The company's research director, Anchalee Pichyangkul, said a survey by a state agency revealed that the average maximum age of Thai people had increased from 60 to 72. Currently, Thailand has about 14 million senior citizens - about 20 per cent of the population. In 20 years, old people will predominate.

Above all, she said, economic movements don't influence these people because they don't make risky investments like young people.

Ogilvy and Mather vice chairman Punnee Chaiyakul said marketers were not concentrating on this consumer group. Insurance companies were working seriously in this market and hospitals were conducting some activities, but not as much as they should be.

She said all businesses could benefit from older consumers.

Hotels could offer special facilities, hospitals could set up special healthcare programmes or services, banks might launch financial plans covering the rest of a person's life, instead of ending them at age 60.

Ogilvy and Mather conducted its own research among 400 men and women aged between 50 and 65, with monthly incomes from Bt70,000 to Bt200,000. It sought to understand how they spent their lives, their attitudes and their spending power.

Seventy per cent of respondents said they actually feel 10 to 15 years younger than their real age, and they want to live longer than 80.

Surprisingly, they still consume technology. Almost 100 per cent of them use mobile phones and half of them use computers for work, checking e-mail and browsing the Internet. Others have digital cameras and iPods.

Most of them (61 per cent) adopt a healthier lifestyle, others (38 per cent) spend more on travel, while most of them travel domestically and go overseas once or twice a year.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation