Category: Seniors Housing

Once again, we participated in the LeadingAge PA Annual Conference & Exposition, which was held this June in Hershey, Pa. Key leaders gathered to discuss ideas that will shape the future of senior living.

We wanted to share a few of the inspiring solutions we heard.

Swimming with the sharks. On her sixth attempt, 64-year-old Diane Nyad successfully battled sharks, venomous jellyfish and hypothermia to swim from Cuba to Key West. Her motivating advice for reaching your dreams: build a strong support team, give it your all, learn from your failures and never give up.

Spinning stories into marketing gold. Asbury’s session emphasized the importance of finding the right human interest story and repurposing it in blogs, newsletter articles and social media posts, all linking back to your website. Strategic storytelling can be a gold mine of leads, publicity and brand awareness.

Tapping the independent living middle-income market. As the economic spread continues to grow, creating an affordable community for the “working class” is a concept worth looking at.

The end of advertising. Advertising isn’t going extinct—we just need to rethink it. It’s about finding new ways to have conversations with prospects, so we can discover and meet their needs. The engagement shouldn’t stop once residents move in; they need to be invested in the community so they’ll share their positive feelings with new prospects.

Our team would welcome the opportunity to discuss these insights or to simply begin exploring questions that will lead to solid strategies for your community’s continued success.

Maggie is 87. She lives alone and no longer drives. Her grown children live out of town, and her only regular companion is her grandson Mark who does her grocery shopping and handles her banking. Everyone says how helpful Mark is, but some family members have suspicions.They’ve noticed his new flat screen TV, fancy smartphone and expensive shoes.

When it comes to older people and their relationships, there could be more there than meets the eye. That’s why World Elder Abuse Awareness Day was created. Today, June 15, is a day when people around the world plan activities and wear purple to raise awareness of the abuse, neglect and exploitation of elders.

Here are six facts about elder abuse you may not know:

1. Over one in 10 elders is affected, but only one in 23 cases are reported.
2. 90 percent of elder abuse is committed by a family member.
3. Those over 80 are most likely to be abused.
4. Risk factors for the abuser include substance abuse, mental health disorders and financial issues.
5. Financial abuse is the fastest growing form of abuse.
6. Often, the abuser is the only form of companionship for the abused.

It’s important to raise awareness for this serious problem today by getting involved in World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. But it’s even more important to watch out for the red flags of abuse on the other 364 days of the year. To learn more about elder abuse and how to report it, visit www.ncea.aoa.gov or call 1-800-677-1116.

In the words of David Ogilvy, “The most important decision is how to position your product.” But how do we make that decision? When we’re developing a brand position, we always measure it by three criteria: It has to be true, it has to be unique and it has to be compelling. In this post, I’ll cover “compelling.”

A brand promise can be true and unique, but if consumers don’t care about it, then you won’t make any sales. So, how do we find out—before your message is plastered all over the marketplace—if it’s compelling to your customers?

By doing research. Lots of it. This is especially important in senior living, where the media constantly tells us what the next generation wants and needs. We can’t just paint this demographic with a broad brush. We need to know what prospective customers in your market want.

That’s where interviews, focus groups and other check-ins become really important. Sometimes clients don’t think they need to talk to consumers because they already know what they’ll say. But we can find nuggets of great value amidst the things we already know. And these insights can help craft a message that customers find truly compelling.

Medical expenses are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. As the Boomer generation hits retirement age, paying for healthcare will only get more challenging. So what’s the solution?

Some people turn to crowdfunding to fill in the gaps that Medicare and Social Security leave. The medical category is growing exponentially on sites like GoFundMe. According to a recent article in Time, “Medical, Illness and Healing” is GoFundMe’s most popular section, bringing in 26% of all donations. In 2014, it helped raise $147 million for medical costs, up from $6 million in 2012.

Crowdfunding does have drawbacks, especially for members of the 65 and over crowd, who often suffer from common chronic conditions of aging, not exotic diseases. According to a 2014 Georgia Tech study, showing that a condition is rare or unique drives people to donate. And in a New York Times story, a healthcare expert said, “The need for geriatric care is so far and wide that it’s hard to draw out interest.”

Some families with older relatives, having run out of options, feel they have no other choice but to ask for donations via crowdfunding. But what’s it like to be on the receiving end of these heartfelt electronic pleas? ?

In one case we know of, an entire group of extended family and friends received emails with a link to a crowdfunding site. One branch of the family was facing major financial expenses for their father, an elderly man with serious health issues. Because the father’s healthcare expenses had decimated his funds, his children felt they had no other option but to ask for contributions through the crowdfunding site. They plan to care for their father at home, and part of the donated money will go toward making the house wheelchair accessible.

Upon receiving the emails, the potential donors felt sympathetic to the situation, knowing how difficult it was for the man’s children to reach out. Still, the request caused a few ripples of controversy, as many of the family and friends were dealing with their own serious financial challenges. They pulled together and raised some money, but the man’s children are still short of their goal.

That’s not uncommon. Although some people are lucky enough to raise thousands of dollars through crowdfunding, most campaigns do not go viral and most pledges come from the user’s personal network of family and friends. The average amount raised at GoFundMe is just $1,126. Then, there are taxes to deal with, the site fee and the risk that the insurance company will deduct the amount received from its part of the payment.

For many people, crowdfunding is not a magic bullet. But, with hundreds of sites out there and more popping up all the time, it looks like it’s here to stay.

As healthcare expenses keep rising as our population ages, it seems that our inboxes may not only be clogged with medical bills, but with crowdfunding appeals.

101 Ways to Follow up:

Salespeople are always asking for more qualified leads. They don’t want to be a nuisance by calling the same people in the lead base over and over again. But since it takes an average of 15-20 touches from initial inquiry to move-in, the existing leads in your database are much farther down the sales pike than the new ones walking in the door. Providing they are qualified, and that they haven’t made a definite yes or no decision, they are active leads that need to be cultivated and advanced through the sales process.

This doesn’t mean just continually calling prospects, especially without an objective or a reason to call. That’s what can make you feel and look like a nuisance. Follow-up does need to be structured, but it also takes creativity and individuality to stand out from your competitors in your prospects’ minds. Make them feel special, understood and cared about, and you will be amazed at the results.

The ideas for following up are limitless. What if you ask a prospect out for coffee at a local coffee shop and then follow up with a thank-you note and a gift card for the coffee shop? Or what if she attends an event at your community with her daughter, and you capture a beautiful photo of the two of them that you frame and drop off for her? Or what if she happens to mention that she likes to watch HGTV, so you pick up an issue of the magazine and mail it to her with a note?

These small gestures do not cost much, and if they further solidify the relationship by showing that you listen and that you care, then they are much more cost-effective than traditional marketing tactics.

Be smart about how you spend your time, effort and money when following up, and let your creative juices flow. You’ll find the follow-up process to be more enjoyable and more effective.

Don’t forget; All of those “I’m not ready yet!” prospects are in your lead base already—and so are your next 5-10 sales.

Looking for creative ways to follow up? Email me at jstone@varsitybranding.com, and I’ll send you my free handout, “101 Ways to Follow up.”

“Once upon a time…” The phrase takes many of us back to our childhoods. It brings back memories of snuggling under the covers as a parent told us a bedtime story, or sitting cross-legged on the classroom floor as the teacher read out loud. We listened raptly, wondering where the story would take us next. Even as adults, we love stories and the journeys they take us on. It’s stories that grab our attention and keep it.

Consumers love stories, too. They enjoy learning about the history of a company and where it is going next. In college, I learned about the marketing concept “what’s in it for me?” and how important it was to answer that question through storytelling. That was close to 25 years ago, and the idea remains as strong now as it was then.

Our culture has been handed down for centuries through the oral tradition of storytelling. It’s in our nature to tell stories. People love to relate an anecdote when friends ask them about a purchase they’ve made. So, if you share a story about your own product with your customers, you’ll reap the benefits of having it passed on to others. This process is how a good story can grow and develop a life of its own.

Creating a story about your brand is a great way to let your customers know who you are and what you stand for. It’s through this narrative that you gain their interest and, more importantly, their trust. It doesn’t need to be some huge tome, telling them every little thing about your brand. It just needs to be enough to give them a taste, make them want more and, most importantly, help them remember you and your product.

In addition to my career in advertising and marketing, I’ve spent the last 15 years making and selling my own artwork. My customers love to hear the story behind each of my pieces. Even if they don’t buy anything, I tell them the story about my studio name. I can’t tell you how many people come back and say, “I remember you and that interesting story of how your studio got to be called ‘Kerensamere.’”

In this digital age, one might think that storytelling is dead, but that is simply not the case. If anything, storytelling is prevalent in our society now more than ever. Online videos are a great example of storytelling. It’s amazing how one well-crafted video can tell so much in such a brief time. Make it a good one, and it goes viral. Next thing you know, everyone is telling your story for you.

Not everyone is a good storyteller. Back in the Middle Ages, communities relied on bards to come to town and recite stories. Not just anyone could be a bard; it took a certain skill. It’s kind of like the difference between a person who’s good at telling jokes, and one who isn’t. If it’s not told right, the joke falls flat. You don’t want this to happen with your own brand story. That’s where hiring the right team can make all the difference in how well your story is told and retold.

Crafting and presenting your story is a skill that comes with practice and insight. You need to understand your own brand as well as your audience. What is it that you want people to know? How do you get them to care about your story? This is where hiring a team like Varsity comes into play. We pride ourselves in our ability to create brand narratives that tell your story to the people you want to hear it and get them to repeat it for you.

That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

“What’s in a name?” This line from Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” has sparked a debate that has lasted for centuries. How important is a name—whether you’re a person, a business or a Continuing Care Retirement Community?

According to a Forbes article, four signs of a great business name are that you can pronounce it, it’s not too long, it’s straightforward, and it’s catchy. “Continuing Care Retirement Community” falls short on at least two of those fronts.

That’s one reason for “CCRC NameStorm.” In this national study, a task force is researching perceptions of the label “Continuing Care Retirement Community” and investigating alternative wording that would describe our communities more accurately—and appealingly. Varsity is on the NameStorm task force, along with LeadingAge, Mather Lifeways, GlynnDevins, SB&A, Brooks Adams Research, and Love & Co.

In the NameStorm study, quantitative and qualitative research is being conducted across the country with CCRC residents, prospects and staff as well as the community at-large.

If you plan on going to LeadingAge PEAK in Washington, D.C., March 16-18, 2015, we encourage you to attend a special session about CCRC NameStorm: “What’s in a Name: a Look at the CCRC Label,” which will provide insights on the current progress of this study.

The term “Continuing Care Retirement Community” was coined quite a few years ago when this type of organization was just taking shape. Now the senior living industry is seeing the next generation of retirees react negatively to an idea of a “care” facility.

I’m sure you have experienced that negative reaction, just as we at Varsity have. Part of the issue is that the CCRC label is focused on only one piece of the story—the care piece. It’s easy for the active Boomer retiree to say, “this isn’t for me.”

As part of CCRC NameStorm, we have conducted focus groups with prospective and current resident groups at Homestead Village, a community in the heart of Lancaster County in central PA. We’re thankful to our very good clients in one of the country’s most densely populated CCRC markets for opening their doors and sharing their honest opinions. So far, we’ve found that people are excited about the possibility of a name change, but it’s a change that needs to be carefully considered. (Remember Radio Shack becoming “The Shack”?)

This will be an ongoing discussion, and it will certainly be an interesting one. We hope you can make it for the session at LeadingAge. If not, check back on the Varsity blog. We’ll be continuing to post the progress of the NameStorm study.

As a seasoned senior living sales professional, have you fallen into the habit of giving a routine “tour” of your community that you could do in your sleep? You know — “Here’s the living room, here’s the dining room, here’s the washer/dryer; the pool is over there” — basically ticking off the features like a real estate agent and maybe throwing in a few benefits here and there. How do you avoid falling into the trap of giving a canned sales pitch that is not very effective in connecting with your prospect and that even bores you?

Persuading someone that moving to your community is the right decision requires a deeper level of communication. He or she may be thinking, “This is the last place I’m going to live.” It’s a very emotional decision, so you need to do more than just provide information. You need to get into that person’s head and learn what he or she values in life, because values guide our judgments, actions and important decisions.

Visual Clues
The process of discovering a prospect’s values can start even before he or she walks in the door of your community. Look out in the parking lot to see what the person is driving. Is the car sturdy and dependable? Is it expensive and possibly a status symbol? Is it sporty and fun? A car can speak volumes about its owner.

Once the prospect walks in, you can continue picking up subtle clues. Observe his or her appearance and dress, listen for words and phrases that reflect his or her values, and watch his or her body language. Take note of whether the person is decisive or indecisive, impulsive or cautious.

Probe to Discover Values
Pose questions that get the person talking, and really listen to the answers. Ask about his or her past or current career, interests and hobbies, family and the decision-making process. I like to ask, “What is a typical day in the life of Jane Doe like?” Or, “If you could do anything you wanted right now, what would it be?” Based on the answer, you may find out that the person is adventurous, intellectually curious, family-oriented, health conscious or a status seeker. And, even more important, are the questions he or she asks you.

Once you’ve gleaned some insights into your prospect’s values, focus on benefits that resonate with him or her, and don’t over-emphasize those that don’t. For instance, don’t go overboard selling the pool, fitness center and personal trainer to someone who doesn’t value health and fitness. He or she might be thinking, “I’m going to pay for something I’ll never use.”

Here are just a few examples of “values” portraits and ways you might connect with each. (Most people are a combination of more than one.)

HEARTH AND HOMEMAKERS
These are typically women whose career was raising their children and caring for the family home. They feel attached to the home, and leaving it and the memories created there is very emotional for them. They may feel a need to consult their children on the decision. They may also be considering a move to be closer to family.

How to connect: Highlight amenities, such as built-in shelves and wall space for family photos and mementos; a second bedroom for visiting family members to spend the night; and the private dining room for family celebrations. Tell a story that will resonate with their values: “Can you imagine hosting Thanksgiving dinner here in the private dining room, then being able to relax and enjoy coffee and dessert with your family without needing to wash a mound of pots and pans?”

FISCAL CONSERVATIVES
A large subset of the current generation of senior living prospects, they are careful shoppers who value financial security. High entrance fees may give them sticker shock, but if they see value, they will buy.

How to connect: Explain the value of the CCRC model by comparing the costs of home ownership and retirement community living (do this exercise prior to your meeting to ensure that the results are favorable for your community). For communities with a Type A Life Care agreement, share tangible comparisons of costs for skilled care with and without Life Care. Try this: “Do you know what skilled nursing care costs today? Have you ever heard stories of people who spent their life savings in a nursing home? Let me explain how Life Care might prevent that from happening to you.”

IN-CHARGE INTELLECTUALS
This group is attracted to intellectual pursuits, prestige and status. They may be leaders in their own communities, serve on a board of directors, read avidly and travel frequently. They want to maintain their independence and live life on their own terms. They do not have an emotional attachment to their homes—it’s just a place to hang their hats while pursuing their true interests.

How to connect: Mention that your community is “the leader,” “exceptional” or “the best around.” Say things like: “You can just lock the door and go, knowing that your home will be safe while you are away, and nice and clean when you return.” Perhaps see if they have an interest in serving on the resident council.

Next time you have a sales appointment, throw away that canned script, and focus on the person in front of you. Ask probing questions that will uncover his or her life values, so you can present your community in a way that connects with those values.

Grown Up Advertising is authored by our creative director and industry veteran Stephen Gordet, and covers the do’s and don’ts of talking to the mature market.

One of the most difficult aspects of retirement community marketing is that no one wants your product. Have you ever heard anyone say, “I can’t wait until I’m old enough and infirm enough to move into a retirement community!”? Probably not.

Most seniors begin to consider a senior living community after a medical event such as a fall or serious illness, or a life-changing situation like the death of a spouse or a sudden inability to maintain a home.

Every sale involves an attitude change. Prospects need to be convinced that the move to a retirement community will allow them to not just be safe, but to experience a fulfilling and rewarding life. We need prospects to come out to the community on multiple occasions, experience the social opportunities, enjoy the meals, and envision for themselves the possibilities of a fulfilling life there.

This can only happen over time, which is why our on-staff sales consultant, Maura Richards, tells us that it takes an average of 20 “intimate touches” to actually close a sale. So when we develop advertising, we incorporate not only branding, but also event marketing to get prospects out to the community as frequently as possible, along with special offers to create a sense of urgency.

Please take a look at the ad above that we created for Covenant Village of Florida. Our strategy is reflected in the branding. Based on our research, we knew that strongly faith-oriented individuals would be most attracted to this community. We wanted to target them, but not to the exclusion of others. The “covenant” language and concept that we developed did just that.

Then we added tactics: We promoted frequent on-site events that were of particular interest to seniors, getting them out to this beautiful community. Finally, we developed urgency through strong calls to action emphasizing the limited number of apartments and special move-in offers.

We implemented our plan through print, direct mail, paid search, specialized Web landing pages, and strong public relations and earned media components.

The result: We met and exceeded occupancy goals. Our success proves that, as in football, a correctly focused strategy and perfectly executed tactics give you a winning game. Contact us if you’re interested in receiving a full case study for more detail.

MARKETING INSIGHT: A perfectly crafted strategy isn’t enough. Carefully consider what is tactically necessary to close the sale.

We’re not referring to retirement communities, but rather the actual towns, cities and suburbs that are facing an aging tidal wave, and are still woefully unprepared to meet the needs of the growing senior population. A large number of older adults and around half of adults under the age of 60 still believe the areas where they currently reside have few to no preparations in place for the future, according to a new survey released by the National Council on Aging (NCOA).

The new survey, produced by NCOA, UnitedHealthcare and USA Today, showed that seniors have maintained a positive outlook in terms of their future and the aging process in general. When it comes to their health, most express little concern about their current health status, and not surprisingly, many report not investing in activities that are important to help manage their health for the long-term.

On the financial front, most seniors surveyed expressed a comfort level with their current financial situation, but are somewhat concerned about the financial impact of living longer. More than half of respondents (53%) said they are concerned about whether their savings and income will last the rest of their lives, while 33% were not concerned.

Both retirees and those retiring in the near future intend to rely on Social Security as their main source of income, shown in the survey as 43% and 41% respectively. Nearly 19% reported difficulty in affording living expenses, based on their current income and savings.

Community support was another issue altogether. Most seniors (71%) agree their community is “responsive to the needs of seniors.” But only around 30% of people aged 60 and older don’t believe the community is prepared to meet the future needs of an aging population, and a full 45% of those 18-49 don’t believe communities will be prepared to meet those needs at all.

Friends and family remain constants: seniors also say that staying connected with family and friends is important to maintaining a high quality of life.

You can read the executive summary report from The United States of Aging Survey here.

MARKETING INSIGHT: As far back as 2005, aging population studies were showing that while many communities have some programs to address the needs of an aging population, very few have a comprehensive assessment of what it would take to make their community “elder friendly.”

That’s also reflected in the retirement living industry, where there’s currently a major gap between family expectations and changing resident needs, and an industry completely unprepared for the “next generations.”

There needs to be a better way to educate the public on planning for the future, about their living accommodations and unexpected illnesses that are sure to increase as the population ages. Likewise, smart communities and the retirement living industry will need to find ways to inform their current residents – of all ages – on what products and services are available to help them, and how to access them. Click here for a “community checklist,” courtesy of About.com.

Regards,

The Varsity Team