Consumer decision making and aging: Current knowledge and future directions

Abstract

We review existing knowledge about older consumers and decision making. We develop a conceptual framework that incorporates the notion of fit between individual characteristics, task demands and the contextual environment. When the fit is high, older consumers use their considerable knowledge and experience to compensate for the impact of any age-related changes in abilities and resources. When the fit is relatively low, older consumers feel increased need to adapt their decision making processes. We discuss these consumer adaptations and propose a number of research questions related to the processes underlying them in order to contribute to a better understanding of how they can lead to more effective consumer decision making for older adults. We further consider some pragmatic implications of the adaptations for marketing management and public policy.

Choosing the right medicare prescription drug plan: The effect of age, strategy selection, and choice set size.

“…A growing body of evidence suggests that age effects are most likely to emerge on deliberative-type tasks (Hanoch, Wood & Rice, 2007), especially ones that are cognitively demanding or lack a fit between the person and the decision environment (Finucane, Mertz, Slovic, & Schmidt, 2005;Yoon, Cole, & Lee, 2009). Furthermore, aging is associated with declines in fluid abilities, speed of processing, working memory, and executive functioning (Schaie & Willis, 2002).…”

The self-concept life cycle and brand perceptions: An interdisciplinary perspective

“…Recognizing that the self-concept is dynamic over a person's lifespan, a sub-domain in this field has evolved to investigate how a person's chronological age (herein actual age) impacts his or her self-concept and, subsequently, their brand perceptions (e.g., Chaplin and John 2005;Loroz 2004;Yoon et al 2009). More than two decades ago, however, Demo (1992) indicated that the focus of self-concept related research had been too narrow (i.e., student samples of young adults), thus limiting the applicability of the outcomes to individuals in other life-stages.…”

“…Nevertheless, applications to consumer research focusing on the full spectrum of a consumer's selfconcept life cycle and, subsequently, its impact on brand perceptions, such as brand attitude, have been sparse. Focusing mainly on one phase of the life cycle, these studies have shown that differences in cognitive development, as well as neural structures, are responsible for variations in the decisionmaking processes pertaining to brands among children (Chaplin and John 2007) and individuals in late adulthood when compared to young adults (Yoon et al 2009). Recent work by Moschis (2012) offers a theoretically rich and broad review of consumer behavior among older consumers, including implications of the self-concept, but it does not delve into the other life-stages of a consumer's self-concept.…”

“…This article contributes to the growing body of literature on how consumers use brands as a means of self-expression during various life-stages (Chaplin and John 2005;Loroz 2004;Yoon et al 2009). This is accomplished through the following two objectives: First, it offers a synthesis of the previous literature on various factors that have been shown to impact the selfconcept at different life-stages.…”

The baby boomer market maven in the United Kingdom: an experienced diffuser of marketplace information

“…Consequently, older consumers have different decision-making processes (Peters, 2010;Queen, Hess, Ennis, Dowd & Grühn, 2012;Yoon, Cole, & Lee, 2009), all of which impacts their attitudes towards possessions (Ekerdt, 2009;Folkman Curasi, Price, & Arnould, 2010), and brand choice (Lambert-Pandraud & Laurent, 2010). Older and younger consumers differ in the way they make product-related decisions (Queen et al, 2012;Yoon et al, 2009) and age-related differences in advertising processing and effectiveness has been welldocumented for decades (Burnett, 1991;Cole & Balasubramanian, 1993;Johnson & Cobb-Walgren, 1994). Clearly, what works when targeting younger people will not necessarily work with older adults.…”