Do we really understand older consumers?

The market is generally optimistic about the silver economy, but few articles explore the psychology of the elderly and gain insight into their characteristics. This article believes that to truly understand elderly consumers, we need to see the source of their emotional value, their need for identity, and their altruistic psychology.

We often see articles about young people, such as "Why do young people choose to lie down" and "What do you think of the post-00s reorganizing the workplace?", but we read far fewer articles about older consumers. If there are any, the articles always seem to use the values ​​or lifestyles of young people as a reference to present a stereotyped portrait of older people who are conservative, love to take advantage, and pursue the lowest prices. It is rare to understand them from an empathetic perspective. People seem to have no patience and lack of real curiosity to truly understand this group. After all, how can studying them be as cool and cutting-edge as exploring Gen Z values ​​and consumption trends?

But are the elderly really a group with consumption potential but dull? From some of our past research projects on the elderly, we have observed some of their contradictions and struggles, which may reveal their loveliness and sensibility, and even contain different business opportunities.

01. The emotional value of consumption by the elderly comes not only from the product itself, but also requires complete interpersonal interaction

We all know that the elderly prefer offline shopping . It’s not that they don’t know how to shop online. Many elderly people have Taobao, Pinduoduo, and Dingdong Maicai on their mobile phones. They also place orders online, but they prefer to go to the vegetable market with their own carts. They will even take their good neighbors and take the free bus to travel thousands of miles just to buy a few kilograms of fresh vegetables at a good price.

Usually, we understand this kind of behavior as that the elderly value the tangible shopping experience more and are not used to the virtual online shopping experience. Yes, but not entirely.

Unlike young people, they are not Internet natives. They grew up and lived in an acquaintance society where distant relatives are not as important as close neighbors. They are used to daily contact with people around them. Therefore, they go to the stalls they frequent, not only to buy good quality products that can be seen and touched, but also to chat with the stall owners. They make an appointment to go to the market, not only to join in the fun and buy cheaper products, but also to take this opportunity to meet old friends, keep in touch, and exchange what they have.

If a young person requires that the vegetables be organic and fresh, from Hema Fresh’s own brand, and delivered to their home within 30 minutes after placing an order via mobile phone, then an elderly person requires that the vegetables be not only fresh, but also that the vendor selling them be an honest and good person who never shortchanges you on weight, is willing to chat with you, and is especially easy to get along with. The vendor even knows your cooking taste, and you know the vendor’s family life.

Young people often pursue efficiency and the emotional value of products. When shopping, they try to do the most thorough homework, have the least communication, and choose the fastest logistics. If they have to go to offline stores, they often tell the salesperson to "stay away from me."

Elderly consumers also need to satisfy emotional values, but what satisfies them is not only the low price and good quality of the product itself, but also the emotional connection from peripheral services other than the product, such as warm greetings or moderate chatting .

Therefore, when the elderly are the main purchasers and users, brands may not be able to spend as much effort telling brand stories as they do when communicating with young people, but they must work hard on the entire purchase path, because their demand for emotional value is not reflected at the moment of "purchase", but more in "before purchase" and "after purchase".

02. After consumption, the elderly need recognition more than the young

During home visits, we also found that some elderly people spent their own money to buy health products, but secretly hid them and didn’t want their children to know. In the end, they might forget about it, and when they remembered, they found that they were expired and were reluctant to throw them away. Although they spent their own money, they just couldn’t stand up straight and hid the products.
Why? Because they are "afraid" of being criticized by their children if they don't buy good ones. If a young person spends 1,000 yuan to buy a figurine and the elders know about it, and the elders show the expression of an old man on the subway looking at his phone, how will the young people generally react? Usually young people will not question their choices at all because of lack of recognition, they will just think that the older generation does not understand fashion.

But if an elderly person spends 1,000 yuan to buy unknown health products and his children search them out from the corner of the room and question them, then he is likely to "doubt his life" and feel that his entire being has been denied.

They don’t like to hide things, they just fear that their children will find out that the item is not worth it and say that they are stupid and have been fooled by others. Besides regret, it is a result that they are unwilling to admit in their heart – they are getting older and are not as smart as they were when they were young. They can’t get the recognition of their children and are left with the impression that they are old and useless . Therefore, they lack confidence in the products they decide to buy and simply hide them. Isn’t it cute? Just like when we were children, we secretly bought toys and didn’t dare to let our parents find out.

Therefore, if you want the elderly to be willing to share their purchases with their children and continue to repurchase, then the children must constantly give positive feedback, that is, recognize the choices made by the elderly, "This is really good, it's worth buying!"

For brands, if they want to increase the repurchase rate, the products must not only capture the hearts of the elderly (buyers, users), but also win the recognition of those around them (such as children, old friends, etc.). In other words, the brand must not only make the elderly feel that the purchase is worth it, but also make their children feel that it is worth it and the purchase is right. A commonly used term in marketing is RTB (reasons-to-believe, the reasons that support the strength of the product), so this RTB must not only be recognized by the elderly, but also by their children. Because it not only reflects the quality of the product, but also reveals whether the elderly themselves still maintain a clear and shrewd mind and can continue to receive praise from those around them .

03. The altruistic mentality of the elderly makes them more willing to share after consumption

We have seen too many elderly people fighting for seats on the bus, and those who are " greedy for small gains ", and then we sighed, "Are the elderly getting bad, or are the bad people getting old?" So we have another stereotype of the elderly: because they have experienced the era of material scarcity, they behave like " sophisticated egoists ." But they are also warm-hearted and actively participate in community affairs .

They can forward various expert videos in the family group every day, and they are concerned about the safety of the whole family. Once there is any trouble, they will immediately inform all their friends. Their care for the people around them is also from the heart.

To analyze whether the elderly are self-interested or altruistic, we need to understand the "strong ties" and "weak ties" in their social networks. The elderly have a strong altruistic mentality towards the strong ties around them. They don't care about an unrelated stranger because they are too far away, and they don't believe in the young people's "one person eats, the whole family is not hungry" because they truly care about their family and friends and sincerely hope that everyone's life will be prosperous and that each generation will live better than the previous one.

They don’t have many circles, but they are all strong relationships that have been accumulated over decades, and some even have life-long friendships. They have a deep and comprehensive understanding of this group of people, and like to do different things with the same group of people, rather than just knowing part of their friends, as long as there is some intersection in their interests.

So if young people move horizontally among various interest circles, make friends based on interests, find different partners for different things they like, and hope to maintain relationships at a lower cost, then the elderly are deeply integrated into every aspect of a friend vertically, hoping to share every bit of life with their friends, travel together, dance square dance, go to senior citizen universities, etc., and are deeply bound in all aspects.

What young people want is community, and what old people want is community.

The commonality between the two is that everyone can stay comfortably in their own little corner. But young people can do the same thing with different people (if Xiao Shuai quits playing games, I can ask Xiao Qiang to play), while the elderly like to do different things with the same people (if Lao Li stops playing badminton because of a leg injury, then I won’t play for a few months, and we’ll go fishing together when his leg heals).

Elderly people who value such strong relationships are naturally keen to share good things with people around them, hoping that you can use real good things. They will even accompany you to the vegetable market stall, introduce you to the stall owner, and let you buy vegetables at a 20% discount. Therefore, you will find that whether a thing is useful or not will quickly spread among the elderly, and finally the whole community knows about it, but no one has ever thrown the link.

In such a community social interaction, everyone's relationship is strong and flat. There is no KOC in their group, but everyone is a KOC. For brands, creating a sharing mechanism and making full use of the mutual influence of the strong relationships of the elderly can effectively reduce the cost of acquiring and attracting new customers.

04. Conclusion

Like any consumer group, the elderly have their pain points and aspirations, but they are rarely studied and understood in depth. Their population base is huge and growing; their spending power is considerable and growing. However, we often use stereotyped ways to "take it for granted" to understand them. By analyzing the needs of the elderly, we find that they

1. Prefer face-to-face emotional connection
2. Need recognition from those around you
3. They have an altruistic mentality towards their strong relationships and are willing to share good things, information or resources with people around them, which can not only reflect their own value but also bring value to others.

Therefore, when increasing stickiness, brands should not only highlight the strength of their products, but also strengthen surrounding services and a complete emotional shopping experience; when polishing products and increasing repurchase rates, they should not only study the needs of the elderly themselves, but also include the children and friends around the elderly in the evaluation system; when promoting marketing, they should not only look at channel promotion, but also see the power of the elderly themselves, encourage them to become KOCs of those around them, and take the initiative to bring tap water traffic and word of mouth to the products.

Author: Researchism

WeChat public account: Researchism Consultancy (ID: ResearchismCo)