We brought you the wet and windy issue in March, talking of the problems and concerns of global warming and sustainability, the rise and rise of ethical marketing and the growing impact of customer touchpoints. This month we bring the grey issue – not the weather but marketing to the over 50’s...

Whatever sector or product we market to this group of consumers, they will have an increasing impact on our future marketing strategies. Whether we like it or not, Europe and the UK is getting older.

We are seeing a highly-educated generation of consumers in better health and with more disposable income entering the ‘grey market’, changing the picture of the over 50’s. Twenty or thirty years ago our grandparents blissfully entered retirement at 60 or 65 years old, mortgage free, sibling free, secure pension and the prospect of a comfortable retirement in suburbia. What a difference thirty years makes.

One generation on and the over 50’s have a very different perspective on life; they are healthier, wealthier and happier, spending money like no other generation – living life to the full. The marketer’s perspective of this group has to change: they are likely to shop at Gap, Zara and H&M; travel to exotic locations; listen to MP3 players.

Older people are living younger – ever more involved in sports and exercise, ever more sociable, ever more adventurous and in search of new experiences. In many ways their lifestyles have come to resemble those of the younger people of 25 years ago.

Whilst a number of companies, marketers and our society in general are so apparently biased towards youth culture, a more radical and transformative change has occurred amongst the over 50’s that leaves teenagers and the twenty-something’s behind. Today 50 is closer to the middle of our lives than its end.

They are travelling more, spending more- travel spend amongst the over 50’s has increased six-fold over the previous fifty years. They are taking part in the same amount of sport as 16-44 years did 25 years ago, spending almost 3 hours a week more time doing this than their counterparts fifty years ago. Each week they spend the equivalent of double the amount they did in the 1950’s, with a significant shift from household essentials to more luxury items. And finally they are not afraid of change, with divorce rates rising significantly faster among the over 50’s than any other age group in the last 20 years.

What does this mean for marketers? It means we have to change our communication channels, our methods and our creative strategies if we are to continue engaging with this growing affluent audience. Together with the internet, they represent some of the biggest opportunities and challenges to marketers – ignore them at your peril!

According to research by Experian, UK internet users aged 55+, once called the silver surfers, are set to overtake 35-44 year olds as the demographic age group with the largest representation online. Those aged 55+ accounted for 22% of UK visits to all categories of websites in the four weeks to 12 May 2007, up 54% since 2005 and 40% since 2006. This compares to 23.5% of Internet visits from 35-44 year olds.

All in all, we have seen the life experiences of people aged 50+ change beyond all recognition in the past fifty years.

Today’s over 50’s are socially engaged, mobile, fun loving and have an appetite for adventure that simply was not present to same extent among this age group fifty years ago. As more and more of us move into this age bracket we must be heartily glad that “we were so much older then, we’re younger than that now” (Bob Dylan).

Finally, if you want to know more about PCD – who we are, what we do, that sort of thing – just click here to satisfy your curiosity. You might even be able to work out how old we are.