Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Decision making and brand choice by older consumers

  • Published:
Marketing Letters Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Older adults constitute a rapidly growing demographic segment, but stereotypes persist about their consumer behavior. The goal of this review was to develop a more considered understanding of age-associated changes in consumer decision making. Our theoretical model suggests that age-associated changes in cognition, affect, and goals interact to make older consumers’ decision-making processes, brand choices, and habits different from those of younger adults. We first review literature on stereotypes about the elderly and then turn to an analysis of age differences in the inputs (cognition, affect, and goals) and the outcomes (decisions, brand choices, and habits) of decision processes.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Avnet, T., & Tory Higgins, E. (2006). How regulatory fit affects value in consumer choices and opinions. JMR, Journal of Marketing Research, 43, 1–10 (February). doi:10.1509/jmkr.43.1.1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cabeza, R. (2002). Hemispheric asymmetry reduction in older adults: The HAROLD model. Psychology and Aging, 17, 85–100. doi:10.1037/0882-7974.17.1.85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carstensen, L. L., Fung, H. H., & Charles, S. T. (2003). Socioemotional selectivity and the regulation of emotion in the second half of life. Motivation and Emotion, 27(2), 103–123. doi:10.1023/A:1024569803230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castel, A. D. (2005). Memory for grocery prices in younger and older adults: The role of schematic support. Psychology and Aging, 20, 718–721. doi:10.1037/0882-7974.20.4.718.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chasseigne, G., & Mullet, E. (2007). Learning, inhibition, cognitive aging. Unpublished manuscript.

  • Cuddy, A. J. C., Norton, M. I., & Fiske, S. T. (2005). This old stereotype: The stubbornness and pervasiveness of the elderly stereotype. The Journal of Social Issues, 61, 267–285. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.2005.00405.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drolet, A., & Suppes, P. (2007). The good and the bad, the true and the false. In M. C. Galavotti, R. Scazzieri, & P. Suppes (Eds.), Reasoning, rationality, and probability. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drolet, A., Suppes, P., & Bodapati, A.V.(2007). Habits and free associations: Free your mind and mind your habits. Working paper.

  • Ebner, N. C., Freund, A. M., & Baltes, P. B. (2006). Developmental changes in personal goal orientation from young to late adulthood: from striving for gains to maintenance and prevention of losses. Psychology and Aging, 21(4), 664–678. doi:10.1037/0882-7974.21.4.664.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fung, H. H., & Carstensen, L. L. (2003). Sending memorable messages to the old: Age differences in preferences and memory for advertisements. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(1), 163–178. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.85.1.163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glenn, N. (2005). Cohort analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gutchess, A. H., Kensinger, E. A., & Schacter, D. L. (2007). Aging, self-referencing, and medial prefrontal cortex. Social Neuroscience, 2, 117–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gutchess, A. H., et al. (2005). Aging and the neural correlates of successful picture encoding: Frontal activations compensate for decreased medial-temporal activity. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17, 84–96. doi:10.1162/0898929052880048.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heckhausen, J. (1997). Developmental regulation across adulthood: Primary and secondary control of age-related changes. Developmental Psychology, 33, 176–187. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.33.1.176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hess, T. M., et al. (2005). Aging-related selectivity and susceptibility to irrelevant affective information in the construction of attitudes. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 12, 149–174. doi:10.1080/13825580590925170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Labouvie-Vief, G. (1998). Cognitive-emotional integration in adulthood. Annual Review of Gerontology & Geriatrics, 17, 206–237.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lambert-Pandraud, R., & Laurent, G. (2007). Tell me which perfume you wear, I’ll tell how old you are: Modeling the impact of consumer age on product choice. Working paper, HEC Paris.

  • Lambert-Pandraud, R., Laurent, G., & Lapersonne, E. (2005). Repeat purchasing of new automobiles by older consumers: Empirical evidence and interpretations. Journal of Marketing, 69, 97–113 (April). doi:10.1509/jmkg.69.2.97.60757.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Léoni, V., Mullet, E., & Chasseigne, G. (2002). Aging and intuitive physics. Acta Psychologica, 111, 29–43. doi:10.1016/S0001-6918(01)00077-4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, B. J. F., Russo, C., & Talbot, A. (1995). Discourse comprehension and problem solving: Decisions about the treatment of breast cancer by women across the life span. Psychology and Aging, 10, 84–103. doi:10.1037/0882-7974.10.1.84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Musielak, C., Chasseigne, G., & Mullet, E. (2006). The learning of non-linear functions among younger and older adults. Experimental Aging Research, 32, 317–340. doi:10.1080/03610730600699126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Park, D. C., & Gutchess, A. H. (2004). Long-term memory and aging: a cognitive neuroscience perspective. In R. Cabeza, L. Nyberg, & D.C. Park (Eds.), Cognitive neuroscience of aging: Linking cognitive and cerebral aging. New York: Oxford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Park, D. C., et al. (1994). Cognitive function and medication usage in older adults. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 13, 39–57. doi:10.1177/073346489401300104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pennington, G. L., & Roese, N. J. (2003). Regulatory focus and temporal distance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 39, 563–576. doi:10.1016/S0022-1031(03)00058-1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peters, E., et al. (2007a). Adult age differences in dual information processes: Implications for the role of affective and deliberative processes in older adults’ decision making. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2(1), 1–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peters, E., et al. (2007b). Numeracy skill and the communication, comprehension, and use of risk and benefit information. Health Affairs, 26(3), 741–748. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.26.3.741.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, P., & Drolet, A. (2005). Age-related differences in responses to emotional advertisements. The Journal of Consumer Research, 32, 343–354. doi:10.1086/497545.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yoon, C., & Cole, C. A. (2008). Aging and consumer behavior. In Haugtvedt, Kardes, and Herr (Eds.), The Handbook of Consumer Psychology. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp 247–272.

  • Yoon, C., Gutchess, A., Feinberg, F., & Polk, T. A. (2006). Comparing the structures of brand and human personality: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study. The Journal of Consumer Research, 33, 31–40. doi:10.1086/504132.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marketing (Henry B. Tippie College of Business), University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

    Catherine Cole

  2. Department of Marketing, HEC Paris, Paris, France

    Gilles Laurent

  3. Department of Marketing, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Aimee Drolet

  4. Department of Marketing, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Jane Ebert

  5. Department of Psychology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA

    Angela Gutchess

  6. Department of Marketing, ESCP-EAP Paris, Paris, France

    Raphaëlle Lambert-Pandraud

  7. Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris, France

    Etienne Mullet

  8. Department of Marketing, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, USA

    Michael I. Norton

  9. Decision Research, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA

    Ellen Peters

Authors
  1. Catherine Cole
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gilles Laurent
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Aimee Drolet
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jane Ebert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Angela Gutchess
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Raphaëlle Lambert-Pandraud
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Etienne Mullet
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Michael I. Norton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Ellen Peters
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Catherine Cole.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Cole, C., Laurent, G., Drolet, A. et al. Decision making and brand choice by older consumers. Mark Lett 19, 355–365 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-008-9058-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-008-9058-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation