Active and Engaged

Retailers that are putting all of their store brand marketing eggs into one millennial basket might want to rethink their approach. The U.S. senior population is rapidly growing, thanks in part to an aging baby boomer population.

In fact, the U.S. Census Bureau projects the number of Americans aged 65 and over to double from 40.2 million in 2010 to 88.5 million, or roughly a quarter of the predicted population, by 2050. The number of people in the oldest age bracket (85 and older) is projected to nearly quadruple in that same period, increasing from 5.8 million to 19 million.

And boomer seniors (currently aged 65–69) aren’t the only seniors with buying power.

“The ‘Greatest Generation’ takes the most shopping trips, but their basket size is the lowest,” explains James Russo, senior vice president, global consumer insights for New York-based Nielsen, of the consumer group Nielsen defines as being born prior to 1946. “However, their basket ring per household is higher than even millennials.”

Not just sitting around

Today’s seniors, as a whole, also are extremely active in their retirement — that is, if they actually do choose to retire, notes David Berne, senior vice president and director of strategic planning with RPA, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based advertising agency.

“Sixty-five- to 75-year-olds are actually the fastest-growing segment of the workforce right now,” he explains. “In 2002, they were 20 percent of the workforce, and they’re supposed to be 32 percent of the workforce in 2022.”

And seniors who do opt to retire aren’t necessarily living lives of leisure in warm, sunny climates. In reality, only about half of them actually choose to leave their homes to downsize, Berne says, and those who do leave are heading for many other locales beyond Florida and Arizona.

“They become very interested, in fact, in having homes where their children and grandchildren can come and stay with them,” he says.

Learning and discovery are very important to the senior demographic, Berne adds, as is legacy. Today’s seniors want to ensure they are leaving something behind that will be remembered.

And baby boomers — whether they have reached senior citizen status or not — are wielding a substantial influence on the senior set overall. The sheer size of the baby boomer demographic, along with its members’ propensity to reinvent themselves and create change, is hard to ignore.

“The mindset and attitudes and values of [boomers] are already starting to influence the people who are 75 or so,” Berne says. “Marketers are going to be catering, in my view, much more to the baby boomer mindset among seniors even though baby boomers are a minority in that population.”

And as the boomers age in the decades to come, the “oldest old” — those consumers who reach 85 years old and above — will behave differently than many of their counterparts today, Russo predicts.

Open to opportunities

Baby boomers’ influence on the senior set extends to brands, Berne says. Boomers are very brand-conscious — particularly in relation to brands that “are more aspirational and tend to be identifiers of who they are.” However, they also are very experimental and are willing to try new things.

“They are willing to seek out brands that do offer new opportunities for them, a chance for them to get something different out of them, etc.,” he says, adding that health and wellness — particularly wellness — could provide an opening for new brands because boomers are seeking solutions that give them a sense of control of their health and the aging process.

But when it comes to store brands, the whole 65-and-older demographic has traditionally been a tough sell.

“Store brand food purchases skew toward younger consumers, who are more price-conscious and tend to have less disposable income,” notes global market research firm Mintel in its February “Private Label Foods: What’s Driving Purchase — US” survey-based report. “Older generations purchase fewer store brand foods, likely due to traditionally negative perceptions of the quality of these products.”

However, seniors actually have shown more of a willingness to buy store brand foods, post-recession, than the U.S. population as a whole. Mintel says 21 percent of total surveyed consumers said they were buying store brand products across food categories more often than before the recession, while 26 percent of consumers age 65 and up said the same thing.

Although retailers and other brand marketers have focused mostly in the health and beauty realm when it comes to seniors, Russo points to untapped opportunity in senior messaging tied to food and beverages. In fact, items such as wine, vitamins and ice cream over-index with the Greatest Generation.

He points to potential opportunities for retailers to offer own-brand meals designed specifically for seniors’ smaller households, as well as vitamin and/or mineral-fortified foods targeted to older consumers. Retailers also might want to consider enlarging the font size on package labels for store brand items geared toward seniors and even investing in targeted coupon drops and trial packs in senior communities.

In a fall 2013 global survey (The Nielsen Global Survey About Aging), Nielsen uncovered a number of product- and packaging-related frustrations among seniors that retailers also could address via store brand offerings. For example, 43 percent of respondents said they have trouble locating packages that are easy to open, while 45 percent said they cannot find foods that meet special nutritional diets.

And retailers need to consider how seniors shop the store, too.

“Sixty-five percent of the Greatest Generation — age 69-plus seniors — use shopping lists, and 47 percent use store circulars, the highest of any generation,” Russo notes. “However, they are lowest in their usage of coupons and purchasing from in-store promotions” than any other any generation.

It’s also worth noting that the name of the store brand matters to many senior consumers.

“Unlike any other generation, the Greatest Generation looks to have the store name on store brands,” Russo says.

Baby boomers — whether they have reached senior citizen status or not — are wielding a substantial influence on the senior set overall.

Seniors actually have shown more of a willingness to buy store brand foods, post-recession, than the U.S. population as a whole.