21% of the Italian population is 65 or over and therefore falls into the category of silver consumer. It is a group of consumers with a slightly lower income than the under 35s, but clearly more stable (so much so that 7 million of them contribute to the consumption costs of their families) and with habits that deserve attention: 6,6 million regularly go to restaurants, 6 million go to the cinema, theater and museums, 3,1 million travel abroad.
It is the reference universe ofActive Aging & Silver Marketing Lab, launched this morning at Bocconi. An articulation of Cermes, the research center on marketing and services, the Lab aims to analyze the social and economic consequences of demographic change, with attention to satisfying the needs of the over 65 segment.
The first research work of the Lab analyzes the relationship of silver consumers with technology, highlighting a much livelier universe than expected. Use of the Internet (52,9%) and knowledge of social networks (61,8%) are discrete, with actual use of the latter limited, however, to Facebook and Twitter.
However, the mobile revolution does not seem to have reached this cluster yet: compared to 33,3% of the sample who navigate through a desktop computer and 28,6% who do so with a laptop, the percentage of those surfing with a smartphone is still at 3,8%..
The research also analyzes the habits of prospective silver, i.e. i consumers between 55 and 64 years of age, concluding that they differ little from those of the younger ones. "The silver customer's relationship with technology is comparable to that of other generational clusters", says Luca Buccoliero, author of the research, but with three marked differences, which companies must take into account: a more rational technology purchasing process ( based on perceived utility and ease of use) and less emotional a greater need to be motivated to use technologies from a reference social network. A propensity still clearly lower to use mobile phones.
“The silver consumer deserves great attention from companies”, concludes the director of Cermes, Enrico Valdani. “Suffice it to say that couples with at least one member over 65 spend 1.200 euros a year more on consumption than couples with at least one member aged between 18 and 34 and that, between 2009 and 2014, silver singles increased their spending on consumption by 4,7%, while single millennials reduced it by 12,4%”.
