Category: Fresh Perspectives

We are proud to announce our participation in this year’s LeadingAge PEAK leadership summit, held March 18–21 in Washington, D.C.

The Varsity team has gone all-in this year, hosting a basecamp at zone 5 of the event. The theme of our basecamp is “Telling your story: connecting with tomorrow’s discerning customer.” All of our presentations will cover topics that relate to how aging services providers will need to grow and adapt their messaging in the coming years.

Keynote presentations will include:

• “Positioning the Mission,” with Varsity President Wayne Langley
• “Connecting with Consumers,” with Rob Smith, creative director, and Jackie Stone, vice president of sales consulting — both of Varsity
• A panel discussion, hosted by Derek Dunham, Varsity’s vice president of client relations, where he will interview marketers to get their respective takes on how to get the most of an agency relationship
• Kevin Purcell, of WildFig, who will demonstrate how data-driven decision-making can change the way you do business

In between these sessions, the Varsity team will be on hand to meet and discuss these topics and more with all of the attendees. We invite you to stop by and say hello!

Following PEAK, we plan to make a selection of our presentations available via videos on our website, so if you can’t attend in-person, be sure to check back to catch the highlights of the event.

During 2018, we have undertaken an ongoing blog series: We are taking a look at the opportunities and challenges faced by the diverse groups of Boomers and seniors being served by today’s aging services providers.

For our first article in the series, we examine a rapidly growing population in the United States: Latino Boomers and seniors.

The numbers don’t lie.

According to Pew Research, in 2015, there were 57 million Americans who identified as Hispanic or Latino. Between 2000 and 2014, 54 percent of the United States population growth came from Latinos. This growth hasn’t just occurred along the Southern borders, either. The top three counties for Latino growth in the United States are all in North Dakota, thanks to the Bakken shale oil boom.

Put yourself in the shoes of an aging Latino immigrant to the United States. You’ve probably come from a country with a lower standard wage and less opportunities. You’ve now worked in America, and you’re looking at retirement. If you were fortunate to work in an industry that provided retirement benefits, you might be in good fiscal shape; perhaps you can afford to retire to a community with quality care and a high standard of living. But is that community ready for you?

If we were to poll the sales & marketing directors at any number of communities around the country, they would say that their community is welcoming of Latinos and ready to meet their needs — and they aren’t being deceptive. From a sales & marketing standpoint, most aging services organizations are indeed ready for an influx of Latino residents, but the challenges don’t exist at the front door, so to speak; rather, they exist internally in the community and how the social structure of retirement may differ from the cultural norms that Latinos value.

Let’s start with marketing materials. Often, aging services organizations use a pastel palette, which conveys caring and relaxation. These colors traditionally appeal to women, who are often the key decision-makers regarding the retirement process, especially among Caucasians. According to Lester Long, who has studied Latino culture, the father is the head of the average Latino house, and while the mother is responsible for its maintenance, major decisions rest with the man. These family structures remain at the heart of Latino personal relations.

Family is one of the most important factors, if not the most important factor, for many Latinos. There is a strong sense of duty and honor for this demographic, especially when it comes to family hospitality. When travelling to other cities, Latinos opt to stay with family during the trip. Would that be allowed in your community? Could a Latino family stay with one of your residents for a few days? Offering this type of service could be a great addition to your marketing if you’re trying to attract Latino residents.

Appealing to potential Latino residents can also prove challenging because, as a culture, they place great importance on the present, with less concern for the future. Therefore, all of the “safety net” programs that aging services groups offer can fall on deaf ears in the Latino community. Concentrating on what your community offers today can prove more effective than discussing services that the potential resident may never need.

Latino residents are a huge opportunity for retirement service providers, but their wants and needs vary slightly from the position that senior sales & marketing professionals tend to take. By making some subtle changes to your strategy now, you could easily find your organization on the forefront of the Latino Boomer influx, giving you a leg up in the market.

In an era where the average person feels more connected than ever, the issue of loneliness among seniors is becoming disconcerting. Boomers, Xers and Millennials have adapted to a social world that revolves around mobile technology, yet seniors are becoming increasingly disassociated from their families. So, what’s the root cause of this problem, and how can we address it as aging services professionals?

According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data, about 28 percent of people aged 65 and older are living alone. As one ages, the chances of living alone increase. This makes sense, as spouses pass away and children move out. Of course, living alone doesn’t immediately make someone lonely, but we can all agree that it’s a step in the direction of loneliness.

Becoming a single-person household can start a chain reaction that leads to larger, wide-ranging problems. Studies have shown that older adults that feel lonely or isolated will begin displaying behaviors that make them increasingly more difficult to interact with in social situations, thus pushing friends and relatives even further away. This, of course, only makes the person feel more lonely, creating a vicious psychological cycle.

The negative implications of a lonely lifestyle are numerous. Isolated and lonely seniors have a 59 percent greater risk of mental and physical decline and show a 45 percent mortality increase. Of those living alone, one in seven is suffering from some kind of dementia, which can go undetected if a person isn’t engaging in regular social interactions.

Family dynamics have also changed. At one time, a child might have gone to visit his or her parents once or twice a month. Now, the number of in-person visits is dwindling, being replaced by less-frequent phone calls or perhaps the use of Skype and FaceTime. These technological visits don’t have the same effect for seniors that in-person interaction does.

One statistic of special note for aging services providers comes from data reported by AARP: Forty-five percent of people aged 45 or older who have lived in their current residence less than one year reported feeling lonely. Let that sink in for a minute!

Even in our vibrant, active communities — filled with intelligent and engaged residents and staff — new residents can feel especially lonely and isolated. It can become difficult for them to make new friends, navigate the social structure of your community and become involved in a meaningful way. Ensuring that each new resident is paired with a neighbor to show them the ropes when he or she moves in is vitally important.

The social workers at aging services communities are on the frontlines of the battle against loneliness, but each associate at your community should be on the lookout for signs of self-seclusion or withdrawal. Protecting residents, both physically and mentally, is an important part of each team member’s job.

Sources:

https://www.aarp.org/research/topics/life/info-2014/loneliness_2010.html

https://www.aplaceformom.com/blog/10-17-14-facts-about-senior-isolation/

As the holiday season approaches, people are gathering to celebrate. During these festive times, families often discuss future plans, including retirement and aging services options for themselves or loved ones. This makes December a critical time for ensuring that your organization is present on social media and engaged with users.

With this in mind, we are proud to release our Aging Services Guide to Social Media. This booklet provides valuable information and tips for managing your organization’s social media presence. It covers the gamut from Facebook, to Twitter, to YouTube, to Snapchat and more!

Created by our in-house communications team, and based on real-world experience in operating social media accounts for aging services organizations, we believe this publication will be an excellent tool for your marketing and PR tool kit!

DRAGON: Divorced, Rich, Aged 65+, Overseas traveler, Networker

If you were to ask an aging services provider what his or her ideal potential resident looks like, you’d find many different definitions. In most cases, leads are qualified based upon income-producing assets, home value and, perhaps, some additional savings and/or investments. These people are ideal leads because they meet all of the financial criteria for moving into a community.

For this reason, they are prized candidates, often being competed over by several different aging services organizations. From the point of view of prospective residents, they are evaluating the amenities and floor plans that communities offer. But, at the end of the day, the biggest determining factor for choosing a community is culture. This is where understanding the DRAGON can help you convert those high-quality leads into residents.

The idea of the DRAGON coalesced around 2014, as marketers began to identify trends in the Baby Boomer demographic. For retirement communities, DRAGONS are ideals candidates because of their demographic profiles. They are wealthy, usually working with two retirement incomes. Being aged 65+, they meet the age requirements for community entry. As frequent travelers, they like the maintenance-free lifestyle that many campuses offer and, for the same reason, are less reliant year-round on on-campus amenities, such as restaurants, wellness centers and programming. Last, as natural networkers, they become excellent word-of-mouth marketers for your organization and can sing your praises to their friends and family, who may also fit the DRAGON demographic.

Identifying DRAGONs, and understanding why they are especially important leads for retirement communities, is just the start. How do you win them over and make them choose your community over all of the other options? The answer is simple — culture. As noted earlier, individuals make their retirement choices based heavily on the culture and feel of a community. Making your community physically appealing to DRAGONs is the first step. The harder step is getting the culture right. Let’s put ourselves in their shoes and look at what might be appealing to DRAGONs.

First, they may look to more open and accepting cultures, especially in light of being divorced. Obviously, the community needs to be well-appointed and include many options and amenities. These work best in a community atmosphere where DRAGONs can spend time with friends and neighbors, where their natural networking talent shines. As travelers, they desire easy access to transportation, whether that is a train station or airport (but probably both!). Obviously, issues like location and access to transportation aren’t easily addressed by providers. In those cases, organizations should be ready to demonstrate what kind of accommodations they can make to ensure DRAGON needs are met, or alternatives offered that may better suit their lifestyle.

Take a few moments to put yourself in the shoes of a DRAGON and look at your community through his or her eyes. By doing so, you might be able to adjust your sales & marketing strategies, even if only slightly, to make a big difference in your appeal.

Recently, I had the honor of participating in the Global Aging Network conference. It was held in a simply amazing location — Montreux, Switzerland, known best, perhaps, as a mecca for jazz music. I came away from my visit to Montreux inspired and energized by simply seeing the sights in and around the beautiful city.

The conference experience represented a unique opportunity to freshen my perspective around opportunities to enhance the aging experience on a global scale. Leaders from around the world traveled to Montreux, with their own biases shaped by how their particular cultures view aging. I certainly came with my own preconceived notions about how successful aging looks, based upon my narrow worldview.

What inspired me as the conference progressed was the ever-increasing ease I saw as people from different points of view came together to solve similar issues of aging, regardless of the culture in which they lived. There are nuances within any society — and family — about how aging occurs; however, as we simply share our stories openly with those from other corners of the world, it quickly becomes evident that we are all working toward solving issues of frailty, loneliness and the ultimate commonality of our collective mortality.

Our opportunity, as aging service professionals, is to work collaboratively to enhance the aging experience for those entrusting their lives to us. I believe we can do that more effectively if we openly entertain ideas that may seem distinctly different from our own. I recognize cultural and societal differences require flexibility, but our ability to secure a global perspective on aging has never been easier.

I left Montreux with a fresh glimpse of aging in the 21st century, and I must admit — it’s invigorating to network with people who envision far more engaged aging adults, embracing life to its fullest, as they are being served wherever they call home. There are countless aging services professionals around the globe innovating the aging experience, and it is our responsibility to leverage the intellectual capital that makes this market sector so special.

My challenge to colleagues is rather simple: Don’t underestimate the power of sharing your ideas; seriously consider those ideas that seem just a bit outside your comfort zone, and find ways to rekindle the passions that drive the mission behind your everyday work. Let’s seize the opportunity before us to make aging experiences better for those we serve.

As LeadingAge wraps up another very successful annual conference, the Varsity team took a step back to discuss what we heard throughout the various presentations and our discussions with colleagues. Our list contains seven items that we believe are going to be critical as we forge into 2018 and beyond.

1. Welcome to information overload! As professionals in the field of aging services, we are being provided with more data than we have ever been before. Not only do we have to be able to understand what the data represents, but we must also be able to apply it in a way that leads to growth for our partners. This means knowing what data points to focus on as key performance indicators, and which to ignore as white noise that can only serve to distract our plans.
2. The continuum is changing rapidly and becoming more complex to manage. As residents enter into more skilled levels of care — and remain in those beds longer — we are learning much as a field. Of course, with this additional knowledge comes a change to best practices and regulations. The speed at which these adjustments are occurring is faster than ever before. This, coupled with all of the moving parts of the care continuum, is really forcing providers to react in the moment rather than plan a measured response.
3. Aging services is an aging field. If you take a look across the country, many of the most successful and longest-serving C-suite office-holders are nearing retirement. They made excellent careers in aging services and stayed at their employers for decades. Now, as they near retirement, their organizations are concerned about what a change at the top might mean. Succession planning and internal training are top of mind for many LeadingAge members as they begin to wrestle with who will fill the shoes of leadership in the future.
4. What a retirement community looks like is changing. Anyone working in aging services is familiar with the biggest player in the field: The Villages, in Florida. This community changed what it meant to retire. Then came along NORCs – naturally occurring retirement communities — where individuals of similar age found themselves living in close proximity, creating a little community all their own. The next evolution of this model, dubbed “Boomtown,” places emphasis on intentional intergeneration communities that bring together people of all ages to the benefit of the whole. Focusing on the entire spectrum of wellness, the Boomtown model works to seamlessly integrate senior living spaces into existing communities.
5. Life Plan at Home extends community reach. The Life Plan at Home model is quickly becoming the next big thing in retirement marketing. By enabling potential residents to enter the system without actually moving the community, the Life Plan at Home model creates a revenue stream now and ensures new on-campus residents in the future. By partnering with third-party program providers, aging services providers are growing their scope and reach, engaging with potential residents and working them into the sales funnel earlier than ever before.
6. Communities must know their place in the market. Every community is unique because of the residents and team members that make up the campus. Knowing the core values of your community is important to your marketing message — do you understand how you are perceived in the marketplace?When a potential resident is shopping around for aging services, he or she often visits many different campuses and talks to people with deep field knowledge. As shoppers discuss their choices, they are given feedback, with perceptions on what a community is like. What are people saying about you? Are you “luxurious and cultured” or perhaps “rich and snobby”? It’s amazing how quickly others will ruin a reputation by twisting a brand identity.

7. Consumers are loyal to authentic organizations. What does it mean to be authentic? In short, it means that your organization actively acts ethically and according to your mission and values. In aging services, this is accomplished through a strong and distinct sense of identity that goes above and beyond the business. It means that all of your actions align with your mission and help advance your cause.At Varsity, our signature brand odyssey process directly relates to authenticity. We help you identify how your brand is perceived, how the mission aligns with that perception, and what actions you can take to become more authentic moving forward. Check out our Services page to learn more!

One of the most interesting and enjoyable aspects of being involved in the aging services space is the ability to look around the country (and the world) at how different organizations are applying trends in design. From the upscale, fast-paced communities of the Northeast to the eco-friendly, fitness-focused communities on the West Coast, communities are applying innovations in new and creative ways — all in an effort to appeal to potential residents and earn their business.

The most ubiquitous design trend to hit senior living in the last five years has to be the bistro — every community seems to have one. Whether it was designed from the ground up and newly installed or an existing space that was repurposed, the bistro has become as common as the dining hall of old. This has caused us to wonder: What’s the next bistro-type amenity that every community is going to have to build?

We believe that the answer is a wellness center. New residents aren’t happy with an exercise bike and a treadmill stashed in a closet being labeled as a “workout room.” They want a bright, airy space, with dedicated and trained staff members, wherein they can attend to their wellness needs, which go far beyond exercise. Progressive communities are offering the latest in high-tech fitness gear, supplemented with wellness practitioners from across the spectrum, such as yoga, Reiki and acupuncture. It is our prediction that, in five to 10 years, those communities that have failed to funnel resources into their wellness amenities are going to struggle to find residents.

As Baby Boomers continue to age into the retirement community marketplace, they bring with them a hallmark of their age group — the “Me Generation.” No longer will potential residents review a property and say, “Well, I guess we can make this work.” Rather, they are demanding the ability to customize and personalize their new living spaces. And two options just won’t do it! They want to see the gamut of materials, styles and finishes enabling them to feel like their new home is truly their own. Marketers have to adapt to these desires at a rapid pace. Where once facilities could flip an apartment for resale in a week, now it may take several months to bring a space up to the standards of its new owner. Finding creative ways to enable flips to occur quickly and economically is sure to be a growing trend.

In many parts of the country, residents are also becoming more environmentally conscious, demanding that their homes reflect their values. Recycling, the use of low-energy appliances and lights and sustainably sourced food products are just the tip of the iceberg. Communities are now looking to the installation of solar panels for energy production — not just for homes, but also for common areas. Resident gardens are also increasing in size, as dining services teams are being challenged to include the ultimate in fresh ingredients: those grown by the residents themselves, on-site. Some organizations are looking to these trends as opportunities to grow and improve, while others are struggling to keep up and find their place in the market.

As we work with our clients around the country, it always intrigues us to see who is pushing the boundaries of the current trends and who is taking extra time to evaluate what others are doing and put their own, unique spin on it. Whichever type of community you may be in, it’s our opinion at Varsity that these trends are going to be major factors in senior living design into 2018 and well beyond!

Viagra. CIALIS. Levitra. ADDYI.

Surely you recognize some of these brand-name drugs. They all have one thing in common: They are designed to help with sexual dysfunctions that disproportionately affect Boomers and seniors. When these drugs rose to prominence in the 1990s and early 2000s, communities found themselves confounded by a problem that they had never encountered before — the sexual activities of their residents. Fast forward to today, when campus administrators are all too aware of the challenges that come with residents’ sexual expression.

Sexuality is a private matter, but with any large group of people living in close proximity, human nature cannot be overcome. Retirement communities are not magical places where people move after their sex drives turns off. Studies continue to show that adults are remaining sexually active longer than ever before — and are becoming more adventurous than previous generations.

According to the Longitudinal Study of Aging, 31 percent of British men aged 80 to 90 are still sexually active. That number grows to 60 percent for those 70 to 80. Aging women are also sexually active, with 34 percent of women aged 70 to 80 regularly engaging in some form of sexual expression. In fact, the National Council on Aging has found that women over the age of 70 find sex more physically satisfying than when they were in their 40s or younger!

The reason behind the increase in sexual activity in older adults becomes obvious if you ponder it for a moment. First, people are living longer, healthier lives! With an emphasis on wellness, fitness and nutrition, older adults are now in physically better shape than they were at similar ages in previous generations. Then, we have to factor in the pharmaceutical sexual revolution that was created by the drugs mentioned at the beginning on this article. They enable sexual activity to continue to occur far longer than nature may have provided for. Lastly, the current generation of Boomers also happens to be the generation that came of age in the 1960s. The Summer of Love and the Age of Aquarius may still be holding sway today, half a century later.

These changes are having direct effects on the day-to-day management of communities. Relationships developing between residents are common — and now more than ever, probably include a sexual component. Women outnumber men on campuses significantly, leading to a situation of supply and demand between the sexes that can cause interpersonal conflict to arise. These conflicts may not be limited to your community, either! As family members learn of these relationships, they may look to staff to intervene on their behalf; however, residents are adults and can make their own decisions, even if their children aren’t happy with them. This puts administrators and managers in precarious situations, dealing with sensitive topics that they might have never thought about before.

Let’s face it — sexual activity is more than likely occurring between residents on retirement campuses nationwide. The statistics don’t lie. As professionals in the aging services industry, it’s our job to understand the trends we’re seeing in our residents and respond appropriately to protect their well-being. Sex is just another aspect of wellness that is coming to the forefront and is one that we all must be aware of.

In senior living, branding can be particularly challenging because many of the amenities and offerings, can, on the surface, run the risk of sounding a bit similar. The community that hasn’t identified the most unique aspects of its culture may miss out on an opportunity to truly tell its story.

That’s why it’s important to find unique qualities that the community can hang its hat on: What is it about the residents and the staff that can be used to identify a brand that stands out in the marketplace?

To differentiate among communities, we need to look beneath the surface. How do the residents live? How do they interact with staff? What led them to choose this place over their other options? What happens organically within the community that gives it life? It could be a special group that maintains the trails or goes out into the community to volunteer. It could be the difference between a library and an active book group led by residents.

Delving into the details is critical because branding is not about assigning a personality to your client, it is about discovering the one that already exists, then helping the client to own it, live it and encourage others to become a part of it. It’s not just about a logo or a tagline. It’s a promise that a community that can make to its prospective residents that no other competitor can deliver on.

For me, as a designer by background and a creative director by trade, design and advertising are definitely part of the expression. They are the face of the brand seen in the website, the outdoor board along the highway and the sign out front. This face helps define the brand’s personality and its values. It expresses the brand in a way that is meaningful and a source of pride within the community.

But the advertising and design are only meaningful if they come from a place of truth. It’s important to dig deep into a community’s stories, identify genuine benefits that everyone can recognize as authentic, and then work consciously to expand on them to set the community apart.

The reward of finding that niche and having management, staff and residents embrace it is watching energy and excitement permeate the community as its brand comes to life.