Wise up to senior needs

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the population aged 65 and older is expected to more than double between 2012 and 2060, from 43.1 million to 92.0 million. By 2060, the older population will represent a little more than one in five U.S. residents, up from one in seven today.

As the baby boomers of today become the seniors of tomorrow, their formidable purchasing power will transition with them. However, if retailers want to retain these consumers, they might need to adapt the in-store experience, the products sold and the way they advertise to this group.

Improve the in-store experience

When it comes to shopping, seniors face a list of difficulties that might not be readily apparent to retailers or marketers. For example, while seniors are able to navigate larger stores — they find the time and physical effort required to shop there frustrating, says Michael Moriarty, partner at Chicago-based A.T. Kearney and co-author of “Understanding the Needs and Consequences of the Ageing Consumer.”

Smaller stores are much more appealing to this demographic for a variety of reasons. One, they can navigate the smaller format much more quickly and easily, he says. Two, shopping is a social occasion for seniors — an excuse to get out of the house and talk to people. With smaller stores, seniors can become acquainted with the workers and build social relationships.

After a lifetime of experience as consumers, this group also places a high priority on customer service, states global market research firm Mintel in its December 2013 “Senior Lifestyles — US” report. Seniors value having a personal relationship with the businesses they chose to patronize.

But besides opening smaller formats, retailers might want to consider adapting existing stores to optimize product placement on shelves. Many times, products are placed on shelves that are too high or too low for seniors to reach, Moriarty adds.

For inspiration, retailers could look to Japan and its retailers, many of which are already working to create senior-friendly retail spaces, says Shilpa Rosenberry, senior director of global consumer strategy for Daymon Worldwide, Stamford, Conn. For example, many Japanese retailers offer escalators that operate at two-thirds of the normal speed and lighter or ergonomically friendly shopping carts. Additionally, they offer more sitting areas and signs in a larger font, making them easier to see and read.

This is not to say that U.S. retailers have been ignoring this demographic. Several U.S. drugstore chains have installed magnifying glasses in aisles to help seniors better read the small print on product packaging, Rosenberry points out.

Additionally, Camp Hill, Pa.-based Rite Aid recently introduced wellness65+, reports Chicago-based Information Resources Inc. (IRI) in “Aging America: Carving Out Growth in Mature Markets,” a May/June Times & Trends report. This program offers seniors an array of special services and discounts, along with wellness65+ Wednesday, a day when seniors receive 20 percent off qualifying purchases. And Publix, Lakeland, Fla., introduced the Sync Your Refills program, a program that is useful for all consumers, but especially for seniors, allowing them to select a single day each month to get all of their prescriptions refilled, IRI adds.

Offer more convenient packaging

When it comes to product packaging, one need not be a senior to know how difficult some packaging can be to open.

“In my mind, packaging is a total mess,” Moriarty says. “Because of concerns about safety, security and freshness, packaging has become so difficult to open that sometimes even able-bodied teenagers can’t do it. And often this is because the packaging is designed because of the way the manufacturing works and not the way the consumer works.”

For seniors who might have age-related physical impairments such as a decline in dexterity or strength, hard-to-open packaging poses a real problem, Rosenberry says.

But retailers need to consider more than just the ease of opening when it comes to store brand packaging. Labeling is also a problem for seniors, A.T. Kearney reports. In a consumer research study it conducted, the company found that more than 50 percent of seniors could not read product labels properly, even when wearing glasses or contact lenses. This would suggest that with their declining vision comes the need for larger, easier-to-read fonts.

And what’s inside the package might need some tweaking as well. For example, older consumers find it more difficult to chew solid foods, Rosenberry reminds retailers. To address this issue, one Japanese baby food company created a brand of soft food for older consumers that is even divided up into degrees of “chewability.” And a UK brand created portion-controlled frozen meals that were developed by professional chefs and approved by dietitians as nutritionally optimal for the older consumer demographic.

Exercise caution in marketing

Retailers are going to have a fairly difficult time advertising successfully to the growing senior demographic for a couple of reasons, Moriarty says. For one thing, seniors aren’t open to advertising. After being a consumer for 60 or 70 years, they have seen and tried it all. Unless there is a new product innovation that really improves functionality, this demographic is going to view advertising as more of an interruption than anything else.

Seniors also do not want to be singled out as a group, especially if it in some way refers to them as “elderly.” Baby boomers will be joining the ranks of seniors en masse over the next decade, and marketers then will need to be particularly sensitive to their portrayal of seniors and language used in communications, Mintel states.

“Decades ago, a national brand hair care company came out with a shampoo and conditioner that was meant for women over the age of 40,” Moriarty relates. “It was a huge flop. No woman — especially one that is trying to hide her age — is going to buy a shampoo for ‘old women.’”

Additionally, this group believes that advertising for products in which they might actually be interested often portrays them negatively or doesn’t relate to them. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t an opportunity for retailers to reach seniors with store brand messaging. Moriarty gives the example of Toyota and its commercials in 2011 for the Venza. Its target audience was consumers over the age of 50. In its commercials, the young millennial children are portrayed as clueless and boring, while the older parents are portrayed as active and fun.

When it comes to reaching seniors, traditional methods are typically best, Mintel reports. Print and TV advertising are more likely to reach this demographic due to the high penetration of newspapers and TVs in senior households. But online advertising is not completely lost on this generation. One in five seniors says he or she has changed his or her traditional media consumption because of the availability of the Internet.

And IRI reports that more than 27 million people over the age of 55 are engaged in social networking, with 59 percent of seniors visiting social networking sites on a daily basis. So older consumers are engaged to some degree, but it will be up to the marketers to understand and deliver against the current level of engagement to drive it to the next level.