Gerontomarketing in the industry of mass sports: prospects and problems of development in the Russian consumer market

Under the conditions of demographic aging of the population, the involvement of elder consumers to the sport allows one to solve a number of acute problems that accompany aging, such as health state, leisure activities, socio-psychological adaptation. However, in the domestic industry of mass sports one has not observed a rapid growth of demand and supply in the market for consumers of the category 50+, hence, it stipulates the relevance of formation and development of marketing approaches when interacting with consumers in the senior age group, theoretical rationale of which is actively developing in the framework of a new marketing concept of gerontomarketing. Analysis of statistics of the survey data gained from the Russians belonging to different age groups concerning the preferences for types of sports activities allows us to conclude that senior citizens are still poorly involved in sports in terms of sports and fitness clubs. The author of the article made the analysis of development of the market of fitness services by the example of Chelyabinsk and drew a conclusion that, despite the desire of clubs to attract new consumers and creation of programs focused on narrow segments of consumers, the practice of interaction with elder consumers has not been sufficiently widespread yet. Analysis of the identified problem allowed the author to identify a number of factors restricting the development of the Russian market of fitness services for elder consumers and, as a result, restricting the spread of the practice of gerontomarketing in the mass sports industry, such as a low consumer spending power and cultural stereotypes overcoming of which is one of the key challenges the business, the government and the society face under conditions of demographic aging of the population.