Senior Consumers: Understanding key trends driving consumer behaviors

Senior Consumers: Understanding key trends driving consumer behaviors

Summary

Much has been made of young generations such as millennials setting new consumer trends and how companies should respond, but in reality, there are perhaps better opportunities available to target older generations then younger ones. Consumers over the age of 55 at present have been shown to be more tech savvy than ever, more online and increasingly looking for leisure and entertainment opportunities.

When these factors are combined with the fact that they are more likely to own property than any other group, have more liquid capital than any other and are increasingly less likely to save inheritance for younger generations. There are opportunities arising in a number of product areas, including technology, property and housing, marketing, financial products and holidays and leisure. Many companies have yet to realize that they actually have an ideal product for senior consumers already but are failing to maximize the opportunity due to not properly targeting this consumer group.

Key Highlights

• Partly as a result of lucrative pensions, house prices, low retirement ages and squeezed incomes for working age people, the ‘gray dollar’ has come to dominate the travel and tourism market across much of the developed world. Yet the influence of the gray dollar may eventually wane due to shifting demographics. For the meantime, the share of money spent on holiday and leisure by senior consumers exceeds that of any sub-group of working age people. Various factors can be held responsible. With companies such as Saga prospering due to success in courting older consumers, companies must now cater for that part of the demographic to prosper.
• Dubbed the ‘gray dollar’, seniors in society have long been known to possess extensive spending power - more per capita than younger generations have on tap - yet much of the consumer society focuses upon the desires of millennials and the emerging ‘generation z’. Many businesses have so far proven themselves to be largely insouciant towards the commercial opportunities available through appealing to the over-65-year-old age group. Several reasons can be cited to explain this trend - the relative slipperiness of seniors due to divergent sub-groups being one. Now, however, there are signs of change. Major brands are increasingly marketing products towards retirees, adjusting store design and tailoring products to their needs.
• The last few decades have seen phenomenal rises in real estate prices, as much as 18% over the last ten years in the UK, and the age groups that have most gained from this process are those which are already on the property ladder. Older generations have been able to accumulate significant new wealth as a result. This has allowed older generations much more spending power in many ways, through releasing home equity and downsizing to produce some significant gains in capital. Coupled with this, seniors are active in the second property and holiday home industries, many having significantly more buying power than many younger buyers. This trend is actually strengthening and older buyers control more of the global property market than ever before and younger generations are buying much less.

Scope

• Examine just why senior consumers are such a valuable customer group
• See the progress made by some companies in targeting this demographic
• Explore the opportunites available and how the group is changing in nature
• See what the risks are to this group and how their lifestyle might be effected

Reasons to buy

• Why has this generation got so much spending power over the millennial generation?
• How can they be better targeted with products and advertising campaigns?
• What products really suit the senior age group?
• What holiday, property, technology and retirement products does this group favour?