Is The Middle Market the Future of Senior Living?
After languishing for years as the poor step-child of senior living, the Middle Market has become a hot topic over the past 18 months. Why? Because the vast majority of Baby Boomers have not saved sufficiently for their retirement. The need for care remains, but what they can afford is not the high-end of senior living.
Middle Market communities typically serve Middle America. They know how to create a meaningful experience of daily life without relying on luxury amenities and food prepared by a chef de cuisine. Basically, they know where to spend and where to hold the line.
In-Home Care Is Often an Interim Step
As adult children, we all want the best for our parents. Often, this begins with family members sharing the burden of looking in, shopping for groceries and visiting with older loved ones. This then graduates to bringing caregivers into the home to assist with the activities of daily life (ADLs). As America ages, in-home care is a burgeoning market. Fears of contracting the COVID-19 virus have positioned in-home care as a safer, more attractive option.
However, in-home care is limited in its ability to provide a rich environment of activities and opportunities for socialization. This is where senior living communities can offer more. Some of the better high-end communities provide beautiful buildings and grounds, restaurant-quality food and an interesting array of activities, speakers, classes and field trips. However, these five-star amenities come at a cost, one that most Americans cannot afford.
Middle Market Excellence
Enter the Middle Market community. For a modest monthly fee, they are creating an equally rich environment; it’s just not a luxury experience. One of our clients, CiminoCare, has been an innovator in the Middle Market for over 25 years.
Their philosophy and approach to life enrichment is that more frail seniors—including those suffering from dementia—are not a burden, or a liability, but rather, people who still possess inherent life enrichment capabilities. They strive to create an environment in which their residents “can express themselves as well as continue to give back to the community, to their maximum abilities, thereby finding deeper meaning and satisfaction.”
Please note that they are not touting their chef or their lap pool; they are reaching for a deeper experience which can be realized only by those operators who are truly committed to their residents, regardless of their abilities to pay.
And they make money while doing this!
Marketing the Senior Living Experience
A large part of our current work is helping senior living communities to succeed. Our goal is to create and maintain regular conversations with residents, prospects and their adult children. We understand the language to use in helping prospective residents to come to the right decisions about where to move, and what to expect. We use this knowledge to serve all market sectors.
As older Americans ourselves, my partners and I also inhabit the lives of the people we serve. This gives our voices authenticity. Being older is a gift. It’s one that we share with our clients and their residents, and one that you may find useful as well.
SGD is the Bay Area advertising, marketing and branding agency specializing in the senior and boomer markets. We’ve successfully positioned, branded and rebranded senior-oriented companies, weaving traditional and online tactics to create compelling stories that drive response.
About the Author: Duff Reiter is an Account Director / Planner and Partner at SGD Advertising.
