Australian New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference Presentation

Associate Professor Foula Kopanidis presented at the ANZMAC conference in Wellington New Zealand, in the Social Marketing track. The research paper was entitled ‘Identify Me; Voice of Older Australians’. The paper presented three older age consumer identities framed around participants’ attitudes toward, and experience of, aging, their consumption influences, and their attitude to marketing communication and brands. The findings highlighted that consumption identities and behaviours have been influenced by their ‘life course’, in terms of major transitions such as retirement, loss of a spouse, grandparenthood and increased health issues. The findings suggest that, instead of homogenous age-based marketing, a more sophisticated segmentation that considers the internal resources of the older consumer, their social connections, self-perceptions and consumption attitudes and influences must be considered. Further, by understanding consumption identities, social marketers can better customise intervention strategies to facilitate positive aging and healthier lifestyle and consumption choices.