ABSTRACT
In terms of actual brand choice and brand choice processes, important differences characterize consumers of different age groups. Yet, interest in the impact of age on brand choice moves well beyond its managerial significance for marketing. In many categories, brand choice typifies the choices made among competing alternatives that have become known to decision makers at very different dates (e.g., one of the leading perfumes was introduced almost 90 years ago, while dozens of new perfumes are launched every year). Thus, a given consumer typically encounters different brands at different periods of life (e.g., one brand at age 15 years and another brand at age 60 years), and similarly, each given brand appears to different consumers at different periods of their lives (e.g., when they come of age or when they retire). Brand choice therefore offers a critical field of investigation that contrasts vividly with lab choices that provide only artificial material, for which all competing options are equally new to the respondents.
