HOW DOES CONSUMER AGE AFFECT THE DESIRE FOR NEW PRODUCTS AND BRANDS?

A MULTI-GROUP Click to edit Master subtitle style CAUSAL ANALYSIS

Roland Helm & Sebastian Landschulze Review of Managerial Science Online First, 13 August 2011

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PURPOSE OF THIS RESEARCH

Marketing lacks comprehension on the increasingly important segment of mature consumers in regard to their behavior and respective reasons for certain behavior. study on the desire for alternative products or brands within the domain of fast moving consumer goods was capable of verifying differences among age-groups. study also considers a wide range 5/23/12

This

The

AGE EFFECTS
In

regard to age effects, as people grow older changes in their biological, psychological and social status are considered to be responsible for shifts in their behavior. Cohort effects additionally cause the elderly to act differently, however, not because they have changed behavior over the course of time, but because the collective experiences of their respective generations gave a special mark on 5/23/12

CONSUMERS KEENNESS
Keenness

for new products and brands is markedly dependent on the underlying product category, we need to focus on predefined products in order to gain well established insights into age-specific behavior that can be generalized for respective branches. previous research rarely acknowledges the fact that, for several reasons, a wide range of age-specific behavioral differences may exist in one 5/23/12 product category, but in another one

Unfortunately,

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
Consumer

research has examined behavioral peculiarities induced by consumer age for consciousness consciousness patterns behavior
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Price

Quality Brand

consciousness

Repurchase Information

 The

consumers desire to switch to other products and brands (without consideration of age) has found recognition in earlier studies in connection with the Theory of Optimal Stimulation

THE THEORY OF OPTIMAL STIMULATION

OSL-Theory

considers two different product-category-specific behavioral options to directly urge for alternatives depending on ones general exploratory interests and other variables
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Older

consumers propensities to innovativeness and variety seeking remain inconclusive researchers have found age to be positively associated with innovativeness found the two variables to be slightly negatively associated or even strongly negatively associated far as variety seeking is concerned, 5/23/12 findings are also quite heterogeneous

Some

Others

As

independent exogenous predictors

PREFERENCE FOR ALTERATION MODEL

Target construct s Mediators

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THEORETICAL MODEL
LOYAL ATTITUDE
A

loyal attitude describes the cognitive component of loyalty (internal conviction of a brand) that precedes the repurchase intention. the point of true loyalty always demanding the customers conviction of the offer. attitude is assumed to be negatively associated with the desire for familiar or new brand alternatives 5/23/12

Stress

Loyal

PREFERENCE FOR ALTERATION MODEL

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HYPOTHESIS 1
Age-related

effects on the loyal

attitude: An increasing tendency is expected since loyal behavior is a consequence of loyal attitudes seems to increase with age.

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HABITUAL ATTITUDES
Habitual

attitudes imply that the respective consumer is characterized by inherent ties with a brand in a domain that is only driven by customs and not by conviction accustomed to certain brands might influence the willingness to switch to other brands which is why this variable has been considered in the model to the Aging-Stability5/23/12

Being

According

PREFERENCE FOR ALTERATION MODEL

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HYPOTHESIS 2

we

can assume an increase in habitual attitudes caused by increasing age

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PERCEIVED RISK
Perceived

risk is determined by the probability of making a purchase which turns out to be a suboptimal choice is evident that a heightened perceived risk within a domain is detrimental to the choice of familiar or new brand alternatives brands implies greater risk because of the insecurity entailed which is why individual tolerance limits to risk could be violated. 5/23/12

It

Switching

PREFERENCE FOR ALTERATION MODEL

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HYPOTHESIS 3

The

mean value of perceived risk is expected to increase with age since risk consciousness is likely to increase with age as well

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CATEGORY EXPERIENCE
Category

experience, linked to a consumers previous brand experience within a certain domain, is likely to lead to increased subjective knowledge about the domain experience gained by previous consumptions enables a consumer to encounter a purchase situation with higher sophistication experience is likely to be positively associated 5/23/12 loyal and with

category

Category

PREFERENCE FOR ALTERATION MODEL

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HYPOTHESIS 4

In

regard to the development of category experience depending on age, we expect an increase due to a higher probability for extended consumption histories in the respective domains

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HYPOTHESIS RELATED TO INDEPENDENT PREDICTORS

The

presumed increase of consumer satisfaction with age (Hypothesis 5) involvement as a second exogenous predictor is also likely to increase with age (Hypothesis 6)

Product

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 Perceived

(brand) equalityin terms of the consumers impression of competing brands as being very similar is likely to decrease with age (Hypothesis 7) regard to age-influences, we suspect a decrease in risk taking with age (Hypothesis 8) seeking might also decrease with age (Hypothesis 9).
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HYPOTHESIS RELATED TO INDEPENDENT PREDICTORS

In

Variety

HYPOTHESIS RELATED TO TARGET CONSTRUCTS

Desires

for cross-buying probably tend to increase with age (Hypothesis10),especially as aging people become more loyal to their brands Desires for familiar brand alternatives in turn, probably decrease with age (Hypothesis 11) We also expect decreases in the desires for new brand alternatives
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EMPIRICAL TESTING
The

survey refers to specific categories within the domain of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) survey includes data of 1,189 consumers of margarine & hair shampoo are divided into Younger below the age of 50 agers between age 50-64
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The

consumers The

Best

SAMPLE SIZE

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RESULTS
Loyal

attitudes, product satisfaction, and product involvement all increase with age (in both product categories) Hypothesis 1, 5, and 6 are confirmed seeking and risk taking are no domain specific factors and thus they each show very similar mean results in both product categories. There is no age group dependency on the level of variety seeking in any of the categories. Hypothesis 9 must be rejected.
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Variety

Risk

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DESIRED PRODUCT AND BRAND CHOICES ACROSS AGE GROUPS

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DESIRE TO SWITCH TO FAMILIAR BRAND ALTERNATIVES

Variety

seeking supports the drop in desire for familiar brand alternatives as age advances brand alternatives is the fact of older consumers having stronger loyal attitudes, making brand switches rather unattractive age-dependent decrease in risk taking and the increase in perceived risk furthermore add 5/23/12 to the

Familiar

The

DESIRE TO SWITCH TO NEW BRAND ALTERNATIVES

One

cause for mature consumers less likely seeking to switch to new brand alternatives is to be found in their lower ratings in risk taking higher probability of loyal attitudes of the mature consumers, however, is again explaining their reluctance to switch to new brand alternatives in a similar way as in the case of switching to familiar alternatives
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The

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CONCLUSION
The

tendency to engage in cross-buying is increasing with age while the tendency to switch to alternative brands in contrast to the one usually bought is decreasing effects of age on consumer behavior considering the impact of behavioral determinants were found to explain these findings whereby mediated effects seem to be of greater
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Indirect