A psychographic study of the elderly and retail store attributes

Abstract

The conflicting research on the elderly has led many to question the wisdom of using age alone to segment the market. Psychographics, or lifestyle groupings, has emerged as a more robust technique of identifying distinct categories of the 65 and older market. An activities, interests, and opinions (AIO) questionnaire from 386 respondents provided data to identify five distinct groups of elderly shoppers. Significant differences were found among the five clusters with regard to the perceived importance of various retail attributes which sell over‐the‐counter drugs: quality of store and personnel, store characteristics, and use of coupons and discounts.