Marketing health care programs to older adults: strategies for success.

Sensitivity to older adults as consumers will ensure the development of programs that are targeted appropriately to fill a need in the marketplace. Programs should be designed on the basis of information gained in the programmatic needs assessment. Health professionals who assume they know the needs, wants, and desires of older consumers because they treat so many ill elderly people risk program failure. By contrast, those that listen to older consumers and heed the signals from the geriatric marketplace are most likely to succeed.