The seniors yet have true potential in telecoms

After a decade of conquest, mobile operators have more considerable blank clearing in the hexagon land. The Credoc study, 82 of the French of at least 12 years have a mobile phone. Age 18-24, the rate of equipment approaching even 100. The marketing strategy of the operators being centred on "smartphones", they prefer to solicit the fringe of the population which is already the most bottled. In comparison, the market for the elderly is less "glamour": "operators do not want to pollute their branding with them, and prefer to associate it with the iPhone, with the ultimate technology," said an analyst.

The seniors yet have true potential in telecoms. The rate of 60-69 years mobile equipment is 74, and one of the more than 70 years levelled off at 42. "Is the last Gallic village that resists the invader", notes Régis Bigot, Director of the living conditions at the Credoc, "but operators are to think about specific offers, because he is a target to strong purchasing power".

The trend, says, is already in the technological upgrading of seniors, with an increase of 2 to 3 points of their rate of equipment per year. Dissemination in society makes resistance more difficult motive, and the renewal of the generations accelerates the phenomenon, says Régis Bigot: "those who have more than 70 years were not familiar with the mobile in the world of work, but who were 55 years ten years ago are."

In addition, according to the CEO of Doro, Jérôme Arnaud (see below), the operators, who distribute its phones simplified and large keys, shifted its stance recently: "in 2009, we have benefited from a real coup de pouce with the fall of their sales." They realized that the elderly could be a growth relay.

Still just proven sellers

Orange, Bouygues Telecom, SFR, indeed all began to develop offers tailored. "More than 14 million people have more than 60 years." "And this population increases with the aging", justifies Hala Bavaria, in marketing at SFR. Specific offers of this operator are the more than 70 years, considered as "minimalist" consumers because "they need only 20 to 60 minutes of communications and neither texts nor Internet". As the mobile phones to check valves reassuring. SFR has also launched an offer of accompanying medicalized on Amplicom terminal, with a touch of emergency which may be related to a Europ Assistance platform. For senior citizens, operators will have to imagine new services such as the hotline, estimated Jean-Baptiste Toulouse in Bazile Telecom, which operates mobile to a single key linked to a telecentre.

Nevertheless, operators are not yet run the public to senior citizens. Their boutique vendors have 20 or 30 years, and their marketing departments have always targeted young people. Moreover, points out Jean-Michel Huet, in Bearing Point, "they were very difficult to identify the Subscribers whose package is endorsed by their business and prepares to retire." This year, the launch of a new virtual mobile operator of weight, that of La Poste, however, could put this target under the spotlight. With its 17,000 offices distributed throughout the territory, the public company can seduce young people... like the old.