Retirement News : Seniors : Europe Inc. waking to seniors' clout

Europe Inc. waking to seniors' clout

Date Added: 07-05-2005

Marie Louise Sillman won't divulge her age, but the white-haired, Paris-based fashion model is clearly not a yearling.

Still, the work coming in these days has little to do with selling arthritis medication or constipation cures.

Instead, Sillman's been pictured lolling in a bubbly Jacuzzi -- next to a male partner -- in a nationwide campaign for the French home decoration chain Castorama; portrayed as an elegant "modern day" grandma sporting long, fluffy hair in a spread for Paris-Match magazine; and shot as an elegant doyenne flanked by younger tattooed counterparts in WAD, a trendy French publication that is dedicated to street fashion.

"I'm definitely not a healthy grandmother type," said Sillman, when asked if she was typecast. "I'm honestly more about glamour and sophistication."

Sillman offers the face of slowly changing attitudes toward the elderly in Europe. Even as governments from Brussels to Warsaw fret over how to finance an increasingly graying population, Europe's private sector is gradually waking up to the formidable purchasing clout of its seniors, as baby boomers tip over the mid-century mark.

The average French person over 50, for example, earns roughly $22,000 a year, compared to $16,800 for the under-50 category, according a 2004 study by the International Federation of Associations for Aging People.

Studies and anecdotal evidence also suggest Europe's elderly are retiring earlier than ever and looking for new activities to fill up their time. Many also have disposable income on their hands, once unimaginable in the country.

Moreover, experts say, European baby-boomers who championed sexual liberty and women's rights during the 1960s and '70s are unlikely to shelve such values as they get older. It's a reality, experts such as Jean-Philippe Viriot-Durandel say, the advertising industry is still coming to grips with.

"Baby boomers are leaving their youth without wanting to abandon a certain number of youthful characteristics -- such as seduction and sexuality," said Viriot-Durandel, a sociology professor at the University of Technology of Belfort-Montbeliard, in eastern France, who specializes in aging issues. "And suddenly, we see...these two themes are very important for this population group."

Whether advertising agencies will eventually equate maturity with sexuality is still an open question. But there is plenty of evidence senior power in Europe Inc. is coming of age.

Some of the evidence lies in numbers. By 2050, the percentage of Europeans over 75 will grow from 12 percent to 28.5 percent, according to the U.N. Population Fund.

In France, a third of the population already is over 50 years old, and one in five Britons is over 60. Those numbers are only likely to grow.

And slowly, Europe private sector is beginning to cater to them.

Germany's first-ever senior supermarket debuted this year, in the Bavarian spa of Bad Fussing. Dubbed "Edeka 50+," the store boasts lower and wider shopping carts, stickers with prices in large print, and a staff keenly tuned to a gray-haired clientele who have extra questions and time on their hands.

Nor is the store, launched by the German supermarket firm Edeka, the FIRST in Europe. Austria launched its own elderly markets three years ago.

In France, a new ad campaign for Dove soap features a middle-aged model and the question: "When can we start being proud of our gray hair?"

"There are real needs and expectations when it comes to products" among seniors, said Rudolph Muller, director for Senioragency, a Paris-based marketing agency that targets baby boomers and those over 50 years. "The feeling (among France's aging populace) is: 'We want a specific product' but not, 'oh, that's for you seniors.'"

Separately in Britain, a very different senior campaign was launched last year to confront age-related discrimination.

"Ignore this poster. It's got gray hair," reads the billboard tagline, sponsored by Age Concern, an advocacy group for the elderly.

British companies, however, would do well not to ignore the poster. Disposable income among Britons over 50 years accounts for more than half the nation's average, according to Datamonitor, a British marketing analysis company. Indeed, Britons between 50 to 64 years reportedly enjoy the highest levels of disposable income in Europe.

Still, today's advertising industry is grappling with a critical decision: Should it blatantly target Europe's seniors -- and thereby risk having its products being pigeonholed as "elderly only" -- or continue sending a youthful message with younger models, possibly alienating their senior clientele?

"There's an enormous fear of aging ... brand," Muller, of Senioragency acknowledged.

France's famed perfume and cosmetics industry is beginning to use more mature models, for example, and "escaping the tyranny of anorexic adolescents," says Alain Grange-Cabane, president of France's perfume industry federation. He acknowledges, however, the shift is happening slowly.

"The industry remains marked by a quest for eternal youth," Grange-Cabane said.

The problem even dogs fashion magazines dedicated to older readers, according to 61-year-old French model Brigitte Schoumann.

"They always put 35-year-old models on the covers," she said. "I once brought this up with an editor-and-chief, and he said he'd think about it. But the models remain young."

Sillman, too, is acutely aware of the youth factor.

A Florida native who has worked as a model for decades, she ticks off a host of products, from adventure travel to cosmetics, where companies and advertising agencies are still leery of using older models though seniors may be a target audience.

"I never discuss my age except with my agent," Sillman added in a telephone interview. "And the reason for that is that sometimes I find that older women -- anybody over 40 -- will be limited in their scope of work."

Blake Dawson, another Paris-based model with silver hair and movie-star looks, also agrees that age continues to be a liability in Europe's fashion industry.

At 49, he looks a decade younger, and continues to be cast by advertising directors in James Bond or business-executive roles -- not the grandpa-in-rocking-chair ones. Nor will Dawson necessarily be discarded for younger models as he grows older.

"With the financial impact the elderly will have in the coming years, there will be more and more advertising directed at that age group," Dawson said.

Nor will it necessarily bring in more business for Dawson, who juggles modeling between twin careers as poet and actor.

"I can imagine the trend will be more work for senior models," he said. "But there will also be more seniors around as models."

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