A study of the Australian seniors market: Social concerns and marketing implications

Abstract

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2003, the seniors market is an increasingly important part of the Australian population. In particular the population aged 65 years and over has increased by 66%, the ages from 15-64 has increased by 33% since 1982 compared with only 6% in the number of children aged 0-14 years. In other words, the population is gradually aging. The Australian statistics are comparable with those for the United States and Canada. The potential influence of the senior market according to Grupendoff (1991) reflects the fact that they control a large proportion of household net worth, own much of the financial assets and represent a major consumptive demand. This paper was designed to identify the main issues that are of concern to the senior consumer market in Australia, and to discuss the marketing and social-environmental implications. The results showed that health was ranked by the majority (75.7%) of the respondents either as the first or second most important issue of concern to them. Of lesser concern were the social issues of defence, social security, education and the environment. The meaning of these rankings were analysed using the concept of three orientations: egocentric (self-focused) homocentric (socially-focused) and ecocentric (focused on the environment).