Grey ocean strategy
Edgar Keehnen

Agewise marketing for the mature customer.

We are faced by a demographic earthquake called aging. The enormous increase in market potential caused by this force driving change requires all companies to reconsider their current strategies. Aging leads to the new market majority: mature consumers with needs that are either different to those of younger people, or similar but that are converted into wants in a different way. How do we develop successful strategies to exploit the opportunities of aging as a key force driving change? We use the psychology of aging as the foundation of a Grey Ocean Strategy. We will describe the major emotional and cognitive changes that occur as we grow older, which lead us to the Seven Soft Spots of Aging. Insights from scientific studies regarding aging will be synthesized and applied to real life to create, spread, and realize the right value proposition for the mature consumer. We need to understand the consumer decision process in later life. During their lifetime, mature consumers have been confronted with quite a number of offers that failed to deliver what they promised. That is why they now look for “the real thing”. If we want to reach the mature consumer, we have to change our marketing paradigms. The traditional marketing paradigms need to be changed into customer-based marketing management, based on creating, spreading, and realizing an innovative, authentic value proposition for the mature consumer. This textbook describes clearly how to develop a successful Grey Ocean Strategy to add value to the lives of mature consumers and to your own business.