There are broad differences in the abilities, living circumstances, and consumption habits among older consumers. AARP maintains three editions of their major periodicals: One for members ages 50-59, one for members 60-69, and the third for members at least 70 years old.
Still, there appears to be broad agreement in what older people in your target market will be comfortable being called. Researchers at Ghent University and Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School in Belgium had a range of consumers, all at least age 40, evaluate the attractiveness of five names for them: elderly, 50+, senior, retired, and third age. This last label is seen in uses such as the Third Age Foundation, in which childhood is considered to be the first age and the second age covers family and career.
The research participants were quite comfortable with older consumers being called 50+, senior, or retired. Any of these three would be good for you to use in advertising, signage, product packaging, and personal selling addressed to this important target market.
However, there is an important exception to this: Respondents who were nearing age 50 or retirement didn't like any of the names as much as did people who had been in the group for a while. We hate to give up our thoughts of youth, even when the youth is middle age.
Not surprisingly, respondents didn't like "elderly." Also playing to negative reviews was "third age." Maybe that's because it sounds like something out of a J. R. R. Tolkien book. Hmm, actually that is one place we'll find the term. It was the 3,021 years of the waning of the elves. Who would want that?
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