Business consequences of demographic changes

For nearly a decade it is easy to observe demographic changes especially in industrialized countries such as in western Europe, nothern America... Those changes are represented by a population getting older and older with a birth rate which is usually quite low. The part of retired consumer is becoming more and more important that is why companies have to adapt, in term of research, marketing and services.

The population of all industrialized countries have good access to all medical care, good standart of living, which favorise the raise of the average age of inhabitants.
The situation was not always the same, indeed, in the 1960’s after the second world war and the baby boom firms had to face a strong demand which lead to mass production and mass consumption. This trend started to disapear in the middle of the 1970’s when people wanted some customized products, in order to feel their personal taste in what they are buying. That was also the first step of diferenciation between different generations.

Since the 1990’s demographic changes became more and more obvious, that is why goverments as well as companies had to adapt their policy to those particular customers.

The public sector have to face a larger part of retired people, and of course have to finance their retirement which is growing issue as the part of non-working people is becoming to large to be financed only by working people. One of the solutions offered by some economists is to privatize social protection as healthcare or retirement in order not to increase dramatically the public debt.

This statement is a great opportunity for a lot of firms, new needs are created and customers won’t have an other possibility to finance their future. Private insurance is offering more and more services and people are saving money thanks to valuated bank accounts or special pension funds. Those “new” businesses appeared especially in Europe and were