The impact of salient product cues on aging adults

Abstract

The study draws attention to the increasing number of aging consumers who have been a neglected group in past studies on non-prescription medicines. Past research has shown that perceived risk is a critical determinant of high-risk products such as pharmaceuticals. To reduce that perception, extant consumer literature suggests that consumers use intrinsic product cues, as they connote more risk-reducing information than extrinsic cues, although they are also used as a significant variable for that purpose. Focusing on these salient product cues, a conjoint study was performed with two product types for two age groups to examine if the impact of the cues varied according to age. Results suggest that the impact of some cues may be culturally bounded and some product related, but the impact of packaging-related cues of colour in particular seems to change in relation to age. The results put forward that segmentation due to aging in response to packaging design may lead to more effective marketing.

Keywords

Aging consumers colour conjoint analysis extrinsic attributes packaging attributes segmentation

Introduction

Senior consumers are a growing market segment that represents a number of challenges as well as potentials for the healthcare industry. This is partly owing to increased life expectancy, and past research emphasizes that seniors today are healthier and take an increased interest in their health.¹ It is also reported that senior consumers are heavy users of pharmaceuticals and spend more money on medication today than before.^2,3 However, challenging situations arise as past research reports that consumers are health illiterate and lack knowledge of pharmaceuticals.⁴ This concerns senior consumers especially; in fact, seniors are documented to need the assistance of pharmacists more often than younger adults in order to evaluate pharmaceuticals, to state brand preferences, and to make choices.³

The previous notions on senior consumers, in addition to the current trends within the healthcare industry, contribute to the research direction of this study. Today, the healthcare industry is striving for self-care and self-medication, which means that consumers are expected to take a greater responsibility for their health. Other current aspects of the industry are the increased number of brands of non-prescription pharmaceuticals as a result of the allowance of generic brands and conversion of prescription medicines to non-prescription medicines. In addition, an increasing number of pharmacies are turning to self-service retailers with a broad range of related product lines. Non-prescription pharmaceuticals are even freely available not only as over-the-counter (OTC) products, but also in grocery stores in some countries; taken into account the increasing sale of medicines on the Internet. As these trends mean that the expert knowledge of pharmacists is not always available, a question to be answered is: what influences senior consumers’ preferences and choices of non-prescription medicines in such cases? Seniors are found to be brand loyal, but what if the preferred brand is not available?

This study explores the impact of intrinsic and extrinsic product attributes on preferences of high-risk products, i.e. pharmaceuticals. Extrinsic attributes, such as manufacturer, country of origin (COO), and packaging, are lower-level product cues that have no impact on the product’s performance, in contrast to the higher-level intrinsic cues.⁵ Intrinsic attributes connote more risk-reducing information, whereas extrinsic cues are found to be used as means of judging product quality and of reducing the sense of perceived risk.⁵ Given the impact of these salient cues and the fact that seniors are found to be more risk aversive than younger adults,⁶ it is surprising that there has been almost no research on the impact of these cues on senior consumers’ preferences of non-prescription pharmaceuticals.⁷

By analysing the impact of these attributes, this study attempts to contribute to the field of consumer research. While consumers’ health illiteracy and lack of product knowledge is acknowledged,⁴ the influential aspect of salient product attributes is not.⁸ The focus of this study is on senior consumers, who constitute an ignored consumer segment that deserves attention in consumer research.

The study is pursued by first setting a background for the empirical study by discussing risk perception and the role of consumers’ age, intrinsic and extrinsic cues, and cues related to the design of the package. The empirical conjoint study involves two product types (painkillers and sore throat medicines) and two age groups (students (18–30) and seniors (60+)). The study concludes with discussion.

Aging consumers and risk perception

Seniors as consumers

In recent years the population has aged, which means that an increasing proportion of the population in the Western world is older people. For example, nearly half of the households in Finland currently have at least one member aged 55 or older.⁹ It is estimated that in the United States, the number of Americans aged 65+ will increase from 35 million in 2010 to 71 million by 2030.¹⁰

The existence of this aging population brings about a need to understand the changes that aging has on individuals and their behaviour as consumers. Although the basic characteristics of a human tend not to change due to aging, changes occur due to psychosocial and biophysical aging.¹¹ Psychological and social aging is less apparent. These changes are related to how a senior perceives herself, e.g. as an old person, and the social role to which she relates herself, e.g. a retiree and a grandparent.¹² The changes also appear, for example, as a preference for emotional rather than rational messages.¹³ Biophysical changes are mainly related to changes in the bodily system, such as the speed and manner of information processing and physical and health impairments.¹¹ Research reports that these changes appear as problems in terms of finding and using relevant information, particularly when information is presented in a complex way or is unorganized.¹⁴ In addition, research documents that the changes appear as a preference for closely located stores owing to a decline in mobility and as a preference for reader-friendly labels owing to a decline in vision, for example.¹⁵

Aging also has attitudinal and behavioural impact.¹² For some seniors aging is only numbers, whereas other seniors perceive themselves as old and act accordingly. The fact that aging also manifests itself in consumers’ behavioural changes means that aging affects product preferences and choices. For example, Leventhal¹⁶ argues that aging consumers will try new products, but for different reasons than younger adults. Their behaviour is driven by personal needs instead of trends. On the one hand, it is documented that the purchasing power of seniors appears as a preference for products perceived as high quality, for example by using the brand name as a product cue.¹² On the other hand, it is found that seniors are engaged in bargain hunting, which means a preference for products based solely on the product price.¹⁷

Schufeldt et al. stress that aging creates behavioural changes when it concerns non-prescription medicines as well.¹⁸ This is supported by Sansgiry and Cady, who found that seniors were more involved in the purchase of non-prescription medicines than younger adults.³ This means that seniors perceive pharmaceuticals as more risky, as risk is found to be related with involvement.¹⁹ Seniors are also documented to differ from other consumers in that they are more concerned about the print size of labels, manufacturer of the pharmaceutical, and functional aspects of the package, such as ease of opening.³ Seniors rely on experience, which supports the findings that seniors prefer familiar brands and may be more brand loyal than younger consumers.

Risk perception and risk reduction

Consumers perceive risk in most purchase situations, and particularly in those that involve a level of uncertainty as to the consequences of those purchases.^20,21 Previous studies on risk perception report that the greater the perception of uncertainty, the greater the perception of risk, and consumers will be more likely to aim at reducing that perception.²²^–²⁴ Pharmaceuticals are related to health, which means that they involve a higher risk than consumer goods.²⁵ Accordingly, although consumers perceive risk in most purchase situations, risk perception is found to be a central construct explaining behaviour towards health-related purchases.²⁶ Research has detected several strategies that consumers use to reduce the sense of risk. For example, risk is reduced by buying products in stores associated with product safety, buying quality-assured products, using expert knowledge, and staying brand loyal, i.e. buying familiar brands.^27,28 However, having these means unavailable, consumers are found to reduce the sense of risk by using intrinsic and extrinsic product attributes.²⁷

Risk reduction by intrinsic, extrinsic, and packaging cues

Intrinsic product cues are inherent to the product: they form or define the physical product and cannot be changed without changing the product, such as its ingredients, taste, smell, colour, or appearance. These attributes are influential, as, first of all, they are found to have a greater impact on consumers’ evaluation of products than extrinsic attributes.²⁹ Second, intrinsic cues are reported to have greater credence than extrinsic attributes because they connote more risk-reducing information than extrinsic attributes.⁵ Although risk is only one dimension of quality, it is reported that intrinsic cues influence the assessment of quality perception more than extrinsic cues.³⁰

In addition to intrinsic cues, consumers use extrinsic product cues as a means of reducing the sense of perceived product risk.⁵ Research documents that extrinsic attributes are used in choices where intrinsic cues are complex or unavailable, meaning consumers cannot evaluate and sufficiently predict the consequences of the intrinsic cues,^5,31,32 such as in the case of pharmaceuticals. Extrinsic cues are also used when there is a lack of knowledge of the product type in question and a lack of time, i.e. when consumers are in hurry.^5,31,32 Research reveals that reputation in particular is an essential extrinsic product cue. Accordingly, credibility for the product increases as a result of a well-known reputation.^29,33 A well-known reputation is related to both the brand name and manufacturer, and, in addition to having the greatest impact on consumer perceptions of product quality,³³ it is found to be related to a higher level of product safety perception.²⁸ In addition to reputation, consumers use COO to reduce the sense of product risk⁶ and to increase the perception of product safety.³⁴ Accordingly, domestic brands and manufacturers are favoured, particularly in Western countries, as a means of risk reduction.

Packaging is an extrinsic attribute of the product. These packaging-related cues, such as colour, shape, and font, serve several functions on packages from evoking aesthetic responses, attracting attention, and communicating product quality.^35,36 Although packaging attributes are found to have an impact on consumers’ product and brand preferences,^37,38 studies on the impact of these cues on preferences of high-risk products are scarce. The fact that these attributes deserve attention is supported by Pattison and Olsen, who imply that packages can have an impact on aging consumers’ choices in particular, as the ability to process verbal information may be impaired.³⁹ Packaging colours are commonly referred to as search attributes because of their ability to attract attention. In particular, novel, deviating, vivid, and warm colours, such as yellow, orange, and red, attract attention.^40,41 However, consumers’ attention is also attracted by package shape and fonts.^41,42 Novelty and deviation seems to play an essential role here as well.^40,42 The fact that colours may influence product evaluation and that this effect is contextual is supported by research that found that clothing is preferred in blue, red, and black, whereas blue, grey, red, white, and black cars are preferred.⁴³ In addition, research implies that contextual colour preferences are related to age, as it is documented that children favour certain colours when choosing sweets⁴⁴ and by culture, as Jacobs et al.⁴⁵ found that painkillers were associated with grey by Chinese people, grey and blue by Japanese people, and red by Americans. The communicative role of colours is supported by studies that found that colours are brand related,^40,46 and are used to infer product quality and product meanings.^35,40 For example, in addition to being one of the most preferred colours,⁴⁷ blue is, in general, associated with high product quality.⁴⁵ The research stream on shape and font is still in its infancy, and research is still needed to understand the impact of these cues.^42,48 Research within the field has focused on various shapes and shapes’ relation to volume, whereas font has been studied mainly from a multi-cue perspective. On the one hand, traditional, classic, and straight shapes are found to convey product reliability and familiarity.⁴⁹ On the other hand, elongated packages are found to influence volume perception, as these packages are perceived to be larger.⁵⁰^–⁵³ Research has concluded that consumers hardly evaluate fonts per se, but instead evaluate them from a multi-cue perspective. This means that the impact of letter fonts is most likely related to the brand name.^42,48

Methodology

To study the impact of salient product cues on preferences of non-prescription medicines, conjoint analysis was used to develop profiles that respondents rank ordered.

Conjoint design

Conjoint analysis is used to measure consumer preferences with the assumption that brands consist of several attributes,⁵⁴ which means that it overcomes the problems associated with single-cue studies by representing consumer choice as a multi-attribute judgment task. Despite the complex nature of conjoint analysis and the widespread uncertainty regarding its internal workings, it is capable of producing reliable and relatively sophisticated results from rather primitive ordinal preference data.⁵⁵ Additionally, there are few statistical assumptions involving the estimation of the conjoint model, with the emphasis on conceptual assumptions instead.⁵⁶ Hence, the reliability of conjoint output hinges on the selection of realistic and crucial attributes and levels, and on the attainment of a representative sample, both of which were ensured in this study.

The conjoint profiles for two product types were based on four vs. five attributes that represented realistic intrinsic, extrinsic, and packaging cues. The intrinsic cue was taste; extrinsic cues included country of origin and reputation; and packaging cues were colour, shape, and letter font. Combining all attribute levels resulted in 144 vs. 576 profiles. By using a fractional factorial design, the number of profiles was reduced while maintaining the ability to estimate the utility. This was done by performing the orthogonal design program available in SPSS version 14, which is extensively used by current studies.^49,57

A full-profile method was used to design the package profiles, which means that all attributes were represented as the respondents were required to rank the profiles according to their preferences. The main experiment was preceded by several studies, during which the two product types, the intrinsic, extrinsic, and packaging attributes, and their levels were identified and determined, and finally also tested.

In the main experiment, product type 1 (painkillers) included four attributes, whereas product type 2 (sore throat medicine) was designed with five attributes. The possible combinations (4 × 3 × 3 × 4 = 144 and 4 × 3 × 3 × 4 × 4 = 576) were fractioned to 16 profiles per product type. Country of origin was combined with the manufacturer into one attribute with four levels (known domestic, unknown domestic, known foreign, and unknown foreign). Brand name and price were excluded, as the study was experimental, including only experimental packages. Price was though included in one of the test studies, and those conjoint results revealed that it is a complicated attribute and could potentially lead to distorted findings. For example, the results showed that low-price was preferred, whereas consumers in fact tend to prefer high-price pharmaceutical as means of risk reduction.³⁴ Colour included four levels (blue, green, yellow, and red), package shape included three levels (elongated, portrait, and square), and letter font included three levels conveying various meanings (1, 2, and 3). Font 1 stood for a conservative brand; font 2 represented a modern brand; and font 3 was interpreted to convey a rather neutral letter font representing a brand follower. The interpretation of the letter fonts was first made by an established package designer, and then tested using a qualitative approach to ensure that the meanings conveyed would fit the study. It is notable that taste was the only intrinsic cue expressed by the respondent for any of the four product types that were initially evaluated by the respondents. Therefore, taste was regarded as an inherent attribute essential for stating a preference for sore throat medicines, but not for painkillers. In order to imitate real life, product type 2 included the intrinsic cue of taste: menthol, honey and lemon, mint, and neutral (included sweeteners but not a specific flavour).

A packaging company tailor-made the packages according to the design resulting in 32 (16 + 16) experimental brand packages. The manufacturers and tastes were expressed verbally, such as known domestic manufacturer, or mint. The packages were presented in three shapes and in four colours, and by expressing the name of the product type in question in three different letter fonts. In order to exclude the impact of material and volume, these two attributes were kept identical for all packages. In order to imitate authentic packages on the two product types, product information was written on the back of the packages. This text was identical for all packages in a product type.

Subjects and procedure

The main exploratory and experimental study included a total sample of 106 respondents, where 56 seniors and 50 younger adults rank ordered the profiles. The total sample consisted of 71 females and 35 males. The seniors were active seniors aged 60–85. The most essential criteria for participating in the conjoint tasks were that the senior be aged 60+ and buy her own non-prescription medicines. As the conjoint tasks were mainly done in two service centres for seniors, most were retired. The younger adults were undergraduate students aged 18–30. The respondents participated in the study voluntarily without any fee and without being aware of the aims of the study. Data were collected in Helsinki and Vantaa, i.e. in the capital area of Finland.

Data collection continued in the two samples until a pattern started to emerge. This means that data were collected until a saturation point was reached in terms of findings, which is methodologically valid with exploratory conjoint analysis as one is looking for a clear pattern of responses.⁵⁸ The split-half method was used to test the validity of the judgment of saturation point. It was judged that the findings of the exploratory study were valid within the chosen samples. Each respondent participated in both conjoint tasks, which were performed one on one.

The experimental brand packages were placed on a table, and the respondents were asked to choose the most preferred package in a situation where they had a minor illness requiring treatment. Then they were asked to choose the second most preferred package, and so on. Finally, the respondents had ranked the 16 packages in both product types in order from the most preferred package to the least preferred one. Based on experience from the test studies, the profile cards of product type 1 were ranked first, as it seemed to be easier to state a preference on product type 2 because of the taste attribute. One session lasted 15–30 minutes.

Results

The use of conjoint analysis meant that part-worth utilities were calculated for each level of each attribute in the conjoint profiles. The relative importance of each attribute was then calculated as the part-worth utility range (i.e. highest part-worth utility minus lowest part-worth utility) of the attribute divided by the sum of the part-worth utility ranges of all attributes. These relative importance values add up to 100 per cent. Table 1 shows the relative importance of each attribute based on part-worth results. In addition to knowing how consumers rate the relative importance of the attributes, it is equally important to understand consumers’ preferences within each level of the attribute. Kendall’s tau (=0.962, 0.845, 0.912, and 0.883) shows that the predicted orderings were fairly close to the actual ones.

Table 1.

Results of conjoint analysis (n = 106)

		Seniors product type 1		Younger adults product type 1		Seniors product type 2		Younger adults product type 2
Attribute	Level	Utility	Rel. imp. (%)	Utility	Rel. imp. (%)	Utility	Rel. imp. (%)	Utility	Rel. imp. (%)
Taste	Menthol					0.589	32.6	0.894	32.7
	Honey & lemon					0.621		0.788
	Mint					−0.411		0.187
	Neutral					−0.799		−1.869
Colour	Blue	0.177	33.04	1.09	29.8	0.429	21.54	0.819	18
	Green	−0.795		−0.532		0.304		0.213
	Yellow	−0.509		−0.686		−0.237		0.519
	Red	1.127		0.128		−0.496		−1.550
Shape	Elongated	1.639	26.97	1.41	23.09	0.321	11.57	0.454	12.89
	Portrait	−0.545		−0.19		0.103		0.289
	Square	−1.095		−1.39		−0.424		−0.743
Font	1	0.242	12.82	0.81	9.3	0.518	10.78	0.90	11.78
	2	−0.226		−0.76		−0.192		−0.87
	3	−0.017		−0.005		−0.326		−0.813
Manufacturer	Known domestic	1.495	27.18	2.449	37.69	0.821	23.49	1.388	24.6
	Unknown domestic	−0.450		−0.692		0.321		0.119
	Known foreign	0.364		1.083		−0.183		−0.075
	Unknown foreign	−1.409		−2.840		−0.960		−1.431
Kendall’s tau		0.962		.912		.845		0.883

RI, relative importance.

The results show nearly equal order of attribute preferences for the two samples for both product types. In other words, manufacturer was the second most important painkiller attribute for seniors and the most important for younger adults, accounting for the highest percentage of explained variance (27.18% vs. 37.69%). Packaging colour was the most important attribute for seniors and the second most important for younger adults, accounting for 33.04% vs. 29.8% of the variances. This was followed by packaging shape (26.97% vs. 23.09%) and letter font (12.82% vs. 9.3%). Taste was found to be the most important attribute of sore throat medicine (32.6% vs. 32.7%) for the seniors as well as the younger adults. Manufacturer was next in importance, explaining 23.49% vs. 24.6% of the variance. The packaging attribute of colour (21.54% vs. 18%) was more important than shape (11.57% vs. 12.89%) and letter font (10.78% vs. 11.78%).

Although the importance scores did not reveal hardly any differences, variances within the attributes were detected both across the two samples and for the two product types.

Intrinsic cues

The intrinsic attribute of taste was the most important product cue for sore throat medicine. These scores suggest that consumers evaluate product quality in particular using concrete product information. Being a health-related product and a medicine that is supposed to be sucked on, the result is indeed expected. As the variance of the utility scores between the two samples is minor, the results further suggest that the preference for particular tastes is not age bounded.

Extrinsic cues

Interestingly, the utility scores for the manufacturer varied between the two product types and across the two samples. Despite the variances, the results reveal that the two product types were preferred most when the manufacturer was well known. This seems to be consistent with the view that credibility increases in particular because of a well-known reputation. Accordingly, the results suggest that reputation is more important than COO in reducing the sense of risk when it comes to non-prescription pharmaceuticals. Seniors and younger adults preferred painkillers that were manufactured by well-known domestic manufacturers followed by well-known foreign manufacturers. However, both age groups valued sore throat medicines when the manufacturer was domestic. Hence, the preference of well-known domestic manufacturers was followed by the preference of unknown domestic manufacturer.

To conclude, the results revealed no difference due to age. However, the results could mean that the use of these extrinsic cues is culturally bounded. This means that the use of reputation or COO as means of risk reduction may vary due the level of country development, for example. In fact, the results imply that the use of these extrinsic attributes is not only culturally bounded, but also related to product type. The results could imply that various types of non-prescription medicines may evoke different levels of risk. If this is the case, the results suggest that painkillers involve a higher product risk than sore throat medicine.

Packaging cues

The utility scores for the various packaging attributes across the two product types and two samples suggest that the respondents were more attracted to traditional pharmaceutical packages, which appeared familiar and conveyed reliability and high quality rather than being exciting and deviating.

The consistent preference across the two product types and age groups for one of the most common packaging shapes of pharmaceuticals, i.e. elongated packages, suggests that consumers rely on traditional shapes with which they are familiar. The same conclusion can be made concerning letter fonts, as one of the most preferred letter fonts was pre-interpreted as a conservative and traditional font. The least preferred letter font was pre-interpreted as a modern font.

One of the most interesting findings related to colour. First, seniors more than younger adults valued the colour of painkiller over the manufacturer of the pharmaceutical, for example. Second, the utility scores for the different packaging colours varied due to age and product type. Therefore, although red was the least preferred colour by seniors and by younger adults for sore throat medicine, it was the most preferred colour by seniors and was valued highly by younger adults for painkillers. Similarly, the scores varied for blue, green, and yellow. For example, although blue is the most preferred colour by younger adults across the two product types, it is not the most preferred by seniors. On the one hand, being, in general, a colour of quality and a preferred colour, the scores for blue may support past research that the preference for blue decreases with age.⁴⁷ On the other hand, the variances of the utility scores for blue may be explained by the impact of product type.

The results from this study are consistent with past reports that conclude that the impact of colour is not only age related, but also product related. The results may be explained by the conclusions that warm colours are used as search attributes or by the findings that suggest that colours convey meanings. For example, Kauppinen-Räisänen and Luomala³⁵ report that red may communicate efficient cure of an unwanted health condition for one product type, whereas yellow may communicate positive feelings for another. It is possible that consumers of different ages search for different product meanings because of product type. For one product type, seniors may search for high-quality cues or for cues that fit other attributes, such as the intrinsic attribute of taste. Alternatively, they may search another product type for cues related to feelings of using a particular product or for cues that communicate desired consequence of the product. In a similar vein, younger adults may search for high-quality or taste cues for one product type, or for cues that communicate efficiency and immediate cure for another. Past research has concluded that aging has a significant impact on colour preferences.⁴⁷ The results of the current study suggest that the changing impact of colour as a result of aging may be explained not only by preference, but by product type related product meanings as well. Further, the impact of color and other packaging cues alike may be bounded to culture as was suggested for the extrinsic cues.

Discussion

The purpose of the present study was to explore the impact of intrinsic and extrinsic product attributes on preferences of high-risk products, i.e. pharmaceuticals. The focus was on senior consumers who constitute an ignored consumer segment. The underlying need for segmentation was prompted by the fact that consumers are heterogeneous and have different needs. Today, market segmentation, targeted marketing strategies, and positioning are well-established means of gaining strategic advantage, marketing efficiency, and consumer satisfaction.^59,60 Segmentation means identifying and grouping consumers that have something in common, such as shared needs or characteristics. The assumption is that through targeting and a determination of the actionable segment, marketing activities can be positioned and the likelihood increases such that consumers will respond to the activities in a similar manner. Various bases are used to find the homogeneous markets, such as demographic, geographic, situational, and behavioural variables; product purchases; cultural values; and psychographic variables, such as lifestyle, beliefs, and attitudes.⁶¹^–⁶³ The current study focused on consumer age. Although it is implied that aging adults and younger adults share similar characteristics when it comes to decision behaviour,⁶⁴ past studies support the idea that aging appears as a number of behavioural changes. It is documented that seniors are more risk aversive and need the assistance of pharmacists more often than younger adults. Seniors are also more involved in the purchase of non-prescription medicines than younger adults, and are more likely to be brand loyal. They are also found to be more concerned with the print size of packaging labels and brand manufacturer.

The current study contributes to the field by detecting that the salient product attributes have an impact on preferences of non-prescription medicines. The impact of intrinsic cues and extrinsic cues of manufacturer reputation and country of origin seems to be consistent, and did not vary much due to age. Instead, the results suggest that the impact of these cues may be culturally bounded and some product related. The impact of the packaging-related cues of shape and letter font appeared to be rather consistent across the two samples and product types. However, an important finding of this study was the significant variances in colour scores across the two age groups and product types. Therefore, the results suggest that some perceptions do not change as a result of aging, whereas others do.

To conclude, the results of the current study and the findings from past research suggest that aging consumers indeed deserve specific attention in various marketing efforts and as a consumer segment in consumer research. Responding to the needs of this consumer segment becomes even more essential today as consumers are expected to take care of themselves, which includes self-medication. The importance of acknowledging these consumers is also justified by findings detecting consumers being health illiterate and lacking product knowledge of pharmaceuticals. Senior consumers’ decision making is also challenged by the current trends of selling non-prescription pharmaceuticals in self-service pharmacies, grocery stores, and on the Internet, which all imply an absence of professional assistance at the point of purchase. The main conclusion of the current study is that packaging design in particular, including colouring, should respond to the changes resulting from aging and be adapted therein in order to be most effective on packages of pharmaceuticals. The study findings suggest that the pharmaceutical marketer needs to identify and target this aging segment, and, for the means of effective marketing activities, accurately and strategically use salient product cues so that the aging seniors’ response to the packaged pharmaceutical is as intended by the marketer.

Footnotes

Funding

The study was partially funded by The Marcus Wallenberg Foundation for Research in Business Economics and the Foundation for Economic Education.

Conflict of interest

The author declares that there is no conflict of interest.

Author's Biography

Hannele Kauppinen-Räisänen, has a PhD from the Department of Marketing, Hanken School of Economics. Her main research interest pertains particularly to areas of marketing communication and consumer behaviour. She is also involved with research addressing cross-cultural issues and self-care consumers. She has published in journals such as Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, Journal of Customer Behavior, and Management Research Review.

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