Consumer Cellular CFO John Marick says the new office in Tigard will be full in five years.

In movies and TV shows, parents and grandparents are frequently comic relief characters.

Their old fashioned ways usually amuse or frustrate the much hipper young stars. But in the real world, those over 50 are increasingly being recognized as a large and powerful part of the economy — the longevity market, whose annual economic activity currently amounts to $7.6 trillion according to AARP.

Tapping just a small part of that market can mean growing financial success. A 2013 study by Oxford Economic commissioned by AARP estimated its economic activity will increase to $13.5 trillion by 2032. Companies that get on board can expect to grow, too.

“This population of older workers and retirees represents both a transformative force by itself, expected to account for more than half of U.S. GDP by 2032, and a net national asset — a fast-growing contingent of active, productive people who are working longer and taking the American economy in new directions,” reads the study, titled “The Longevity Economy: Generating economic growth and new opportunities for business.”

Just ask John Marick and Greg Pryor, the co-founders of Consumer Cellular, a wireless communications provider based in Tigard. Since the company was founded in 1995, it has experienced tremendous growth, largely by marketing its services to those over 50. Its TV ads are familiar to anyone who watches shows aimed at older viewers.

A few weeks ago, the company moved into a new headquarters comprised of 82,000 square feet in two office buildings in the Tigard Corporate Center along Southwest 69th Avenue. Although Consumer Cellular currently has two million customers and annual revenues of $600 million, Marick says the company is on track to top $1 billion in 2018.

That’s why the new headquarters is only about half full, since it is presently occupied by the 259 employees that moved over from the previous 32,000 square foot building near Bridgeport Village.

“We expect it will be completely full in five or six years,” says Marick, whose company has 1,743 employees across the country.

Not bad for a firm that started in an 800-square foot building with no employees in Tigard almost 20 years ago. Today, it is the second-largest mobile virtual network company in the country.

Marick credits much of the company’s success with its focus on those older than 50. That wasn’t a well-researched marketing strategy at the time, Marick says. Instead, he and Pryor had both worked for AT&T before going off on their own in the early days of wireless communications. After looking at the marketplace, they concluded that other companies weren’t going after older customers, leaving what a large untapped customer base.

Using network capacity from AT&T and T-Mobile, Consumer Cellular started marketing simple flip-up wireless phones without any fancy features to retirees. As it turned out, the demand was there, largely from senior citizens who valued the safety of always having a dependable phone on the go.

By 2006, Consumer Cellular had built up its subscriber base to around 30,000 customers. Much of the growth was built on its simple no-contract plan model and customer service, which came from knowing that those unfamiliar with new technologies need extra help. In 2008, the company became a preferred provider for AARP members, the organization’s first official cell phone provider. In 2011, it opened a second customer service center in Phoenix. The next year, it opened its third one in Redmond, Oregon, taking over a call center that had been closed by T-Mobile and rehiring many of its former employees.

That’s about when the keys to the company’s success began to be recognized. It received the top customer satisfaction ranking from Consumer Reports in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016. Consumer Cellular was also recognized as one of Oregon’s fastest-growing companies, listed on the Inc. 5000 growth list since 2009, and ranked in the Portland Business Journal’s Top 100 Oregon Companies list every year since 2010.

In 2011, Consumer Cellular partnered with Sears to sell its products in stores for the first time. Two years later, it announced a similar deal with Target. Marick says both stores are ideal because they are frequented by its customer base.

“A lot of older people want to see and handle a product before buying it,” said Marick.

But that base has also changed over the years as younger, more tech-savvy people get older. Nowadays, even senior citizens want and know how to use the most advanced smart phones, including iPhones. Today, old style flip-up phones only account for roughly 45 percent of the company’s sales, which is still the largest share of all providers and reflects their well-established customer base. But offering new products shows Consumer Cellular is committed to keeping up with the needs of its subscribers as well as attracting news ones.

GIVING BACK

As their company has grown, Marick and Pryor have also given back to the community. For example, in 2015 alone, the company donated $2 million to the Knight Cancer Challenge, raised nearly $20,000 for breast cancer awareness, provided more than $30,000 in holiday gifts to those in need, collected more than 35,000 pounds of food, donated nearly $15,000 in school supplies, and contributed more than 2,000 volunteer hours, including 500 hours to 16 food bank events.