No time to enjoy the extra! Aging and consumer reaction to volume-based sales promotion

Abstract

The world's population is rapidly aging, which presents firms with a plethora of opportunities and challenges. The question of how to increase the effectiveness of marketing tactics aimed towards senior citizens has gradually been a focus of marketers' attention. Through nine studies, including two incentive-compatible designs, the present research explores how a fundamental sociological factor, aging, affects consumers' reactions to sales promotions. The results show that both chronological and psychological aging decreases consumers' favorability toward products offered with a volume-based promotion (e.g., products with free extra product volume) (Studies 1 and 2), and this effect is driven by a limited time-horizon perspective among aged consumers (Study 3). Two boundary conditions are discovered in Studies 4 and 5. Specifically, the investigated effect is weakened or dismissed when the nature of a volume-based sales promotion is disguised (Study 4) and when the promoted extra product volume can be separated from the focal product (Study 5). Furthermore, the effect of aging on consumer reaction to volume-based promotion is moderated by consumption contexts and product positioning. I find that the observed effect is diminished or dismissed in situations where product judgments are detached from the consideration of consumption time, such as in the case of purchasing for others (Study 6) and when a product is positioned as a family-sized product (Study 7). The current work contributes to the literature on consumer aging, limited time-horizon perspective, and sales promotion, and provides substantial managerial implications.