Message to Marketers: Don't Forget the Seniors

Chicago — Two years ago, Arc Worldwide’s Elizabeth Harris went searching for internal information about consumers 65 and older, and was surprised to find none.Harris, senior vice president and strategy director at Arc, a division of Leo Burnett, had recently learned that her 71-year-old mother, who had participated in consumer surveys throughout her life, now felt invisible. According to Harris, her mother said, “I hit 65, 66, I’m aged out of all surveys and nobody wants to talk to me anymore. I feel like nobody wants to market their products to me. Here I am, a person with lots of time, and I have money. I’m a consumer. I’m not a corpse.”Thus began Arc’s mission to gather consumer data and insights on the 65-and-over demographic, the results of which she revealed in a seminar titled “The Forgotten Senior” at the recent Shopper Marketing Expo. “My mom was right, we are not marketing to this group of people,” Harris said.Harris said that from the U.S. Census Bureau we know that 4.1% of the population was 65 and older in 1900, but 12.9% were 65 and up in 2009. That’s 39.6 million seniors. By 2030, there are expected to be 70 million seniors, or one of every five Americans. Also, according to the 2006 National Vital Statistics Reports, 65-year-olds today are expected to live an additional 19 years. Research done by McKinsey and Co. in 2007 revealed that seniors controlled nearly a third of U.S. wealth, and that by 2015 that number would rise to 80%, with seniors accounting for 50% of all spending.Armed with that knowledge, Arc in July 2011 conducted online surveys of 3,086 adults in two phases (quantitative and qualitative), then conducted shopalongs in five retail channels. The survey targeted adults 18 and up so that data from those 65 and older could be compared to that from younger consumers. “We wanted to understand how they view the world and why they view it that way, how they shop, and how we can better market to this group,” Harris said.Arc learned that just 5% of worldwide advertising budgets focus on seniors. Harris said 80% of the budgets are geared to the 18-to-34 set, despite the fact that there are 38 million more people in the over-40 category.Among Arc’s proprietary findings:70% of the seniors feel physically younger than their age, and 76% feel mentally younger than their age.81% said they were expected to follow etiquette and behave politely in their youth; 73% said they were mindful of keeping out of trouble, and 48% said they were expected to do as they were told and not ask questions.70% of those 65 and older prefer to be called “seniors” by marketers.73% said they expect to be very happy as a retiree; 60% said they were aging gracefully; 59% said retirement provides an opportunity to re-engage with life; and 56% said growing old is more a state of mind than anything else.99% have a home computer; 67% have high-speed Internet access (compared to 60% of all Americans); 88% have a mobile phone; 19% have smartphones; 62% said they have no need for a smartphone, and 43% like to shop online.They generally love to email, but two-thirds do not trust social media and nearly half don’t see the appeal of it.Two-thirds feel like stores and products are marketed to younger people.Arc learned that seniors value face-to-face interaction and can be swayed with friendly and knowledgeable customer service alone. They are influenced by professional printed reviews of products, but not by online testimonials, such as consumer reviews.The Arc research also revealed that seniors are more likely than the general population to get their coupons from circulars and Sunday papers, and they have the highest average monthly discretionary spending. They also spend the most on gifts throughout the year, by a wide margin. Seniors also like to spend in-store more than any other demographic group; 56% of their shopping dollars are spent at retail.Harris said a key takeaway is that if retailers make their stores more amenable to senior shoppers, the stores will be more amenable to all shoppers. The top six items seniors put on a wish list for store features or services were also in the top 10 for every other generation. “Fix it for them, and it’s fixed for everybody,” said Harris.The research showed that 70% of the seniors like stores with reasonable and consistent return policies; 63% like stores that are laid out well with clear signage, and 59% say it’s very important that stores are easily accessible.Harris also provided a reminder that Baby Boomers will be joining the senior ranks in the not-too-distant future. “We have 10 years to get it right,” she said.

Message to Marketers: Don't Forget the Seniors

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