CONSUMER RESEARCH

Consumer Research

Consumer Research

Overview

Marketing and advertising to this age group can be problematic, not least because these consumers can be sensitive about the way they are portrayed in advertising, especially of the type which lumps all `older people' together without taking account of the considerable differences between them. The fact that creative staffs in advertising and marketing agencies are often aged in their 20s may also make it difficult for them to empathize with these consumers. The importance of this age group and the unique problems in targeting it, have led to the formation of a number of agencies specializing in the mature market. Introduction

It was found in a research that adults over the age of 45 are more likely than average to buy newspapers or magazines, garden products, insurance policies, and holidays (both in the UK and abroad). They are just as likely as other consumers to spend their money on books, savings/investments and medications, and only slightly less likely to spend on home improvements, and on things for friends and family. This generation has not grown up with new technology, but many over 45 year-olds are competent Internet users. However, Internet access in households headed by those aged over 55 is still relatively low.

A research found that the over 45 year-olds who have used the Internet in the last 3 months are more likely than those who have not to spend regularly on many of the items covered in the survey, and are especially more likely to spend on holidays abroad, and on eating and drinking out. What is perhaps even more surprising is that recent Internet users over 45 are more likely than all recent Internet users to spend regularly on holidays — both abroad and in the UK — and on a wide variety of other items, including savings and investments, gardening and home improvements. Only in the case of CDs, records and tapes are they significantly less likely than other Internet users to be buyers. Although all these problems come in the way when marketing of a product is done but we should not forget that these gray consumers are not in minority and there is a considerable number of their population out of the total population and the market must focus on grey consumers in future (American Association of Retired Persons, 1996).

Background of the study

In recent year, much attention has been given to the concept of brand equity as an important tool for measuring and managing marketing performance (Lawrence A. Crosby and Sheree L. Johnson, Branding and Your CRM Strategy). Specially, the pace of today's technology change has made products difficult to different purely on physical attributes (Chiranjeev Kohli and Mrugnk Thakor, 1997 Branding Consumer Goods: insights from theory and practice). Reputable brand names provide confidence and allow customer to cut through the risks and complexity of choice (Doyle, Peter, 2001, Marketing Management and Strategy). As result, building stronger brands with high levels of equity is an important concern for most marketing ...