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Catalogue sales have received increasing attention due to their phenomenal growth in the USA. Professional women, because of their need for convenience and their buying power, are an important market for catalogue marketers. This study was designed to identify clothing categories which professional women tend to purchase through catalogues, compare professional women's involvement with professional clothing versus non‐professional clothing in relation to their catalogue usage and determine the variables that predict professional women's heavy catalogue usage for specific clothing categories. Data analyses were based on a mailed survey of a national sample of professional women catalogue shoppers (N=506). These consumers tended to purchase clothing in distinct categories rather than as one product class, and exhibited greater involvement with non‐professional clothing than with professional clothing. Profiles of frequent catalogue users for three clothing categories (street clothing, footwear and clothing for others) were identified, based on their involvement, lifestyle and demographic variables.

The promotion mix is the combination of personal selling, advertising, and sales promotion used to achieve marketing objectives. The objective‐and‐task method is used in practice to develop a single promotion mix plan. This is practical but has drawbacks: (1) only one promotion strategy and mix is considered, and (2) decision making is taken out of the hands of senior marketing management. This paper sets forth a decision‐making process by which alternative promotion strategies and mixes are generated so that senior marketing management can choose the one that is most promising.

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.

Suggests that the construct of convenience has not been clearly defined and operationalized. Proposes a conceptual framework which can be used to examine the convenience of consumer products, involving five dimensions: time, place, acquisition, use and execution. Discusses the implications for managers and recommends that marketers gain an improved understanding of convenience given the predicted growth of the sector.

Suggests that the construct of convenience has not been properly defined and operationalized by managers and should be regarded as multidimensional. Proposes a conceptual framework for examining the convenience of services, thus permitting strategic and tactical marketing opportunities to be highlighted. Discusses implications for managers of this framework. Reviews a framework for marketing consumer products published in another journal and applies it to service marketing.

The paper explores how the complex relationship between consumption and production evolves as women enact their roles as mothers, and reconstruct their self‐identity through their use or avoidance of convenience products.

Qualitative, individual interviews are used to allow an in‐depth analysis of the life stories of the group of respondents. An interpretive analysis reveals the purpose, patterns and rules followed by these individuals in their actions.

Convenience consumption empowers these “mothers of invention” to instrumental and emotional autonomy through their rejection of unnecessary drudgery, and enables them to negotiate the role of caretaker within the family.

The implications of the study suggest that there is a role for marketing to remove any vestiges of guilt in convenience consumption by addressing the issues of sustainability, nutrition, quality and value in convenience products. Future research should investigate whether these findings resonate cross‐culturally and across broader socio‐economic groups.

The paper reveals the importance of reinforcing the connections between a better quality of family care and love. The paper also demonstrates the importance of the interactions of the family members on convenience consumption. These findings are important for marketing practitioners and academics researching family consumption.