Physical branches remain important to seniors.

• Position: Marketing News - Marketing strategy and techniques - Brief Article

While you're pursuing the Gen X Internet crowd, don't forget your seniors. They're some of your most desirable customers.

So says Robert Darroch, a principal with Strategos, an "innovation services" firm based in Palo Alto, Calif. People over the age of 50, he points out, represent $1.6 trillion a year in spending power. They spend 60 percent of all the money spent on health care, buy 73 percent of all prescription drugs and spent 80 percent of the funds devoted to luxury travel. Not to mention that the over-50 population is projected to grow 50 percent by 2020.

In view of this sizable and attractive market, he says, it's not good business to eliminate your physical locations. Darroch points to Starbucks and Barnes & Noble for examples of companies who leveraged their physical presence to expand their...