The impact of demographic development in international marketing

Résumé du document

This paper seeks to show the different impacts of demographic development on International Marketing and how enterprises may deal with this phenomenon. With the worldwide population ageing, new markets and new opportunities are opening for entrepreneurs. This shift in demographic development mainly concerns developed and few new industrialized countries at the moment. We may assume that emerging countries will have to face the same consequences on marketing to older adults when the reach a certain level of development. However this paper will focus on developed countries, which are the most concerned by marketing to older consumers. In the context of demographic development, older markets have become a major segment for marketers to deal with. However many studies show that this market is still unknown or at least badly known. What is the real impact of demographic development on international marketing? Why do marketers have so much of difficulties to deal with this population although it could be a very lucrative market?

Extraits

[...] 503-504. WOLFE, David. B (1997) : “Older markets and the new paradigm”, Journal of consumer marketing, Vol No.4, pp 294-302. Statistics: INSEE DGI, enquêtes revenus fiscaux de 1996 à 2004 ; 2004. Le Marketing Book Seniors Secodip 2000). Website 1. Jean-Paul Tréguer's website: http://treguer.wordpress.com/ : “Sharing my do's and dont's about advertising to baby boomers and seniors”. [...]

[...] (Fletcher, Frank MintelPublications). Older consumers are interested in specific fields, among them we get: up market food products (diet food), alcoholic drinks (represent 36,4% of consumer goods of households over age 60, Tréguer, 2003), Coffee Tea; Pharmaceuticals; Cosmetics (represent 27,4% of the market share of consumer goods of households over 60, Tréguer, 2003); Garden Centers, Leisure Time Products, Hobby Products; Books, Journals; travel clothing, travel goods; Old People's Home Care for Aged. All these fields are opportunities to be exploited by marketers to reach older consumers. [...]

[...] While currently ranging between 7 per cent in Korea to above 17 per cent in Italy, Japan and Sweden, the average share of individuals aged 65 years and over will reach an average of 30 per cent of total population in 2050. Sharpest rises are projected to occur in Australia, Czech Republic, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, Spain. If individuals between 55 to 64 years old are included, this wider group of old people will nearly account for nearly 40 per cent of total population by the end of the projection period. We may provide some examples of demographic development around the world. In Europe, the 55 years old and more already represent between 12 and 20%. [...]

[...] It seems clear that the older consumers are a great chance for marketers to develop new products and services in order to reach an important market. However it appears that marketers do not know how to deal with older people. III The marketers are still not able to deal with the older consumers While considering the mature consumers market, we may trace an evolution of marketing towards older people. We can identify three distinct stages of development: prior to 1980s stage, the 1980s stage and the stage since early 1990s” (Moschis, 2003). [...]

[...] V Conclusion This paper presented the impact of demographic development on international marketing with the example of older markets. We saw that demographic changes have important repercussions on marketing methods. It seems essential to mention that one of the most important issues with demographic development is the ability for marketers to adapt to a new context. Indeed, older markets are a great opportunity for marketers to make money, however the several mistakes which have been done over the past years have damaged the effectiveness to target older consumers. [...]