Taking Aging Personally
Blame it on the media. Of all the images non-Americans have of the U.S., one becoming more prevalent is that of Baby Boomers in hot pursuit of the fountain of youth. While most countries are grappling with the problems of an aging population, older Americans are seen (unsurprisingly, perhaps) as youth-obsessed in terms of consumption and the ways they're demanding manufacturers and retailers adapt to their needs.
They are seen shunning retirement and taking on new careers, reinvigorating their sex lives through products such as Viagra, feeding a plastic surgery craze, and demanding healthier food options to live longer yet feel younger. New businesses are springing up to deal with them, including consultancies advising businesses on how to adjust their marketing and their products to this breed of elder shopper.
Bob Fell, a director of strategy and planning at Varsity, a firm offering advice on how to cope with this brave new Boomer world, recently told the Observer that older people are going to "change the way we do everything, absolutely everything." For example, when advertising to the new elderly, Mr. Fell's message to Las Vegas casinos was "out with the cheap bus tours, in with the razzmatazz and dazzle."
But in Japan, the elderly are going for more brain-stimulating products rather than the health, wellness and appearance categories preferred by Americans. In Japan, a broad range of mental acuity products - ranging from books, toys, food and other things - are the rage.
Ryuta Kawashima, a neuroscientist who supervised development of Nintendo games popular with older people, told the Washington Post that the popularity of digital entertainment with older Japanese consumers reflects Japan's stage of economic development. "The era of pursuing material wealth ended, and public attention is turning to mental health," Mr. Kawashima said.
Japan is apparently the fastest-aging nation in the world, with among the longest average life spans, 85 years for women and 79 for men. Factoring in affluence results in a huge retailing opportunity, even though there is little or no evidence that claims for brain challenging products can be proved. Chiaki Ura, a researcher at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, believes that if a vaccine against Alzheimer's was to become available, the brain-exercise fad would fade.
Discussion questions: Will the aging population be most significant in how retailing develops over the next 20 years or will another factor such as ethnic diversity, environmental awareness or something else have a greater influence?
Aging is an economic issue. It is not a joke, regardless of what entertainment ("Menopause: The Musical" is currently running in London) may be derived from it. It stands to reason that, as we all die sometime, the more people who live longer, the more the retail world will have to change to accommodate them. No matter how well we try to live, eating healthily, exercising bodies and brains regularly, making a longer life desirable requires a number of different approaches.