Hank [BS/MSEE,
MSM $$$, Ph.D. Mgmt] teaches 
The idea for this blog entry, and part of the content including the graphic left, came from here:
An area that should be big for marketers, smart businesspeople, and entrepreneurs, is helping Boomers exercise their brains (see here last year, for example). This article from The New York Times sheds new light on the opportunity. All of this assumes exercise either improves and staves off aging of the brain. A link to recent research in this area is here:
Of course, anyone with half a brain knows about the success of Nintendo’s “Brain” series of games; good enough to sell DSs just for the game in many cases.
Boomers were the generation that created and embraced the fitness craze in the 1970’s and 80’s. They made it acceptable for adults, grown-ups that is, to keep wearing sneakers and gym clothes, long past their last official recess or gym class. As David Brooks pointed put in his 2001 book Bobos in Paradise, Boomers turned what was once called “playing” into “working out.” That’s right, they turned play into work.
Mental gymnastics will prove to be a big business as Boomers see their parents living well into their 80’s and 90’s, with the body parts holding up while mental acuity falters. For those of you looking for inexpensive ways to exercise your brains, try this book, Keep Your Brain Alive, and master neurobics.
So here’s the bottom line boys and girls. Boomers are a huge market. You think you’re smart. Use your perceived “smarts” to help boomers and make a buck along the way. Hank
I’ve blogged about strengthening your brain that’s based on a PBS special here: http://how2livelife.blogspot.com/2008/01/stregthen-your-brain.html
With the aging population it’s no wonder that successful companies of tomorrow will have at least part of their focus on those 55 or older. I just typed in “aging minds” in Google and came up with over 500,000 hits on the subject. Products focusing on anti-aging, mind-stimulating, and improved daily functioning of our elderly generation are rapidly growing every year. Games like that produced by Nintendo have a huge potential for success.
Several studies have been done to show that memory exercises such as word games and puzzles such as Sudoku are hugely valuable for memory retention and even expansion. The Washington post did an article in 2006 over a publication in the Journal of Medicine discussing how honing intellectual skills can bolster the mind in the same way that physical exercise protects and strengthens the body. They explained that researchers have discovered that the benefits of the brain exercises went far beyond specific skills learned by the participants but actually improved reaction times in daily living such as reacting to a road sign, recalling telephone numbers and checking the ingredients on a medicine bottle.
I actually recently borrowed someone’s Nintendo DS and Brain Age game to see if my retired grandfather would like to spend some of his free time playing something like that to keep his mind sharp. He responded saying that he didn’t need that thing and he wouldn’t be able to run it even after I did my best to demonstrate it to him in a manner I thought would spur his interest.
Of course, never in his life has he used a desktop computer before. He does remember how to turn his plasma TV and dish receiver on most of the time though.
Both of my parents were born at the tail end of the baby boomers generation. I have already seen a great change in their memories. My dad bought this program when I was about 10 or so, and it was called something like Memory Sticks or something. He bought those because he noticed a slip in his memory. He wanted my sister and I to use the tapes to improve our memories as well. I think I finished the first 5 out of 20 tapes. They were interesting but too long to endure!
My point for telling that story is to say that there has been memory improving devices on the market for years. Yes, you can turn it in to a game, but how many baby boomers are going to take the time to learn how to play the game on the particular console? It would help if there was a product out there that was fast and easy to use, that could be kept at easy access to improve the likely hood of usage.
I’m not very much into games and puzzles and such since Purdue’s Engineering Technology is draining my life away with classwork. But I could never see my Mother or Grandmother playing any type of crossword, sodoku or video game. Innovating something to stimulate this generation’s mind seems to me like a tough challenge in my perspective. My only thoughts are to create something that this generation can do in their relaxation period since that seems to be their most important personal time.
I cannot tell for the US boomers since I have Russian origin, but at least in the former socialist countries the older generation is of quite closed minds easily manipulated by a proper advertising. While it’s not in their habit to play the games, they can easily be fooled to do so if this is a goal. It’s not that I am suggesting doing that, it’s just my observation. Our parents are so easily get cheated by younger scoundrels because of their different mentality.
I think Nintendo in particular is a company that has been successful in expanding video games from its typical demographic by making its games more accessible and easy to pick up. This makes the ds and wii an attractive platform to try and reach a new and older market with brain exercise games. Baby boomers maybe more receptive to this type of product if it is packaged in a more mature manor and independent of a video game console to remove some of the sterotypes that is associated with playing video games.
I think Nintendo is the console that does break the age demographic for video games. They are going to revolutionize indoor exercise with their introduction of Wii Fitness. For those unfamiliar with this soon-to-be gaming sensation, I believe it has great potential popularity amongst baby boomers. It turns exercising and fitness into a game. There are sensors that weigh the players and a program that keeps track of your progress. I think this is just tapping the surface of combining video games with reality and innovating our relationship with computer programs. Who knows, soon this could be the beginning phase of bringing virtual reality into our living rooms, which is a major goal of all video game companies.
As for the baby boomers themselves, I have seen, first hand, this craze of “exercising the brain”. My mom and her coworkers religiously solve sudoku puzzles on their breaks at work. During my internship, my coworkers from this generation did the puzzles when business was slow. This tells me that there is definately a market for this demand, and this is only the beginning of what is to come with baby boomers and capitalizing on their retirement.
Although not a boomer, my Grandma is very interested in the status of her memory and keeping her mind sharp. She religiously does her daily cross words. Her church recently began offering some evening courses. She took an intro to computers course last year and now can successfully email me! The church is also offering language classes. So, now my Grandma is learning Spanish.
I came across this article from ABC on how learning a second language after retirement can aide in keeping the mind sharp and might possibly reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. I don’t know if this is scientifically proven, but I say if Grams wants to learn Spanish- more power to her. It definitely can’t hurt.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/LivingLonger/story?id=1241571
Although not a boomer, my Grandma is very interested in the status of her memory and keeping her mind sharp. She religiously does her daily cross words. Her church recently began offering some evening courses. She took an intro to computers course last year and now can successfully email me! The church is also offering language classes. So, now my Grandma is learning Spanish.
I came across this article from ABC on how learning a second language after retirement can aide in keeping the mind sharp and might possibly reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. I don’t know if this is scientifically proven, but I say if Grams wants to learn Spanish- more power to her. It definitely can’t hurt.
I really could relate to this post. My grandfather just past in Dec 2008 at the age of 95 years old. This article put into a clear light why my mom had my playing Jeopardy for Nintendo growing up. Eventually sending me to a private Christian boarding school. As much as I hated it, I see that it was her attempt to exercise my brain.
This is something really interesting to me. I didnot know what boomers exactly are until today afternoon. But know when I know a bit baout them, they sound really exciting. Itoo can realte to this post as my Grandma, a 94 year old young lady (i like to call her like that) still remembers what she did when she was in her grade four. And my father he says that he can remember all the things he was taught in high school at this time when he is 51 years old, but could not when he went to give high school exams! So, I think this wonder at the age of 51 yrs happened in the process of excersicing his brians… He doesnt really paly any brain storming games, but yes I have obeserved he never keeps it idle! So that itself is a excercise. However, boomers are something I would like to tell about to my family back in India.
It’s likely to be a good market to tap, reading the article that was posted by the NY Times, “Alvaro Fernandez, whose brain fitness and consulting company, SharpBrains, has a Web site focused on brain fitness research. He estimates that in 2007 the market in the United States for so-called neurosoftware was $225 million.”
$225 million is a nice little chunk of change that I think we can all agree qualifies as a market.
Recently my father was in an accident and suffered a major blow to the head. This caused some damage to the brain and for some time he just wasn’t the same. My sister and I purchased him a Nintendo DS and the Brain Age games in hopes it would help him get back up to speed a little faster. To be honest, it works well and it’s fun… for someone more my age. At my father’s age, it really is as if he’s simply too old for the device. My mother spends a few days a week in the airport and says she sees a lot of people that appear in their forties using a Nintendo DS for what appears to be playing Brain Age. The market for mental acuity building software is there, but I think it really boils down to convenience more than anything. There’s no way you’d find me lugging around extra gadgets just to try to help my memory. However, that same software on my smartphone? Already done. Baby boomers are a large market and all indicators point to them wanting to stay fit mentally, but for products to appeal to this market they need to fit this age group better, not just their wallet.
This game was a brilliant idea! I got the game for my mom (54) and she just loves it. Played it every day for at least a month. Anyways, this is a huge market like we all know and it’s only going to get bigger. If we can find something that interests us and can appeal to this age group, that would be ideal.
What’s funny is I see a lot of older people starting to play more and more games thanks to Nintendo and the evolution of online flash based puzzle games. It really is a great market to get into!