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Senior Citizen Market Segmentation
Posted By: consumer123* on 10/6/2004 4:28 PM (CST) 250 Points
Hi

I am doing a study on market segmentation and I am learning about the senior citizen segment. I have done a lot of search on the internet about this segment. It seems that they are a growing number and have considerable purchasing power and companies have started to realise that.

However I am unable to find instances where companies wrongly targetted or neglected this segment and had a product failure. Or an example of a product targetted to this segment which failed for any other reason. Could anyone help me by providing some information on this. I have found examples of successful products being targetted to this segment but not vice versa. Any additional infomation and examples of successful and failed products would also be appreciated.

Thanks

Posted by: bob* Accepted Answer
10/8/2004 9:25 AM (CST)
Good morning,
As a senior myself, as well as a marketing person, the method of marketing to seniors has become awkward.

The Baby boomer generation has put a new spin on this marketplace. Todays offes to this mature educated marketplace appeals to their sense of themselves. They are the "me" generation first, and spend more money on stuff, especially health aids and beauty items. This includes both men and women.

Some of the failures I've seen in senior marketing is the way some of the insurance companies, especially term life and final expense insurance is marketed to this group. Many companies are still using the same type of offer with very little modification that was used 10 plus years ago. Can't do that today. These companies have seem response rates go down. These ads and direct response offers need a facelift. Appeal to these boomers ego and use copy like, "Don't stop living life to the fullest, just take care of your final expenses with minumum payments so you don't have to burden your family" "you've always taken care of yourself, don't stop now" I'm not a copy writer, but something bold that allow the new senior group not to think of losing
life, but rather feeling a sense of accomplishment by taking care of their family by themselves"

Hope this help, and good luck
Bob Perlstein
 
Posted by: consumer123* Author Response
10/12/2004 12:17 AM (CST)
Hi

Thanks for the reply and sorry for responding so late. Your input provided a lot of insight into this market segment. However I am still looking for specific examples of products which unsuccessfully targetted this segment and failed. I haven't been able to find any examples where a company changed its strategy or withdrew a product.

Thanks
 
Posted by: jose04 Accepted Answer
10/20/2004 3:14 PM (CST)
Hello Consumer 123

Many congratulations on the choice of your topic. It’s a vital one and i sure hope something good comes out of it.
I don’t have actual cases studies on your query, but I’ll air my thoughts on the topic.

Products fail because of their general inability to deliver promises or satisfactions desired by customers. Therefore products, which do not deliver the goods, to Seniors (as in this case), should also result in failure. May be the only difference is that, the provocations for the failure is not totally due to the seniors disenchantment of the product alone. The other market segments may be weightier and hence has higher influence in deciding the future of the product. These products/services may be specially focused on seniors (as a key segment), as in the pharma, food, nutrition and health products, leisure time use services etc. These products should have a purchase pattern, often related to the special needs of the aged.

To perfectly answer your question we need to trace out the following: Who is a senior, 50, 60, 70 or, 80, and above? What buying habits do they have? Do they still earn income or are they dependent on their family. Each of these, among other factors play a role in defining the actual status of a senior. Are they independent, possess purchasing power, freedom to act etc? Do they feel wanted? These factors also decide the level of intensity expressed by the seniors in a society. DO they say their mind or are they less expressive (in general) due to their self consciousness (specially about their advancing age)?

There should be examples on failed products for this segment, as in the medicare example. Here’s a link I chanced to find, related to the ‘Senior drug card problem’.
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=2&aid=66689

My feeling is that products are not focused enough on the seniors. It so happens that most products are offered appealing to most ages. As you hinted, things have to change. This is one left out market in the world.

Hope these thoughts help!!
 
Posted by: ASVP/ChrisB Accepted Answer
10/20/2004 5:09 PM (CST)
One glaring example was more of a sales problem than a marketing one.

Potential buyers being shown through a retirement village asked about the ownership status of their town-house. The sales person outlined the body corporate leasehold regulations and consistently used terms like "and then when you die..."

As she left the fit, vigorous prospective clients for another group I heard the gentleman say to his wife: "Die? we don't want to come here and die, we want to come here and LIVE!"

So she missed the sale by pigeonholing these people into the "almost ready to shuffle of this mortal coil" basket, quite wrongly.

Marketing errors I have seen in advertising portray users of products targeted at over-50's as looking well over 50. Sometimes the on-screen talent looks more like 65-70 than 50. With the huge baby boomer bulge already in their mid-50's, that is a terrible mistake. Over-50's don't mind age-targeted products, but they don't want to be made to feel aged if they buy them.

Bear in mind, with modern life-expectancy, someone who is now 50 is less than two-thirds through their average life expectancy. They have around 30 years left on average.

Not sure if this helps you as your definition of senor citizen is not clear.

Good luck...

ChrisB
 
Posted by: Colleen Sharen* Accepted Answer
10/22/2004 2:40 PM (CST)
Biggest general mistake I have seen in seniors marketing is to generalize "seniors" into one great monolith. Not all people 55+ are the same. They are at different life stages, some are new grandparents, others are new parents. Yet others have grandchildren in their 20s. They also are of different generations and different experiences. You will need a much tighter target than "seniors". I recommend targeting on a psychographic basis rather than demographic - although it's harder to execute, you'll get much higher response rates if you do it right.

One of the worst TV campaigns targeting seniors I ever saw was for some kind of insurance company (no brand recall), that showed a real life 88 year old man water-skiing. Interestingly, the ad appealed to 30 - 40 year olds who "want to be like that when they get old", but when we showed it to the average 65 - 75 year old, they thought, that's not me, I can't aspire to that.
 
Posted by: K Sieczka Accepted Answer
10/22/2004 3:24 PM (CST)
As a person who has spent much of my career working with seniors, it is a big mistake to expect that the senior segment is only interested in things like laxatives and arthritis medications. Today's senior is a different animal than the seniors of even 10-15 years ago. It is an emerging marketing area since we are living longer than ever. Marketing people are still trying to hash out what these folks want. If you really want to know what seniors like and dislike, ask! They are not shy about sharing opinions.

The largest segment of seniors (with millions more to come) are baby boomers. They are very interested in products that keep the eternal "fountain of youth" flowing, look fondly on nostalgia for simpler things, and are seaching to make sense of their lives. They certainly don't relate to the cheesy marketing attempts showing obviously old people. They see themselves as forever young.
 
Posted by: Val (Moderator)* Moderator Response
10/26/2004 12:39 AM (CST)
Hello all. I am closing this question, since its more than 10 days old. We do this to make sure members' contributions are rewarded in a timely manner and to improve the visibility of newer questions. Thanks, so much, for participating!

Val (Moderator)
 


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