- Wellpoint: Booming Toward Retirement
THE CHALLENGE:
Wellpoint is the second largest health insurer in the United States, with more than 42,000 employees and $56 billion in revenue. In its constant effort to create innovative products, Wellpoint turned to Synecticsworld in a courageous move that it knew would help it better understand the baby boomer consumers, who were increasingly vocalizing their concerns about the issue of retirement.
THE PROCESS:
The cross-functional team that Synecticsworld put together looked at what motivates boomers and found that beyond the obvious motivators of reward and belief in personal responsibility, the retirement conundrum was lodged prominently in the boomer’s psyche.
Using Synecticsworld’s techniques, the boomers’ thoughts and concerns flowed out in phrases such as:
- Celebrate the positives, not the heroics
- Life is good
- Recognition and Abatement of Fear
- Rewards and recognition for Good Behavior. Celebrate personal responsibility
- Be in it “For Life”
- Create guarantees and unalterable safety nets
- Create and nurture comfort
- Celebrate Freedom from worry and fear
With those valuable insights, the team delved deeper into the issue of retirement, which in many boomers’ minds represented several layers of concern including:
- The ‘Bogeyman in the closet’ mindset;
- Retirement paralysis; and,
- The myriad of confusing retirement choices.
Using proven Synecticsworld’s techniques, the team found that boomers were truly ‘Uncharted Territory’ and that for many boomers, quality and control of life was more important than longevity.
THE RESULTS:
Together, the team generated more than 30 new product and service concepts, all of them especially geared to the boomer audience, all of them innovative and progressive new products and services that well-served the needs of that rapidly growing demographic.
