I was inspired to write this column by the article by Laureano Turienzo Esteban, an expert and professor on issues related to retail: “Life in solitude”. Here he left the article link which I mention.
Why should brands think more about older adults? Because today very few do it genuinely, and if they think more in detail and in the long term, they would have to include it in their strategic business plans.
According to the United Nations report “World Population Aging 2019”, it establishes that, according to the projection of the world population, by 2050 the population over 65 years of age will double (from 703 million to 1.5 billion). All societies in the world are undergoing a longevity revolution, some are just beginning and others are already in a more mature stage. Life expectancy has increased significantly. In 1950 it was 48.5 years for women and 45.5 for men. For 2020 this indicator is 75.6 years and 70.8 respectively. In Mexico, according to the same United Nations report, life expectancy is an average of 75.4 for both genders, with women with the most years of expected life: 78.17 years. Today people live longer in an adult stage and require services and products that speak to them and think about them.
In the aforementioned article written by Laureano, it is mentioned that retailers are thinking about gen-z generations, metaverses, drones, last miles, amazon, algorithms and artificial intelligence, being only part of the perspective that retailers should have. It seems that older people do not exist. Nobody talks about them in specialized forums or congresses. I couldn’t agree more with this. Although digitization is imminent and necessary, it is also mandatory to think about adult consumers who want to have a human approach and the warmth of a personalized and close treatment.
Also, from a scientific point of view, there are proven arguments for the importance of brands thinking more about this segment of the population. According to an article published by Springer link “Why old consumers love their brands”, scientific support establishes that consumers over 50 years of age strengthen their relationship with brands due to a lower tolerance for ambiguity consistent with low cognitive complexity- affective This above means a way of thinking that increases from adolescence to adulthood, relating positive and negative awareness of feelings and coordinating these in a complex and structured way of thinking and emotions. A person who is measured as having high cognitive complexity tends to perceive nuances and subtle differences more than a person with low cognitive complexity. This is why the relationship between age and brand becomes stronger.
From the customer relationship point of view, consumer loyalty in adulthood may be greater than in segments with younger ages. This is attributed to a mixture of feelings between an emotional connection with brands that make people remember good moments in their lives and certain requirements that this population desires, such as personalized attention, quality over price, the act of buying as an event social, they prefer to find everything in one place, among other requirements. The older adult population has a greater resistance to changing brands and is more likely to repurchase it. Baby boomers (1946-1964) and Generation X (1965-1981) are segments of the population that may have higher incomes.
In conclusion. Not everything should be digital and mobile experience. Brands must be empathetic and close to other ways of thinking. An adult customer is more loyal and is less likely to change brands due to a price increase, a bad service experience, due to a lack of stock or getting carried away by social influences. In this segment there is an emotional connection that recalls pleasant moments in life and reinforces the act of repurchasing.
