A report by independent market analyst Datamonitor finds that marketers need to reassess their strategies to account for the growth in the number of over 50 year olds.
Whilst the vogue for youth marketing has got everyone targeting young adults, teens, "tweens" and children, untapped potential remains amongst mature consumers, especially Well-Off Older Folks (WOOFs) who should be the main target for those looking at senior consumers.
The need to acquire new marketing skills for this age group is urgent - there will be an additional 7.7 million consumers over the age of 50 in Europe by 2005 compared to 2000.
The growth in the over 50s in Europe is just too great for marketers to continue to ignore - however anyone who thinks solely in terms of just "the over 50s market" is unlikely to effectively exploit the opportunity on offer. The keys to effective understanding and segmentation of this segment are using "attitudinal" groups and "lifestages".
For marketers there are three major attitude groups to consider: Well-Off Older Folks (WOOFs), the Youthfully Spirited and Self-Preservationists.
WOOFs are those with a relatively high degree of financial security and high disposable incomes. This allows them to trade up to high quality goods and services and to be very experimental. The Youthfully Spirited group consists of those who are experimental (similar to the WOOFs) but who are less financially secure. The Self Preservationists are those who are moreintroverted, have more conservative purchasing patterns and are typically older than consumers in the other two groups.
"With more consumers becoming financially astute and affluent, future older generations will not only be more numerous but will also account for agreater share of consumer expenditure," saidPiers Berezai, Datamonitor consumer markets analyst and author of the report.
"Changes such as increased foreign travel, increasingly liberal social attitudes and greater diversity in activities offered by the leisure industry mean there are more opportunitiesfor older consumers to enjoy themselves. This self-indulgence is also good news for the consumer goods industry, as better-off senior consumers tend to opt for high quality food and drinks. The same tendency is also strong amongst seniors who have less disposable income, as many of these will try to consume "less of the best" as far as their budgets will allow."
The research found that when targeting older consumers, that in addition to age, lifestyle patterns should be considered. This line of thinking bought about four quite different categories. The "Pre-retirement" period occurs between 50 and 59 years old, when most consumers are still working. Between 60 and 69 years old is "Retirement", when most consumers make budgetary cutbacks to adjust to fixed incomes. Between 70 and 84 years old is the "Long Retired" stage, where consumers have become more adept at living off their fixed incomes and often indulge themselves with little luxuries. The final stage is "Advanced Ageing" - aged 85 and above. Consumers at this stage tend to become more introverted as they adjust to declining physical abilities and health.
"The obsession with targeting younger consumers under the age of 30, especially teenagers and "tweenagers" means that mainstream advertising has the potential to totally ignore thoseover the age of 50. Even worse, the portrayal of older consumers in many adverts could be considered patronizing or even offensive," said Berezai.
To make the marketers job more difficult the over 50s are often less brand loyal and more experimental than commonly presumed.Marketers also fail to recognise when specific products might also be of relevance to older consumers. For example, despite the over 50s generally being the most concerned about their health, most health product innovation, such as sports drinks and low fat foods, have targeted younger consumers.
The report also highlights the fact that the marketing industry needs to adapt the ageing population. Research highlighted that the focus on youth and the misunderstanding of older consumers is perpetuated by the fact that marketing teams and creative agencies are typically very young. According to the Instituteof Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) in 2001, 81 per cent of staff in advertising and communications agencies were under the age of 40, and 49 per cent were under the age of 30.
Combining greater insight with effective segmentation will allow stereotypical approaches to "seniors marketing" to be broken, and there is a receptive audience waiting to hear the message.