The Market Research: Part 1 - Understanding perspectives of potential assisted living seekers

As we delved further into the problem, we decided to do our due diligence by conducting secondary research. Reading through articles, blogs, reviews, marketing campaigns and advertisements of the senior living facilities, we realized that there was a great scope here. A lot of new assisted living facilities were emerging, many business magnates, real estate champions and highly qualified professionals like doctors were investing millions to build such places. And with this, it didn’t seem like a bad idea to pursue this as a project. After all, this was for a great cause. Whether the idea would be a success or a failure, we would still learn a lot. It was a win-win no matter what. After browsing through websites and Facebook pages of major players in the segment (luxury senior living, assisted living communities), we were thorough with our homework.

Commencing with an excel listing of these places, the facilities they provide, pricing options, and other information was readily available on the public domain, we decided to take the plunge - to reach out to potential users to understand what it would take for Indian families to consider such places as viable alternatives. We developed and conducted a survey to over 50 Indians currently residing in India and abroad, with different family structures - some families where elders stayed with their children, and others where the elders lived in an independent setting. The survey demography and technique are detailed out at the end. Listed below are our findings -

There was hardly any awareness of these centers, their locations, the facilities they offer and most importantly, the benefits of such centers to the elderly.

Due to poor awareness, the willingness to relocate to such centers in times of need (when other members travel for work or other reasons) or for social companionship was very poor.

Even among families where elders were highly dependent on others for day-to-day activities and needed palliative support, the preference was inclined towards having a full-time care-taker or nursing attendant at home, rather than relocating to assisted living centers, even with higher expenditure.

In families that couldn’t afford the additional cost of full-time nursing attendants at home, many uncomfortable techniques to have an informal caretaker were being considered.

The reasons for not considering senior care & assisted living facilities go beyond the lack of awareness. Some were understandably logical and others peculiarly bizarre, pertaining specifically to the Indian society. What was surprising though was that there were hardly a few that said they do not consider such senior living centers because they wished to be with their parents in their old ages. For a lot of people, the major concerns were around societal shaming, lack of information and the elders’ ability to adjust to new, unfamiliar environments with other habitants that may have very different styles of living, mindsets and financial backgrounds.

We realized that if the root cause of lack of information is eliminated, a lot of these issues would automatically be resolved. The problems were inter-related and with sufficient information exchange, we can slowly and surely get away with societal shaming and the disbelief in the concept of senior living. When right information is shared at the right time, it shall help people in knowing more about these centers and the demographics of its inhabitants (the age groups, professions, hometowns, or the languages spoken), making it easier to choose the most suitable living center as and when they need it.

Survey Demography -

The surveys were rolled out to adults in the age group 25 – 50 whose parents were beyond 55 years of age. The participants belonged to Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Gujarat and Bangalore in India and included non-resident Indians staying abroad as well.

Since we rolled out the surveys to individual people we knew personally and through social media such as LinkedIn, we received a higher response rate (with a reminder of course!). Had we resorted to cold emailing to multiple email IDs, not only would we have received much lower responses, but also would have not been able to track the validity of the responses received.

The surveys were customized for groups of people who lived with their parents and for those who lived separately, which made the results more relevant. A small note with some background on the intent of this activity, how it might benefit us and the survey participants both, helped us get good responses, with some even sharing their contact details voluntarily even when they had the option to be anonymous responders. A few even left notes on the idea being a great one, but just a bit too early for the society we live in.

Sample Survey Questionnaire for folks whose parents live independently - https://forms.gle/NbDtEhrvTS1qpGhA7

Sample Survey Questionnaire for folks who live with their elderly parents -https://forms.gle/pTY4h9Fx579UpoLC8

With the amazing feedback we received, we embarked on the next phase of the journey – to understand the challenges faced by the senior living centers and the reason for poor marketing systems despite being wealthy enough to run large scale campaigns.