Photo Credit: Mark Rust
I was one of eight panelists who participated in the first annual Mature Consumer Marketing Symposium organized by The Sheridan College’s Elder Research Centre yesterday. I was glad to see that the business of aging has been increasingly brought into focus and I have to commend The Sheridan College on their vision to dedicate part of their ongoing curriculum to scrutinizing and studying Canada’s aging marketplace.
I speak to the Canadian media quite frequently on boomer issues and marketing trends. What I shared with Sheridan’s students and small business entrepreneurs who attended the symposium yesterday were the following three key messages:
(1) A greying population spells business opportunities for a wide range of industries and baby boomers, as part of the aging population, have been very misunderstood and underserved;
(2) Most people like to focus on the doom and gloom of aging, and the media, in particular, often describe the mature and elderly population as a greying ‘tsunami’. But, in fact, we should all turn a possibly negative phenomenon into a positive marketing approach: Make Grey The New Green!
(3) Marketers should not confuse baby boomers with seniors, although the first batch of leading-edge boomers are all turning 65 this year. Boomers who defy the aging process will permanently change our attitudes towards work and retirement, health and wellness, leisure and travel, finance and technolgy. Marketers should help boomers buy time – time that helps them feel positive and that they’re turning the clock.
There remains, of course, a lot of social, workplace and healthcare issues related to an aging population. And that’s why my fellow panelist, Ross Mayot, VP, Community Development, from CARP was there yesterday addressing those serious issues and how his association could help as an advocacy group.
Apart from Sheridan’s Elder Research Centre, Mount Royal University in Calgary also offers a certificate course for Studies in Aging. In the U.S., MIT’s AgeLab was created in 1999 to invent new ideas and creatively translate technologies into practical solutions that improve the quality of life of older people and those who care for them. More academic insitutions around the world will further contribute to the thinking behind aging as life expectancy continues to increase.
Aging requires new thinking. And the discussions that took place yesterday at Sheridan’s symposium should continue to happen in Canada and around the world.
Good article Lina! And refreshing to here. Too often the media is obsessed with retirement issues for boomers. I wrote a post on my blog called “How Baby Boomers Can Still Change the World.” That’s my view and my message.