Serving the Ageing Consumer in Asia – report

A new report just published by Accenture includes some thoughts on how business should respond to an ageing Asia.

Download the full report here: Asia Consumer Product Trends: Implications for Retailers and Manufacturers.

A few key points:

• As consumers grow older they need different products, or products packaged or made available in different ways, to reflect their unique needs.
• Asia Pacific that will soon have the largest number of elderly people. By 2020, citizens over the age of 65 in India and China will account for 37% of the world’s total elderly
  (see Figure 2). Vietnam is also seeing a marked increase in elderly.
• Companies’ responses to this trend range from trying to help consumers turn back the clock with age-defying beauty products to accepting the inevitable and developing targeted offerings or re-packaging current offerings to better suit this huge group of consumers.
• ‘Cosmaceuticals’ and ‘neutraceuticals’ are beauty or food products that combine ingredients proven to help ageing bodies. A good example: Milo with ACTIGEN-E® and PROTOMALT®14 from Nestlé was launched in Malaysia to appeal to both the health and cultural preferences of the residents.
• Manufacturers must dedicate resources and find the right marketing talent to understand the needs of the elderly.
• Companies need strategies and research capabilities to help them bring products to market that can easily be used by elderly hands to serve the ageing consumer population.
• Innovative marketers should also consider ways to partner with retailers to make shopping easier, perhaps even developing in-store or in-home programs or services offered free to elderly shoppers as a way of deepening loyalty.