You're Getting Old
Simon SilvesterYoung & Rubicam
For years, marketing consultancies and advertising agencies have been researching and analysing consumers in the 55+ age bracket.
The interest is timely. Numbers of these people, the so-called 'greys', are growing rapidly in all European countries and as their numbers grow, so does their spending power. However, the interest in older people obscures a much bigger issue: the population of Europe is static and as numbers of older people grow, numbers of young adults in European countries are falling rapidly (Exhibit 1).
Consumer goods companies have built their...