Abstract
The accelerated aging of many populations and the demographic shift are expected to have major implications for innovation management and new product development across all industries. One major challenge lies in the assessment and understanding of the needs of the silver market, since chronological age by itself is not a sufficient segmentation criterion. A promising dimension is the need for autonomy, which increases with age and which is correlated to social isolation and other individual drawbacks. Thus, focusing on autonomy as a guideline for developing products and services that support people in maintaining or regaining their independence is a viable approach to developing innovation for the silver market, hence “silver products.” In this chapter, we present four cases from different industry settings where silver products were developed that help users to sustain or regain autonomy in combination with different functions (e.g., hearing, continence, vision). We present different approaches to technological and functional complexity and newness in these innovation projects, and depict related approaches to marketing and market research.
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Kohlbacher, F., Herstatt, C., Schweisfurth, T. (2011). Product Development for the Silver Market. In: Kohlbacher, F., Herstatt, C. (eds) The Silver Market Phenomenon. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14338-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14338-0_1
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