The Maturing Marketplace: Buying Habits of Baby Boomers and Their Parents

The buying habits of baby boomers really do differ from those of their parents. The authors show how marketers can use each group’s consumption patterns to reach both markets most effectively. Another insight: buying habits of these groups differ according to the product or service offered. By analyzing each cohort’s buying habits in various purchasing situations, the book dramatizes the need for customized marketing strategies. Based on two national surveys conducted by the Center for Mature Studies, Georgia State University, the book will be essential for marketing professionals and their academic colleagues.

Moschis and his coauthors concentrate on food products, apparel, footwear, drugs and cosmetics, housing, technology products and telecommunications services, health care, travel and leisure, and financial and insurance services. They cover preferences for selected products and services, patronage habits, methods of purchasing, motives for preferences for specific brands and services and for payment methods, and reasons for buying direct. Each chapter addresses a specific product or service category and includes analyses of survey respondents by demographic and lifestyle characteristics and media use habits. The book concludes with a discussion of the implications of their research and the ways in which it will lead marketers to design more effective strategies, not only today but in the future.

GEORGE P. MOSCHIS is Professor of Marketing and Director of the Center for Mature Consumer Studies at Georgia State University, Atlanta. A member of the University’s gerontology program, he has lectured frequently and has consulted for leading corporations and government agencies worldwide. Among his many publications are three books published by Quorum: Marketing to Older Consumers (1992), Marketing Strategies for the Mature Market (1994), and Gerontographics (1996).

EUEHUN LEE is Assistant Professor of marketing at Sejong University in Seoul, Korea. He is an affiliate member of the Center for Mature Consumer Studies at Georgia State University. Dr. Lee has worked as consultant and marketing researcher for several firms and government agencies in Korea and the United States. His research interests include the effects of life events on consumer behaviors over one’s life span.

ANIL MATHUR is Associate Dean for faculty Development and Associate professor of Marketing at the Frank G. Zarb School of Business, Hofstra University. He has published over thirty articles in journals and conference proceedings. His research interest is in the areas of Consumer Behavior, Services Marketing, Marketing Research and Research Methodology. Dr. Mathur has consulted with numerous corporations on a multitude of marketing problems.

JENNIFER STRAUTMAN is an Atlanta-based freelance writer and editor. She earned her Master of Science degree in marketing from Georgia State University. Earlier in her career, she worked for the Associated Press as a newswriter and for the State Taxation Institute in Atlanta as a reporter for several publications for attorneys, CPAs and other professionals in the tax arena. Most recently, Ms. Strautman worked in public affairs and communications as an associate with an Atlanta consulting firm.