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Age UK has launched an accreditation scheme to encourage UK businesses to design products and packaging suited to the growing market of older consumers
The scheme is available to companies involved in its Engage Business Network. Businesses can apply for the Engage Business Network Accreditation kitemark for its products and services at a cost of £1,500 per application, with the money raised going back into charitable work.
Eligible products and services can come from any area and could range from food packaging to customer service and in-store experience.
According to the charity, it aims to ensure that the design process has taken into account the needs and lifestyles of as many people as possible, making sure the older consumer is valued in order to improve later life.
The number of people in the UK aged over 60 is also set to rise by 50% in the next 25 years. Age UK said this means that businesses need to make sure their products and services are relevant and suitable for this market to stay ahead of the competition.
The scheme will act like a kite mark for products and services that have been designed to take into account the needs and lifestyles of the UK’s ageing population.
Submissions to the kitemark scheme will be assessed by a panel of business and academic experts and the process will take about four months.
‘Inclusive design’
An Age UK spokeswoman told PN: “Inclusive design must become part of mainstream thought in designing every aspect of our environment.
“It’s not about singling out older people. We need to ask fundamental questions about the design faults of our most familiar and important products – including packaging so that they are easily available to as many people as possible.
“We have seen an inclusive design revolution by simply adding wheels on suitcases. The same approach needs to be applied to packaging as well.”
Frustration-free packaging
According to an Age UK/TNS (Nov ‘10) poll nearly half of over 65s can struggle to take lids or caps off products such as plastic milk bottles or jars because of the packaging and over half have difficulty reading the instructions on food products as the print is too small (54%).
Age UK said, more recently, participants at a focus group complained about the information on food packaging being “very difficult to read as it’s so small and also hard to read because often it’s white type embossed on a white background sometimes found on yogurt pots for example”.
Currently, Age UK does not have any packaging firms signed up to the Engage Business Network but it does have retailers on board who provided inclusive packaging or who address accessible packaging.
Grey pound
Duncan Lewis, group marketing and development director at Age UK, said: “The over 50s currently represent a third of the population with nearly £300bn worth of spending power this year, up from just over £250bn only two years ago, so there is clearly an opportunity for the UK’s businesses to be responding to older people’s consumer needs.
“We’d encourage businesses across all sectors to consider inclusive designs in order to be accessible to as many people as possible, as well as helping to meet the needs of our ageing population.”
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