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The Silver Market Phenomenon: Marketing and Innovation in the Aging Society
The Silver Market Phenomenon: Marketing and Innovation in the Aging Society
The Silver Market Phenomenon: Marketing and Innovation in the Aging Society
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The Silver Market Phenomenon: Marketing and Innovation in the Aging Society

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The current shift in demographics – aging and shrinking populations – in many countries around the world presents a major challenge to companies and societies alike. One particularly essential implication is the emergence and constant growth of the so-called “graying market” or “silver market”, the market segment more or less broadly defined as those people aged 50 and older. Increasing in number and share of the total population while at the same time being relatively well-off, this market segment can be seen as very attractive and promising, although still very underdeveloped in terms of product and service offerings. This book offers a thorough and up-to-date analysis of the challenges and opportunities in leveraging innovation, technology, product development and marketing for older consumers and employees. Key lessons are drawn from a variety of industries and countries, including the lead market Japan.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherSpringer
Release dateNov 1, 2010
ISBN9783642143380
The Silver Market Phenomenon: Marketing and Innovation in the Aging Society

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    The Silver Market Phenomenon - Florian Kohlbacher

    Part 1

    Innovation, Design and Product Development for the Silver Market

    Florian Kohlbacher and Cornelius Herstatt (eds.)The Silver Market Phenomenon2Marketing and Innovation in the Aging Society10.1007/978-3-642-14338-0_1© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011

    1. Product Development for the Silver Market

    Florian Kohlbacher¹ , Cornelius Herstatt² and Tim Schweisfurth²

    (1)

    German Institute for Japanese Studies, Tokyo, Japan

    (2)

    Institute for Technology and Innovation Management, Hamburg University of TechnologyHamburg University of Technology, Hamburg, Germany

    Abstract

    The accelerated aging of many populations and the demographic shift are expected to have major implications for innovation management and new product development across all industries. One major challenge lies in the assessment and understanding of the needs of the silver market, since chronological age by itself is not a sufficient segmentation criterion. A promising dimension is the need for autonomy, which increases with age and which is correlated to social isolation and other individual drawbacks. Thus, focusing on autonomy as a guideline for developing products and services that support people in maintaining or regaining their independence is a viable approach to developing innovation for the silver market, hence silver products. In this chapter, we present four cases from different industry settings where silver products were developed that help users to sustain or regain autonomy in combination with different functions (e.g., hearing, continence, vision). We present different approaches to technological and functional complexity and newness in these innovation projects, and depict related approaches to marketing and market research.

    Introduction

    The accelerated aging of many populations and the demographic shift are expected to have major implications for innovation management and new product development across all industries. Products and services need to be either adapted or newly developed to better respond to the changing needs and demands of an aging population (cf. e.g., [1, 2]). Even though many useful practical recommendations can be derived for product development from the work on transgenerational design (see Chap.​ 9 in this book), universal design (see Chap.​ 8in this book), and design for inclusivity [3], the lack of research on innovation management, research and development, and new product development for the aging society is surprising.

    In the course of this chapter, we aim to contribute to further closing this gap. We present concepts of how to systematically approach silver markets as a starting point to develop innovations for seniors. To underpin this, we use an explanatory multiple case study approach, and present how firms in very different industrial contexts have created silver innovations. In the cases presented, a particular need turned out to be the starting point for developing all innovative solutions to silver clients. We observed autonomy – the capacity of a person to freely decide and run her own life as independent as possible – to be core, and the most important, common denominator of all these projects.

    Competing in the Silver Market

    Strategies of Market Development

    Aging customers represent risks as well as opportunities for companies. Both stem from changing needs and means which accompany aging. Companies who want to leverage the business potential of an aging clientele – the silver market – consequently need to adapt their innovation-related work. This will typically affect their market research, product development/design, and product delivery, including service. Companies firstly need to clearly understand and define their market space, and align their innovation strategy accordingly.

    Obviously there is no one best approach, and previous research in Japan has identified a variety of strategies for competing in the silver market [4]:

    Innovation strategies that aim at developing and marketing products and services especially for elderly people (unique solutions)

    Innovation strategies that aim at adapting products and services especially for the elderly (extended solutions)

    Innovation strategies that aim at developing ageless/age-neutral products and services that offer value to elderly people while also attracting younger customers, or focus on connecting and integrating different generations (universal solutions)

    The benefit of these strategies corresponds with the context of the clientele and the firm. In the following, we focus on developing unique and extended solutions for silver customers. Figure 1.1 relates these strategies to each other in combination with age.

    A978-3-642-14338-0_1_Fig1_HTML.gif

    Fig. 1.1

    Strategies of silver market development (own depiction)

    The Need for Autonomy

    Serving the Silver Market as a whole seems to be economically infeasible for many reasons. Therefore, companies innovating products and services for seniors, need first to segment this market and then to identify the most attractive business opportunities based on solid market research. Such an approach seems necessary and effective, since the opposite, unfocussed approach – considering the whole silver market, i.e., all 50+ people – will not lead to differentiated product/service offerings corresponding to age-specific needs. Why? Aging is a multidimensional process (e.g., [5, 6]), and chronological age by itself is not a sufficient segmentation variable. Customer needs diverge with age, leading to highly heterogeneous distributions of consumer preferences (e.g., [7]). For this reason, looking for the one distinct variable that differentiates all people above the age of 49, for example, from all other consumers is likely to fail.

    Obviously, a promising avenue for developing unique and distinct solutions for seniors leading to improved or new products and services is to address needs that are related to physical and psychological aging of people and become manifest in phenomena such as constricted viewing, loss of hearing or decline in working memory [8]. Such physical handicaps are the domain of gerontology and related research. Becoming dependant on others is a frequent consequence of physical and psychological handicaps. We argue that most people would like to prevent this, and therefore a common aspiration which human beings share is to stay autonomous and independent throughout their life course [9]. Autonomy, which originated from the Greek autonoma (auto stands for self, nomos means law), can be defined as the capacity of a person to freely decide and run his or her own life as independently as possible (cf. [10]).

    Typically, with growing age functional capabilities of humans begin to decline, and by this individual autonomy is reduced. These effects of normal aging are not to be confounded with pathological effects which originate from diseases [11]. This differentiation, however, is more of an analytical nature, since the two effects cannot be distinguished clearly in practice, and both influence autonomy of individuals negatively [12].

    The described negative side-effects of aging go hand in hand with becoming more and more dependent, since aging people cannot perform tasks they used to do in daily living [13]. Decreasing sensory abilities complicate the use of products, e.g., opening of bottles, reading displays; lower cognitive capabilities inhibit the fast consumption and processing of data, e.g., comprehension of speech, using interfaces [8].

    A commonly used measure to determine individual autonomy is to scale to what extent a certain individual can care for himself/herself in daily living. The activities of daily living (ADL) construct includes basic functions such as eating, drinking, getting up, etc. [14]. The instrumental ADL is extended to more complex and social activities like preparation of food, shopping, and housekeeping [12, 15].

    The concept of autonomy is closely related to successful aging, a term introduced by Rowe and Kahn [11]. They claim that successful aging is not only influenced by physiological factors, but also needs to include sociopsychological aspects. Rowe and Khan [16] describe low probability of disease or disability, high cognitive and physical function capacity, and active engagement with life as antecedents to successful aging. We cannot discuss the many facets and views of the constructs here [17], but find strong support for the argument that autonomy is a sine qua non condition for successful aging [9].

    Not all, but a major share of aging people will be affected differently by losing their physical and cognitive possibilities. Depending on their individual constitution, values, and temperament, as well as other personal characteristics, people will suffer differently from these emerging deficiencies. The need for maintaining or regaining autonomy is dependent on the individual constitution, too. Consequently, different patterns of aging on the one hand and experiencing the need for autonomy on the other can emerge. The most likely pattern correlates with physical capability [18], and combines decreasing autonomy with growing age (see Fig. 1.2). Autonomy-enhancing solutions can fill the gap between the menacing lower state of autonomy and the preceding, original state, at least for some time. Providing solutions to delay the loss of autonomy may also catch the attention of younger consumers, since they exhibit higher degrees of aging anxiety and fear dependence, more than those who are aging already [19]. As a consequence, firms can serve specific needs today but also build reputation and customer retention in younger customers whose needs will materialize in the future.

    A978-3-642-14338-0_1_Fig2_HTML.gif

    Fig. 1.2

    Individual autonomy throughout life stages (own depiction)

    From the perspective of a firm that investigates opportunities to innovate for aging people, this observation may lead to attractive, entrepreneurial opportunities. If, in a given market, this firm additionally does not find appropriate solutions corresponding to unmet needs for realizing independence, this observation can become an entry point for an innovation project [20].

    In addition to the positive effects of individually satisfying the need for autonomy, other positive effects may occur, including social welfare effects (cf. also Chap.​ 17 in this book).

    We consider autonomy to be a preference throughout all population groups that gains growing importance with age.

    In the course of this chapter, we will present case evidence from firms that focus on products that help to maintain individual independence.

    Product Design for Autonomy

    To support our argument, we now present four case studies to exemplify how companies can develop innovative solutions to help older consumers to maintain and/or enhance their autonomy. These cases stem from very different industrial contexts in the B2C world.

    Our first case describes a recent development project in the area of tissue strengthening implants by Johnson and Johnson Medical (Germany), where the starting question was to what extent existing products of a certain business unit were affected by an aging clientele. During the course of the project, the focus moved to the field of weakening tissue structures and the resulting risk of incontinence in higher age. Incontinence was confirmed already to be a severe problem for millions of aged people, which heavily affects the autonomy of these individuals. This was the starting point for developing a product concept that was based on the known mesh technology and aims at tightening the ureter when pressure in the abdominal area increases.

    The second case describes development work by Emporia (Austria) in connection with communication devices for aged people. Over a number of years, Emporia has been developing mobile phones for senior users. As seniors are often not used to the fancy design and complicated menu navigation, they are dependent on the help of others in order to use a mobile phone. Emporia has early recognized this need and develops solutions with highly usable design and flattened functionalities adapted to the physical and mental capabilities of aged people. To deliver these functionalities, Emporia´s R&D heavily interacts with typical users, testing each development step with silver customers.

    The third case describes the development of an age-friendly notebook by a leading consumer electronics firm in Japan, Fujitsu. The Raku Raku notebook (raku = easy) is a PC for silver customers developed by Fujitsu. It draws from the product concept of the Raku Raku Phone, which was a huge success in Japan and won seniors with easy-to-use interface and less complex functions. In November 2008, Fujitsu came out with the Raku Raku PC, targeted at silver beginners. Two models are available, a desktop and a laptop version. Both are equipped with an easy-to-use keyboard, mouse and menu using touch-screen technology, so that older people using a PC for the first time can easily understand it. The letters and icons of the menu are 25% larger than on the usual ones. The most often used and vowel keys are marked by colors and function keys such as the space key have the Japanese function written on them. When turning the Raku Raku PC on, the menu shows the most important programs such as e-mail or internet. In addition, Fujitsu offers a home installation service and the Raku Raku PC Help Line, a customer support, which is free for the first year of product usage.

    Our fourth and last case presented here, is the Robot Suit HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb), which has been developed by University of Tsukuba Professor Sankai. This device helps handicapped and elderly people to move their limbs as well as workers to carry heavy weights by wearing a cyborg type robotic suit. HAL enhances and strengthens the limb motion of human bodies by detecting the weak bioelectrical signal through the body from the brain which generates the nerve signal to control the musculoskeletal system. The system of HAL captures nerve signals via motoneuron through a sensor attached on the skin of the wearer. Based on the signals obtained, the power unit is controlled to move the joint in sync with the wearer’s muscle movement, enabling to support the wearer’s daily activities. The product was launched onto the market in 2009 by the university spin-off Cyberdyne Corporation, with seed money from a major Japanese corporation, Daiwa House.

    Comparing the four cases presented here, we find both common factors and differences in terms of the technological as well as the marketing approach.

    On the technological side, one has to differentiate between technology and functionality and their corresponding complexities. Whereas a function is an attribute to the product, substantive technology is the knowledge by which the product is created [21]. In our cases, the degree of technological newness included to provide solutions can be regarded as varying from relatively low-tech to high-tech. One example draws on technologies that are well-understood and have been implemented before in combination with other products (J&J); others include new technologies which have been developed partly for other applications first (Emporia and Fujitsu) and then transferred. In one case, the technology has been proprietarily developed for silver solutions (i.e., the Hal-suit).

    Furthermore we observe that in addition to the different levels of technological newness and complexity, the product offerings also differ in the functional complexity they exhibit from the perspective of the user. In some cases this functional complexity is lower than in comparable products offered to the mainstream market, due to fewer usage options being provided (Emporia and Fujitsu). In one case (Hal-suit), totally new functions are being offered, which have never been combined in a product before. Again, in another case functionality remains unaltered, but is being offered to a new target clientele corresponding to their needs (J&J).

    When companies develop totally new and complex technologies as the core of their autonomy supporting solutions or silver products, it seems mandatory to provide usage functions with a minimum of complexity for the user. This is, for example, one of the major challenges for the Hal-suit project: To deliver a user-friendly product despite the high technical complexity.

    Transferring from either known or new technologies, our case companies needed to build up specific capabilities with regard to either technology or market or both.

    In order to understand the market, close interaction with potential users of their products in an appropriate and empathic way is needed. By appropriate we mean that the companies had to choose the best available approach to best understand the needs of their target clientele, by either talking, interviewing, observing or combining all approaches in different environments (e.g., customer clinics).

    Looking only at the four cases here already shows the magnitude of approaches to delivering useful solutions to the silver market. Creating silver products, like any other solutions for clients, asks for a high degree of empathy and the willingness to devote substantial resources to understand the specific customer situation. Table 1.1 summarizes the most important findings from the case studies.

    Table 1.1

    Summary of cases

    With regard to market research as a first, essential activity in new product development, all projects were based on a common ground: it is important to empathize with silver customers (cf. [3, 22]), who are on the verge of losing their autonomy, and take their (latent) needs into consideration. However, we found differences in the cases in terms of the approach towards market research methodology. If minor cognitive or psychological restrictions are the reasons for decreasing autonomy, direct qualitative market research such as interviewing the silver customer is still possible and promising; with lowered mental and sensual abilities, ethnography and observation in real-world situations are more promising, because the observer will gain a deeper understanding of the use context, and this knowledge could very likely not be explained by the persons in focus. If physical constraints affect the independence of silver customers, indirect techniques such as using an age simulation suit (cf. [23]) or integrating medical experts may be an alternative to more complex, direct methods. However, these decisions are not either–or choices, and each approach should be complemented by other methods for validation (multi-method approach). Especially in the case of medical innovation, a combination of methods seems inevitable in order to match medical experts’ and users’ needs.

    Need-Driven Versus Age-Specific

    With regard to the silver market and age-specific segmentation, it is important to note that successful new products oriented to the needs for autonomy are not exclusively restricted to the use of the elderly. In this respect, these products may offer value for other consumers who are restricted in their senses, cognition, or movement control, or prefer easy-to-use products. In these cases, an ageless marketing strategy (cf. [24]) should be pursued. A supporting example is the Raku Raku Phone: originally developed for older people, this cell phone with enhanced usability and universal design features did not only appeal to older consumers. This led to the development of new versions targeting a much broader clientele including young and old users. Another case in point is the Robot Suit HAL, which has many potential applications beyond the silver market. It can be used by heavy-duty workers in factories or care givers who have to lift patients, and it can also be employed for rehabilitation and entertainment purposes for example. Indeed, it is actually not necessarily a senior product per se.

    In the medical industry, for example, a more subtle approach has to be chosen in combination with many products, because customers often feel high levels of stigmatization related to their specific situation and physical/mental condition. Here, an open communication strategy seems often not possible or even counterproductive. Therefore, firms should better communicate to opinion leaders (word-of-mouth effects) or sponsor events first. But, even if the satisfaction of the need for autonomy seems to be a promising strategy for companies that aim at the silver market, the means for reaching product success depend on the reasons for the loss of autonomy and the severity of the consumers’ condition.

    We find that the need for autonomy can be seen as an overarching segmentation criterion when it comes to the development of products aiming especially at the silver market. Yet there are two distinct, implicational aspects of autonomy-enhancing products. The first, direct effect is connected to the use of the product itself: products need to be engineered in a way that they can be used independently, i.e., without help from others. This requirement is closely connected with questions of usability and product design. The second aspect reaches further, and is related to a more comprehensive perspective that takes the product functions, product environment and related services into account: products should help users to keep their autonomy as long as possible. Products meeting this requirement enable seniors to maintain their mobility, freedom of choice and social participation. As opposed to the first aspect of autonomy, which helps seniors to use products independently, the second layer supports silver customers in maintaining and sustaining their autonomy and living their life independently from other aiders or supporters, offering high quality of life.

    Summary and Conclusion

    Aging societies and customers apparently ask companies across all industries to respond to the expectations and demands of the changing clientele with improved or new solutions. But looking more closely at the phenomenon and its possible impacts from the perspective of the firm, many issues need to be resolved, e.g., how to segment the Silver Market, where to start (adapting existing solutions versus developing new ones), how to approach and integrate customers for the purpose of design, etc. Although many useful practical recommendations can be derived for product development from related work on transgenerational design, universal design, and design for inclusivity, a big gap in the areas of innovation management, research and development and new product development for older customers exists.

    One way to approach the silver market without explicitly excluding younger customers is to focus on autonomy, representing an important synonym for a good life, disappearing in a more or less continuous manner over the life cycle of a human being. Offering solutions that will allow people to maintain autonomy and to use products and services in an autonomous manner seems to be a promising avenue for firms in all kinds of industries. Therefore, it can be perceived as a boundary-spanning argument and a common denominator for starting development initiatives leading to innovations targeting the silver market.

    Actual and potential applications seem to be immense, and comprise a large variety of products and services in uncountable applications, industries and sectors. Taking the needs and wants of older consumers seriously, and developing new products and services that really cater to their demands, not only offers attractive profit opportunities in a time of shrinking youth segments, but additionally benefits older people and their consumer welfare. At the same time, it may attract the attention of younger customers looking for functionally less complex products and designs and in that way prepares future customers by signaling a firm's preparedness to respond to gradually diminishing autonomy, which seems to be unpreventable for all of us.

    In contrast to employing age or other direct age-related constructs as segmentation criteria, the need for autonomy will become relevant in each person’s life sooner or later. Thus, it can be regarded as an important and common denominator of divergent needs emerging with age, and serve as a guideline for silver product development.

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    1.

    F. Kohlbacher, C.C. Hang, Disruptive innovations in a new market reality: Evidence from the greying market. Paper presented in R&D Management Conference, Vienna, June 2009

    2.

    F. Kohlbacher, C. Herstatt, Silver product development: The reality of R&D firms in Japan. Paper presented in R&D Management Conference, Vienna, June 2009

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    R. Coleman, C. Lebbon, J. Myerson, Design and empathy, in Inclusive design: Design for the whole population, ed. by P.J. Clarkson, R. Coleman, S. Keates, C. Lebbon (Springer, Berlin, 2003). p. 478

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    C. Herstatt, F. Kohlbacher, Innovation strategies for the silver market. Paper presented in International Association for Management of Technology Conference, Dubai, Oct 2008

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    V.L. Bengtson, M. Silverstein, N. Putney, Handbook of Theories of Aging (Springer, Berlin, 2008)

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    A.B. Ford, M.R. Haug, K.C. Stange, A.D. Gaines, L.S. Noelker, P.K. Jones, Sustained personal autonomy: a measure of successful aging. J. Aging Health 12, 470 (2000)CrossRef

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    D. Kuh, A life course approach to healthy aging, frailty, and capability. J. Gerontol. A Biol. Sci. Med. Sci. 62, 717 (2007)CrossRef

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    Florian Kohlbacher and Cornelius Herstatt (eds.)The Silver Market Phenomenon2Marketing and Innovation in the Aging Society10.1007/978-3-642-14338-0_2© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011

    2. Silver Age Innovators: A New Approach to Old Users

    Britt Östlund¹ 

    (1)

    Department of Design Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Abstract

    When designing innovations for the silver age, it is not sufficient to discover old people’s needs only. In addition, one also has to discover old peoples’ new roles as consumers, citizens and innovators. Since these are people who until recently have been given few opportunities to make their voices heard, there is a need for methods that identify their needs and demands. More importantly, we need to study and use methods that reveal the sources of innovations behind their expressed problems and lifelong habits as users of technology. Three attempts to identify old people’s needs and demands by involving them in the design process are presented, drawn from design projects implemented in Sweden from 2005 to 2009. One project explores how the furniture market can be opened to new segments of older consumers. Another project concerns the development of services. The third project links older people's lifelong habit of watching TV to the development of communication via the television medium. The results were analyzed from two points of view: How do we recognise a need that can be explored in design? When discovered, how do we know that this is a worthwhile need to explore? The first attempt shows that older people can present needs as active users with expressed and specific demands; the second attempt shows that older users can have a need to support the solution to problems which are not yet expressed and activated; and the third attempt shows them as users with latent needs that originate from their lifelong experiences, and needs to keep up with daily routines.

    Introduction

    This chapter deals with older people as innovators; specifically, the way older people’s experiences are important for innovations and design in general. Many view ageing populations as constituting a growing segment with specific needs, and understand ageing as a process having no value for any other age group other than their own. With the exception of the concept of design for all and universal design it is rare for older people to be described as resources having value to people of all ages. Old people are defined by factors such as age, social loss, physical impairment and technical illiteracy, and ascribed roles as patients, care receivers, users of assistive technologies and subject to other measures, while other kinds of experiences and competences have been neglected. Far too little attention has been focused on older people’s capacity for innovation, and on how their life experience can contribute to the development and redevelopment of products and technologies. However, it is insufficient to simply talk about old people or to categorize them in accordance with what we already assume. We need to talk with them.

    I will describe three different ways to explore old people’s needs and demands, based on how accessible they are. The conclusions are drawn from projects to promote and develop products and services for older consumers in Sweden during 2005–2009. One of the main reasons why their experiences are of topical importance is that modern ageing presents new demands. In addition, older generations wish to make their voices heard not only as patients or care receivers but also as citizens and consumers. Another reason is that we actually lack sufficient knowledge when developing innovations. We know enough to continue in the direction of the arrow, but this knowledge is insufficient for creating new markets. At best, present trajectories reinforce already existing markets and existing images of older people.

    Often, the interpretation of their preferences does not rest with the elderly themselves, but with those who exercise care for the elderly. A stereotype is that older people are unfamiliar with or even fearful of new technologies. It is easy to forget that their long experiences with technical change and technological development make them the most experienced technology users in society today. While they may not know about the very latest innovations, they definitely have lived with and experienced many innovations that they have had to consider and make decisions about [1]. There is a gap between what we think they want on one hand, and what they actually ask for or how they want to be treated on the other. Consequently, innovations for the silver age will require a different approach than simply projecting the needs of older persons. Rather, silver age innovations must be based on discovering how older persons function in their new roles as consumers, citizens and innovators.

    Old People and Innovations

    By innovations I mean new ways of doing things in methods, products or services. When something innovative is fairly defined, the design process takes off. This chapter deals with both the innovation process and the design process. Usually old people, as well as people in general, have been allowed to step in at certain stages predefined by engineers, designers or researchers. A design process can consist of three stages: preparatory work with an analysis of a problem; second, synthesis and visualization creating a prototype which is tested and modified; and third, evaluation with follow-up of the results. Most often, the second phase is where users get the chance to influence the process by being test persons. It is well-known that users in general can be a significant source of innovation [2, 3]. When it comes to old people’s role in the design process, unfortunately that is not the case. What then is the point in letting them contribute more substantially?

    The value of integrating life-experienced people into the design process is that their experiences, needs, and knowledge of them correspond to the demands put on successful innovation and design processes. According to innovation researchers such as Michael Porter, successful innovation processes are characterized by customers or users who present intractable problems, have high requirements, offer resistance, but still have the patience to stay on [4]. This is exactly what older people can contribute, as they are life-experienced, pragmatic and trustworthy. A growing selection of creative examples can be found such as the experience automat developed in Japan in cooperation between designers at Kyushu University and the company RICOH. The automat is used to find relevant experiences among recently retired colleagues when the company establishes new plants. A younger colleague involved in plant design should always accompany an older colleague.

    When the ageing and design programme became a priority at the Institution for Design Sciences at Lund University in Sweden 2004, the main aim was to understand the expectations of today’s older generations, and develop methods that avoided stereotypes. The cooperation with companies and public health care organizations made it possible to apply our results, and contribute to the development of products and services.

    When the outcome and implementation process was analyzed, we were able to observe different stages of awareness among the users and the possibility of supporting older persons’ articulation of their needs and demands. To identify these needs and demands requires different methods and a time span not usually found in most innovation studies. Older persons have demands and needs that are quite observable, but they can also have what I call inactive or latent needs that can be revealed only by using specific methods. Thus, we get a third question, namely how can they participate? What methods are available to realize the ambition that innovations should be user-driven?

    The methods used in these projects differ according to the users’ awareness of their needs, i.e., their ability to express their demands and desires. In addition to interviews and focus groups, it is not always possible to obtain the needs or desires we are looking for as something independent of the individual who is the carrier. The only way to explore these needs and desires is to involve older persons in the innovation or design process. The concept sticky information suggest that it is not always possible to separate needs from the owner, and gives a taste of how closely the user and the knowledge of their needs can be related [5].

    Another prerequisite is the fact that older people are divided into different segments. Consequently, their needs cannot be generalized to fit the needs of all the elderly population. They constitute a heterogeneous group, which also applies to their demands and preferences. However, the way they are culturally defined gives them experiences of ageing in modern society that sometimes overshadow their differences. Some of these experiences have a bearing on them as consumers, such as the experience of being retired and excluded from the possibility to catch up with technological developments, societal discrimination in general, generational values shaped by certain events, and the experience of being the oldest [1, 6].

    Users with Active Needs in the PLUS Furniture Project

    The development of the Swedish wood processing and furniture industry with user-oriented and competitive PLUS products was a project conducted between 2008 and 2010. The aim was to explore the demands of a new ageing population market segment by testing defined PLUS values in furniture: functionality, elegance and durability. The project was conducted by the Department of Design Sciences at Lund University and the Engineering Department at Linköping University in cooperation with seven Swedish furniture producers: Lammhults, Swedese, Nelo, Allinwood, Stolab, NC Möbler, and OH Sjögren. The project managers were Britt Östlund and Elisabeth Dalholm Hornyanzsky. Thirty persons were involved, between 57 and 87 years old. The main outcome was the identification of user requirement specifications for the companies that could be used in meeting the needs and demands of the new market segment of older consumers.

    The purpose of the project was to respond to the apparent lack of a specific product serving what was an obvious demand. The aim of the project was to develop criteria for a product group of furniture serving older consumers. The idea actually was raised by a furniture dealer who observed that he had met a new group of consumers for whom he did not have an appropriate selection of furniture. Earlier, the situation was that when someone came into the store to buy furniture for the elderly, it was a person from a retirement home which would act on older persons’ behalf. The furniture that was designed for older people was usually functional, but not particularly attractive. It was certainly not the sort of furniture that you wanted in your home.

    Today, older individuals are coming directly into stores by themselves to purchase furniture for their own homes. They are also known as being in the third age, unlike those in the fourth age, who are elderly with a need for daily care [7]. When third age consumers enter furniture stores they cannot find what they are looking for. Considering their lifelong experience with being furniture users, the PLUS furniture project decided to provide the woodfurniture industry with criteria that have a bearing on three aspects: functionality, elegance and durability.

    Expressed Demands To Be Designed

    To get the most realistic picture as possible, the researchers chose subjects who were about to move from their present home to something smaller or to senior housing. The methods used to identify demands were pretty much straightforward. Focus group interviews were followed up by individual interviews with people already living in a kind of retirement home. In order to visualize the demands, and make them more relevant for design and production, two visualizations took place and some mock-ups were developed. One company also built its own prototype that was tested at a furniture fair. Moreover, the companies were asked to pick out a number of chairs that they assumed already had PLUS values. These chairs were tested and commented upon by the sample of users [8, 9].

    The older persons studied were identified as relevant users because they were on their way to change their furniture at home and identified what they were actually looking for to be a problem. The results from this project are now being followed up by the companies, who will integrate the PLUS criteria into their designs for new products or into the development of already existing products.

    The results of these studies have led to an understanding of how users experience potential PLUS values in chairs – functionality, elegance and durability. These values are supposed to work as leading demands coming from a new segment in the market, and help companies to formulate their own more specific description characteristics, i.e., user requirement specifications in terms that they can use in their continuing efforts to develop PLUS furniture.

    Users with Not Yet Activated Needs Looking for Support

    The project Business Solutions for Local Support in the Third Age was carried out during the period 2005–2007. The goal of this project was to explore the needs and demands for services among people in the third age who wanted to remain living in their own neighborhood despite growing old. The project was established by the Department of Design Sciences at Lund University in cooperation with the Swedish Church, the parish of Adolf Fredrik in the city of Stockholm. The project manager was Britt Östlund. One hundred and five persons 60–99 years old were involved in interviews during 2005. Twenty-one women 63–88 years old participated in this project during 2006 and 2007, which identified the need for new services for people in the third age.

    The main outcome was the development of a model revealing that existing services mainly focus on the needs of the fourth age, and was heavily influenced by donors’ service perspective, and the alternative characteristics of services asked for by people in the third age.

    The most challenging way to grasp old people’s needs and demands is to enable those who have knowledge and experience not yet expressed – inactive needs. Not that the users themselves are inactive as opposed to active; it is that their needs and demands that are not yet activated. Like those with active needs, old persons have a need for support for something they want to do or realize in their lives, but it is not necessarily specified. Their needs are expressed in terms of problems rather than as a demand for specific products or services. At the same time, they are more pragmatic than they were earlier in life. The challenge when taking on users with inactive needs occurs when addressing actions to solve their problems or giving them the tools to do that. Older persons are on the edge of articulating their demands, and need a push to go forward.

    The purpose of one project that we undertook in the city of Stockholm in the period 2005–2008 was to develop services appropriate to retired persons belonging to the Church of Sweden in the parish of Adolf Fredrik. It was pretty obvious to the church board that the old people in the parish were no longer attracted to the same activities they were one or two generations ago.

    Demands To Be Realized

    The project therefore needed to find out what the older people who wanted to participate in the project actually wanted to do, and what they lacked support for; and then it had to develop this specific support. The sample was again active people in the third age. The method used was research circles, which is a method open to active participation and which explicitly strives to change social practice [10]. Research circles are driven by the participants’ will to achieve something, and includes a research interest to create both a new structure and the systematic development of knowledge. The strong emphasis on participation is in contrast to approaches aimed at group interventions to relieve loneliness or at training professionals to do things for older people [11]. The research circle instead involves doing things with them.

    The research circles started by giving the participants the opportunity to describe the life they wanted to live in old age, the extent to which they wanted to increase their capacity, and what they were prepared to do themselves to improve their situation. The results revealed one main theme: living on my own terms – when housing for old people does not exist or is not attractive, what can we do then? The group decided to increase their social networks in the neighborhood in order to continue as residents in spite of ageing. But what kind of services could be developed from the tax-funded welfare system or from the commercial market that the older persons in the group were not able to satisfy by themselves?

    Missing Markets

    The result of their investigations identified a gap between the services their older neighbours were offered and the services they really needed. In fact, they have to live with the fact that they are categorized according to obsolete stereotypes of ageing, and have to cope with meeting their own demands by combining different solutions such as municipally-financed home help service, the private sector, the black market and assistance coming from relatives and friends. They realized that it was not the old people’s needs, but rather the service provider’s priorities that governed the supply of help they could receive. Moreover, they concluded that the services available today primarily address people with fourth age needs who chiefly require help with household chores, not with services in general.

    The type of service requested can be explained in terms of time and competence, not focusing on action but on time. Services for older people, for example in the form of help in the household, are usually packaged for any form of action involved. This segment asked for the possibility to buy time and use it optionally. One reason is that they often do not want to hand over the entire execution to someone else but be involved themselves. One example is the need to be helped to carry down the laundry to the laundry room, but to sort the laundry and choose the laundry programme themselves. The results also suggest the need for the public care sector to re-evaluate what they actually supply and better assess changes in demand. In addition, today people in the third age do not accept being passive recipients of services. They are ready to self-organize until they enter the fourth age.

    To conclude, the research circles are, in spite of them being time-consuming, a way to discover hidden demands and to activate consumers. The worthwhile discovery in this project concerns services. Society provides services mainly built around the needs we have in the fourth age, and is heavily influenced by donors’ service perspective. The third agers’ demand for services is characterized by the need for continued independence and to be allowed to choose what they want help with. They are more pragmatic and more comfortable than before, and happy to let things go which in the past they took great pride in doing. In the third age, the user of a service wants to be the same person who decides about how that service is delivered, and to pay the service providers delivering the service or technical support systems. In the fourth age, the decisions and payment provision are often handed over to someone else to take care of.

    Users with Latent Needs

    The project: New Networks for Modern Ageing ran through 2008 and 2009 with the aim of supporting social networks for older people through interactive communication via their own TV through the use of mobile radio networks. The project was a joint adventure between Inview Inc. and the Department of Design Sciences at Lund University, where the new possibilities for technological convergence interacted with 10 years of research about old people’s TV viewing.

    The project took into consideration both the changing requirements of participation among the elderly, and the technological developments that now make it possible to develop interactive TV. Thirteen persons between 54 and 82 years old tested the prototype ippi at home, and contributed to the design process and the demarcation of future consumers. The result consists of a modified and improved product and knowledge of the usefulness of ippi problems for the owners, and the target group among the elderly that should be best helped by ippi. The result indicated a general benefit to those who watch much television as well as those who combine ippi with the Internet and mobile telephony.

    Innovation should focus on the old as well as the new. Lifelong habits are often not regarded as being innovative because the development of products and services for old consumers most often emphasizes novelties and revolutionary technologies. There is a window of opportunity to search for evolutionary innovations, however, based on learning from existing habits, including the use of technology deeply rooted in everyday routines. Many needs that can shape technology which were previously undisclosed can be recognized when users are granted priority in interpreting and defining their needs and can be more actively involved in defining them. A key element in this discovery process depends on a competence to identify patterns in daily life. These patterns consist of many years of well-established and integrated habits and routines. The fact is that research about the use of technology in everyday life teaches us very clearly that lifelong habits affect the way we approach new technologies. Not least, technologies are part of the constitution of everyday life, and as such are embedded into social relations and into experiences of safety and familiarity.

    In one of the projects, old people’s lifelong habit of TV viewing was discovered as a source for innovations. Statistics show that old people watch TV to a greater extent than any other age group, and that TV viewing in the fourth age tends to be more individualized compared to earlier in life [12–14]. As such, TV viewing makes a significant contribution to the capacity to cope with disengagement in old age, and can be used as a way to promote communication and wellbeing [15]. Considering the extensive TV viewing among older people and TV viewing as a lifelong habit, why take a detour by relying only on mobile phones or the Internet to offer older people the opportunity to communicate more effectively? Why not build directly on everyday use of TV?

    Evolutionary Innovations

    Well, one company actually made use of TV as a more interactive communication opportunity. They developed a patent which allows the possibility of communication between a mobile telephone and a TV, or between the Internet and a TV. The name of the solution is ippi. With the help of a remote control, ippi makes it possible to communicate asynchronously by sending pictures or voice messages to and from the TV set at home. One question was whether familiarity with the TV, the TV as metaphor, could serve as a resource for promoting new technologies and developing services for old people.

    We assumed that it could, and the extent to which it could proved to be confirmed beyond our expectations. Being able to watch the TV screen reduced the uncertainty for the participants and facilitated the initial use of the ippi. A simple installation required that each participant simply attach a SCART connector to the TV and plug the ippi into an outlet in the wall; this contributed even more to increasing the desire to try the ippi. Most likely, initial difficulties in installation or use can quickly reduce users’ motivation. This experiment shows that the absence of complications related to the installation of users decreased uncertainty about the new

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