Older consumers, new challenges: Portrayals of older consumers in advertising and their persuasive effects

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Martin Eisend
• Subject Area: Management and Marketing
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 523901552

Older consumers are an increasing group in society, with a rapidly growing spending power (particularly in developed countries). Today, so called "elder professionals" (45-64 years) along with seniors (>64 years) constitute a wealthy group. They can afford more than their younger counterparts; they are increasingly at ease with technological innovations (e.g., most Twitter and Facebook accounts belong to 40-year-olds) and they even adopt some innovations earlier than younger consumers (e.g., e-bikes). Despite the growing importance of older people as consumers, advertising mostly uses young (i.e., between 20-30 years of age) endorsers, and it neglects older ones. Furthermore, there is no research on how older consumers are currently represented and portrayed in advertising, and how any differences in representations and portrayals can be explained. There is no systematic review on persuasive effects of older people portrayals in advertising. Existing empirical evidence is scarce, inconclusive and neglects important social effects, such as age stereotyping (inaccurate beliefs and mental representations about a given age group) and ageism (discrimination of a person based on their age). Our goal is to address the following research problems: how often and in what way older people are portrayed in advertising; what are the persuasive effects of older people portrayals in advertising, and how these effects can be explained. To examine these research problems, we will conduct several empirical studies. Our work will contribute to the field of advertising and consumer behavior in the following ways: 1) A content analysis will add new empirical data about the current representation and portrayals of older people in advertising in various media outlets; it will help explain variations in the representation of older people in advertising across time and countries. 2) A meta-analysis will provide an empirical generalization of prior (mixed) findings. Empirical generalizations are considered to be one of the basic forms of marketing knowledge and cornerstones for advancement of empirically grounded theories. They also shield us from random or underpowered empirical findings, questionable results, claims or conclusions. 3) A meta-analysis and experiments will help explain variations in the effects of older people in advertising and find boundary conditions to the effects of older people portrayals in advertising. In sum, our work will contribute to the development of such scientific disciplines as advertising and consumer behavior by providing new and generalizable knowledge about representation, portrayal, and effects of older people in advertising; by providing new explanations for the representation, portrayals, and effects of older people in advertising; by resolving inconsistencies in existing findings via testing new moderators and mediators.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria, Poland
• Cooperation Partner: Professorin Dr. Malgorzata Karpinska-Krakowiak