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Although older American spend increasingly large sums of money on goods and services, it is widely believed by financial service providers and retailers that these individuals make relatively little use of credit cards. Using a large national sample of respondents from different age groups, finds that older adults use credit cards as frequently as younger adults when circumstances and opportunities for consumption in both groups are similar. Age‐related declines in use of credit cards may reflect changes in lifestyles and other circumstances associated with age, not age per se. Discusses implications of the results for retailers and consumer credit lenders.

The aging population in the United States makes skill in marketing to the mature consumer increasingly important. The biophysical and psychosocial aging process creates a need for specific strategies to address the changes brought on by age. Attempts to ascertain the degree to which the financial services industry recognizes some of the needs of the elderly market and the degree to which marketing programs are addressing these needs. The results show that financial services marketers have been slow in implementing strategies which might help them better attract and serve the mature consumer, when compared with other industries. While this industry has done an excellent job in developing products which appeal to older consumers, they appear to be lacking in special assistance to mature consumers and training to support such assistance. Provides managerial implications stressing specific areas for improvement.

Social scientists, public policy makers, consumer researchers, and marketers have traditionally focused on age‐related differences to understand the behavior of older adults. This research focuses on the processes through which adults learn behavioral patterns and norms that characterize behavior in later life. The socialization framework is first presented as the process through which adults learn roles and norms for old age, and data from a national study are presented to test the hypotheses derived from this model. The results suggest that certain antecedents and processes are important in socializing adults to old age.

Describes research on the processes and outcomes of consumer socialisation; it investigates the importance of the family as the main socialisation agent for young children. Shows how parents influence child behaviour directly through instruction in consumer skills, indirectly as models of consumer behaviour, and by supervision of the child’s consumer opportunities; also by influencing cognitive abilities, motivating the child to use its cognitive abilities in consumer situations, and teaching consumer skills which are unrelated to cognitive ability. Relates changes in US family demographic patterns to children as consumers: more single‐parent families and working mothers may mean less contact and socialisation of children by parents, while greater ethnic diversity and mixed‐race families affects the way that children are socialised. Test four hypotheses: that parents of younger children engage in less direct instruction of consumer behaviours than parents of older children; that parents engage in more direct consumer instruction, co‐shopping and co‐viewing with daughters than with sons; that more highly educated parents engage in more direct consumer instruction, co‐shopping and co‐viewing than do parents with lower levels of education; and that ethnicity is a factor in parental consumer instruction, co‐shopping and co‐viewing. Discusses the results of the survey questionnaire used for this US study of parents with children between two and eight years old; the results roughly confirm the first three of these four hypotheses.

Presents a current overview of the issues and available knowledge regarding marketers understanding of how to reach older consumers. Presents contradictory beliefs about older consumers and various methods for marketing to them. Offers reasons for these contradictions, and presents a blueprint to help decision makers evaluate information in the field and formulate effective strategies.

Summarizes the topics, challenges and existing knowledge on marketing to older consumers. Discussescontradictory beliefs about older consumers and how to market to them, explaining reasons for these contradictions and stereotypes. Suggests a method for aiding decision makers evaluating information in this market and for formulating strategies. Notes that the field of older consumer behaviour and marketing is still developing.

Examines the mature market, defined as consumers age 50 years or older, and reviews 33 segmentation methods for the mature market and identifies five key segmentation criteria: discretionary income, health, activity level, discretionary time, and response to others. Integrates methods devised by other researchers and provides marketers with a step‐by‐step, actionable segmentation method based on these five criteria. Offers implications for managers.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on testing hypotheses derived from theories presented by leading scholars regarding possible sources of differences in reliability coefficients, using cross-sectional data from Japan and Malaysia.

A survey was conducted in Malaysia and Japan, both of them characterized as having collectivist values. Convenience sampling and the same method of survey administration, personal interviews by trained interviewers, was used in both countries.

The tests of the hypotheses regarding cultural, subcultural, and aging effects provide some results in line with the hypotheses, but they raise additional concerns about the possible sources of measurement differences and the applicability of theories and measures developed in one country to other countries and subcultures within countries. The major findings include the alpha reliability coefficient of the self-esteem scale (SSE) which is hypothesised to be lower than the alpha for the material value scale (MVS) and satisfaction with life scale (SWLS) in the Malaysian and Japanese samples, but this difference only occurs for the Japanese sample.

The study findings highlight the challenges that researchers confront when conducting cross-cultural studies.

The present study systematically tests the reliability of measures developed in the West and employed in different countries (especially Asian countries). Although several assumptions and speculations have been made regarding the sources of potential bias in measures used when studying cultural and subcultural differences, little empirical work supports these views. Our study fills this gap.

Points out that the aging population has captured the attention of marketers, but that many companies are still uncertain as to whether they should, or how they should, go about marketing to the mature market. Highlights some of the key issues marketers are confronted with and discusses reasons for implementation of certain strategies. Concludes that, for marketing strategies to be effective, they should take into consideration the heterogeneity of the mature market and the specific product or service being marketed. Uses the results of recent studies to illustrate how such target product‐specific strategies can be developed.

The changing demographics and the aging of the population are affecting the age composition of consumer markets. This, in turn, creates opportunities and challenges for organizations serving consumer markets. This article reviews some corporate challenges and opportunities facing the corporate American due to the aging marketplace. A list of actionable guidelines suggested for strategy development. These guidelines are based on present knowledge about the mature market. While the effectiveness of the recommended strategies is likely to vary across situations and sub‐segments, it is hoped that they would be effective in most settings.