Older buyers are the most interesting for consumer brands

The pandemic has disproportionately harmed the elderly, according to executives who have highlighted the importance of staying healthy later in life.

This change is causing companies like Nestle A,

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Colgate-Palmolive Co.

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and Danone A

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to launch new consumer-oriented products, they say they are increasingly interested in aging well.

“We clearly see healthy aging, even more so with the Covid world, as a huge trend,” said Emmanuel Faber, CEO of Danone.

Danone in November said it was creating a new healthy aging unit to accelerate research on the impact of nutrition on cognition and mobility. Yogurt maker Activia recently launched in Brazil Fortifit Pro, a product with serum protein that claims to help muscles, joints and bones, and said it plans to develop more products designed to help people age better.

According to the United Nations, it is estimated that the number of countries with more than 20% of the population aged 65 and over will increase from 15 years to 44 in 2030, according to the United Nations. That number will reach 61 in 2050, when it will include the US and China. and Brazil.

Researchers estimate that Covid-19-related economic uncertainty will also accelerate the decline in the birth rate in the US and China.

Nestlé last month launched a milk powder drink in China under its Yiyang brand, aimed at older adults, which it says improves mobility during aging.

In recent years, the company’s health sciences unit has shifted its focus to making food and beverages to help people recover in hospitals, to help prevent people from entering in the first place, Greg said. Behar, who runs the unit.

“More and more people want to proactively manage their health in the aging process,” Behar said. “What affects people the most is a decrease in physical and cognitive functions and there is also the element beauty and skin.”

Approximately 20% of Nestlé Health Science’s research budget is now dedicated to aging. The company uses small nematode worms known as C. elegans, which age rapidly with a shelf life of only two days, to test their nutritional hypotheses.

Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC, which manufactures the infant formula brand Enfamil, has also launched a milk drink aimed at older consumers in China that it says contains ingredients to boost the immune system.

Overall, Reckitt says the Chinese milk market with added ingredients to provide specific benefits is worth 500 million British pounds, equivalent to $ 686 million, and growing by 13% a year. The company develops several products to take advantage of the self-care trend and expects Covid-19 to accelerate demand.

Other companies are modifying products to care for the elderly who, they say, will spend more time living at home, rather than doing so in assisted living facilities.

IKEA has started selling vertical armchairs with higher seats to make it easier, sloping footrests to encourage blood circulation and tweezers to help unscrew the lids, among its products aimed at people with reduced mobility, including the elderly.

Britt Monti, a senior designer who worked on the collection, noted that the range is part of an effort to cater to people of different abilities from IKEA products. IKEA kept on labeling the range as specific to seniors, he added.

“Especially later in life, you don’t want to be labeled as old,” Ms. Monti said. “We don’t want to make it a big deal, we just want it to be a natural part of the design process.”

Procter & Gamble Co.

last year it began selling a razor to caregivers in Canada, where the company said the data shows that one in four people provide help to someone with needs related to aging, a disability or a state of health long-term. The Gillette Treo, which was already available in the United States, has a safety comb and a wider handle full of shaving gel designed to give better control to caregivers while shaving the loads of the elderly.

In beauty and skin care, older consumers tend to spend more, making them a key demographic for companies like L’Oréal A

. In France, women over the age of 65 spend 184 euros, the equivalent of $ 223, each year on beauty products, compared to 120 euros for young people aged 25 to 30, said Delphine Viguier, president of the global brand of L’Oréal Paris.

Last year, the company said that the growth of the skin care market had accelerated, driven in part by the aging population. He expects the trend to continue in the long run.

Others have found success targeting anti-aging products to younger consumers.

When Colgate launched an exclusive amino acid toothpaste last year designed to reverse the visible signs of gum aging, the company focused its marketing on a young audience through famous bloggers and social media apps. Colgate took the approach after Filorga, its anti-aging facial care brand, proved popular online among women between the ages of 25 and 35. The company said 80% of shoppers buying Colgate Miracle Repair were under 30 years old.

“In China aging is for the young consumer,” Colgate CEO Noel Wallace said last year. “They are taking anti-aging products, whether for skin health or otherwise, and are looking, very, very much, to provide benefits to themselves at an early age.”

Write to Saabira Chaudhuri to [email protected]