We aim to fill that gap and cater to the needs of seniors across the country: Piali Dasgupta

We aim to fill that gap and cater to the needs of seniors across the country

By Piali Dasgupta, Senior Vice President – Marketing, Columbia Pacific Communities

2022 is here. A new year usually comes with promises of freshness, hope, new ambitions and goals and new direction. However, the fear imposed by the Omicron virus looms large and as a result, has dampened a lot of the positivity and exuberance that one typically sees at the beginning of a year.  Instead, there is uncertainty, instability, fear and apprehension all around us. And this mood definitely does impact business and the overall economic atmosphere of a country.

That said, a new year brings with it new business goals. And here is the 5-point agenda on what Columbia Pacific Communities, as a brand and a business, will focus on in 2022.

Be the most preferred option in the category:

The primary priority for us as a brand and a business in 2022 would be to take Columbia Pacific Communities closer to its long-term mission of becoming the subcontinent’s most preferred senior living option by truly helping seniors live healthier, happier and fitter lives for longer. This would be achieved by strengthening our product proposition, which infuses international best practices in senior living along with our deep understanding of the category for over 40 years across USA, Canada and China. It would also be aided by product innovation using technology such as AI, ML that will ultimately make the day to day lives of seniors easier and safer.

Strengthen the core brand proposition of “positive ageing”:

A key area of focus would be to strengthen our brand promise and purpose of “positive ageing.” Positive ageing is a simple concept that propounds that one is as old as one feels and age is just a number. It is the philosophy of helping seniors live healthier, happier, more connected and better lives for longer and ensuring that they don’t look at age as a deterrent to anything they wish to achieve in life, but only an enabler. But it is also about smashing ageism and age-related stereotypes that exist in society.

Through storytelling, PR, advocacy, and other consumer engagement initiatives, along with creating opportunities for seniors across our communities to live their best lives and optimise their potential during their golden years, we hope to realise our core ethos of positive ageing. Our aim is to popularise the concept of positive ageing in India and make it a part of mainstream conversations.

Expand our footprint:

With 9 communities functional across five cities in south India (Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore, Kancheepuram, Puducherry), we are already the country’s largest senior living community operator. In the coming months, we plan to expand our footprint across the country and announce projects in the East and the North of India, as also in other parts of south India. As per the CII report of 2018, the demand for senior homes is around 240,000 while the total number of homes available and in different stages of completion are less than 20,000

Through extensive research, we have discovered that there is a huge need gap  across the country, with a serious paucity of quality senior living solutions that help seniors live a worry-free life post retirement. We aim to fill that gap and cater to the needs of seniors across the country.

Make seniors more visible:

Senior citizens are the fastest growing demographic in the country. It is the only demographic that is seeing a double digit growth. The elderly population in India is expected to grow from 116 million in 2018 to 158 million in 2025 and will account for 12% of the total population. By 2050, the elderly population in India will grow to 300 million and will become almost 20% of the country’s population. India currently has the second largest population of senior citizens in the world.

And yet, senior citizens are the least visible demographic, as far as mass media and popular culture is concerned. Brands only want to talk to the Gen-z and millennial audience, advertising is only targeted to the younger cohort, and the media doesn’t feature seniors enough. In short, seniors as a cohort, are an oft-neglected demographic, and is not a part of mainstream conversations. And this is disturbing given that senior citizens shaped the India of today, and there is a lot that we owe to this generation.

By continuing to underrepresent this demographic, business, brands and the entire ecosystem is not only losing out on a very important target segment and business potential but is also leaving the collective potential of this generation untapped.

We wish to change that, by making seniors more visible. Shining the spotlight on them with every initiative and campaign that we do and give them the voice that they have not had for so long. The goal is to make them less forgotten and more prominent.

Change perceptions around senior living:

Senior living, as a category, has its fair share of challenges. The primary challenge is that the category is at a nascent stage in India. This means that adoption to the category, despite the huge need gap, is low. Compounding this problem is the inherent stigma that is attached to this category. “Senior living” as a concept has been likened to the dreaded image of “old age homes” for decades now, even though it has nothing to do with old ages. The main difference between senior living communities and old age homes is the fact that people opt for senior living communities by choice, whereas old age homes are almost always for those that have no choice.

This negative perception needs to be broken through effective communication, storytelling, and cutting edge narratives. It’s an uphill task and cannot be accomplished in a year. But this would be one of the brand’s main focus areas in 2022. This, we believe, is not just needed for the brand, but also the category at large.