By Guest Blogger, Stephen Reily, CEO of VibrantNation.com, The largest online community for women 50+
We’re all familiar with the dated stereotypes that keep many mainstream companies from delivering Boomers the products they really want. But even when companies succeed with innovations that defy those stereotypes, there is another challenge that can deny Boomers access to their products: Retailers who don’t know where to put them.
I was reminded of this phenomenon recently at the Silvers Summit conference (focused on technology for Boomers and Seniors) at this year’s giant Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
A panel of technology innovators shared stories of retailers unwilling to stock their products even though the manufacturer could deliver awareness and proven interest from consumers. As the panel moderator, Bud Myers from firstreet (a catalog and e-commerce company that has launched many products for “Boomers & Beyond”) noted, bricks-and-mortar buyers often resist ordering these products because they don’t fit any existing category.
Creating a New Category
Entrepreneur George Dennis, founded TV Ears, a wireless headset that allows one television viewer (usually a husband with hearing loss) to listen to the television without blasting the other viewer (usually his wife) out of the room. Dennis explained how hard it was to persuade RadioShack to carry his product – in part because RadioShack (ignoring its core consumer) wants to be young and hip (those dreaded stereotypes again), but also because RadioShack didn’t know where to put it.
George Dennis got RadioShack to agree to a trial, which was such a success that he has now persuaded CVS and Costco to do the same. But he and other entrepreneurs continue to fight an uphill battle selling products in categories that don’t have buyers. This is true for both bricks-and-mortar stores and e-commerce (even Amazon has no category for this stuff.) What to do?
It’s time for retailers to reinvent.
Retailers have historically (if not frequently) created new product categories (and hired buyers to manage them) as markets change. Given the scale and growth in the 50+ population, it’s time for them to do so now, with an aisle devoted to “Making Aging Easier.”
Once they get over their shock at how young some of the consumers in this aisle are, the first retailer will remake its stores to accommodate these products, and then will be copied by others, and all of us (manufacturers, buyers, and consumers) will have a place to find products we know relate to particular issues brought on with age.