There is no such thing as a typical older person: to market successfully to older adults, businesses need to avoid generalizations.
Market segmentation is a good place to start from: an Ipsos pilot run in 4 countries (US, UK, Italy and Japan) uncovers 4 segments present in all these countries, with actionable insights on how to address them:
Segment 1: SIMPLE CONTENTMENT
> Adults content with life
> Feel calm, financially secure, and want to keep life simple when it comes to possessions.
> Believe people should age gracefully without resorting to drastic measures like cosmetic surgeries.
> Want to connect with family and friends, and would exercise if they had more time.
Segment 2: STRIVERS
> Adults who are more driven, consumeristic, and feel a need to look good in public.
> Feel financially secure.
> Enjoy buying things, believe that what they own defines who they are, and admire people who own expensive cars, clothes or homes.
> Want to exercise more if they had more time – likely because of their desire to look good in public.
Segment 3: STRUGGLERS
> Happy-go-lucky.
> Buy only the things they need.
> Not concerned about how they appear in public and are NOT impressed by people who own expensive things.
> Enjoy the simple things in life: good food without consideration to whether the food is healthy or not.
> Would watch more TV if they had more time.
Segment 4: CHILL INDULGENCE
> Happy-go-lucky.
> Buy only the things they need.
> Not concerned about how they appear in public and are NOT impressed by people who own expensive things.
> Enjoy the simple things in life: good food without consideration to whether the food is healthy or not.
> Would watch more TV if they had more time.
How to leverage these learnings?
> It starts with messaging and advertising!
> An illustrated example is shown in the figure below with 2 different segments, each more susceptible to react to different contexts, expectations and ways of empathizing with them.
– The full analysis done by Colin Ho & Chris Murphy from Ipsos is available for download.
