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Information processing and the older consumer: The role of pacing and product familiarity in differential learning and memory of advertisements
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to expand on efforts to determine if the gero-psychological research on cognitive aging can provide valuable insights for theory and applications of information processing in general and marketing in specific. Three questions are addressed by the study: (1) To what extent do marketers enjoy the capacity to modify or minimize the effects of cognitive aging on the processing of promotional messages? (2) Do the variables of message pacing and product class familiarity influence decremental abilities among aging consumer to learn and remember information in promotional messages? (3) At what age should we expect these differential abilities to manifest themselves? The experiment studied 345 individuals ranging in age from 20 to 73. Subjects were exposed to a radio episode of Gunsmoke in which experimental advertisements were embedded. All subjects were exposed to advertisements for the same low familiarity and high familiarity products. Approximately half heard fast paced advertisements (15-seconds) and the others heard slower paced advertisements (30-seconds) having essentially equivalent messages content. The research suggests that marketers have the greatest potential to influence cognitive aging effects at encoding (through message content and structure, media used) with some limited but not fully designated potential at retrieval. Results indicate that faster paced advertisements pose no significantly greater disadvantage to older consumers than do slower paced advertisements. With regard to the level of familiarity consumers have with advertised products, while older consumers do recall and recognize more of the aspects of high familiarity ads, they are still disadvantaged relative to younger consumers. In fact, they have a greater relative disadvantage for high familiarity products than low familiarity products, which was an unexpected outcome. Depending on the recall/recognition task required (product type, brand name, message points, commercial features), effects of cognitive aging may begin as early as one's 30's and 40's or be delayed as late as one's 60's.
Subject Area
Marketing|Psychology|Gerontology
Recommended Citation
Guy, Bonnie S, "Information processing and the older consumer: The role of pacing and product familiarity in differential learning and memory of advertisements" (1989). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8925240.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8925240