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MATURE MARKET HEADLINES POSTED 06/19/98
Mature Women Drive Craft Industry BoomIf you think the graying of America has made today's craft sales rosy, you haven't seen anything yet. When the boomers reach retirement today's rosy profile will become an entire bouquet. That's because crafting remains a popular leisure time activity for women throughout their lifetimes.In fact, the post-boomer females, those age 55-plus, represent the bulk of the craft industry's current market. So says a new study on the crafting habits of mature women commissioned by the Hobby Industry Association. Virtually all adult women have completed some craft project. When asked about recent participation in 31 specific craft activities, 85 percent of those surveyed responded positively. "As female baby boomers age and fall into the mature category, the time constraints that go with raising a family ease, while disposable income rises," notes Pat Koziol, executive director of the Hobby Industry Association. "This study confirms that the graying of America is good news for the craft industry". Highlights of the trends identified by the study are listed below.
See these related articles in the AgeVenture archives. Crafty Americans Push Sales to $10 Billion Older Women's Market Is Sleeping Giant AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com BACK TO TOP AARP Calls Estate Planning Firm A ScamAARP and the State of Florida have filed a lawsuit accusing two firms of fraudulent practices in the sale of living trusts and annuities to older persons. The lawsuit also challenges the unauthorized use of AARP's name in marketing materials implying that AARP endorses or supports the defendant's activities.Living trusts are alternatives to wills that generally do not need to go through probate. Use of living trusts also helps reduce the length of time before property is distributed after an individual's death. "AARP members have complained that they received these promotional materials and mistakenly believed they were working with AARP," says Deborah Zuckerman, an attorney with the AARP Foundation Litigation which is representing AARP in this action. The suit, filed in the 17th Judicial Circuit Court of Broward County, Florida, alleges that the firms' representatives have aggressively pushed Florida residents to purchase living trusts as an alternative to a legal will after misleading the seniors about the costs of the probate process. The suit also asks for monetary damages for Florida residents who have been injured by the defendants' unlawful practices and civil penalties up to $15,000 for each violation of state law. In addition, the complaint asserts that the firms' representatives, upon delivery of the trust documents, frequently pressure their victims to liquidate their assets and to purchase annuities sold by the defendants. The defendants include Senior Estate Services Inc (SES), with offices in Boca Raton and Tampa, Florida. The office of the Florida Attorney General represents the State. AARP's Zuckerman says that the harm done is two-fold. "People typically pay more than they would pay an experienced estate planning professional, and they frequently end up with a document that does not meet the requirements of their state law." In the Florida matter, the allegation is that Senior Estate Services purchases mailing lists with older persons' names and addresses and mails them a card bearing an unauthorized statement, indicating that an AARP report found the probate process outdated and costly. Older persons would then return the card to Senior Estate Services, which then calls to make an appointment at the potential customer's home. The sales representative follows with an aggressive presentation to the older person, typically misleading the older person about the costs and burdens of the probate process. The goal is to sell a living trust and related estate planning documents which are provided by Remington Estate Services. The lawsuit charges that the actions of both Senior Estates Services Inc and Remington Estate Services constitute unfair methods of competition, and deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of trade or commerce in violation of the Florida consumer protection law. Source: AARP. AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com BACK TO TOP Older Women's Market Is Sleeping GiantDoes the worldwide population of older women represent the sleeping economic giant that many industries are seeking to carry their growth into the next quarter century? Maybe so. The way the numbers are crunching, tomorrow's mature market is, in effect, a mature women's market. Here's why.The number of women worldwide aged 60 and over is expected to more than double between now and 2025 to 645 million. This means that worldwide the number of older women will be nearly twice the projected total population of the United States, according to the Commerce Department's Census Bureau. "We expect that nearly three-quarters of these women will be living in what is known today as the developing world," says Census Bureau analyst Victoria Velkoff. "In developing countries the challenges faced by older women who generally outnumber older men may become increasingly important as their numbers grow." Because of faster declines in fertility, developing countries are aging at a much more rapid pace than most developed nations. The key difference between a "developing" and a "developed" nation is the relative stability of that nation's government and economy. More stability means more economic opportunity. Therefore, this growth represents substantial economic opportunities for industries hoping to meet the needs of the growing mature women's market. Here's how things are shaping-up worldwide with respect to older women.
Can we expect geometric growth in the many industries that have historically ignored mature women, but now want to court this sleeping consumer giant? That depends. It may take considerable staff development and training to get industry's traditionally deaf ear listening to these new mature consumers. Schools of business in colleges and universities will need to incorporate senior sensitivity into their curriculum in order to ready the marketplace for this new opportunity. Otherwise, when those 645 million new consumers start knocking at industry's door, that opportunity may be ignored because no one knows how to listen. In that case, there might as well be nobody home when opportunity knocks. AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com BACK TO TOP Will Boomers Start A Fast Food Fast?"One Burger Meal Lunch Special to go, please. But hold the french fries, hold the milk shake, hold the cheese, and hold the hamburger. On second thought, hold the bun, too." After reading this article, your next fast food lunch order might sound just like that. Yep, just when you thought the bad news about cholesterol couldn't get any worse, guess what? It's worse. Much worse.Fast food is clogging American Arteries faster than you think. Eating a "Western" diet with lots of processed or fried foods can raise blood levels of "oxidized" cholesterol -- a particularly damaging form of cholesterol -- and could increase heart attack risk, scientists say. Researchers report in this month’s "Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology: Journal of the American Heart Association" about a study with rabbits that demonstrates blood levels of oxidized cholesterol match up with the quantity of oxidized cholesterol in the diet. The researchers found that in rabbits, the dietary oxidized cholesterol accelerated the process of atherosclerosis, or clogging of the blood vessels. It is thought that blood vessels can oxidize cholesterol, leading to a collection of fat called plaque. But the new study finds that foods in the "Western" diet containing oxidized cholesterol -- cooked, fried or processed foods, meats, eggs and dairy products chief among them -- add to the overall oxidant load and can speed atherosclerosis. "With the popularity of fried foods and the widespread fast-food industry, oxidized fats are common in the Western diet and could contribute to heart disease," says Ilona Staprans, Ph.D., of the Lipid Research Laboratory at the VA Medical Center in San Francisco. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol is the "bad" form of cholesterol, but when it is oxidized, it can become even more dangerous. Oxidation occurs when cholesterol comes in contact with "free radicals," which are highly unstable, reactive oxygen molecules that circulate in the blood and damage tissues. Oxidized LDL cholesterol -- fat particles that have been combined with reactive oxygen -- plays a major role in the formation of artery-blocking plaque. "Dietary oxidized cholesterol may contribute to atherogenesis, and dietary modification that reduces the intake of dietary oxidized cholesterol may have a role in the prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis," says Staprans. The scientists (including the study co-authors: Xian-Mang Pan, Joseph H. Rapp and Kenneth R. Feingold) examined two sets of rabbits with similar genetic makeup. One set was fed a higher amount of oxidized cholesterol. In studying the rabbits 12 weeks later, scientists found that small quantities of oxidized cholesterol (25 milligrams per day) increased atherosclerotic lesions by 100 percent in comparison to those rabbits not fed the extra oxidized cholesterol. Hmmm. Seems to me that this bit of research just might change the eating habits of the very people who grew up on fast food, the boomers. Diet-wise, the nation's 76 million boomers just might be on the brink of starting a fast food fast. AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com BACK TO TOP Biologist Says No Firm Limit on AgingA leading biologist at the University of Southern California argues that there is no firm limit on the longevity of human beings because there are examples from the natural world to suggest no firm limits on longevity. Dr. Caleb E. Finch, of the Andrus Gerontology Center at USC, wants to establish a tissue bank of long-lived organisms to study possible anti-aging mechanisms that will give scientist the knowledge to enable human beings to achieve great ages.Finch believes that time is running out on many long-lived species that are being commercially overexploited or whose habitats are being destroyed. "These rare populations are among our old Earth’s greatest treasures and should be included in endangered species efforts." Writing in the July 1998 issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Biological Sciences Dr. Finch noted that Frenchwoman, Jean Calment, who died last year, achieved a record life span of 122.4 years for humans, which approaches the record life spans of a few other vertebrates. Life spans, Dr. Finch noted, of sexually reproducing organisms vary, from yeast (less that a year) to the Bristlecone pine (to about 5,000 years). Here again the high-altitude Bristlecone pine has greater longevity than the same species at lower altitude. There are other species that have negligible senescence. Certain deep-dwelling fish live for at least 140 years. This diversity of life span in species only goes to show the great plasticity in senescence, and the study of long-lived species will provide the world a window of opportunity to study and find why some species, like long-lived conifers, live for nearly 5,000 years. Source: Gerontological Society of America. 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