Why Do Responses to Age‐Based Marketing Stimuli Differ? The Influence of Retirees’ Group Identification and Changing Consumption Patterns

This study analyzes how retired consumers respond to age‐based marketing stimuli using survey data from 236 retirees over the age of 60 years. Specifically, it investigates the factors that influence retirees’ intentions to use senior discounts and intentions to accept exclusive offers for seniors (e.g., educational classes for seniors), as well as their evaluation of age‐related labels (e.g., “60+”). The results show that retirees who identify more strongly with other retirees and who generally change their consumption patterns following retirement are more likely to respond positively to age‐based marketing stimuli. Additionally, the data suggest that cognitive age negatively moderates the role of retirees’ identification with other retirees in terms of their responses to age‐based marketing stimuli. However, the influence of these variables differs significantly across the types of stimuli considered. The findings help to explain ambiguities in previous studies that did not consider differences among mature consumers beyond age and age‐group membership or among the types of stimuli. The implications of these findings with respect to effective marketing to retired consumers are discussed.     

Consumer satisfaction of retirees: products and services

This study was designed to assess the nature and extent of consumer satisfaction of retirees at two stages of retirement: Stage I, age 60–69; Stage age 70 and above. This cross-sectional mail survey study contained 196 retiree households selected at random, representing retirees who had been retired for at least 1 year and were 60 years of age or older. Results indicate that retirees are in fact a heterogeneous group of consumers who are generally self-reliant, with varying consumer problems and varying reasons for those problems. Results of this study, collectively, lend support to the notion that age alone is not an appropriate way of studying consumer concerns of retirees. Additionally, retirees' stage of retirement has no significant relationship to the person responsible for the weekly household shopping. Finally, reasons for consumer dissatisfaction are not related to the weekly household shopper.     

Public and Private Challenges of an Aging U.S. Population

The challenges posed by the aging of the U.S. population for business and public policy are vast. They are amplified particularly by:??Slow increase of incomes—and therefore low private savings—for those at the bottom of the pay distribution.??Cutbacks in employee health-care insurance and defined benefit pension plans.??Unsustainability of Social Security and Medicare as currently configured.This paper spells out these challenges and discusses how they can be addressed. Of particular importance are some combination of enhanced revenue and reduced expenditure for Social Security and Medicare, the shift of private pension plans from defined benefit to defined contribution, the need to consider later retirement ages, and the need for improved personal financial literacy.     

Ageing,retirement and pension reforms

The gist of this paper is that the financial problems of pensions arise not only from the ageing of the population but also from the progressive reduction of the retirement age. It shows that social security systems explain in part such a reduction and indicates why reforms encounter so many political obstacles even though they would benefit most retirees, particularly those with few resources.     

The Roles of Gender and Marital Status on Risky Asset Allocation Decisions

We analyze data on asset allocations in individual retirement accounts to examine the roles of marital status and gender on investment decisions. We utilize data from two birth cohorts to understand the relationship over a wide age range. We find that, in their 30s and early 40s, men are more likely to hold a majority of their funds in stocks in individual retirement accounts compared to women. The gender difference disappears around retirement age; however, a significant difference by marital status emerges in that age group. Divorced and widowed individuals are less likely to hold a majority of their funds in stocks compared to married individuals in their 60s. While there exists a positive gap in stock holdings between married men and married women in their 30s, the gender gap is nonexistent among older individuals. Using paired data on stock holdings in the older birth cohort, we show that husbands' and wives' asset allocations in individual retirement accounts are strongly correlated, coinciding with the lack of a gender gap in stock holdings among older couples.     

Retirement and transition phenomena in the family purchase process

Research is needed on the family purchase process of retirement‐age couples, because 78 million baby boomers are rapidly approaching retirement age. Both boomers and the retirement‐age couples in this study present special opportunities to marketers through new roles adopted in retirement. This study reports on perceptions of family purchase process participation among retirement‐age couples. Results indicate that transition retirees' family purchase process participation differs from that of post‐transition retirees. This finding has managerial implications for marketers wishing to serve desirable segments of current and future retirement‐age consumers. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Cognitive Ability and the Stock Reallocations of Retirees during the Great Recession

Retirees are increasingly responsible for managing their retirement savings. The ability to manage these assets efficiently can have an important impact on retirement well‐being. Lower levels of cognitive ability in old age can reduce an investor's ability to control emotional responses to a loss. Greater sensitivity to loss may increase preferences for safety following a market decline, resulting in allocations away from stocks that are associated with long‐term underperformance. We investigate whether cognitive ability is related to stock reallocations among retirees during the Great Recession. Using the Health and Retirement Study, we find that cognitive ability is negatively related to allocations away from stock. Compared to those with the lowest levels of cognitive ability, respondents with higher cognitive ability are 40% less likely to reduce their stock allocation by 50% or more. These results suggest that the quality of investment decisions in old age may be compromised by cognitive decline.     

收入水平和收入风险对养老投资行为的影响——基于武汉市中心城区的调查数据

引导居民进行养老投资是缓解养老经济压力的重要途径之一,而影响养老投资的因素有很多。运用武汉市7个中心主城区753个居民的调查数据,以收入为切入点,从收入水平和收入风险两个角度考察其对居民养老投资行为的影响。研究结果显示,收入水平越高、收入风险越大,居民参与养老投资的可能性越大;收入水平与收入风险的边际效应呈倒U型,其中收入水平在6~10万的居民,养老投资的边际效应最大;异质性分析显示,女性、受教育程度较高、健康状况较差以及年龄较大的居民,收入水平和收入风险对养老投资的促进作用更大。通过用家庭收入水平代替个人收入水平、考虑风险态度与金融能力因素对养老投资的影响等方法进行稳健性检验,都证明了上述结果的可靠性。该结果不仅可以解释武汉市城镇居民养老投资的现状,而且对促进养老金融市场的发展与相关政策的制定也具有一定的启发和现实指导意义。     

Personal finance blogs: Helpful tool for consumers with low financial literacy or preaching to the choir?

Recent transitions from defined benefit to defined contribution plans assign greater individual responsibility to consumers to prepare for retirement and make consequential financial choices. However, many consumers are ill‐equipped to do so, considering overall low levels of financial literacy. At the same time, there is increasing controversy about the effectiveness of traditional financial education, such as high school financial education, counselling and seminars or workshops. Alternative sources of (just‐in‐time) financial training or advice may be needed to financially empower consumers and help them make important financial decisions. In the light of these developments, this study investigates if consumers perceive personal finance blogs as a helpful alternative in acquiring financial knowledge, and which factors influence perceived helpfulness of and intention to use personal finance blogs. Using Structural Equation Modelling to analyse data from a sample of U.S. consumers, the results of this study uncover that financial literacy and susceptibility to informational influence have a significant positive association with perceived helpfulness. Perceived financial uncertainty, which refers to uncertainty in terms of consumers’ perceived ability to accurately predict their future financial needs, has a significant negative association with perceived helpfulness of and intention to use personal finance blogs. Finally, perceived helpfulness of a personal finance blog is a significant positive predictor of consumers’ intention to use it. Overall, the findings suggest that personal finance blogs are preaching to the choir, since the consumers who are most likely to use personal finance blogs seem to need them the least given their higher levels of financial literacy and lower levels of perceived financial uncertainty. Taken together, the findings shed light on the potential users of personal finance blogs and underline the challenges of a ‘one‐size‐fits‐all’ financial education. This study aids in assessing personal finance blogs as an online resource which is scarcely researched, but which has the potential to provide just‐in‐time financial education to consumers across the world.     

Marketing retirement—or staying on the job

Financial packages provide the most common incentive to meet the legal requirement that retirement be voluntary. However, managers have other tools to encourage retirement or encourage staying on the job—within legal constraints and consistent with current health insurance changes that may make pre-65 retirement more desirable. In using these tools, managers must consider demographic realities that offer a large cohort available to replace retirees. To assist managers, a qualitative study among human resource experts probed how companies decide between encouraging retirement and encouraging staying on the job and also how each is accomplished to maintain a workforce best matched to job requirements. Suggestions for marketing retirement include starting early to encourage saving so that employees can afford to retire and improving the retirement ‘product’ by flexible alternatives to full-time work, including self-employment. Suggestions for keeping employees on the job include tailoring schedules and rewards to the preferences and needs of individuals who might otherwise retire.     

Determinants of retirement planning behaviour and differences by age

This paper presents the results of an investigation into the determinants of retirement planning behaviour and differences among three age groups: 21‐ to 39‐year‐olds, 40‐ to 59‐year‐olds and those aged 60 years and older. A national survey of 911 individuals from households with incomes of $75 000 or greater was conducted in the US. The significance of socio‐demographic variables, the ability to recover from loss, behavioural tendencies and perceived or actual personal control were investigated; together with their role in the prediction of maximization of retirement contributions and ownership in the personal individual retirement account (IRA) or Keogh accounts. The results identified several significant variables in the prediction of ownership in a personal IRA or Keogh, including age, sources of financial information, being an early investor and investor activity. The results also identified several significant variables in the prediction of the maximization of retirement contributions, including employment, income, savings activity, ex ante research, review of investment performance, early investor, investor activity, such as planning for financial future, setting up automatic deposits and reviewing financial information in the mail.     

Saving for Retirement Without Harming Others

This article discusses moral issues raised by defined contribution retirement plans, specifically 401(k) plans in the United States. The primary aim is to defend the claim that the federal government ought to require 401(k) plans to include a range of socially responsible investment (SRI) options. The analysis begins with the minimal assumption that corporations engage in behavior that imposes morally impermissible harms on others with sufficient regularity to warrant attention. After motivating this assumption, I argue that individual investors typically share in the responsibility for the harms imposed by corporations in which they invest, and that they therefore have a moral obligation to incorporate considerations of social responsibility into their investment decisions, when possible, to avoid being complicit in morally impermissible corporate behavior. I further argue that individuals are subject to substantial institutional and structural pressures that create a powerful incentive to invest in 401(k) plans, even though such plans typically lack any SRI options. To eliminate this pressure to commit indirect harm in the process of saving for retirement, I recommend that the federal government requires 401(k) plans to incorporate a range of SRI options, and I defend this proposal from several possible objections.     

Das Rentenpaket 2014 — eine ökonomische Beurteilung

The 2014 pension reform has three main components. First disability pensions have been increased by about two earnings points, an average monthly gain of 40 euros. In addition low wages in the four years preceding disability-related retirement will now be disregarded. However, since these new rules only apply to retirement after July 2014 they fail to fight poverty among current disability-related retirees. Second an additional credit for all births before 1992 (“mothers’ pension”) is extremely costly and unnecessary. Poverty prevention is weak due to a strict income test in the welfare system for the elderly. Third early retirement at age 63 without actuarial adjustment has been reintroduced This is a costly measure with negative effects on both equality and efficiency. The additional child credit and early retirement provisions reduce the financial and social sustainability of the German public pension system.     

The Cake Looks Yummy on the Shelf up There: The Interactive Effect of Retail Shelf Position and Consumers’ Personal Sense of Power on Indulgent Choice

This paper advances our understanding of consumer responses to retail product displays by examining the interplay between the vertical shelf position of choice options and consumers’ personal sense of power in determining their preference for indulgent options. Six experiments show that when consumers choose from assortments placed on a low shelf position, requiring them to lower their heads, those higher (vs. lower) in personal power are more likely to choose an indulgent option over its prudent counterpart. In contrast, when choosing from assortments placed on a high shelf position, requiring consumers to raise their heads, those lower (vs. higher) in personal power are more likely to choose an indulgent option. This effect hinges on a mismatch (vs. match) between consumers’ personal sense of power and that triggered by the products’ retail shelf position, increasing affective discomfort and guiding consumers, thus, towards indulgent choices.     

Persist or let it go: Do rational entrepreneurs make decisions rationally?

We theorize that both highly rational entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs with a high need for cognitive closure (NFCC) are likely to put more emphasis on retrospective factors (period and degree of underperformance, personal investments) and less on prospective factors (risk of going into default, potential for growth, personal options) when deciding whether to persist with an underperforming venture. Our findings from three discrete choice experiments with three independent samples of entrepreneurs (a sample of 176 Australian entrepreneurs; a narrow-replication with 128 Australian entrepreneurs; and a quasi-replication with 157 United Kingdom entrepreneurs) consistently show that entrepreneurs who perceive themselves as rational do not always demonstrate rational behavior and entrepreneurs with a high NFCC put more emphasis on retrospective factors in persistence decisions. Important theoretical and practical contributions flowing from our study are shared in the concluding section.     

Support for the Use of Deception Within the Work Environment: A Comparison of Israeli and United States Employee Attitudes

As businesses become more global, the opportunities for employees to work with individuals from different cultures increase. Research in cross-cultural interactions has increased in response to such changes. This research study considers employee attitudes and perceived organizational support for the use of deception within the work environment. In this study, two types of deception have been considered; deception for personal gain and deception for the organization's benefit. The reported likelihood for committing these two types of deception for United States and Israeli employees was gathered. The results indicate that United States employees are more likely to deceive others for personal gain than the Israeli employees. In addition, the results indicate that United States employees were more likely to perceive organizational support for the use of deception for personal gain than were the Israeli employees. No differences between the two samples were found for personal or organizational support for deception for the organization's benefit. Differences are explained using Hofstede's (1991) theory of international cultures.     

Young Adult Volunteers: Recruitment Appeals and Other Marketing Considerations

The long‐term survival of nonprofit charitable organizations depends on the recruitment and retention of today's young adults. A segmentation strategy proposed for retirees which was consistent with previous research on volunteer motivation was found to also be relevant for the young adult market, especially if implemented with consideration of this segment's unique interests and characteristics. In addition, young adults were found to be most inclined to volunteer for organizations that were either local and personal or nationally renowned. Organizations benefiting children were also highly regarded. The higher a college student's grade point average (GPA), the more likely they were to indicate an intention of volunteering in the future. Those most likely to volunteer in the future also exhibited higher teamwork and mentoring trait scores. The young adult market was found to be multidimensional and best approached with a variety of appeals.     

The Relationship between Retirement Wealth and Householders' Lifetime Personal Financial and Investing Behaviors

While previous research indicates wide wealth dispersion at retirement within households with similar lifetime incomes, there have been few attempts to identify personal financial behaviors associated with retirement wealth in households matched for lifetime income. Householders with similar demographics and lifetime income but differing markedly in net worth near retirement were surveyed in terms of personal financial behaviors undertaken during their lifetime. Results revealed key differences between householders with low and high retirement wealth in their financial behaviors and how these were acquired.     

Pension Freedom Day in the United Kingdom: Early evaluation of consumer response

Understanding decumulation decisions in retirement is an important component of public policy that influences pension regulations in aging societies. This research examined a recent, substantial change to pension regulation in the United Kingdom: the newly established flexibility to obtain a lump‐sum payout from personal or occupational pension savings. Conducting an online survey of individual’s eligible to take advantage of the Pension Freedom regulation, we find that almost half of study participants plan to obtain a lump‐sum payout, on average £33,741, intending it for an average of three different investments or purchases. The decision to obtain a lump‐sum withdrawal was related to better knowledge of the new regulation. It was also more likely among older respondents and those not worried about a decline in standard of living during retirement. Dispositional measures did not affect the lump‐sum decision. Close to one‐third of study participants still planned to invest retirement savings into an annuity, especially those who retire at a later age, have concerns about care costs and worry about decline in standard of living in retirement. Comments about the changes to pension regulation were slightly more positive than negative. From our analysis of the effect of the Pension Freedom regulation on savings decumulation decisions, we conclude that the new Pension Freedom regulations do meet consumer demands, and demonstrate that pension knowledge and retirement expectations, in particular, influence consumer evaluations. We further conclude that annuity investments continue to play a role for older adults in the United Kingdom, especially for those concerned about meeting financial needs during retirement.     

Mature Consumer Awareness and Attitudes Toward Retirement Housing and Long-Term Care Alternatives

The retirement housing and long-term care industries have been responding to the needs of aging consumers by developing a wide range of housing facilities and personal care services. The increasing variety of long-term care options is expected to better satisfy the heterogeneous needs of older consumers. Results of a national study and qualitative research suggest that many present and potential consumers of supportive housing and long-term care services do not have a good understanding of these offerings. Many are unaware of the alternatives available. Mature consumers often perceive all long-term care negatively as nursing homes. The proliferation in the variety of housing and long-term care services and the lack of standardization in labeling products may be contributing to the misunderstanding of various options. This misunderstanding leads to consumers not obtaining the housing and long-term care services best suited to their needs. Government agencies, consumer interest groups, and housing and long-term care providers can help to differentiate products and educate consumers to better serve their needs.