Value proposition
Defining desirable middle-income assisted living
Opportunity
Between subsidised institutional care and premium private care, middle-income seniors who can no longer manage at home are underserved. A social sector organisation saw an opportunity to address this emerging market with an unsubsidised assisted-living proposition.
Challenge
The organisation’s experience came mainly from a prescriptive, heavily subsidised model supporting underprivileged communities. This gave limited insight into paying customers with different needs and expectations. A commercially relevant proposition required better understanding of how prospective residents perceived assisted living and what would make them ready to consider it.
Connections
The opportunity required connecting existing care capabilities with resident needs and expectations, willingness to pay, funder and developer interests, operator economics, and regulatory realities.
Decision
Use ethnography to help prospective residents articulate needs and expectations that conventional questioning might not reveal.
Outcome
A commercial definition for middle-income assisted living that established target resident values, aligned funders, developers and operators, informed service-development and regulatory discussions, and explored scalability through home-based care networks.