My wife and I are planning a once in a lifetime trip to Africa.  We are doing the typical safari experience as well as visiting the city of Capetown and the magnificent Victoria Falls.  The planning and booking for this trip took several months, almost as long as it took us to pack appropriately.  Between the luggage size restrictions, weight restrictions, varied activities, limited laundry facilities, weather unpredictability and desire to look like Redford et al.  in "Out of Africa", our packing has been hopelessly frustrating.  Just think about the hat dilemma.  Baseball? safari? crushable? cotton? drifit? color? rain? ventilated?  I guess preparing for the experience is supposed to be part of the fun.  But is sure seems like a bunch of stress.  What if the travel package came with a packing planner?  You put in your destinations, activities and the person you most want to resemble, and out pops a perfect wardrobe.  Some businesses have addressed this challenge.  A spa as an example.  Notice how you never stress over what to wear to the spa.  Or how about a baseball team player?  Or maybe a hospital patient?  Next time you target the mature market, consider all the experience stress points.           

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I just returned from an interesting experience as I joined my neighbors in “yappy hour”.  Imagine twenty dogs of all breeds, temperaments and social skills romping in a grassy park area while their owners chat about the affairs of the day.  With no formal planning, yappy hour has successfully occurred every weekday for months.  I wondered how and why? 

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Last month I headed out on a real adventure.  But before we get to the real action, a little background.  Mature adults are a product of a generation the still read for pleasure.  We consumed the morning paper and often had a mystery on the bedstand.  We looked forward to our vacations when we could zip through a couple of trashy novels.  Walk around a bookstore today and you’ll notice many mature adults perusing the stacks.  All makes sense until I noticed that many more were reading than buying the books.  Nice scene but can’t be good for the bottom line.  I immediately self diagnosed the issue, mature adults still enjoy reading but don’t enjoy the buying.  I thought to myself, what if you could offer the enjoyment of reading without the wallet pain of the buying.   Then it hit me.  There used to be this place I dropped my children off to study and research school papers.  My new adventure took me to the library.  I signed up for my first library card in 40 years.  After checking out more books than Evelyn Wood could read in two weeks, I paused to look around.  The place was filled with mature adults and school kids.  Is your business trying to attract the mature customer, be the library.              

           

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My wife and I scheduled a dinner with my 80 year old parents last week.  Knowing they like to eat early, I winced as I suggested 6pm.  They accepted as my dad was motivated to show off his new car.  As we started to get ready to leave at 5pm to make our 20 minute drive to the restaurant, I remarked to my wife that we would arrive over a half hour early for our reservation.  She said: “that’s okay, your folks will already be there”.  Sure enough, they were just getting out of the car when we arrived.  I’ve seen this pattern play out time and time again.  What are the implications for a business serving the mature adult.  It’s pretty simple: on-time means a half hour early.  And the mature customer likes to be acknowledged and served when waiting.  This evening our hostess asked if we would like to be comfortably seated in the lounge as our table was prepared.  Smooth move.

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I just finished my Cheerios at 9:30 this morning and probably will skip lunch in favor of an early dinner.  After observing the other active adults around me, I can’t help but wonder the strategic marketing implications of this two meals a day trend.  It should be quite an opportunity for restaurants as mature customers fill the booths during off peak times.  If we’re eating later in the morning and earlier in the evening, how are our media viewing and computer using times shifting.  If you’re in a service business such as car repair, do you still schedule a traditional noon to 1 pm lunch for most of your employees.  The other day I was surprised at the active adults in line for service during the lunch hour at my local car dealer.  You’d think with their schedule flexibility, they’d come when most of the full time workers aren’t squeezing in errands at lunch. Guess again.

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