ABSTRACT
Developed countries throughout the world are experiencing population aging characterized by unprecedented national proportions of older persons (see Table 3.1). This phenomenon has brought to the fore various policy reforms regarding benefits for older persons that have long been provided by established old-age welfare states (see Kohli and Arza 2010). It has also increasingly brought the attention of politicians to strategies for marketing themselves to older voters in the context of both policy decisions and election campaigns. This chapter focuses on political marketing in aging democracies in the contexts of what we
know about older voters and campaigns to attract them, in the context of the special emphasis on segmentation within political marketing theory. It begins with a brief exposition regarding segmentation in political marketing and an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the ‘senior power’ model of voting. It then reviews the recent research literature on segmentation and marketing, with attention to issues related to older age groups. Next, it presents case studies of segmenting and marketing to older voters in the US and Britain. There follows a discussion of the importance of attention to life stages, the life cycle, and concomitant values in marketing to older populations. Three final sections suggest: first, some implications of this chapter for practitioners; second, the impact on politics in general of efforts to market to senior voters; and third, future considerations for those who segment and market politically to older voters.
