Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Demographic change is certain - what we do about is not - why?

The opening sentence to an article in the Guardian newspaper says:

What stops society from planning for demographic change? This should be easy to answer; demographic change is relatively straightforward, so it must be a problem with the planners?

I don't think the article gets to grips with this question but it is an important one to ask.

So what is 'society' that has to get to grips with change. I guess if you ask a daft question you get a daft answer.

It is necessary to drill down into much more detail before you start to get answers of any value. A good starting point is Society = Individuals+Companies+Government. Each of these sub groups has different issues in understanding and responding to change.

Kim Walker and I had a go at explaining why each of these group either ignores or gets it wrong in our book Marketing to the Ageing Consumer.

It is a subject that I intend to return to in more detail. Dick Stroud

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