Marketing and older consumers

Citation

Carrigan, M. and Szmigin, I. (1999), "Marketing and older consumers", Journal of Marketing Practice: Applied Marketing Science, Vol. 5 No. 6/7/8. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmpams.1999.15505faa.001

Marketing and older consumers

Marketing and older consumers

About the Guest Editors: Marylyn Carrigan is a Lecturer in Marketing at the Birmingham Business School, and Deputy Editor of the International Marketing Review. She previously held a post in the Strathclyde International Business Unit at the University of Strathclyde. In the private sector she has worked in banking, export marketing and consultancy. Her research interests are marketing and older consumers, marketing ethics and sports marketing.

Isabelle Szmigin is a Lecturer in Marketing at the Birmingham Business School, from where she gained her PhD in commerce. She previously held a post at City University Business School in London. She has worked in advertising and marketing in the communications, chemical and financial services industries. Her research interests include older consumers, consumer behaviour, consumer innovativeness, services management and relationship marketing.

1999 is United Nations Year of Older Persons, the culmination of the United Nations action programme on ageing. Initiated in recognition of the growing population of older people world-wide, the objective is the promotion of the UN principles for older persons:

... aiming for a transition to a positive, active and developmentally oriented view of ageing ... a society for all ages ... the possibilities of a new age for old age (United Nations, 1995).

This Special Issue of the Journal of Marketing Practice: Applied Marketing Science reflects the recognition among the marketing community that older people, a somewhat neglected market in the past, have become an important and influential target group. This is nothing new in North America, where the over-50s lobby, led by the American Association of Retired persons (AARP) is a vocal and powerful force in consumer affairs. The trend has also spread to Europe. In the UK, previously marginalised organisations such as the Association for Retired Persons (ARP050) and Age Concern have been at the forefront of recent moves by the Government to introduce guidelines to prevent ageism in employment. In the field of marketing, industry professionals are realising the need to develop strategies to deal with the older consumer market. Age Concern and ARP050 are key players in advising marketers and advertisers on the older generation of consumers. Speakers from these organisations featured at the high profile UK conference sponsored by Marketing Week focusing on "Marketing to the older, richer and wiser consumer". A forthcoming conference in Cologne will also feature the issue of the elderly on radio and television. Titled "Ignored and overlooked?", the conference will address the paradox that our society is getting older, yet the electronic media seem to overlook and ignore this to a large extent.

In parallel to the professional interest in the older generation, academic research has also sought to respond to the challenge that today's older consumer represents, one that is quite different to the older generation of past decades. As Jack Nicholson, the actor (aged 61), so succinctly puts it:

Our generation are the new old. I remember what someone of 60 looked like when I was a kid. They didn't look like me.

In compiling this special issue, we were pleased to find that academics are recognising the importance of older consumers around the world, and the selection of articles presented here reflects that international interest and flavour. The collection opens with a refreshing and lively viewpoint from a UK practitioner in marketing to older consumers. Kevin Lavery is creative director of an agency specifically targeted to the older consumer. He has edited two collections of articles on the subject written by academics, practitioners and a host of organisations involved with older people. He is regularly invited to speak to international audiences about his agency's work and research, and his article "Educating adland ­ is the advertising industry finally discovering the older consumer?" is both interesting and topical.

The second article is the first of two in this issue by Anil Mathur, of Hofstra University in New York, and George Moschis from the well-known Center for Mature Consumer Studies at Georgia State University. Both authors have worked for many years in the field of marketing and the mature consumer, and their past publications have made significant contributions to this field. Their article "Socialization influences on preparation for later life" focuses on the processes through which adults learn behavioural patterns and norms that characterise their behaviour in later years. By understanding the process of ageing and the behaviour of older people, it will assist the development and marketing of new products and services to mature consumers. The article emphasises the importance of understanding the ageing process, not just in later life, but over a large portion of adult life in order to help us to understand the behaviour of the elderly.

The third article is by Christina Goulding from the University of Wolverhampton. This paper focuses on the importance of the older generation for the leisure and services industries, and is titled "Heritage, nostalgia and the 'grey' consumer". Grounded theory has been a late entrant to the study of marketing and consumer behaviour, but here it is linked to the concept of nostalgia by examining the nature of the experiences gained by older people from visiting contemporary museums and heritage sites. The findings enable consumers to be classified as those who are "recreational nostalgics" and those who are "existential", and suggest thought-provoking and novel implications for those managing a range of leisure products and services.

The fourth article is by Sherrie Wei and Hein Ruys of the University of Queensland, and Thomas Muller from Griffith University. The article, "A gap analysis of perceptions of hotel attributes by marketing managers and older people in Australia", examines the perceptions of attributes of hotels by marketing managers and those older people who visit them. Given the fact that many older people have more leisure time than most other generations, and often have disposable income to spend, the hotel market is an important part of the leisure and tourism industry. Whether or not older customers and marketing managers have similar perceptions of hotel attributes is examined in the study, with implications for any hotel hoping to attract and retain patronage from the older population.

The fifth article is by Caroline Hare from Stirling University, David Kirk from Queen Margaret College, Edinburgh, and Tim Lang of the Centre for Food Policy Research at Thames Valley University. Titled, "Identifying the expectations of older food consumers: more than a 'shopping list' of wants", the article examines the problems faced by older consumers when food shopping. A range of issues are highlighted by their research, from store design to retail practices, not all of which are under the control of marketers. Overall, the study reveals the lack of power experienced by older consumers within the market-place, and their lack of choice. Given their growing numbers and strength, this is an issue that marketers need to address for the future if older consumers are to experience greater satisfaction in their shopping experiences.

The sixth article is by Anil Mathur and George Moschis (mentioned previously), as well as Euehun Lee of Sejong University. "Stress and consumer behaviour: coping strategies of older adults" tackles that perennial human complaint of the modern world, stress. Although we can all relate to the condition in some way, the article focuses on older people who have been shown to experience particularly acute stressful life-changing events in later life, such as the death of a partner or retirement. Mathur, Moschis and Lee examine how this relates to consumption behaviour, which can be categorised as either "problem-focused" or "emotion-focused" consumption-coping behaviours. The results raise many interesting issues not only in relation to older consumers, but also potentially across other consumer groups.

The final article is by the guest editors, titled "The portrayal of older characters in magazine advertising". Related to the issues raised by Kevin Lavery, this article examines the nature and extent of the portrayal of older people in magazines directly targeted at the over-50s. The research demonstrated that advertisements in 50+ magazines are more likely to use older characters than advertisements in mainstream magazines. This raises the question that if it is appropriate to target older people with older characters in certain magazines, why is it not appropriate to use older characters more frequently and more favourably in other magazines to reach the over-50s? Given the growing concern that the media in general are overlooking older people, this is an issue that the advertising industry, advertisers and marketers alike need to consider if they wish to reach the older market.

Finally, we would like so say how enjoyable it has been to present this collection of papers for the Journal of Marketing Practice: Applied Marketing Science, and make our mark on the International Year of Older Persons. We would like to thank Andrew McAuley for allowing us to use the journal as a forum for this discussion, and the many authors who submitted their papers and the work they undertook in preparing them for publication. We would also like to thank the reviewers who assisted us in the process. Hopefully the topics raised in the issue will stimulate even further debate and research in the area of marketing and older consumers for the future.

Marylyn Carrigan and Isabelle SzmiginGuest Editors

Reference

United Nations (1995), Social Development, Including Questions Relating to the World Social Situation and to Youth, Ageing, Disabled Persons and the Family, Report of the United Nations Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development, A/50/114.