Subjective age identity and older consumers' responses to new product advertising.
Item
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Title
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Subjective age identity and older consumers' responses to new product advertising.
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Identifier
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AAI9000665
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identifier
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9000665
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Creator
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Weinman, Cynthia.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Leon G. Schiffman
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Date
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1987
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Social
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Abstract
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A field experiment was conducted to determine whether subjective age or chronological age is a better predictor of older consumers' reactions to a new product advertising communication. An additional goal was to explore how consumer reactions vary as a function of how the communication is delivered and which product categories are the subjects of the communication.;Random telephone screening identified 900 women, 300 in each of three subjective by chronological age categories: those who are chronologically aged 65-79 and also perceive themselves to be in their 60's or 70's (the "subjective elderly"), those who are chronologically aged 65-79 but perceive themselves to be in their 40's or 50's (the "subjective middle-aged"), and those who are chronologically aged 40-54 and perceive themselves to be in their 40's or 50's (the "actual middle-aged"). Each group of 300 women was divided into three conditions and sent a mail-order catalog which portrayed either: an endorser (the catalog maker) who was both chronologically and subjectively elderly, an endorser who was chronologically elderly but subjectively younger, or a no endorser condition. The catalog consisted of a series of new products which varied on the basis of type of risk each product represented to the consumer if purchased. A questionnaire which measured reactions to the catalog and its products was also sent to respondents. Thus, the research utilized a 3 x 3 x 3 repeated measures design in which the between factors were Subjective Age Identity x Endorser Subjective Age and the within factor was product Type of Risk. The key dependent variable was purchase interest for the products in the catalog.;The research results demonstrated the viability of the subjective age construct. Specifically, the findings showed that in most instances, those with equivalent subjective ages were more similar to each other in their consumer attitudes and behavior than were those with equivalent chronological ages. A notable exception was the unexpected finding that chronologically elderly consumers (regardless of subjective age) displayed more willingness than did chronologically middle-aged consumers to try new products when those products are specifically targeted to them. Additional analyses explored other effects of endorser and product risk category as well as the impact of identification with the endorser as a key moderator variable in the research. Implications for gerontological theory, marketing to older consumers, and societal stereotyping of old age were discussed.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
