Silver Economy- Ageing With Style !!
Mahendra Nimkar
Commercial Leader - South Asia and Digital Projects at Hitachi Hightech | IIM-Digital Strategy and Transformation | IIFT -Int Business and Finance | ITM - MBA Mktg | Green Energy | Semicon | LiB | EMS
As societies modernize and urbanize, birth rates throughout the world are plummeting. It is fact of life that world is ageing every day. So there is concept of Nectar (Nektar, Amrut) in every religion and geography across the world which can help you to remain young forever.
But today’s elderly people (or to that matter all of us) are not going behind The Nectar as they have accepted the ageing. With latest medical technologies elderly people surely going to live more than their previous generations.
For much of recent history, the so-called elderly were financially dependent on others. Not so today. With better economic futures, older adults have become noticeable good consumers.
As a result of increased longevity, all they want is their ageing becomes healthy, safe, active and lively.
They want to live these long ageing years with full of life. They would like to spend money which they have earned, not only for medical treatments but to live their life for fun, wellness, travel and many other things which they have not done in their earlier life.
This changing behavior of elderly people forms a unique market segment with substantial capacity of spending money. This market or economy which is driven by Elderly people is called Silver Economy.
According to World Economic Forum Report, by 2020, there will more than 1 Billion people in the world over 60 years with collective spending power of over USD 15 Trillion. And as India and other developing countries becoming richer, this spending power is going up.
As world is also becoming older day by day, and necessities of the older people are not being taken care from many aspects. It looks like many popular brands are now looking this market seriously and doing market research to understand behaviors and unique needs of this segment.
Globally many senior people are enrolling themselves in universities, gyms, music and dance Classes, photography and so on. And the growth rate is unexpectedly very high. Similarly they are becoming more tech savvy for their banking and purchase requirements as well as to stay connected with other family members and friends.
In most of the developed countries, 50% + disposable income is in the hand of elderly people. According data released in Asia in 2018, more senior people are buying high end cameras than young or adults. Instead of laptop, they prefer tablets or iPad as their communication device. In some countries over 55% revenue of the gyms is coming from members over 60 years.
Most of the experts believe that still there are many areas where the gaps are visible. This includes specialized clothing, specialized gyms and technology products to support their daily needs and so on but at the affordable cost. Some of the companies have embedded “ageing” as key strategic driver for their commercial goals.
There is whole new branch of Gerontechnology, (Gerontology + Technology) is established which studies and creates technological assistance for ageing population.
Many business leaders, policy-makers, academicians and others stake holders have recognized that population ageing needs the strategic framework to make it significant part of main stream markets.
Mahendra M Nimkar
Commercial Leader - South Asia and Digital Projects at Hitachi Hightech | IIM-Digital Strategy and Transformation | IIFT -Int Business and Finance | ITM - MBA Mktg | Green Energy | Semicon | LiB | EMS
4 年I think the whole social and family framework will change soon. In few years we will Have more elder population than kids below 15. Today the ratio is around for 6 young people we have one old , in coming decade it will be 3:1 . That will be game changing. Whether country is rich , or poor advance or developing, this change is inevitable and so many aspects for social systems will change. Earth was never old like this before
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4 年It’s a new perspective ageing population a new market segment. But do consider this fact their spending will mostly depend of the savings and support funds. Hence they will be very cautious on their spending and hence they would on the radar only till they have funds, which is not sound good for business and more importantly for the humanity. At the same time if we consider them as resource and develop a barter system instead of cash For example Old people would have their own house: Let them rent it as Home stay for senior citizen tourist, and instead of paying money they could avail free stay somewhere else. ?Work at a hospital and get equal number of days free hospitalization good forbidden if they need. But this way they will be active, will be motivated to work and they are taken care off ??