Entrepreneurs are polarising the longevity economy and ignoring the massive middle. In the past, whenever I mention business opportunities associated with the ageing demographic, minds immediately gravitated toward to ‘old, old’ segment. For example, assisted living, medical devices and the like. Now there’s a competitor for investment attention, companies that are seeking to discover the […]
opportunity
It’s Time For Brands To Take Age Out Of The Equation For Older Women
Make some room millennials, the new power consumer in Britain today is an older woman. These over 50’s women outspent their younger counterparts for the first time in 2015, yet according to research conducted by JWT’s Innovation Group, 67% think advertisers only care about young people. Brands are missing out on a golden opportunity. Read […]
Japanese fitness market dominated by consumers over 60 years of age. A sign of the times

Japanese gym goers in their 60’s account for 37% of the 400 billion yen spent annually on fitness clubs, while those in their 70’s represent 21%. This dwarfs the share occupied by younger folks in either their 20s and 30s, according to studies by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (2012) and Nikkei Marketing […]
Ageing will produce some very large winners at the industry level – Deloitte report

Industry winners in ageing populations will not be limited to the stereotypical ageing businesses. Deloitte’s Voice of Asia report states; “Ageing populations will generate a “growth cluster” of vibrant businesses at the heart of the collision of megatrends such as rising life expectancies, increasing relative health care costs, and tightening public sector health budgets”. Sadly, […]
Property developers need to be better informed about where people want to live as they get older.
I regularly have clients approach me to seek advice about developing retirement property. Quite often I decline the business because I believe their notion of ‘retirement homes’ is outdated and consequently, will fail. I find that developers tend to narrow their focus to the unique needs of elderly frail and infirm and to ignore the […]
Blame boomers for the decline in electric guitar sales

In the past decade, electric guitar sales have plummeted, from about 1.5 million sold annually to just over 1 million.
Asia’s older consumers are just as dynamic in society’s evolution as younger generations

Brands need to take heed about how much the lifestyles of older Asians have changed according to The Generation Game: Understand the different life stages of the Asian consumers from research company Mintel. Here are a few other quotable quotes from the report; Brands need to keep in mind that older lifestyles need change, and […]
Intergenerational engagement – welcome to the ageless future.

Intergenerational engagement in society or in business is our future, so let’s get with it! In marketing terms, we’ve coined the phrase Lifetime Customer Experience, where products are created, marketed and sold to people regardless of their age. In a world where attitudes and behaviours are no longer defined by age, it makes sense that our world becomes […]
Reframing Ageing – Let’s talk longevity?

A few weeks ago I helped to run a collaborative innovation workshop in Singapore, themed around opportunities in ageing and longevity. The workshop was managed by Hugh Mason of JFDI and sponsored by BOSCH. It brought together a group of entrepreneurs and enterprises including Munich Re, BP, OCBC Bank, Singapore Press Holdings. The innovation output was […]
Luxury brands to gain from the ageing consumer

There are some refreshing surprises in this list of companies which a leading bank thinks will benefit from an ageing consumer base. Societe Generale has selected a list of 40 companies with metrics based on historical performance relative to GDP growth and current market cap. The 40 make up a ‘Silver Economy Index’ as reported […]