Abstract:
The United States' elderly population will increase so substantially in the near future that this population segment may become the dominant one in this country, affecting every aspect of American society. One of the areas which will be most affected will be the U.S. economy. As will be seen, many marketers will want to target the healthy, affluent segments of the elderly population, while other businesses, as well as state and federal governments, will take on the incredibly complex task of providing, and in many cases paying for, effective and affordable products and services for elderly whose health and financial situations are poor. Before any business or government agency can effectively tailor products and services to the elderly population, they must understand the complex characteristics of the elderly population. As will be seen, the understanding is still quite poor. This literature review attempts to help increase that understanding by reviewing recent articles written by people who have studied the financial situations and health of elderly people, as well as elderly use of various products and services provided by the government and private businesses. In addition, other people have studied elderly buying habits, how the elderly use media, how they search for information, and how advertising affects them.Ken Dychtwald and Joe Flower, in their 1989 book Age Wave, gave a detailed summary of the present and future situation of elderly people in the United States. In an attempt to provide updated insights on the economic condition and buying habits of the elderly and suggest some possible topics for further study, this literature review will look at relevant articles, from both popular and scholarly sources, that were published from 1989 onwards. The articles in this paper are arranged into broad categories. The first articles to be mentioned tell about the immense growth the elderly population will experience in the coming decades. The second set of articles deals with studies which segment the elderly population according to age, gender, financial status, and health. The third set of articles talks about what the shopping experience is like from the elderly person's point of view. The fourth set of articles talks about the decline in health and physical senses that accompany old age and how that decline affects elderly people's daily lives. Included in this set are some articles which talk about the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of some state and federal welfare programs for the elderly and the effectiveness (or, again, the lack thereof) of some housing and insurance programs provided by private businesses. The fifth set of articles talks about mass-media usage patterns of the elderly and mass-media effects on the elderly. Some of the articles in this set talk about how declining physical senses and slowed mental ability affect the elderly people's ability to use different forms of media.