(UNESP -2002)Texto 1APPROPRIATE FOR ALL AGESJapane

(UNESP - 2002)

Texto 1

APPROPRIATE FOR ALL AGES

Japanese toymakers are focusing on senior citizens

by Hideko Takayama

Much has been made in Japan of the clout of teenage girls, the arbiters of taste and uncrowned queens of the fashion industry. But when it comes to toys, a radically different demographic is beginning to call the shots.

Japanese toymakers now see senior citizens as their most dynamic market. Nearly 22 million Japanese - 17.4 percent of the population - are over 65, and that number is expected to top 25 percent by 2020. Three million senior citizens live alone, and 1.55 million Japanese are senile (their numbers are also expected to grow rapidly). This aging population presents a huge "silver market" - estimated at 50 trillion yen ($416 billion) - for everything from beds to cosmetics to home-care nurses and helpers.

Major industries such as electronics, construction and foodstuffs have already begun developing products tailored to old folks: robots to help out around the house, homes that have no steps or stairs and healthy, oil-free foods. The toy industry wants a piece of the action. "There is a great potential", says Yoshinori Haga, an official at Bandai, the biggest toymaker in Japan. "Toys can be used for entertainment, to give the old people nostalgic feelings or to be a companion for those who live alone." (...)

Indeed, playthings are not just for fun anymore. Toshimitsu Musha, president of the Brain Functions Lab near Tokyo, argues that playing with toys can help human brains stay active and sharp. While researching Alzheimer's disease, Musha found that art therapy such as painting and claywork helped to prevent the brains of Alzheimer's patients from deteriorating. "What works best for the elderly is something that they enjoy, where they have to use their brain and which requires concentration from 30 minutes to one hour," he says.

Toymakers still face a critical problem, though: the average household saving among seniors is 24 million yen ($200,000), almost double that of a working household, but they are far more cautious about what they buy than teens. The key may be appealing to a younger generation, who every year are stumped for gift ideas before September's Respect for the Aged Day. In the end, teens may have to jump-start this trend, too.

("Newsweek". August 6, 2001, p.48.)

Texto 2

GROWING OLD IN CYBERSPACE

Senior citizens, long overlooked, are the latest target market on the Web

By Staff Writer Martha Slud

As more and more senior citizens go online, Web developers and marketers are beginning to pay more attention to what they can offer older people, and how to bring Internet service to a population that has been among the slowest to embrace the computer.

While their numbers are still relatively small, online seniors are an attractive target from a marketing point of view for several reasons. Many retired people are logging a significant amount of time each day on the Web; they are a well-educated population; and they often have discretionary dollars to spend on travel, financial services and other growing sectors of electronic commerce.

"No one's really addressed seniors on the Internet, and really, why should they?" said William Belhumeur, president of San Francisco-based Seniors.com. "They've been attentive to the groups that have picked it up first; now's really the time to start picking up the later adopters." (...)

But there still are numerous barriers to building up the senior market online, said Ekaterina Walsh, an analyst at Internet research firm Forrester Research. Some of the e-commerce categories considered most likely to appeal to seniors - such as online purchases of prescription drugs or groceries - are in fact the least likely sectors for new Web users to explore, she said.

"The problem is that with age, people become more pessimistic toward technology", she said. "It doesn't mean that it's not possible, but marketers who are looking at attracting this particular segment, should be very careful in emphasizing two things - ease of use and value." (...)

Several companies are trying to break through the technological barrier by bringing Web technology to retirement homes and other senior facilities, in hopes of providing easier, streamlined Internet access to older people. (...)

Andrew Egan, president of Adventura Publishing, which operates Senior-Citizen.com, predicted that senior citizen offerings on the Web are going to mushroom as older people get more comfortable going on the Internet. "I think you're going to see a lot of senior Web sites coming online", he said. "A lot of people are trying to capitalize on it."

(Extraído de CNN America, INC. 2001. http://cnnfn.com/2000/02/02/senior_living/ q_retire_internet/)

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Japanese toymakers now see senior citizens as their most dynamic market.