Many marketers chase Gen Z for cultural relevance, but here’s the reality: nearly one in five Canadians is now 65-plus, fertility is at an all-time low (1.25 children per woman), and seniors wield significant disposable income.
Kantar’s 2026 Canada MONITOR shows that Canadians in their “third age” (60–80) aren’t retreating from life, they’re travelling, dining out, adopting new tech, and spending. Brands that dismiss them risk alienating their most reliable revenue base.
Scott Megginson, President of Kantar Canada, discusses the trend.
Question: What are the biggest misconceptions marketers have about Canadians aged 60–80, and how are those assumptions impacting strategy?
Answer: The most damaging misconception is that Canadians aged 60–80 are risk‑averse, price‑obsessed, and in decline, when in reality they are confident, values‑led consumers who prioritize trust, quality, and relevance over novelty or discounting. Data from our ShopperScape practice shows older Canadians buy private label primarily because they trust the retailer and believe in the quality, not because they are trading down, yet many brands still over‑index on price cues and under‑invest in credibility, provenance, and storytelling.
Our Canada Monitor data show they are also wrongly treated as needing simplified or age‑coded messaging, despite evidence that they respond better to clear narratives delivered in trusted environments, not “senior” signals that dilute effectiveness. Similarly, home is often misread as a constraint rather than a source of identity and opportunity, even though this cohort over‑indexes in at‑home categories and sees the home as central to comfort and pride. Finally, brands often under‑leverage Canadian provenance, despite Boomers showing much stronger Buy Canadian sentiment than younger cohorts. Collectively, these misconceptions result in systemic underinvestment in one of Canada’s most loyal, stable, and economically powerful consumer groups.
Q: How should brands rethink customer experience design to better serve older consumers without appearing patronizing or out of touch?
A: Analysis of Kantar’s Canada Monitor data would suggest that brands should design customer experiences around reassurance, clarity, and confidence rather than instruction or education, recognizing that Canadians aged 60–80 feel less life pressure and are comfortable with who they are. Overly coached, explanatory, or age‑signalled experiences often feel patronizing, whereas intuitive design, transparent information, and friction‑free decision‑making signal respect and autonomy. Consistency matters more than novelty for this group: stable navigation, predictable service standards, and continuity across touch points build confidence far more effectively than constant reinvention. Older consumers also engage more deeply in trusted, credible environments such as premium video, news, and high‑quality digital yet experience design often prioritizes experimental or youth‑centric platforms that erode engagement. The biggest mistake is segmenting CX by age rather than values; inclusive design that works well for older Canadians typically improves usability and effectiveness for all customers.
Q: What does the data show about spending habits and brand loyalty among seniors compared to younger demographics?
A: Our ShopperScape practice data shows that older Canadians are more selective, not more price‑tolerant, and are actually less willing than younger shoppers to accept lower quality in exchange for savings, reinforcing that their spending is governed by standards rather than sacrifice. Loyalty among seniors expresses itself through repeat behaviour and consistency, not experimentation: they under‑index on innovation‑seeking but over‑index on repeat purchasing in core categories like dry grocery, frozen foods, and household essentials. While younger consumers chase variety, formats, and novelty, older Canadians reward brands and retailers that reliably deliver on the basics, reinforcing predictable revenue and long‑term relationships. Crucially, seniors tend to outperform younger cohorts on retention, trust, and lifetime value rather than basket expansion or trial velocity, making them disproportionately important from a profitability and stability perspective even if their behaviour appears quieter or less visible in short‑term metrics.
Q: In what ways are ageist biases influencing media allocation and product development decisions within organizations?
A: Our Media team has observed that ageist bias most often shows up quietly in planning defaults rather than overt exclusion, with media investment still heavily skewed toward younger audiences despite consistent evidence that older consumers deliver strong brand lift, loyalty, and long‑term value. Arbitrary age caps and assumptions about diminishing relevance cut off reach and frequency just as audiences cross artificial thresholds, treating older consumers as “maintenance” rather than growth.
On the product side, innovation is frequently defined as novelty, new formats, features, or flavours, while improvements that enhance durability, reliability, and ease of use are undervalued, even though older consumers disproportionately reward them. Design teams often mistake inclusion for late‑stage segmentation, creating visibly “older” versions instead of building universally usable experiences from the start. These biases are reinforced by short‑term metrics like clicks and early trial, which structurally favour younger cohorts and obscure the longer‑horizon outcomes, retention, repeat behaviour, consistency, where older consumers excel. There are some functional considerations for ageing consumers though, like visual clarity on shelf and ease of opening products.
Q: What practical steps can retailers and brands take right now to better engage and retain this growing, high‑value demographic?
A: The fastest and most impactful step is to rebalance media plans based on observed performance rather than age cutoffs, removing arbitrary caps and reallocating spend toward audiences that demonstrate sustained brand outcomes. Brands should also embed “quiet excellence” into products and experiences, design choices that make things intuitive, durable, and dependable, without labeling them as age‑specific, as older consumers notice when things simply work. At the retailer level, loyalty should be anchored in consistency: stable assortments, recognizable private‑label architectures, and predictable promotions matter far more to this cohort than constant rotation or novelty. More broadly, engaging older Canadians does not require new “senior strategies,” but rather undoing age‑biased defaults in planning, design, and measurement. Brands that act now will not only retain seniors, but also build more resilient, trust‑based growth across their entire customer base. As Canada is in the middle of the largest intergenerational transfer of wealth in its history, with older cohorts passing assets to Gen X who are starting to turn sixty, this group has too much buying power for retailers and brands to ignore.
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