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New products for old people 15 November 2004 Sanyo’s roll-in bathtub and the modified Nissan March automobile pictured below have at least two things in common:
First, they are both products designed to be used by the elderly or people with physical infirmities.
Sanyo’s $50,000 bathtub allows someone in a wheelchair to take a bath. The tub rises around the wheelchair, reducing the chances of injury and the time required of a nurse’s aide in giving elderly people a bath.
Nissan’s March incorporates a swivel seat and a motorized crane which can lift and store a wheelchair in the trunk.
Second, they are both products designed in response to specific Japanese demands. Japan has the oldest population of any industrialized country. According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, by 2010 one out of every four citizens of Japan will be 65 or older. As a result, Japanese companies are emphasizing products that have practical appeal to the elderly or to the people who care for them.
At a Nissan Motor Co. subsidiary in Japan, for example, more than 700 employees are working on options that can make the automobile more elder-friendly – things like wheelchair ramps for big vans. Toyota has developed an automobile seat that is also a wheelchair – no need to get out of the seat to get out of the car. When you need to get back in the car to drive, there’s an automatic lift to position the seat in the automobile.
While Japan may be leading in the aging of its population, other developed countries are close behind. Worldwide, the number of people over 65 is going to double in the next twenty years, according to United Nations forecasts. In 2005, there will be 472 million elderly; by 2025, that number is expected to rise to 823 million. In the US, the post-WWII baby boom generation is moving into senior status.
In China, decades of one-child-families will result in a much higher proportion of elderly in the population. Consider this: by the third generation of one-child families, each grandchild will have four unique grandparents – no other grandchild will share these four elderly people.
Eldercare demographics: four grandparents per child in China
These shifting demographics create opportunities for two kinds of new products.
1. Products that automate care. Products like Sanyo’s roll-in bathtub appeal on economic grounds – if one $50,000 bathtub can improve the productivity of nursing aides, the payback is clear.
2. Products designed to appeal to elderly sensibilities and limitations.
In some industries, appealing to the elderly represents a significant change in direction. For example, over the last fifty years, the US auto industry has designed cars to appeal to the youth in everyone. It’s been so ingrained in the business that they have embodied it in a phrase:
“It’s better to try to sell an old man a young man’s car than the other way around.”
US auto industry maxim, in The Wall Street Journal
Yet the recent launch of Ford’s new 500 is notable in that it is a new car designed for a very, shall we say, mature market. It runs counter to the prevailing US auto marketing wisdom.
The new Ford 500 – aimed at the elderly?
As evidenced by both auto and eldercare trade shows in Tokyo last week, we can expect the Japanese to pioneer the development of products for the elderly. In addition to Japan’s rapidly aging population, there are other factors that will make Japanese companies the pioneers in this area. The country is affluent, and a large proportion of the population welcomes new technologies. They are “technology optimists,” as defined by Forrester Research, people who look to new technologies to help improve quality of life.
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