Understanding older consumers' new product-related information behaviors—A life-span theory perspective

For firms facing an aging society, substantial adoption gaps that often exist for new product alternatives between older and younger consumers pose a significant challenge. To examine the root cause of this phenomenon, our research draws on life-span theory and is based empirically on a set of studies involving 2050 participants in both field and controlled settings. As a first contribution, we show that, in contrast to growth-oriented younger consumers, older consumers exhibit lower levels of novelty seeking because of their relatively higher prioritization of maintenance goals. This predisposition leads older consumers to perceive the inconvenience induced by the possible behavior change associated with purchasing new (vs. established) products in a given category as more salient than potential benefit gains. In comparison, younger consumers perceive benefit gains to be more salient. For established product alternatives with familiar benefits, there is no such clear age-related difference. As a second contribution, we propose easy-to-implement adaptations of the communication strategy to address this issue, and we examine the effectiveness of these adaptations in a field study at the point-of-purchase. Specifically, since prevention-framed (vs. promotion-framed) claims are more compatible with older consumers' maintenance orientation, they can increase the salience of benefit gains over behavior change for new product alternatives and foster older consumers' product-related information behaviors and new product consideration. These results have important implications for researchers and managers as they refine the understanding of older consumers' acceptance of new products.