New marketing strategies for seniors

Mainstream property marketers spend “countless” dollars trying to woo first and new home buyers to take the plunge and live in new housing estates right across Australia, according to Gill Walker, managing director of Evergreen Advertising.

“But what would happen if these marketers turned their attention to the bigger and even more  lucrative boomer and senior market with less focus on ‘young couples in love’,” she asks.

With some developers taking a deeper understanding of what boomers want, Ms Walker predicts new marketing strategies are afoot.

“With the property market being very tight, mainstream Australian property developers are becoming more interested, and taking notice of what boomers want in housing,” she claims.

Ms Walker adds new housing estates “easily” provide many advantages boomers are looking for.

“They are generally well designed and community oriented and they can live close to their families. They provide boomers options to exercise on their own terms, not clubs where the need to book formal access is required, and many of the intergeneration estates boost great walking and cycling tracks which has enormous appeal.”

She claims boomers have bought and sold more property than previous generations and therefore are “more experienced at buying off the plan”.

“What we also know is that boomers want to own their retirement residences, and have at least one eye on an improved investment outcome.”

According to Evergreen Advertising, there are a few other important trends driving the housing needs of the boomers that mainstream developers will start to emphasise and retirement developers need to also consider. These trends include:

• Boomers will continue to work much longer than their forebears and are unlikely to see themselves as ‘retiring’ in the traditional sense. Being close to work is likely to be a consideration, as will be the need to work from home, which might mean developers have to provide  a separate entrance for  the home business, extra car parking, or even serviced offices within the community.
• Universality of design which is the principle that buildings, products and environments should be inherently accessible to people with, and without, disabilities. This might mean wider interior doors and hallways, lever handles rather than twisting knobs, smooth, ground level entrances without stairs and light or sound activated devices.
• Being wired in every room, not just for the obvious business or recreational technology requirements, but also to cater for the flood of e-health technologies that will be demanded so that people can age well in their own place.

“Of course, many retirement village operators offer excellent facilities, providing great physical and emotional support to their residents.

“Research by the major operators confirms the majority of residents of retirement villages have very high levels of satisfaction and often say ‘we should have moved here much earlier’.

“The key to success is to have creative and channel strategies in place that prove you understand what they need,” Ms Walker says.