One foot in the grave?

This is an introductory piece to four articles on the grey market. Populations throughout the industrialised world are ageing (and with it the balance of wealth and disposable income) nevertheless there has been a reluctance among marketers to communicate effectively with the over 50s.

One Foot in the Grave?

Marketing is in theory about identifying and satisfying consumer needs. In practice, marketers have taken the easy way out and looked for concentrations of wealth and income, and groups of people who appear relatively easily influenced, and sold to them.

For years, mass marketing focusing on supposedly malleable young consumers was the dominant mode for a consumer business. This mode is collapsing under the pressures of fragmentation and competition. The mass is no longer a mass, and mass communication is increasingly difficult and unrewarding.

Further, a new demographic dimension has imposed...

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