Senior Citizens Are An Important And Growing Market Demographic
One of the key pillars of business success is understanding that there’s no such thing as only one kind of customer. In the same way that there are different products and services to meet different needs, people with unique circumstances may or may not need a product or service at a given time. Someone buying their first car is not in the same life situation as someone who wants to get professional accounting to help with finances.
One of the key factors that play a big role in determining consumer needs is age. A child has specific and very different needs from an adult, and when it comes to senior citizens, especially those now retired, this is a very different lifestyle. The physical considerations of a senior citizen’s age, combined with the different priorities for life after a career has ended and retirement is part of the lifestyle, create a unique demographic that is getting bigger and growing more important.
More Seniors Than Ever
The United States is now transitioning to a demographic phase of developed nations that other countries, such as Japan, are further ahead with. The population of seniors in the United States is now increasing to the point that it may become a dominant segment of the population rather than a minority. This is largely due to two important aspects of American life.
The first is technology. Medical research continues to make huge strides, taking diseases once considered unrecoverable and finding new ways to either manage these conditions or outright cure them. Because of this, many of the disorders, diseases, and even accidents that once signified the end of a senior citizen’s life are no longer the threats they once were. As a result, more and more senior citizens are experiencing lifespans that can go on for decades after retirement.
The other factor is that economic conditions in the United States now favor fewer children, and as a result, adult Americans are now having smaller families or forgoing children entirely. Much of this has to do with the rising costs of living. This has already happened once before in the United States and other parts of the world. The economics of living was once low enough that a couple could get married and the woman could be a homemaker, making no economic contribution to the family. Today, the practical considerations of finance no longer make this possible with the increasing costs of raising a child; having large families of more than three children is often too demanding, even for middle-class Americans. For the latest generation, millennials, the cost of even one child is too much of a strain on finances, so many are putting starting a family on hold. The result is that fewer children are being born to take up the reins from the previous generation.
This is now causing a situation where, for the first time in its population history, the United States is facing a demographic problem where the number of seniors may outnumber the population of children. In future decades, this may create economic “pipeline issues” as financial products like the pension creation process are often reliant on taxation produced by the younger working class, and if there are fewer of those, it will affect the financial growth of these products.
However, another aspect of this is the economic positive that those products and services aligned with senior needs are now enjoying a much larger market to work with. Unlike other markets that may be contracting, the market for senior citizens is on a growth trajectory for decades to come, making this consumer market segment a strategic one to target.
Appropriate Products & Services For The Senior Demographic
The senior citizen market has distinct interests that can garner a high rate of engagement and interest. This is often reinforced by sizable savings now being used for various big-ticket purchases. Some of the products and services that work well with this market include.
Domestic Maintenance
The gaining process is often about physical degradation; even someone who was once at peak physical condition in the prime of their life can’t maintain that performance level at retirement age. In some cases, the degradation is severe enough that it causes major mobility issues, such as using walkers or wheelchairs.
For seniors with limitations on their physical activity, products and services that can help to maintain a home can be critical for those who wish to remain on their property and not be transferred to a retirement facility with assisted living features. Products like smart furniture to automate the home or services like yard maintenance are important here.
Medication & Treatment
Similar to the physical degradation, a rise in medical concerns is often a natural part of the aging process. Senior citizens will often be diagnosed with new conditions that are just a fact of life now at this age. The conditions run across a broad spectrum of diseases, such as arthritis that limits mobility, a heart condition, or similar disorders, such as rising blood pressure.
Fortunately, many of these conditions no longer require intensive hospital supervision and treatment and can be managed with the right medical products and services. It’s just a matter of reaching the right senior with the right pharmaceutical or medical aid.
Insurance
Different financial concerns come to the fore for seniors as they take stock of their life and begin to consider what may happen to their assets afterward more seriously. While life insurance for seniors is just as applicable as it is to younger adults, another factor is final expense insurance.
Unlike life insurance, this type is typically easier for seniors to acquire and doesn’t necessarily require medical exams. It is a specific type of insurance focused on funeral expenses, providing financial coverage for handling burial, cremation, and other economic considerations automatically, thus sparing family members the additional burden of having to manage finances concerning the death of a loved one.
Travel & Tourism
Because seniors have more time and often more disposable income at their discretion, travel is one of the most common activities that seniors engage in. This travel, however, tends to be more upscale, thanks to the pensions and retirement savings that have been put away often for this explicit service.
As a result, cruises, tours, and deluxe travel experiences are often part of the retirement lifestyle. This means that premium travel-related products, such as luggage, and various travel options, from transport to accommodations in hotels or even leased properties, are an active part of the senior lifestyle.
Political Action
Another area that benefits increasingly from senior participation is politics. Political activity is another area where seniors often have a high level of engagement, whether it is political activism, donations, or just courting seniors for votes.
Part of this has to do with the greater amount of free time that seniors have. No longer burdened with a full-time job, they can more actively engage with political issues, watch or listen to political discourse on TV, the radio, or the Internet, and be able to show up on election days to vote at their polling center. This means that for different political parties and organizations, the senior demographic is one of the best population segments to approach for a much more active level of engagement in political issues and needs.
Find The Seniors That Benefit From Your Product Or Service
Sprint Data Solutions Worldwide Marketing is 100% above board with ethical and legal practices of collecting data and contact details about senior citizens. The data is typically harvested through methods like opt-in measures, which means that these are participants with an active interest in these marketing areas. Of course, the senior demographic is also prone to continual change as seniors pass away. This is one reason why constant re-evaluation of lists is regular practice, to ensure that deceased contacts don’t clutter or devalue the database.
Sprint Data Solutions Worldwide Marketing provides the required data in various categories. Geographic requests are easily accommodated, with the ability to handle nationwide coverage and the functionality to scope things down. Regional coverage, like only New England, or a single state, like Maine, allows things to be more specific. Specific cities and towns can also be targeted, and even individual neighborhoods if required, such as targeting only the seniors in North Brewer, Bangor.
Perhaps more importantly, these senior contacts are also available at the demographic level. Contact details can be divided across metrics like ethnicity, specific age ranges, gender, religious affiliation, and even economic class. So if there is a need to target Asian Americans only in the middle economic class, or Christian senior women in the 65-75 age range, this kind of specificity is available. Contact details can also be made available in various formats, including physical mailing addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, and even cellular phone numbers for SMS/text marketing purposes.
If you’re ready to offer your products or services to the seniors of the United States, Sprint Data Solutions Worldwide Marketing is here to help. Contact us, and let us help you achieve your marketing goals.
