Search results

With the increasing numbers of the elderly people, the aging segment represents a potential huge market. While this trend is obvious, still little literature focuses on this group. The study thus fills up this gap. Furthermore, the study aims to examine the aging consumers' journeys from the lens of brand resonance pyramid and has its importance using context-specific theories to understand the elderly consumers.

Case study method is conducted using the in-depth interview to collect data and inductive method via MaxQda software to analyze. Two types of aging brand (i.e. age-denial and age-adaptive) are investigated (Moody and Sood, 2010). This study interviews 26 elderly consumers, among whom, 12 have experiences in sports gyms (i.e. age-denial) and 14 in hospital services (i.e. age-adaptive). The author also triangulates the results by interviewing two additional experts in these contexts.

The findings of the paper reveal that (1) brand functional benefit is important for both age-denial and age-adaptive brands while each has different dimensions. Brand experiential benefit (e.g. social, behavioral and intellectual experience) is important motivation for the age-denial brand and brand symbolic and brand psychological benefits are the emotional drivers for the age-adaptive brand. (2) Consequences of this journey include those, for example, brand satisfaction, brand loyalty, word-of-mouth and recommendation and (3) mediating mechanisms, e.g. brand sense of identification, brand psychological attachment and customization for both brand types, with exceptions of diversification and brand psychological attachment, and mutual interaction for the age-denial brand and doctor–patient relationship and consumer inertia for the age-adaptive brand. (4) The current study finds two new concepts for aging consumers, i.e. brand social experience in the age-denial brand and brand psychological benefit in the age-adaptive brand.

(1) Results of the paper are context dependent and generalization issue might occur. (2) While it is analyzed using inductive method via MaxQda software, the interviewer's subjective bias might occur. (3) Interviewees are at their different life stages, i.e. early-old vs mid-old, and thus, these contextual factors might also influence the results.

(1) The current study explores the elderly consumers' experience journeys at three stages (i.e. pre-service, during-service and pro-service/loyalty loop) for age-denial and age-adaptive brands and deepen an understanding of this aging market; (2) offers practical implications to brands targeting at the elderly consumers, particularly the age-denial and age-adaptive brands; (3) uses customer journey theory and brand resonance pyramid as the lens to understand aging consumers, and results also partly echo with the theories and (4) explores two new concepts for aging consumers, i.e. brand social experience and brand psychological benefit, thus adding new dimensions to important constructs, i.e. brand experience and brand benefit.

Acknowledging that brands age over time, this paper aims to investigate the exogenous and endogenous factors that influence this phenomenon.

The literature on brand ageing is scarce. Through a study of several Colombian organisations that have an international presence, the paper uses a grounded-theory qualitative methodology, including in-depth interviews and documentary brand reviews over a longitudinal time dimension, to perform an analysis of specific aspects that affect brand ageing processes.

The results revealed that the factors that determine brand ageing can be classified into the following two subgroups: exogenous (conditions of the economic environment, category conditions, entrance of new competitors, ageing current consumers and entry of new consumers) and endogenous (organisational growth, upper management convictions, marketing structure, brand architecture, inappropriate naming and obsolete brand image) factors.

This research provides substantial academic value and insights that allow a better understanding of specific aspects that influence the brand ageing process.

The purpose of this paper is to gather stakeholder tacit knowledge to design new product concepts with optimal product attributes for new health promoting food products for the ageing population.

This research employed a qualitative research method. A total of 16 in-depth interviews were carried out to identify key product design attributes. These attributes were used to design health promoting foods for the ageing population.

Age-related conditions affect and alter the design of health promoting foods targeted at the ageing population. Providing the ageing consumer segment with access to health promoting foods facilitates positive ageing intervention. The integration of affordability and convenience elements into ageing food design attributes is important for product acceptance. The multi-level demands and heterogeneity of ageing consumers result in the need for a variety of nutritionally tailored food formats. A dairy-based beverage was considered to be the optimal product concept for the ageing population.

The inclusion of stakeholders from the food industry could result in levels of food industry bias. The sample size of stakeholders was limited to 16 participants. One interview guide was used throughout all interviews to ensure consistency levels. A more flexible instrument may have captured more specific stakeholder information.

During the early stages of the new product development process, a market-oriented research methodology can help to optimise product design in terms of product attributes that drive consumer acceptance.

This paper provides important insights into the significance of stakeholder tacit knowledge generation throughout the need identification stage of the NPD process. Specifically this paper provides stakeholder tacit knowledge on the optimal design of health promoting foods for the ageing population. This knowledge has the ability to provide market-oriented information on health promoting food concepts which can be valuable for food manufacturers to maximise NPD performance, create value and develop competitive advantage within their marketplace. Finally, design templates of health promoting foods for the ageing population are of high strategic importance to food manufacturers, governments, health professionals and medical professionals.

Previous research on age-related loyalty is sparse, contradictory and suffers from methodological limitations and criticisms. This study aims to apply two methodological advances to fresh purchasing data to give a much clearer picture of age-related differences in brand loyalty.

An online brand choice survey (n = 1,862) is used to examine age-related loyalty within three low-involvement categories in New Zealand. The polarisation index (φ) is adopted as the measure of loyalty to control for confounding influences present in prior research. Results for chronological age are validated through comparison with results for measures of cognitive, biological and sociological age, as well as household life cycle.

Contrary to prior research, age-related differences in loyalty are detected in two of the three low-involvement categories studied. The third category does not show detectable loyalty for any age group. Although differences in brand loyalty are broadly present across all age measures, no alternative measure outperforms chronological age in detecting variations in age-related loyalty.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first evidence that age-related brand loyalty is present in low-involvement categories. However, effects are small and easily obscured by confounding factors. More research is needed to determine how results vary by category.

Despite showing minor differences in loyalty, older consumers still purchase from a wide portfolio of brands and so should not be ignored by marketers. Future research can investigate loyalty for older consumers by adopting the method of analysing differences in polarisation (φ) for chronological age groups.

Previous contradictory findings and methodological concerns about measurement of age-related loyalty are resolved through use of the polarisation index (φ) as a measure of loyalty and by confirmation that chronological age performs as well as any other age measure.

Existing brand literature on assemblage practices has focused on providing a map or geography of brand assemblages, suggesting that an artist brand’s ability to evolve and achieve brand longevity remains constant. Using geology of assemblage, this study aims to explore the types and mechanisms of change in brand evolutions to address the problem of identifying when and how a brand can transform in an evolving marketplace.

The authors apply an interpretive process data approach using secondary archival data and in-depth interviews with 31 self-identified fans to explore the artist brand David Bowie over his 50-year career.

As an artist brand, Bowie’s ability to evolve his brand was constrained by his assemblage. Despite efforts to defy ageing and retain a youth audience appeal, both the media and his fans interpreted and judged Bowie’s current efforts from a historical perspective and continuously reevaluated his brand limiting his ability to change to remain relevant.

Brand managers, particularly artist brands and human brands, may find that their ability to change is constrained by meanings in past strata over time. Withdrawal from the marketplace and the use of silence as a communicative practice enabling brand transformations.

The geology of assemblage perspective offers a more nuanced understanding of brand changes over time beyond the possibilities of incremental or disruptive change. We identify the mechanisms of change that result in minor sedimentation, moderate cracks and major ruptures in a brand’s evolution.

The purpose of this study is to review scholarly research on elderly consumers’ information processing and suggest implications for services marketing.

The review encompasses a five-decade period (1970–2018) of academic research and presents relevant literature in four main areas related to information processing: sensation, attention, interpretation and memory.

The study illustrates how each of the aforementioned phases of the information processing activity may affect how elderly individuals buy and consume products and services, emphasizing the need for a better comprehension of the elderly to develop effectual marketing strategies.

The study provides readers with detailed state-of-the-art knowledge about older consumers’ information processing, offering a comprehensive review of academic research that companies can use to improve the effectiveness of their marketing efforts that target the elderly market.

This paper aims to focus on brand oldness associations and their measurement. Research on brand age points to a variety of interpretations concerning perceived brand oldness and establishes the existence of multiple positive consequences such as brand credibility, trust or attachment. However, the complexity and measurement of brand oldness associations are not yet well-established. This paper proposes a reliable and valid measurement scale of the concept.

The research follows a rigorous scale-development procedure based on eight empirical studies, with a total of 2,065 respondents. The data were analyzed through covariance-based structural equation modeling.

The scale consists of 18 items and six dimensions, namely, decline, expertise, maintenance, reminiscence, timelessness and tradition. Results demonstrate an effect of brand oldness associations on both brand attachment and brand equity.

The research was conducted in one country (France). Additional studies in other settings or countries should be carried out to establish generalizability of results and strengthen causality inferences.

This is the first research to study the notion of brand oldness associations. This study identifies its dimensions, develops a measurement scale and demonstrates its reliability and validity.

There is a rising number of Asian brands expanding to Western nations. However, one of the biggest challenges is their reputation of inferior quality. The objectives of this research are to examine the U.S. consumers’ quality perception of Asian brands and what steps can be taken to improve their perceived quality to ultimately influence patronage intentions. This study also considers how age influences U.S. consumers’ perceived quality and patronage intentions.

An online experiment using 328 U.S. female subjects was conducted to examine how quality cues (brand origin and product design) influence their perceived quality of Asian brands. The study also examines how age (due to different levels of exposure of Asian brands) moderates the relationship between product cues and perceived quality.

The findings showed that there was a difference between the younger (Generation X and Y) and older (Baby boomers and Swing) group’s perceived quality of these Asian brand origins, namely Japan and China. Product design had an impact on perceived quality, but age was not a moderating factor.

Chinese and Japanese brands can use these differences in perception of brand origins to market accordingly. Product design cues can also be used effectively to both age groups by Asian brands to improve the perceived quality of U.S. consumers.

This research provides novel insight on U.S. consumers’ perceived quality and patronage intentions from different Asian brand cues. The study also contributes to the body of literature on how the relationship between specific Asian brand cues and perceived quality may differ as a function of age.

This paper aims to test one of the symbolic influences of the employee on brand associations and by doing so demonstrate why the stereotyping of employees should be added to the research agenda for corporate branding.

The research is a quantitative study of the employees (n=424) and customers (n=964) in 28 branches of four fashion retailers providing data to model the influence of employee age on the associations customers make with such corporate brands.

Theory suggests two competing employee age‐related stereotypes influence the associations customers hold of a corporate brand. Using a measure of brand personality, the authors confirm that the older the average age of employees the more competent the corporate brand appears but the less enterprising. The overall effect on customer satisfaction is negative. The average age of employees and customers in the branches studied also correlate positively. The symbolism of the employee to the customer, in this instance due to their age, can be important in creating associations with the corporate brand.

Discrimination in employment due to an employee's characteristics is illegal in most circumstances. However the authors' findings show employers need to recognize the potential influence on their corporate brand imagery (and consequently customer satisfaction) due to employee stereotyping by customers and the symbolic as well as the functional role that employees can have in marketing a corporate brand.

While prior research argues that employees influence a corporate brand by how they behave, less is known about any symbolic effects due to their stereotyping by customers. The symbolism to customers of brand elements such as packaging has been researched but, thus far, the symbolism of employees, the employee stereotype effect, has been largely but wrongly ignored.