Marketing to the Aging Population

A prerequisite to effective marketing is knowledge about consumer needs and how to best satisfy them. This chapter informs the reader about the biophysical, psychological, and social changes that people are likely to experience with advancing age, including age-related changes in lifestyles. It explains how these changes create new needs, or intensify existing ones, prompting the aging consumer to change his or her consumption patterns. The chapter presents information based on research and aging theories from various disciples to help the reader understand reasons for differences in behaviors of people in various age groups and cohorts. To help practitioners understand the importance of these changes for business practice, examples of implications of these changes are also presented.

Developing an effective marketing strategy to appeal to the older consumer market requires a deep understanding of the reasons for the behaviors of the large and diverse older consumer market. It requires understanding how older consumers differ from younger consumers, and most importantly the reasons consumer needs and behaviors differ between the older generations, as people become increasingly heterogeneous with age in later life. The information presented in this chapter suggests that differences in needs and behaviors in later life are the result of three main types of factors: aging, life circumstances and life-changing events older persons experience at various times in their lives. These three types of factors affect an older person’s psychological states—i.e., needs, attitudes, motives, and values, which in turn affect his or her consumer behaviors. Theories from various disciplines and research findings of studies on older consumers are used to explain observed differences in older consumers’ behavior.

Although the effectiveness of a given strategy and tactic is likely to vary according to the specific generation or cohort and age sub-segment targeted, as well as the type of product or service marketed, there is adequate information to suggest the desirability of implementing certain strategies for marketing any type of product or service to any segment of older consumers. This chapter suggests guidelines and recommendations that are likely to be effective in developing strategies for the older consumer market in general. These recommendations are based on three main sources of information: (1) Results of studies that explicitly suggest certain marketing strategies and tactics, (2) information presented in earlier chapters that support certain marketing actions, and (3) anecdotal evidence that supports the effectiveness of certain marketing strategies and tactics.

This chapter summarizes existing knowledge on aging and buying habits of older consumers as they apply to food and beverage products, food stores and supermarkets, and restaurants. It presents information relevant to the mature consumer’s shopping preferences for food and beverage products; and includes information on factors that motivate the mature consumer to purchase specific products and brands and on the effectiveness of various marketing stimuli and offerings, such as sales promotions. The chapter builds upon general recommendations offered in Chap. 4 to suggest marketing strategies and tactics specifically relevant to the manufacturing and distribution of food and beverage products. The materials presented suggest the importance of understanding the aging processes older consumers experience that determine to a large extent their needs and preferences for food products and various retail outlets. They help in designing and modifying food and beverage products as well as retail environments to accommodate the physiological, psychological and social changes that occur with advancing age in late life.

This chapter consists of three main sections. The first section presents information on the needs of older consumers that tend to emerge due to aging. It focuses on factors that create needs for specific apparel attributes that manufacturers should consider in developing product lines for the aging population. The second section presents research on older consumers’ buying and consumption habits regarding apparel products. The information presented in the first two sections has implications for designing effectual strategies and tactics for marketing apparel and footwear products. The last section of the chapter uses information presented in the chapter’s earlier sections and earlier chapters in this book to suggest strategies for marketers of apparel and footwear products. It offers recommendation for marketing strategies (segmentation, target selection and positioning), programs and tactics (product development, promotion, pricing and distribution) for manufacturers and retailers of apparel and footwear.

This chapter highlights the increasing number of older persons who prefer to age in place. The housing and remodeling industries have been responding to this trend by developing new single-family homes or converting old houses to make them suitable to the aging person’s needs. Similarly, the retirement housing industry has been responding by building facilities different from the traditional homes designed exclusively for persons of old age. The increasing diversity of the older consumer needs for housing is in part due to the gains in life expectancy that create more challenges to marketers of housing projects. Increase in life expectancy creates greater the heterogeneity of the housing market and demand for specific types of retirement and non-retirement housing. Older consumers are becoming more demanding of housing facilities and the relevant services they expect to receive from the community and other professionals. The information presented in this chapter suggests that housing for the elderly cannot be addressed in isolation from the wide variety of services the aging person needs. Rather, housing needs to be addressed in concert with other elements that are related to housing such as project financing, healthcare needs of the elderly, and social support services in the community.

Older adults use disproportionately larger quantities of pharmaceutical products than younger adults. However, the average older user has limited knowledge about these products, their benefits and risks, and must rely on experts’ opinion (doctors and pharmacists) or information on packages and other sources such as advertising and the Internet. Older users of these products need to be better informed by manufacturers, physicians, and pharmacists about the benefits and risks of prescription drugs and OTC products. For effectual marketing, products for age-related ailments should either not show people in their ads or should be advertised using chronologically-younger persons than the target audience, emphasizing the benefits of the product than the age(s) of potential users. Multiple uses/benefits of a pharmaceutical product should be mentioned in advertising, if some of its benefits have multi-generational appeal. Over-the-counter (OTC) products that consumers may find offensive should use either a cartoon character or not use a spokesperson at all. Pharmacies should emphasize convenience, the provision of helpful information, and personal relationship with the customer. Manufacturers of personal care products should consider the diversity of older consumers’ needs that stem from biophysical and psychosocial aging in developing marketing strategies and tactics.

This chapter highlights several trends in the healthcare industry that provide opportunities for service providers of healthcare-related services to profit while enhancing the well-being of older adults. As older people realize the benefits of preventive healthcare for longevity and quality of life, they increasingly with age engage in activities, such as exercising and better nutrition, that help deter aging and the onset of chronic conditions. In response to this trend, healthcare service providers expand the scope of their services, making them available in a larger number of locations with the assistance of new technologies, such as adult day-care centers and the aging person’s private home. In addition, hospitals are attempting to reposition and expand their services from the traditional forms of acute care that are provided in the hospital to acute and long-term care that can be provided in various convenient and less costly locations. And they attempt to compete with other providers who can provide a variety of healthcare services in the community and the aging person’s home. Factors such as consumer preferences for receiving various healthcare services, rising healthcare costs, and emerging technologies are making the provision of healthcare services more profitable and desirable for the elderly when they are offered at locations most convenient to the aging person, contributing to the recipient’s well-being.

The long-term care (LTC) market can be differentiated on the basis of the locations at which seniors in need for health and personal care receive these services. The at-home care market appears to be the fastest growing in popularity. It largely consists of highly-specialized niche markets of professionals or organizations providing narrow lines of services. In recent years, these organizations have been creating alliances to achieve synergistic effects of efficiency, better serving the patients’ preference for receiving healthcare and personal care from one source. The trend towards integration of healthcare with personal care services for similar reasons is also evident in adult day care facilities. In contrast, nursing homes have been scrambling to find ways to survive, and many are forced to go out of business or find niche markets with special needs. As a result of greater understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders (ADRD) sufferers and their care requirements, special care units have been developed to provide optimum care for the increasing numbers of people with this progressively debilitating disease and to offer some relief from the burden of caring for victims of Alzheimer’s disease. The LTC market will continue to experience opportunities for diversification with home health care, adult day care and sub-acute facilities offering viable alternatives to consumers.

The face of the mature market for financial services has been changing. Because of the increase in life expectancy, today’s consumers at retirement age are likely to have different needs for financial services than previous generations. When it comes to marketing financial services to older adults, financial service providers should be cognizant of the diversity of older consumer needs, although their needs for convenience and personal relationships with financial vendors’ representatives are of outmost importance regardless of type of service or vendor. The importance of providing a diversity of traditional and nontraditional financial services along with membership and loyalty programs is also highlighted as gateways to cross-selling more profitable services. In order to capitalize on developments that affect the market for financial services as they relate to the aging population, financial marketers need information about the needs, preferences and habits of older Americans as they apply to financial services. This chapter presents research on older consumers’ attitudes and habits with regard to financial products and services.. Based on this information, as well as information presented in the first four chapters of this book, marketing strategies are suggested for efficient and effectual delivery of financial services to satisfy older consumers financial needs and help promote their long-term well-being.

Older consumers have a need for a wide variety of insurance products, but relatively few companies understand their needs and offer policies that appeal to this market. And selling such policies is not an easy task either, as sales associates must explain the benefits of owning the various policies that many older consumers do not think they need in part because they are not fully informed. Many companies develop products for the entire market, subscribing to the “one-size-fits all” notion, when older consumer needs for insurance products vary widely either because they are not fully informed about product benefits and risk factors or because they prefer to pay for only specific types of coverage. The challenging tasks for insurance companies are in educating consumers, developing a wide variety of policies, and pricing them “à la carte”. Establishing a trusting personal relationship between the older consumer and the company’s sales associate is crucial in helping older people understand the various options and in cross-selling multiple policies.

Older Americans are becoming increasingly active as consumers of a wide variety of travel and leisure-related services. The recent COVID-19 pandemic and terrorist activities notwithstanding, the long-term prospects for the travel and leisure industry are favorable as it applies to the older consumer market. Conflicting factors such as higher life expectancy, increased ability to travel due to higher income levels, but more health and social constraints mean that there will be more diverse travel and leisure demands from older travellers. It is likely that it will be increasingly necessary for businesses to create travel opportunities and services for every budget to satisfy the diverse travel needs and take advantage of this booming market. This chapter uses existing knowledge that has implications for developing strategies and tactics to effectively market travel and leisure services to older consumers; it offers in a condensed format recommendation for marketing strategies (segmentation, target selection and positioning), as well as programs/tactics (product development, promotion, pricing and distribution) for travel and leisure services in general, as well as for four types of services: Lodging, cruise lines, air lines, and casino gambling.

Business decisions are customarily aimed at increasing profits by satisfying consumer needs and wants. Scholars have recently noted a lack of research that leads to business decisions which create positive changes and improvements in the well-being of consumers and their families. This new business orientation requires a shift in business philosophy from making profits by satisfying consumer needs and wants to making profit by creating positive changes and improvements in the consumers’ lives. To this end, business decision makers should first embrace the concept of well-being as a vehicle to achieving corporate goals, focusing on the factors that improve the well-being of customers and their families. They need to understand the factors that enhance well-being and take them into account when making business decisions. This chapter provides information on the factors that contribute to the older person’s quality of life (QOL) and increase longevity. It suggests strategies that companies could use to influence the factors that promote well-being in general and QOL in late years of life in particular. Finally, the chapter makes the reader aware of ways consumers can participate in their own transformation by taking actions that promote well-being and avoiding behaviors that impede QOL at any stage in life.

The aging marketplace has been creating business opportunities in several industries, including healthcare, housing, long-term care, and travel and leisure. The increasing in size mature consumer market has been affecting the way companies have been marketing their products and services. As increasing life expectancy is a global trend, it is imperative that marketers understand the demographic changes that are likely to unfold over the coming years, as well as the challenges and opportunities that they present for achieving sustainable development in concert with the efficient use of our planet’s resources, and concurrently maintaining or enhancing the QOL of present and future generations. Businesses in both developed and developing countries are likely to be affected by the changing demographics of our globe. They are likely to be selling an increasing portion of consumer products to aging customers. Because older consumers differ from younger consumers, as well as because of the increasing diversity in the older population associated with increasing age, global marketers would have to better understand their aging customers in order to better address their needs. This chapter has highlighted several challenges that marketers are likely to be faced with in future years, and has suggested ways of addressing them.