The term ‘Age Friendly’ has come into use to incorporate the full scope of personal characteristics within our life and in the communities that we live. The term extends beyond the physical parameters of age and also includes social and psychological aspects.
“Age Friendly means how do we start to develop policies and practices that enable us to adapt to demographic changes,” stated Barbara Douglas with the Newcastle, England Age Friendly program. Newcastle is implementing this program following the World Health Organization’s Age Friendly Cities initiative, with the understanding that our society is aging and we must adapt with it.
In the United States, groups like Agefriendly.org along with its Age-Friendly Institute, are working to provide guidance to cities, communities, businesses, and other services to allow for a welcoming environment for everyone – no matter their age.
For local businesses, this will start at your ’front door’. Today’s retail businesses need to physically accommodate the baby stroller and wheel chair per ADA requirements.
. Restroom facilities must accommodate for these as well. These physical factors are mandated by public/government policy.
But, the age friendly initiative shouldn‘t stop with these requirements. This does not always take into account all aspects of ‘age friendly‘ – including capabilities, energy, and desires. And here are a couple of examples that we might point out for local retail businesses to inspire them –
But, the age friendly initiative shouldn‘t stop with these requirements. This does not always take into account all aspects of ‘age friendly‘ – including capabilities, energy, and desires. And here are a couple of examples that we might point out for local retail businesses to inspire them –
Beyond the physical accommodations, many websites that market directly to a senior age audience might want to re-evaluate their site for some of these following issues.
As we have covered in previous articles, the 55+ population is one of the largest and wealthiest in our current global market. If your business caters to this segment (or if you want to expand your share of this segment) than it is important to see how you can make your product, services, and/or business more appealing to this audience.
And as with any demographic, the senior audience is not a monolith. Actually, we feel that this audience includes three major segments, with the very large span of the ‘Baby Boomer’s being viewed as two sub-groups.
‘First Boomers’ who were born between 1946 and 1954. This group of Boomers were old enough to have served in Vietnam, they enjoyed the ‘Summer of Love’ and Woodstock and entered corporate America relying upon mainframe computers.
‘Late Boomers’ who were born between 1955 and 1964. They came of age after the Vietnam draft era with a slightly different view of the world than the ‘First Boomers’. This group was still in their 30’s when the personal computer entered their office and/or their home.
And we can’t ignore the Gen X’ers who are quickly entering this segment. Many of them have built retirement funds that allow them to soon retire, if they haven’t already.
So there are many different ways to appeal to and attract this large audience. But that is true of any segment. The sad fact is that currently this segment represents only 5-10% of the advertising dollars today.
Contact the team at Senior Marketing Collective and let’s help you claim more of this growing market share.
“Seniors are not a monolith and do not buy the same way.”