The Older or Ageing Consumers in the UK

Abstract

This article explores the characteristics and attractiveness of UK older consumers to marketers. It shows that the UK's ageing population is potentially a dominant segment of the consumer market of the future. However, it is hard to identify this group of consumers. The research demonstrates that UK companies do not have specific programmes to attract and keep older consumers. This is despite their acknowledging that older consumers are attractive. They regard older consumers merely as a segment of a wider consumer market. In this article, the various definitions of ageing are discussed and the prevailing methods of responding to the needs of older consumers are examined. While some of the current approaches in segmenting and targeting consumer markets are generally useful it was found that they are applied in a simplistic way for the purpose of segmenting and targeting older consumers. This article recognises that older consumers are heterogeneous and their characteristics have little association with their chronological ages. It is concluded that there are many unanswered questions; for example, what are the factors that influence older consumers to buy certain brands, to target particular sales people, or to patronise certain suppliers of products or providers of services? The article poses a practical question of how marketers, for the purpose of targeting their marketing efforts and positioning their products and services, may identify these older consumers. Given their chronological ages, could marketers predict their buying behaviour? The implications of the results of the study for both practice and theory are identified and further lines of research proposed.