sick and Tireds." The research comes from a national survey conducted by Harris Interactive. For details, visit:

http://www.re-visioningretirement.com.

For another approach to segmentation and age, look at Ann Fishman's work on generational marketing, available at:

http://www.nextagespeakers.com/afishman.htm.

FINDING BALANCE IN CAREGIVING

Beth Witrogen McLeod, a member of NextAge Speakers Bureau, is giving the keynote address for the annual symposium of the Parkinson Center of Oregon at OHSU, Portland: "Finding Balance at the Heart of Caring" (June 20, 2002).

For more on Beth McCleod, see: http://www.nextagespeakers.com/bmcleod.htm

122 YEAR OLD MAN

Remember Mel Brooks' spoof about the 2000 year old man in the year 2000? Now there's a 122-year old man in the year 2067. That's the subject of a new one-man show and lecture by H.R. Moody under the title "Reminiscences of the 21st Century."

The presentation depicts alternative futures for an aging society in the 21st century. It covers regenerative medicine and life extension technology, the future of Social Security, aging of the Baby Boom generation, prospects for curing Alzheimer's Disease, and more.

For more information, visit the website: http://www.hrmoody.com

THE BOOMERS ARE COMING !!!

The impact of aging Baby Boomers on retirement will come sooner than expected, analysts predict. The reason? Because Americans can collect (reduced) Social Security benefits starting at age 62. The oldest of the Boomers will reach that age in just six years.

Read more about it in "Boomers' Retirement Wave Likely to Begin in Just 6 Years," by Murray Gendell (Population Reference Bureau POPULATION TODAY (April, 2002).

Don't miss Marc Freedman's important book PRIME TIME on how aging Baby Boomers will revolutionize retirement. More about Marc Freedman is available at:

http://www.nextagespeakers.com/mfreedman.htm

FINANCIAL ADVISING

NextAge Speaker NEAL E. CUTLER has a new book coming out in the J.K. Lasser professional series. The title is ADVISING MATURE CLIENTS: The New Science of Wealth Span Planning (Wiley, 2002).

Find out more about Neal Cutler at: http://www.nextagespeakers.com/ncutler.htm

Or, read more about Cutler's new book.

BETTER BOARD MEETINGS

The Board Café offers lots of ideas, opinion, news, and resources to help board members give and get the most out of board service. It’s a free e-newsletter published by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services.

See the article on "TEN QUICK WAYS TO IMPROVE BOARD MEETINGS" by Jan Masaoka, available at http://www.boardcafe.org.

AGING and CREATIVITY

T. George Harris, retired Editor in Chief of PSYCHOLOGY TODAY, has a stimulating article on mortality and late-life creativity. The article is available on the Beliefnet website, an Internet resource covering a range of issues on contemporary religion and spirituality.

Also, you can join Harris in an on-line conversation about creativity among the "wrinkled" generation and the stimulus of mortality for our creative life.

For T. George Harris's article, and on-line conversation, visit: http://www.beliefnet.com/frameset.asp?pageLoc=/story/76/story_7630_1.html&boardID=14879

THE NEW MIDDLE AGES

Jane Haas, a member of NextAge Speakers Bureau, will be in Las Vegas on July 14 addressing the retired members of the American Teachers Federation on the subject "The New Middle Ages: Why You Will Never Be Old." Haas explores ways of to put off the "signs and symptoms" of age, from cosmetic surgery to exercise, from medical advancements to ways to remain productive members of society. For more information, contact fstella@aft.org.

On Jane Haas, visit: http://www.nextagespeakers.com/jhaas.htm

DO YOU FEEL OLD YET?

Each year the staff at Beloit College in Wisconsin put together a list, to try to give the faculty a sense of the mindset of this year's incoming freshmen. Here's this year's list:

The people who are starting college this fall across the nation were born in 1983.

They are too young to remember the space shuttle blowing up.

Their lifetime has always included AIDS.

Bottle caps have always been screw off and plastic.

The CD was introduced the year they were born.

They have always had an answering machine.

They have always had cable.

They cannot fathom not having a remote control.

Jay Leno has always been on the Tonight Show.

They never heard: "Where's the Beef?", "I'd walk a mile for a Camel

They do not care who shot J. R. and have no idea who J. R. even is.

They don't have a clue how to use a typewriter.

Do you feel old yet?

HELEN THOMAS: "I'm still learning"

Comments by Helen Thomas, age 81, veteran White House reporter when she received a prestigious journalism award last month:

"The fact you are belaboring my age, rather than who I am and what I want to be, shows the mentality in this country," Thomas said. "I get this all the time: "How can she still be working? Why isn't she retired? Why doesn't she drop dead?'

"I just tell people to live their own lives and let me live my life. I love my work and I want to be a better reporter. It's a constant learning game and I'm still learning."

This quarterly electronic newsletter is published by the NextAge Speakers Bureau, a cooperative enterprise to promote public education about the future of an aging society. NextAge Resources contains items of interest to meeting planners, educators, professional trainers, and leaders in all sectors of society. To submit items or request subscription changes, contact nextagespeakers@yahoo.com or visit the website at www.NextAgeSpeakers.com. (c) Copyright 2002. All rights reserved.

copyright [c] 2001 NextAge Speakers