What are five steps every community marketer should take?
1. Ensure that your marketing messages and images are not furthering the misperception that retirement communities are little more than nursing homes.
2. Implement an event strategy that brings prospects on campus to see for themselves what life could be like,.
3. Ensure your employees are knowledgeable and are delivering your brand each and every day to everyone they encounter including one another.
4. Emphasize your mission and residents who are living a mission-focused lifestyle.
5. Spend sufficient time educating prospects on the many benefits of having care available should they need it
For more insights on drawing prospects to your community, order a free copy of our latest white paper.
What’s the one diet mistake 100-year-olds never make?
From Ikaria, Greece, to Sardinia, Italy, people who live longer follow a wide variety of diets. What’s the one thing their eating habits all have in common? A “plant slant” — fruits and vegetables are at the center of their diets.
Back in the U.S, some communities are already incorporating the nine healthy principles followed in the world’s longevity hotspots, including “plant slant” (#5). Wellmark has found a way to take advantage of this trend through its Blue Zones sponsorship. We can learn from this sponsorship and see how other industries — from produce to wine — can also benefit from the growing trend.
In our past few posts, we covered the first five principles: (Move Naturally, Know Your Purpose, Downshift, 80% Rule and Plant Slant.) Learn about the other four at bluezones.com.
Could you be eating 100% right and still be eating wrong?
Even if you pack your diet with super foods like blueberries and broccoli, you could still be shortening your life if you’re not following the 80% rule. Why does this simple rule help you live longer?
Because it means eating only 80% of the food on your plate, which is one of nine healthy practices shared by people in longevity hot spots around the world. In fact, researchers found that in Okinawa, Japan (aka The Island of the Immortals), residents say “Hara Hachi Bu” before every meal. This phrase, which translates to “belly 80% full,” is their reminder to stop eating when their stomachs are 80% full.
We may not see an influx of 100-year-olds walking the earth, but the growing interest in leading a longer, happier life is a mature market trend we should all keep an eye on.
Next week, we’ll reveal what you should be eating.
What’s the healthy habit every three-year-old practices?
It’s something we should all try, because it’s one of the 9 practices shared by residents of longevity hot spots around the world. Why is this habit so important?
Because research has found that habit #3, “downshift” (finding ways to relieve stress), can help you live longer and lower your risk of heart disease. For long-lived residents of Ikaria, Greece, downshifting means an afternoon nap. Why not join them? Happy snoozing!
Check back next week to hear about #4: the 80% rule.
You’ll find it in Blue Zones, places around the world where people live to 100 at rates ten times greater than in the U.S. They share nine healthy traits. And #2 has nothing to do with diet and exercise. It’s “Know Your Purpose,” which means knowing why you wake up in the morning – and it can add an extra seven years to your life expectancy.
Blue Zones researchers found that sense of purpose in places like Okinawa, Japan. They learned that Okinawans have clear feelings of being needed well into their 100s.
Think about ways to incorporate “Know Your Purpose” and the other 9 principles into marketing your products or services. One way: hold a “Purpose” workshop at your community to help residents explore their life dreams.
Baby Boomers are about to do something undesirable yet inevitable — they’re going to start getting old. Will these years be filled with vitality or chronic disease?
Boomers can learn from those who live in Blue Zones, pockets around the world where people live measurably longer and better, reaching 100 years of age at rates 10 times greater than in the U.S.
Studies by Dan Buettner and a team of researchers found that the lifestyles of residents in these Blue Zones — Ikaria, Greece; Loma Linda, Calif.; Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; and Nicoya, Costa Rica — shared nine principles:
Move naturally
Know your purpose
Downshift
80 percent rule
Plant slant
Wine @ 5
Family first
Belong
Right tribe
Challenge your team to think about ways to incorporate these principles into marketing your products or services. We’ll help by discussing one each week in this blog. Let’s start with #1: Move naturally.
Moving naturally simply means finding ways to move more in your everyday life, so you burn more calories without even thinking about it. Some easy suggestions: Keep a garden, walk to a friend’s house, park at the far end of the lot, take the stairs. What other ways can you encourage your customers to move more?
We joke about it at the office: ”Oh, I’ll be paying off those student loans for the rest of my life.” But, for some people, it’s actually true.
According to the Government Accountability Office, 706,000 of households headed by people over 65 have outstanding student debt. They owed a collective $18.2 billion in 2013, up from $2.8 billion in 2005. Worse yet, people over 65 default on their loans at a much higher rate than younger people, and can have part of their social security benefits garnished to offset their debt.
Those stats strike close to home here at Varsity. A number of employees here are paying off student loans. One woman chose a 15-year loan period with a $600 monthly payment. “I wanted them gone,” she said. “I don’t want to be in my 60s and paying them off.” As it is, she’ll pay a total of $30,000 in interest. (Her friends who chose 30-year loan periods will be paying for a long, long time.) Another co-worker has an 8.75 percent interest rate. “It’s crazy that you can get a house at a lower interest rate than a student loan,” he said.
Student loan debt is becoming such a huge issue that it’s a hot topic on the presidential campaign trail. Learn where each politician stands here.
It’s not an Olympic-size pool or walk-in-closet. It’s something even more appealing: driverless transportation.
Every retiree dreads giving up the keys. Some people even put off getting a checkup out of fear their doctor will tell them they need to stop driving. Moving to a retirement community can be a partial solution, with a shuttle to shopping and errands. And now, senior living transportation is about to move forward—with the driverless vehicle.
Although Google and others are working to get the driverless car on the road, strict government regulations are putting up roadblocks. Meanwhile, a startup called Auro is moving more quickly, targeting universities and retirement communities on private property, where laws are less strict. According to Technology Review, Auro is testing a prototype at a retirement community this year.
How residents benefit from the new technology: They have more mobility, since driverless shuttles will be able to make on-demand pickups, not just at scheduled times and on set routes. How communities benefit: lower cost. According to Auro, a self-driving shuttle could reduce transportation costs by 40 to 60% because there’s no driver salary.
So forget building that new pool. Draw residents in with the perk of the future: a self-driving shuttle. It’s available for pre-order now.
Music has been shown to enhance brain function, reduce stress and build relationships.
And the more connected people feel to the music, the better. One study found that seniors who sang along to tunes scored significantly better on cognitive tests than those who just listened.
In LA, a group of seniors has even formed its own band. “The Fifth Dementia” is made up of musicians with degenerative diseases and high school students. Watch the video to see how they find a common language.
The band is part of Music Mends Minds, Inc., an organization created by Carol and Irwin Rosenstein when Irwin, a musician, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and discovered that music was beneficial to him. The organization’s mission is to use music to help control the progression of cognitive decline in seniors and build support systems for students.
The program has been a huge hit, and more musicians are still needed. Know someone who’s interested? Learn more here.
From the Outside In: Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the Prospect’s Decision Process
A team of Varsity researchers brought Project Looking Glass and Project Looking Glass II to the field of aging services. In these nationally recognized studies, researchers moved into two retirement communities for 30 days; there they lived, ate, shopped and socialized alongside residents. We have now launched a third in-depth ethnographic study, called “Project Looking Glass III: From the Outside In.”
In essence, we are turning the looking glass around to dig more deeply into the decision-making process that prospects go through when choosing a community. We’ll learn what triggers people to start investigating senior living communities; what factors influence potential residents to choose or pass on a community; what their expectations were prior to moving into their new home; and the reality that they find as residents of the community.
We’ll evaluate the decision-making process to see how it may vary in different areas of the country and among different cohorts—the current aging generation of prospects (what we call “the transitional generation”) and Baby Boomers—each of which is at a different stage of investigation into retirement community living.
Silent Generation: Born 1910-1925
Transitional Generation: Born 1930-1950
Baby Boomers: Born 1946-1964
Insights from this study will assist senior living communities in further refining their marketing messages and targeting techniques to make sure they’re not only connecting with the right people, but are also having the most relevant, informed conversations that will lead to positive decisions.
If you are interested in participating in this study by having your prospective residents fill out an online survey and/or in having Varsity conduct focus groups at your community, please contact me at jstone@varsitybranding.com.
