Marketing of Services with the Silver Economy Generation

This thesis is a marketing related thesis as a part of the larger Silver Economy Project. For the first time in history, older people make up a proportionately larger portion of the population in total. The “baby boomers” are currently in their 50s, 60s and 70s and they create the silver economy. The older consumers are expected to spend 13.9 trillion euros annually by 2020. Additionally, it is claimed that baby boomers have reached their peak with income and consumption and they desire to be young. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the most suitable marketing actions regarding services with the silver economy generation in Northern Savonia, Finland. Simultaneously, the aim was to examine the silver economy’s media consumption and service usage habits. In addition, the current theory was investigated and mirrored to the research results to evaluate their uniformity. The research implemented qualitative methodology by doing interviews with bypassers. According to the research, the 50+ generation is not one larger homogeneous segment without specific desires. With the existing theory in addition to this research’s empirical study, the results were opposite from the presumptions. As people age, they start to develop individual demands, which in return creates challenges from a marketing point of view. This might make this generation the hardest one to manage marketing-wise