Too many businesses ignore simple ways to improve marketing to older people. The good and bad on a recent trip to the US concentrated this news editor’s mind on the issue. On the good side were two experiences at airports. At Heathrow’s Terminal 5 we and two other travellers of advancing years were plucked out of a long, snaking queue for security and fast tracked. On return at Boston’s Logan Airport, when younger passengers were asked to remove their shoes at security, those of retirement age were allowed to keep them on. In contrast, the 88 year old half of the couple we were visiting was prevented from shopping with us at a large local store by the absence of somewhere to sit down. And even at a shop which did have chairs, they were positioned by a draughty entry/exit door. At Boston’s otherwise unmissable Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, there was a noticeable paucity of seats (even the young and fit might want to sit and contemplate its sumptuous treasures). And its founder decreed exhibits should not be labelled. So while there are a serviceable if tricky to follow map and a website that carries an excellent, free audio guide, I could find the latter only via its accessibility page, a search which might prove daunting to the technologically limited. Small gripes, perhaps, but translatable to many other businesses – and easy to fix.
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