Eighty percent of the wealth in the UK is held by the over-50s. This is what is known as an inconvenient truth for marketers, as this age group is cynical and hates, above all things, to be marketed at (although 10 per cent of the UK’s marketing budget it spent on doing exactly that).
There’s a double whammy here, as brands often don’t want to be associated with the ‘grey market’, despite the fact they have more disposable income than anyone else and are more likely to be home owners with a good credit rating. The over 65s in the UK currently spend around £2.2 billion a week, and they could be spending more than £6 billion by 2037.
So how is all this conflict going to benefit the public sector? Innovation is the simple answer. Innovators who understand the needs of this market are designing products with this sector in mind. As an example, the design team behind the award winning Ford Focus car created it with the collaboration of Age UK.
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The team wore body suits that simulated the movement patterns of older people and as a result the Ford Focus’ doors are designed to be light in weight and easy to push and the car has a high riding position. However, the overt marketing of the Ford Focus has not been to the older generation, it is simply that the team recognised that commercially there was a strong likelihood that is this generation who would be buying the product.
In the technology sector, most innovation historically came out of Silicon Valley and Israel, but the ageing population of the UK has meant this is now moving closer to home. This focus on innovation and ageing is exemplified in the new National Centre for Ageing Science and Innovation (NASI) in Newcastle which is leading the UK’s efforts to improve the health and well-being of older people by developing new technologies and services to support older people to continue to live in their own homes and remain socially active for as long as possible.
The public sector, particularly in the arenas of health and technology, will benefit from the research commissioned and the products developed by commercial companies as cross-over technology. Obviously innovation around health has a big part to play here but innovation around ageing is more to do with living well than simply being well.
BT is in a prime position to work with innovative SMEs to help them take those ideas to market. SMEs are not going to be in a position to link up with large chain pharmacies or healthcare centres, for instance, to get an innovative product on the mass market, but BT can take the idea, test, develop and finally promote it so that more older people can benefit.
So for innovators, the old truism carries weight; youth is wasted upon the young.