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Marketing Accommodation Options to Mature Age Prospects.

Guest post by: Graeme Smith

Article Overview: An Article I wrote with the provocative title "The End of Retirement Villages? Yes Please!" generated a few robust responses from Australian providers of community-style accommodation for the 55+'s - which they typically choose to market as "Retirement Villages". Those responses have confirmed I need to clarify the concerns I attempted to raise in that article - firstly the importance of selecting, and communicating, the right name and market position for your accommodation option's target, and secondly, changing the reality of the lifestyle your accommodation option offers to prospective residents.

Marketing Accommodation Options to Mature Age Prospects.

An Article I wrote with the provocative title "The End of Retirement Villages? Yes Please!" generated a few robust responses from Australian providers of community-style accommodation for the 55+'s - which they typically choose to market as "Retirement Villages". Those responses have confirmed I need to clarify the concerns I attempted to raise in that article - firstly the importance of selecting, and communicating, the right name and market position for your accommodation option's target, and secondly, changing the reality of the lifestyle your accommodation option offers to prospective residents. My proposition involves much more than a name change. Perception and reality are of equal importance - and getting either one wrong will severely limit your market appeal to today's 55+ consumer. At the core of most poorly executed marketing, and poorly specified accommodation and lifestyle offerings, is a lack of understanding that today's 55+'s are not their parents - they don't think like their parents did, and have vastly different aspirations to those of their parents at a similar chronological age. When assessing the marketing and web sites typically created by 30 somethings and targeted at the 55+ consumer, I'm often reminded of the saying:- "Old people know more about being young than young people know about being old." Today's Australians born in the 1940's and 50's see themselves as having so much more to achieve, so much more life to live. The reason Australians 55+ are not attracted to the vast majority of what is offered as retirement community living is the entrenched connotation that "retirement community" means an institutional culture with rules, regulations and a restrictive environment - OK for old people, perhaps OK for us later on "if we absolutely must", but not yet. Today's Australians in their 50's, 60's and 70's are still looking for growth and enrichment in all of life's aspects - mental, social, physical, spiritual, emotional and financial. They believe they have earned the freedom to do what they choose to do - a period in their life with less obligations, less rules and regulations -- not more. Having stated my understanding of what accommodation and lifestyle Australians 55+ are looking for, I attempted to find an example to illustrate the market position I'm proposing. It is disappointing to have to provide areference to the US operator Praxeis. They offer a range of "Life Fulfilling Communities" which focus on personal growth, enrichment and well-being programs that nourish the body, mind and human spirit. Praxeis form a "Partnership Council of Advisors", not a Residents Committee, and that happens a year or two before the community becomes operational. And while the physical reality of their accommodation facilities is exceptionally attractive, it is their apparent understanding of the lifestage and aspirations of their prospective residents that really sets them apart. Hopefully, as a result of this article, I will be inundated with links to Australian communities with similar communication of their market positioning and physical reality. My other hope is to find examples of Australian 55+ communities so confident in the reality of the lifestyle and accommodation they offer, that they allow prospective residents the opportunity to test their community's facilities for a few days, much as you would stay in any other resort accommodation, and get to know your future neighbours and neighbourhood.

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Article Tags: Marketing retirement villages, mature age marketing, selling to seniors



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