The Story About Aging (1)

The Story About Aging

Background Story

* The mature market is the dominant market, making the majority of expenditures in virtually every category

* Review the numbers: If a group controls the vast majority of wealth and discretionary income, then ... it is the market.

The Call to Adventure

We remain caught in the grip of a "youth fetish". We orient most of our enterprise activity ... in marketing, in product development, even in strategy...toward the over-coveted 18 to 44 year-old demographic set. We assume, wrongly, that older consumers constitute a stagnant, unapproachable market... and thus we overlook an enormous opportunity. But we must understand that the 50-and-over population is growing immensely in terms of numbers, wealth and longevity. And to serve that market we must... completely rewrite our story and reorient our enterprises.

The Journey

In this journey I will search for stories about a stream of new products, services, experiences designed for older consumers who seek not to "give in to" the aging process.... but rather to confront and transcend it. I will search for stories of new marketing approaches by people who don't worship at the Altar of Youth... approaches that recognize the particular demands and the abundant, fast-growing wealth of 50-and-over people. I will search for stories of enterprises that strategically realign their entire organization around serving a population whose members are reinventing the very meaning of "old". Stories of professionals of all stripes who understand that 50+ people are more than a niche. They are .. a Gigantic Vault ... where (damn near all) the loot is.