Dr. Boonying Kong-aachapat, Head of Marketing Department, College of Management Mahidol University, stated that as Thailand would completely become the aged society in 2025, issues concerning health care and well-being of the elderly became trendier. Thailand has the total population of 64.5 people, 9.4 million of which are the elderly aged over 60 years old or 14.5 percent of the population. The number increases by 500,000 per year, and it is expected that in 2025, Thailand will completely become the aged society, which will have approximately 14.4 million seniors or increase more than20 percent of the total population.
Marketing Department, College of Management Mahidol University, conducted a marketing research on 604 seniors aged 55-70 years old. It was found that the top 3 medias used among the seniors were:
First: Line application being 50 percent due to its easiness to use for communication. The insight findings revealed that when the elderly saw their favorite contents, they would use a sticker instead of texting to respond because it was not convenient for them to text.
Second: television being 50 percent. Television is the original media that is still influential to the elderly. Sixty one percent of the elderly left the television on without changing channels and watched television to overcome loneliness.
Third: Facebook being 16 percent. The elderly considered that Facebook was more difficult to use than Line. When they wanted to share information to others, they were not sure which button to press and they had to press it many times. They relied on others to help them do it. Thus, the elderly did not often use Facebook because they did not want to bother others.
Dr. Boonying also revealed the research findings on the access of advertisements. It was found that the number 1 was the television commercial being 52 percent. With the elderly behavior that liked to leave the television on without changing channels, there were more opportunities for them to receive marketing information by listening or looking at certain photos than other forms of media. The television commercial consists of photos and sounds; thus, it is exciting and persuading. The second is Line being 19 percent. The elderly used Line to communicate with others. When their friends or acquaintances sent picture contents, texts, articles or video clips to them, the elderly would consume the contents which were related and interesting to themselves only. In addition, the elderly liked to use free stickers. When they added Line accounts, they did not know how to block the contents. Therefore, when advertisements came through this channel, they were inevitably forced to receive marketing information on Line.
The third is Facebook being 18 percent. The elderly received marketing media or advertisements from Facebook after television and Line because Facebook was relatively more difficult to use. However, the reason why the elderly liked to use this social media was because of a variety of interesting contents. Nonetheless, the elderly did not know that the contents they were interested in were a form of marketing media or advertisement. Facebook advertisement could target audiences. Therefore, when the elderly used Facebook, they would see advertisements related to themselves. The times when the elderly used Facebook were as follows. In the morning, the majority of them used Line to check news and information as well as communicating. In the day time, they often used Facebook to keep updated with the society, communicate and see pages. In the evening, they spent time watching television to watch news, shows and dramas and using Search Engine or tools to search for information.
The forms of advertisement most accessed by the Silver Age people were 1) television commercial (TVC), 2) video clip, 3) photo, 4) article and 5) infographic. In addition, there were 4 types of content interesting to the Silver Age consumers: beneficial knowledge content (61%) such as exercise for the elderly, diet and information about life improvement, entertainment content (22%) such as dramas, fun television variety shows including funny clips, warning and caution content (9%) which included self-care, warnings and cautions and inspiration content (8%) which included motivation and inspiration in life.
However, the forms of media least accessed by the elderly were newspaper because the elderly were not interested in reading due to small fonts which were hard to read and unattractive, Youtube because they felt interrupted when an advertisement popped up while watching and, last, website because they were afraid of catching viruses. As for sharing information on the social media, the research team also found that the elderly tended to share information to their close friends (65%) by Line, talking to friends in person and Facebook. Moreover, another interesting issue was that 93% of the elderly knew what Search Engine was and knew how to use it. The most common search engine tool for the elderly was Google, according to Dr. Boonying's final remark.
In this regard, College of Management Mahidol University (CMMU) held the event "Silver Age Content Marketing" focusing on the insight of how the Silver Age people aged 55-70 years old receive and use the media at College of Management Mahidol University, 2nd Floor, Viphavadi Road. The attendees were Ms.Titaree Yuwittaya, Executive Vice President of Jin Wellbeing County, Mr. Kaiwin Wattanarat, CEO & Co-Founder of AHEAD.ASIA Company, Ms. Kankawee Noppannit, Head of Sales Team of Inter Care Asia, Mr. Nattapong Kamnerdngam, Managing Director of ChiroHealth. For those who are interested in more information, please contact College of Management Mahidol University (CMMU) at Tel. 02-206-2000 or visit www.cmmu.mahidol.ac.th.