"Packaging Has to Be More Polite" |
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Since 1985, the Meyer-Hentschel Institute has been supporting businesses and social service providers in aligning their products and services with demographic change. The institute’s founders, Dr. Hanne Meyer-Hentschel and Dr. Gundolf Meyer-Hentschel, talked with us about the demands the target audience "60+" places on packaging and how print shops can support their customers in helping seniors.
Ms. Meyer-Hentschel, you advise companies to be more alert to the needs of older people when designing their products and packaging. Is the youth era over?
Hanne Meyer-Hentschel: No, that's quite far from the case. But it's true that more and more companies are recognizing the relevance of the topic and becoming active. And they should, too. After all, there are now around 100 million people living in Europe who are 60 years or older. In seven years it will be 115 million. This ever-increasing target audience has an enormous purchasing power - we're talking about
roughly 150 billion U.S. Dollars (100 billion Euro) of available income in Germany alone. Enormous competition is currently growing around this highly interesting target audience and it will get Ãncreasingly tougher.That's one side of it, which leads me on to your question: for on the other hand, there's still a lot left to do with marketing for senior citizens, also in packaging. We know today that more than 90 percent of all consumers older than 60 have problems opening packaging. That means that younger consumers are still
the focus. The needs of older people, on the other hand, are only inadequately taken into consideration.
What does the target audience of 60+ particularly value in packaging?
Hanne Meyer-Hentschel: The identifiability of products plays a very important role in a product's point of sale. Older people want to recognize as quickly as possible if they have a shampoo or conditioner in their hands. Since these products usually look very similar, the various differences can only be found in the product description. For this reason, good readability and easy to understand, factual information is important. After the purchase, other factors come to the forefront: Can the packaging be easily opened
and closed again? Can the contents be removed or dosed without difficulty? As a whole, more functional aspects determine whether a consumer feels at ease with the product or not.
Gundolf Meyer-Hentschel: We like to sum things up by saying, "Packaging has to be more polite." A box that is difficult to open confronts the generation 60+ with the limitations of becoming older. That's impolite. It sends the message: "Something's wrong with me." Innovative businesses have enormous possibilities here. As long as all providers are the same and have labels which are hard to read, there's naturally a stalemate in the competition. But as soon as someone comes along who makes the products distinguishable, who has easily readable labels, whose products are easy to open and close again, he or she will win these customers - simply because they feel more comfortable with these products both
while shopping and afterwards.
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pdf Document
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