Piali Dasgupta, Sr. Vice President - Marketing, Columbia Pacific Communities spoke about the potential of senior living communities in India, importance for content and compelling narratives for marketing among other points While senior living communities as a concept came to the Indian markets a few years ago, however, it has grown to become a part of the urban Indian lifestyle. Industry experts believe that senior living communities will grow exponentially and become mainstream in the next two decades. In an interaction with Pitch, Piali Dasgupta, Sr. Vice President - Marketing, Columbia Pacific Communities tells us about the potential of senior living communities, importance for content and compelling narratives for marketing, challenges faced while marketing and expansion plans. Columbia Pacific Communities is a part of the Columbia Pacific group, one of the developers of senior living communities in the United States, Canada and South East Asia.  It is one of India’s largest senior living community operators with close to 1,600 residential units under management in five cities and nine locations across south India.    Edited excerpts Can you elaborate on the insight behind marketing ‘positive ageing’ as a concept for the brand?  Positive ageing actually for us is a brand purpose and is really at the centre of who we are, why we do what we do. It is a way of life, it's a lot more than a brand purpose. It defines our service policies, for example, it impacts the way the construction is done, the way we interact with our residents and customers, it influences the way our entire sales cycle has been created, and so on. It's not necessarily just for marketing, although yes, marketing is a function and purpose of positive ageing. Positive ageing, very simply put, means a simple philosophy which basically says that, you should take age as just a number, and therefore, it should not be looked at as something that is an impediment, but it should actually be looked at as an enabler.   Who is the TG?  The elder audience, they are our primary audience. The seniors are basically the consumer of the product, by which I mean is, they live in these communities, and therefore, they're the primary audience. The secondary audience are the younger generation, the children of senior citizen; the age bracket is between 28 to 40, and these are people that have migrated for their livelihood. They have aging parents back home, which leaves them really worried really anxious. This is a perfect solution for them.   How important do you think content marketing becomes as a tool for marketing senior living communities? Content is extremely important in all categories today, because content, as is often said, is king. In the post Covid-19 era, contextual content is very important, because the whole age of doing content for the sake of content is over. Marketers have realized that content needs to deliver to a business ask and it needs to be ROI positive. Therefore there are very clear KPIs that are being set for content. Content is going to be an absolutely critical role in the customer lifecycle, irrespective of which category you're in, but particularly in high value categories like ours, where purchase decisions are not made instantly and it is a very long sales cycle. For us, content is going to be absolutely crucial, because we have had instances in the last couple of months where we have been able to sell even Senior Living assets and homes, only through content, where all we’ve done is share all the content that has been created around it. We’ve used content to drive transaction online itself.    Covid-19 has impacted the elderly more than anybody else, what strategy as a brand have you adopted to cope with this challenge? Our primary priority has been to safeguard our residents, that is our first responsibility. We've been able to do a remarkable job, because most of the communities that we currently manage are all near containment zones. Yet, the cases of Covid-19 within the communities have been very minimal. On one hand, we have to ensure that they are protected from the virus, so we've taken several such measures. On the other hand, we have also had to take care of their emotional needs because they are already isolated, a lot of them tend to feel lonely because they're away from their families. So we keep organizing things to take care of their mental and emotional needs as well.   Senior living communities as a concept is fairly new to Indian society, how do you intend to make it mainstream? I believe it is a collective effort; it is not something that the brand alone can achieve, since it is a very challenging task to create awareness around a category and a concept, which is new to the country. There are various different battles that one is fighting; one is obviously a very deep rooted negative perception about what senior living is. Majority of Indians, even today, tend to equate senior living with old age homes. A large part of it is really about changing perception, one of the ways to do that is with extremely compelling narrative, and that's why content is so important. And that's something that we're committed to doing.  We're looking at the millennial audiences, and tapping the growth potential of this category in the next decade. Therefore, this is the time to start building this category by increasing awareness. This will happen when all stakeholders involved start talking about senior living communities and normalizing conversations around senior living. Today it is not a normal conversation. There is a lot of hesitation and there are barriers that exist in this category. The only way to break away from these barriers is through continuous conversation around what is senior living, the benefits of community living for seniors, the health and emotional benefits.   What are the expansion plans to Tier II and Tier III cities? We are present across south India, and within south India we are in Tier II cities such as Coimbatore, Pondicherry and Kanchipuram. Our next project is going to be in Pune with Nyati Group which is going to be the first project outside South India. There is a lot of demand from Kolkata and Delhi. The plan, obviously, is to be pan India and to be not just the country’s but the region’s most preferred senior living community.    What is going to be the core of the brand’s marketing strategy going forward? Our strategy has always been led by narrative and content.  The category we operate in is a very tricky category and the only way to crack it is with a very compelling narrative driven by cutting edge, excellent content. That is our marketing strategy. There is tremendous amount of focus on building the brand as well. We always keep giving our consumers a heightened experience; this is at the centre of everything that we do, and we will continue to focus on that. The core of our campaigns has always been about shining the spotlight on seniors, giving them a voice, a platform and the attention that they rightfully deserve. If you look at pop culture, media, film, advertising, we see that it's extremely millennial and Gen Z obsessed. There's hardly anything that is any narrative that focuses on seniors, and we believe that it's their time now.  This is a category that we’re all trying to build with love and empathy. It’s about a demographic that is very important, has shaped our lives and it’s time that they get back what they gave to the society. We’re very certain that we are on the right track, and this is an industry that will become big in the future.