Good NEWS! This week on Wednesday, you can access the 2009 Market Overview docs from this site. A download page will be presented to anyone who is willing to fill out a short contact form that we will then use to build the newsletter distribution list. If you want to comment, this blog entry will be the one to comment on.
So let's get right to the point -- why does this market overview matter?
It describes a real and viable market that is emerging now but will grow to match the need!
I spent some quality time this weekend writing and then losing a blog entry to a software crash. Computers. Gotta love 'em. But I got to thinking about simplification, packaging, and reuse. If you think about it, how resourceful and enterprising business people are! Just think -- from one year to the next, contractors and interior designers move from new home building and decorating to renovation and retrofit. Car rental companies like Hertz get into the hourly car use business to compete with Zipcar.
Vendors never want to miss a market, inadvertantly bypassing an audience that may love to buy their products -- if they only knew more about them. So why don't vendors with great potential in boomer and senior audiences -- and even some loving customers -- try harder to make this match clearer? Is it because in our youth-oriented product culture, they don't want to use the 'age' word? Is it because the product execs are too youth-oriented themselves? Fearful of alienating some by being specific about others?
These are tough times to sell products. Period. But before being ossified into a state of discouragement, it's good to know that the baby boomer market segment is not tapped out yet as the attached two studies make clear.
For those of you in and around this industry, this is very cool. Today's NY Times has a lengthy front page feature by John Leland called "Sensors Help to Keep the Elderly Safe, and Living Independently at Home." Give it a read.
Monitor the environment. Sensor-based monitoring is not new -- QuietCare and GrandCare have pioneered home monitoring of seniors using room-based sensors for years. In both cases, sensors are placed in the room and alerts launched to a pre-determined number based on activity (or lack of activity) indicated by the sensors.
Seniors do their best to live and stay well. If you live in Florida and go to a concert at 4:00 pm on a Friday, it's not surprising to be surrounded by seniors in their 80's and beyond, dressed up and slowly climbing the steep stairs up to the balcony. These concertgoers likely live in their own homes, drive their own cars, and enjoy concerts and perhaps a nice meal in a restaurant afterward.
At first glance, this article was a human interest story about a free service for seniors in Columbus Ohio. There were only 4 enrollees in a program that provided automatic safety calls (reverse 911) at preset times. With no answer after 3 tries, the police were dispatched.
