Supermarket Shoppers' Response to Mature Models in Point-of-Purchase Displays

Abstract

Point-of-purchase advertising influences up to 70 percent of purchases in supermarkets (Bauer 1995). Based on the increased attention to including more older models in promotional materials in recognition of the aging population and the potential socialization effects of promotional tools, an experiment was conducted to assess the impact of older point-of-purchase display models on younger shoppers in a supermarket display. The results indicate that retailers' and manufacturers' fears of alienating younger shoppers if older models are used are largely unfounded. Managerial implications are provided.     

The under-reported impact of age discrimination and its threat to business vitality

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA, 29 USCA, 621) is credited with helping eliminate many blatant forms of age discrimination in employment. For example, before the ADEA was enacted 37 years ago, it was common for employment ads to list age limitations, indicating people over 40 need not apply. Across the board, mandatory retirement policies went unchallenged. Despite advancements in these areas since the founding of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, it remains to be seen whether the ADEA has completed the job it set out to do. Has it proven to be an effective tool for eliminating the unreasonable prejudices that make it difficult for older workers to achieve their full potential? Has it provided adequate compensation for victims of discrimination? The following article takes a snapshot of the current work environment to gain a perspective. Based on extensive interviews with academics, employment lawyers, advocates for older workers, and older workers themselves, it reveals the need for reforms. It finds that, in a legal environment slanted toward employers, older workers continue to face bias and stereotyping, that most victims of discrimination are not made whole, and that society's lack of concern for this type of discrimination may prove more costly in the future as employers look more to older workers to fill projected workforce gaps.     

Staying in “the works of living”: How older adults employ marketplace resources to age successfully

Despite being a large and rapidly growing consumer population, limited marketing research examines how older adult consumers pursue marketplace well-being in the face of the challenges posed by aging. Using depth interviews and drawing on literatures from both marketing and gerontology, we develop a model that bridges disparate perspectives of older adults in the marketing literature, exploring how older consumers navigate the tensions between successful aging and vulnerability as they seek to maximize their quality of life in the marketplace. From this analysis, we present a more nuanced portrait of how older adults pursue well-being across consumption domains to fulfill their aspirations and maintain their independence, as well as identify ways that marketers and public policymakers can assist in those pursuits.     

Retaining and engaging older workers: A solution to worker shortages in the U.S.

Over the next 20 years, many organizations will experience significant shortages of skilled workers. At the same time, because of longer lifespans and a gradual rise in what society has considered the traditional retirement age of 65, older workers will represent a growing proportion of the American workforce. For a variety of reasons, many of these older workers desire to continue working and, if retained and engaged, they constitute a significant labor source for mitigating the emerging shortages of skilled workers. However, many organizations are not prepared to take advantage of this demographic shift; some even generate barriers that impede the retention and engagement of older workers. In this article, we identify a variety of ways in which organizations can retain and engage older workers to meet their staffing needs and enhance organizational performance. We also discuss the relationship of these proposals to prominent theories of motivation in management.     

Promises to employees matter,self-identity too: Effects of psychological contract breach and older worker identity on violation and turnover intentions

This paper examines the employment relationship of older workers by studying the effects of psychological contract breach on psychological contract violation and turnover intentions. Despite an accumulating body of research calling for a multidimensional conceptualization of the psychological contract, the majority of studies adopt a unidimensional approach. Furthermore the literature on older worker psychological contracts is often limited to comparisons between age groups or different generations. This research addresses these gaps by using a multidimensional approach of breach and expands research by including older worker identity in the examination of older worker psychological contracts. This research contributes to the literature by identifying specific areas of the psychological contract that exert a direct effect on violation and an indirect effect on turnover intentions. A second contribution lies in the finding that older worker identity moderates the relationship between breach and violation for those areas. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Retailing to the “grey pound”: Understanding the food shopping habits and preferences of consumers over 50 in Scotland

The number of older people is growing globally and therefore there is an implication for providing products and services to facilitate access to nutritious food, considered fundamental for maintaining health and independence. Historically, older consumers have been unattractive to marketers, however improved finances and lifestyles indicate the “grey pound” has the potential to become lucrative. This exploratory research seeks to identify the current expectation of Scottish older consumers in relation to the products and services available in the supermarket and food retailers. A questionnaire was distributed to participants aged over 50 years in Scotland to voice the opinion of the older consumer in relation to shopping experience and availability of product. The results support previous research indicating the improved lifestyles of older consumers, demonstrating that previous perceptions of older people as impoverished and immobile are not representative of this group. This study contributes to the demand for more information on older consumers׳ food shopping habits and preference in Scotland. It attempts to provide useful recommendations for supermarkets and food retailers in fulfilling the needs of this rising consumer segment. This research concludes that supermarkets could improve access to both products and services to meet the demand from this growing segment of society, through better understanding of their requirements in terms of customer service, shopping experience, product size, price, access and mobility.     

Educating limited resource older adults for better choices to lower risk of food insecurity

United States (U.S.) national and North Carolina state data on older adult food insecurity in combination with associated poor nutrition‐related health outcomes point to a critical need for interventions to improve their food security. Nearly 8% of North Carolinians aged 60 and older and 11% of those aged 50–59 are food insecure, placing North Carolina in the top ten states in the U.S. for food insecurity for both age groups. Therefore, the Better Choices intervention was designed to educate limited‐income older adults in ways to manage their meager resources to purchase more and healthier foods. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the Better Choices intervention in improving the knowledge, attitude, and behavior of participants concerning their food money resource management. Older adults (n = 453) with ages ranging from 59 to over 90 years participated in 8 weeks of educational programming delivered by educators in 15 participating North Carolina counties. In a cross‐over program design participating counties were randomly assigned to two groups, to create a control for the food money resource management treatment. A three‐points‐in‐time survey supported longitudinal measurement. Independent samples t‐tests showed no significant differences between groups at baseline. Paired sample t‐test results show the intervention was effective with statistically significant improvement of participants' knowledge regarding preparing a healthy meal on a budget, beans as a low‐cost alternative to meat, and the use of unit pricing to compare products to identify the best value. Participant‐developed action plans reflected planned behavior change. Study results show this group of older adults were capable of and willing to adopt new behaviors for a healthier lifestyle. While not a representative sample, the broad applicability of adult learning and planned behavior theories underpinning the program lead us to conclude that the methods and theories applied in this intervention should be of use to educators and practitioners serving limited‐resource older adult populations.     

An assessment of the proximity of clothing to self scale for older persons

Sontag and Lee developed the Proximity of Clothing to Self (PCS) Scale, an objective measure of the psychological closeness of clothing to the self, and validated a 4‐factor, 24‐item scale with adolescents. The research reported here extends their work by validating a 3‐factor, 19‐item PCS Scale for use with older persons, age 65 and over. A mail survey was sent to a national random sample of 1700 older persons in the United States resulting in 250 respondents in the final sample. Three analytical rounds of confirmatory factor analysis to test the construct validity of the PCS Scale were conducted by using a structural equation modelling programme. The validated three PCS dimensions (i.e. factors) are clothing in relation to: (1) self as structure – process; (2) self‐esteem – evaluative and affective processes; and (3) body image and body cathexis. The researchers recommend using this 19‐item PCS Scale for future consumer behaviour research on older persons when investigating the importance of dress, clothing needs or clothing involvement to meet basic human needs, self‐esteem, life satisfaction and successful aging.     

Adapting training to meet the preferred learning styles of different generations

This article considers how training professionals can respond to differences in training preferences between generational groups. It adopts two methods. First, it surveys the existing research and finds generally that preferences for training approaches can differ between groups and specifically that younger employees are perceived to leverage technology more at work. Second, it uses a qualitative grounded theory approach to examine the perspectives of a sample of older and a sample of younger workers in the United States. It finds that both samples perceive a greater comfort level of younger employees in leveraging technology‐enabled training and that the older sample were more comfortable with on‐the‐job and mentorship development efforts than more formal approaches. The implication for practice is that training needs to be more innovative so that, for any particular training intervention, potential trainees have a degree of freedom of choice of learning style. Possible approaches are discussed.     

Designing warnings to compensate for age-related changes in perceptual and cognitive abilities

A variety of individual difference variables affect whether or not someone notices, encodes, comprehends, and complies with a warning. Failures at any of these stages reduce the effectiveness of warnings. Development of effective warnings must be based on understanding the characteristics of the product user. As the population grows older, consideration of age-related changes in perceptual and cognitive abilities becomes more relevant to the warning designer. For example, aging researchers have identified a variety of changes in the visual system (e.g., acuity, contrast sensitivity, and color discrimination) and cognitive function (e.g., working memory and reading comprehension). By considering the abilities of the product user, the impact of these age-related changes may be minimized. The goal of this article is to describe findings from research on aging and to make recommendations about how designers can increase the effectiveness of warnings for the older adult. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Japan's demographic revolution? A study of advertising practitioners' views on stereotypes

This article presents results from a survey of advertising practitioners in Japan focusing on their opinions about the communication objectives and stereotypes, specifically the effectiveness of older spokespersons, their general views on older models in advertising and the effectiveness of older models by product category. We find that these opinions are rather positive. The intention to use a larger number of older models is affected by the perceived effectiveness of older spokespersons and the expected increase in older models and client interest. When targeting an older audience, older spokespersons are seen as particularly effective for the product category of health/medical, but for a general audience it is financial services/insurance. Regardless of product category, they are perceived more effective when targeting an older versus a general audience and when targeting aged 50–64 versus 65 plus.     

Older adults' motivations for gift giving to charitable organizations: An exchange theory perspective

Although corporate contributions to charity have been the subject of much discussion and research, little attention and research has been devoted to understanding charitable gift-giving behavior of individuals. Using exchange theory, we provide explanations for gift-giving behavior of older adults. A model is developed and tested using LISREL. The results suggest that social interaction and control motivations are important predictors of gift-giving behavior. Contrary to expectation, esteem enhancement motivations were negatively related to charitable gift giving. These results provide partial support for an exchange-theory-based explanation of older adults' gift-giving behavior. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Examining older consumers’ loyalty towards older brands in grocery retailing

This paper compares the buying behaviours of older and younger consumers of older and newer brands in grocery retailing. We analysed 88,000 purchases of 60 brands from six categories. Behavioural loyalty measures for different consumer age cohorts were calculated and compared relative to each brand's launch date. Results showed older consumers do not buy older brands more often than newer brands. Older consumers also do not principally buy older brands. Therefore, brands of all ages compete for consumers of all ages. Findings indicate that for newer brands, older consumers should not be ignored as a market for growing the brand. For older brands, despite the default advantage of long-term exposure of older consumers, such advantage will fade if these brands fail to maintain a competitive presence in the market, as older consumers trial and become loyal to newer brands.     

年龄、临近死亡时间和老年人医疗费用——关于“红鲱鱼”假说的验证

年龄的增长是否必然带来医疗费用的增长?以往的实证研究仍存在争议。使用CLHLS数据,区分不同人群,采用两部模型研究年龄和临近死亡时间与老年人医疗费用的关系。研究发现:虽然在低龄群体中医疗费用随年龄增长而提高,但高龄群体随着年龄的增长医疗费用显著下降;在死亡样本中医疗费用随年龄的增长而下降,而存活样本中并未发现年龄的显著影响。然而,临近死亡时间越短则医疗费用越高,这一规律在各群体中保持稳健。临近死亡时间并未显著影响失能老年人的医疗费用,却显著提高了一年内死亡样本的照料费用。研究表明,寿命的延长并未导致医疗费用的增长,而是推迟了医疗费用高峰期的到来。为此有必要发展和完善临终关怀服务和长期照护保障制度,以降低老年人生命末期的医疗费用并提高生命质量。     

The influence of model age on children's reactions to advertising stimuli

Two studies are reported that explore the role of age of model as a nonverbal cue in advertising directed to children. Conventional advertising wisdom holds “older is better” when casting for commercials directed to children. The purpose of the current work is to focus on the merits of this wisdom. Three different age ranges of models were paired with either toys (Study 1) or foods (Study 2). Preschoolers' attitudinal (affective, evaluative, and behavioral intent) responses to the products were measured. Study 1 (n = 36) with toys suggested support for the conventional wisdom. Study 2 (n = 36) was a replication of procedures from the first study with substitution of food items for toys. Study 2 resulted in no statistical differences at the traditional .05 level, but a trend appeared on behalf of the older- and younger-age models outperforming the same-age ones. The second study's results suggested that the nature of the product may moderate the effects of the adage, “older is better.”     

Capturing the voice of older consumers in relation to financial products and services

The purpose of this pilot study was to focus on the suitability of selected financial products for older people. Bank accounts and equity release products were selected for this study by an expert advisory panel. New marketing initiatives are being used to promote bank accounts, including forms of insurance, for the ‘50+’ market. Also, older people are now expected to provide for their retirement and it is anticipated that equity release will be one product which may be used to fund and maintain consumer lifestyles. In the first phase of the study, a questionnaire was distributed to 152 people aged over 50 years in Scotland. Eighty‐three were completed, a response rate of 55%. The results informed the development of questions for the second phase which were discussed with 46 participants via the World Café in June 2008, enabling a deeper insight into their opinions. The research found that consumers had lost trust in financial product and service providers because of the perceived excessive profits of banks and lack of customer service. Further, many products and services were prohibited for or incurred extra costs to those aged over 60 or 65 years, leaving limited choices, and equity release products were seen as a last resort for those in financial difficulty. Although the profitability of banks has changed dramatically since the completion of data collection, the issues identified by older consumers in Scotland will be of international interest. The demographic changes resulting in an increasing proportion of elderly people in the population are reflected throughout the UK and many Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development countries. Similar financial products and services, which were the focus of this study, are promoted internationally, offering opportunities to replicate the research methods.     

Using sublexical priming to enhance brand name phonetic symbolism effects in young children

We examine whether phonetic symbolism effects are conditional on the development of phonological awareness (an ability to recognize sounds in words). Further, we introduce sublexical priming as a means to enhance phonetic symbolism effects. Across four experiments, we demonstrate that product evaluations, consistent with phonetic symbolism theory, are more (less) likely when a child is older (younger). Specifically, older children who can recognize sounds in words perceive back vowel brand names (e.g., Vopoz) as slower, heavier, larger, smoother, creamier, chewier, and thicker than brand names with front vowel sounds (e.g., Vipiz). In addition, we show that phonetic symbolism effects manifest when younger children (low in phonological awareness) are primed to focus on parts of a word/s, which we term sublexical priming. We present embedded tasks and chunking of brand names as strategic communication techniques that can be implemented as sublexical primes to enhance phonetic symbolism effects in younger children.     

失能老人的照料需要满足状况及其影响因素分析

通过对2005-2018年中国老年人健康长寿影响因素调查数据的分析,评估失能老人的照料需要满足状况及其变化,探讨什么因素会影响未满足的需要,并重点比较这些因素对部分未满足与完全未满足的需要的影响的差异。研究的主要发现是:截至2018年,超过一半的失能老人的照料需要部分未满足,照料需要完全未满足的比例约为3%,并且2005-2018年间照料需要未满足的比例始终维持在50%以上;照料资源倾向于中重度失能老人,轻度失能老人是照料盲区;虽然中重度失能老人几乎都有人照料,但他们仍需更多照料。据此提出,关注长期照料服务与一般养老服务之间的空白地带,构建从重度失能到健康的连续性健康养老服务体系;为功能严重衰退的失能老人建立以专业长期照护为主、家庭照料支持为辅的服务模式。     

Effect evaluation of a multifactor community intervention to reduce falls among older persons

The objective of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a multifactor and multimethod community intervention programme to reduce falls among older persons by at least 20%. In a pre-test-post test design, self-reported falls were registered for 10 months in the intervention community and two control communities. After the pre-test registration, participants followed the intervention programme (Information and education, Training and exercise and Environmental modifications) for 14 months. All communities were situated in the Province of Friesland in the north of The Netherlands. The study ran from November 1999 to November 2002. The participants (intervention 1122; control 630) were aged 65 years and older and lived independently. There was no significant decrease in total falls, except outside the home, among women (odds ratio = 0.54, 95% CI = 0.30-0.98; p = 0.041). The multifactor intervention programme was not effective. The reduction of falls outside the home among women could be due to reduced outdoor physical activity.     

The protective effect of fences: providing protection to the 0-4 year-old

Abstract

In this study the minimum standards are investigated which must be imposed on fences in order for them to act as a barrier to children from the particular risk group (2 and 3-year-olds).The study sought to establish the minimum height usable, because a fence of this type can be climbed more easily by older children and young people, and hence damage due to vandalism (by these older people in order to pass it) is less likely to occur. This is very important, because damage of this kind also destroys the fence's ability to protect very young children.

By means of a literature study parameters were identified that are relevant for the ease with which fences can be climbed. These include: personal characteristics and fence characteristics such as: height, geometry (chain-link fabric, bars, and welded steel wires), top geometry and post flexibility. A design set-up was made having 5 different types of fences and the effective height of the fence could be changed during the study by means of steps in front and behind the fence.

The testers were 31 boys and 35 girls divided according to age (by half years), producing 7 groups of roughly 10 children each. The children were asked to climb these fences. Information is given on the percentage of children (per age group) stopped by each fence, and the mean time required for successful attempts. It must be concluded that it is hard to prevent somewhat older children (4-5 yrs old) from climbing a fence. The fence having flexible posts and the one having bars were found to be the most effective.