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Description
One of the biggest sins of the market against mature consumers is that marketing strategies and commercial information are not tailored to the needs arising from elderly consumers'' age. Through the language, packaging design, the way user manuals or access channels are created, market information often excludes people aged 60+ who are potentially interested in it. These consumers may find it difficult to understand companies’ offers, which results in them purchasing goods or services without being aware of all the aspects of the offer (for example: purchase on instalments from a lending institution, purchase of media subscriptions and "incidentally" of a laptop which they will never use but which is added to their monthly charges). It also happens that mature consumers cannot use special offers in retail chains as they do not have particular mobile apps or have limited internet skills.
A Simplicare board member is an expert in the National Institute of Silver Economy, and so she understands the needs of elderly people very well. We decided to develop the SilverCustom service to support companies in adapting their offers to the needs of these people. The project consists in creating a toolkit for testing products, which will include:
- software for prototyping test products, applications and interfaces for the senior customer,
- geriatric simulation suits to test products, applications and interfaces that take into account physical limitations of the elderly,
- focus groups of senior users to test products, services or applications,
- a team of experts conducting tests and prototyping the products, services and applications under testing,
- a service for the development of a marketing strategy for the senior customer.
Summary of project results
The implementation of the Silvercustom project was necessary due to the demographic changes taking place in Poland. Poland is the country that is aging the fastest in Europe (after Finland). The group of older people in Poland is constantly growing, which means that this group becomes a customer and products and services should be created for them. Therefore, companies must learn and adapt their offer to this increasingly larger group of customers.
As part of the project, we purchased geriatric suits that allow us to put ourselves in the shoes of older people and use them to test new solutions and ideas from potential Simplicare customers. We also purchased an eye tracker that allows us to very precisely examine the accessibility of the created virtual products to the perceptual needs of older people. Additionally, we provided consulting services in the field of strategy, marketing, law, IT and UX, in order to tailor the designed SilverCustom solutions to both the needs of companies - potential customers, and older people who are to benefit directly from these activities.
The main result of the project is the expansion of Simplicare''s portfolio with a new service responding to demographic changes. The unintended result is the extraordinary success and functionality of geriatric suits. They have become not only part of the Silvercustom service, but also an element promoting the Silvercustom idea and tailoring the offer to the needs of older people. During the project, several workshops were conducted with potential clients using geriatric suits.
As a result of the project, older people will be able to use an increasing number of products and services available on the market. Consumer exclusion will be minimized, including the digital exclusion of older people.