PROS Nadia Vita H, John J.O.I. Ihalauw Understanding Characteristics fulltext

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UNDERSTANDING CHARACTERISTICS OF ELDERLY HIGH END CUSTOMERS AND THE INFLUENCE TOWARDS BUYING

INTENTIONS

Nadia Vita Hairodin

Business School, Universitas Pelita Harapan nadiavitahairodin @ gmail.com

John J.O.I. Ihalauw

Business School, Universitas Pelita Harapan john.ihalauw @ uph.edu

ABSTRACT

The world's population is aging. Elderly consumers (50+) are increasing and becoming attractive target market. However, in Indonesia, there have not been many research conducted in studying the elderly. The fact that they are still active, dynamic, able and willing to spend is overlooked. Seeing this gap, this research is undertaken to understand the current condition of elderly consumers and how it affects their buying intentions. This qualitative research is guided by several theoretical foundations and carried out through data triangulation with four key respondents from high end class with age range of 53 to 71 years old. The result and discussion show that apart from age and socioeconomic status there are many factors that significantly influence their buying intention such as, attitude on retirement, household life cycle, health, perceived age, activities and occupational background. The linkages of all these variables are depicted in the proposed mini- theory which summarizes of the research results. In the future, there will be researches that could be conducted to explore each of the aforementioned propositions with more diverse respondents' background.

Keyword: elderly consumers, perceived age, activities and occupational background, attitude towards retirement, health, buying intention

INTRODUCTION

The world's population is aging, including Indonesia. In 2012 there were already 18.55 million citizens aged above 65 years old (7.78 percents of Indonesian population) with the average life expectancy of 72 years old (Kompas 2012) (Badan Pusat Statistik 2013). In social and health studies, senior citizens arc defined as those whom are above 65 years old. In marketing, however, grey market (seniors) are those above 50 year's old (Karani 2010). This means the number of senior citizens is even bigger. Statistics Indonesia projected that in 2020 grey market will form 20 percents of total projected population (Statistics Indonesia 2005). Moreover, the over 50s own around three- quarters of the world's financial assets and discretionary budget (Hooley et al. 2012).

Other than being active, senior citizens as consumers are actually facing more life changes than ever before. The research by Roper Starch Worldwide Inc revealed that life of the people in their 50s is far from "settled". Changes in diet, family structure (grandchildren, death, children leaving the house, children getting married), and career are happening in the 50s more than other life stage (Silvers 1997). In addition, elderly consumers arc experiencing significant physical and cognitive decline which affect their needs and wants and behavior as consumers. Therefore, elderly consumers

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or grey market is not as dull as commonly perceived. They arc dynamic, active, having more needs than before and many of those needs are unmet by what is being offered in the market.

This present research seeks to understand the current condition of elderly consumers and how it affects their buying intention so that in the future, company can serve them better. This study focuses on understanding the distinctive characteristics of elderly consumers within upper-middle to lower-upper socioeconomic classes and its influences on their buying intention. Three research problems are:

1. What axe the backgrounds of elderly consumers of the upper-middle and lower-upper socio economic class?

2. What are the activities and interest of the elderly consumers? 3. How do all the factors above affect buying intention? THEORITICAL GUIDES

Kotler and Keller define , "Marketing is about identifying and meeting human and social- needs" (201227). Marketers seek to identify these needs by first, understanding who their customers are. Customers can be classified into different groups based on key customer market. There arc four different types of customer market, namely: consumer market, business market, global market, and non-profit and governmental market. This research focuses on consumer market. To further understand consumer needs and desire, understanding of consumer behavior is essential.

Consumer behavior is "the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the process they use to select, use and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy the needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society/' (Hawkins 2010). Specifically, this research will focus on buying intention. Intention is the subjective possibility of individuals to do a certain behavior, in this case buying products or services.

Different groups of consumers with diverse needs and wants lead to market segmentation that divides market into well-defined slice, consisting of customer with similar" needs and wants. (Kotler 2012). Segmentation reveals important differences that can be acted upon (Plummer 1974). This research focused on upper middle and lower upper socioeconomic classes and age as its segment to study.

The upper-middle group consists of successful professional, independent business people and corporate managers. (Hawkins 2010). Their purchases are directed at projecting successful image. These individuals tend to be confident and forward looking. They put importance in getting good education for their children to make sure their children have the same lifestyle.

The lower-upper group is usually working as highly successful professional, entrepreneur (Hooley, et al. 2012). Many engage in conspicuous consumption by purchasing and using luxurious products and service to demonstrate great wealth (Hawkins 2010). High status brand and activities are actively sought by this group.

Age is one of the non-marketing-specific factors within demographic characteristic (Hooley et al. 2012). Age plays a factor in evolving wants and needs (Leventhal 1997). Consumer behavior is also influenced by age because it carries culturally defined behavioral and attitudinal norms (Hawkins 2010), different age group will have different approach towards consumption and marketing.

From psychological view, the elderly doesn't only age biologically but also continues to develop psychologically in the course of their life. Development itself means a systematic process of

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adaptive change in behavior in one or more directions (Papalia, et al. 2007, 4). Most psychologists today accept the idea that human development goes on throughout life. Baltes (Papalia, et al. 2007) identified that development is lifelong, depends on history and context, multidimensional, and pliable. Though not as significant as young adults, the elderly persons still need activities to maintain and improve their skill.

A person can age in a number of ways and each type of age may not be in sync with one another (Papalia, et al. 2007). Chronological age is simply a count of how many times an inhabitant of the planet has orbited the sun. Functional age is a measure of how well a person can function in physical and social environment as compared to other people with the same chronological age. Biological age is a measure of how far a person has progressed along potential lifespan; measured by physical condition. Psychological age depends on how well, in comparison of same-aged peers, a person can cope with environmental challenges. Social age depends on how closely behavior conforms to the norms, expectancies, and roles of a person in certain age are expected to play in society. The elderly should be seen from their chronological age as well as functional, psychological and biological that in totality shapes cognitive age. Cognitive age refers to one's perceived age, a part of self concept (Hawkins 2010); it is a more accurate measure for behavior because it affects self- concept and lifestyle. This imply that consumer with same chronological age may not behave the same way if they have different cognitive age.

Mature market has the longest segments of life averaging about 29 years (Silvers 1997). Within these 29 years of life, a lot of life-changing events will occur. Experiencing life-changing events become one of the prominent characteristics of grey market. Some of the life-changing events experienced are loss of spouse, survived from major illness, retired from job, major diet change due to health, loss of mother, adult child move back home, menopause, responsible for parental carc, last child move out, loss of a father, became a grandparent (Silvers 1997). The turbulence in the life of grey market customers lead to changes in attitude, outlook of life, behavior and consumer buying behavior as they reevaluate their wants, needs, goals and role both on personal and consumer levels (Silvers 1997).

It is a natural process for elderly consumers to experience physiological changes. These changes will create new needs and benefit sought. In physical appearance, skin tends to be paler and splotchy; it takes on parchment like texture loses elasticity, hangs in folds and wrinkles. Varicose vein of the legs arc more common. Hair turns white and thinner, it starts to grow in new places (woman's chin, man's ear). They may become shorter as disks between spine atrophy. (Papalia, et al. 2007) . These changes will create new benefit sought in various products.

Not only physical appearance, sensorimotor functioning tends to decline in the late adulthood albeit with individual variations. Forms of sensorimotor function decline may take form vision, hearing, taste and smell, touch, pain and temperature, and motor functions (Papalia, et al. 2007)

RESEARCH METHOD

This research employed qualitative method. In qualitative study the goal is the development of concepts which will help in understanding social phenomena in natural settings, giving emphasis in the meanings, experiences and views of participants (Ihalauw 2011), (Hooley, et al. 2012)

The research used descriptive case study design that describes the characteristics of persons, events or situations (Sekaran and Bougie 2013) (Ihalauw 2011). Multiple sources for data

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triangulation is employed in the study, namely in-depth interview, direct observation and the use of archives and other secondary data.

In-depth interview is conducted to unearth detailed information about a person's thought and behaviors or want to explore new issues in depth (Boyce and Palena 2006). In this research, the interviews were conducted in the span of 60-120 minutes. The interviews were done by meeting face to face. There are four respondents in the age of 50-69 years old. The respondents are from Surabaya within upper-middle and lower-upper social status.

Verification of data is achieved through convergence of the respondents' answers. Reliability of this research is achieved through maintaining chain of evidence, by maintaining accurate and detailed record of the interview transcripts, interview questions and observation, down to the analysis and conclusion.

According to Tesch (Ihalauw 2011), in qualitative research there is no specific "right way" to analyze the data. The foundations of qualitative analysis axe data reduction and interpretation. The abundance of data should be processed into categories, pattern or theme and interpretation using certain scheme. Therefore, the data analysis will be conducted in the following steps:

• Extracting the essence of interviews; the researchers read and re-read interview transcript, write notes as ideas and insights came. Make summary in forms of topics, and categorize them into important, secondary, unique and irrelevant.

• Build categories from essence of interviews; using the list of topics, summarize them using codes, give accurate descriptive formulation.

• Formulate pattern of answers; these patterns are the explanation for each category • Identify and label pattern of answers; important aspects in pattern of answers must be

identified and labeled correctly.

• Concept formulation; as pattern of answers are being identified and labeled, concept will emerge. These concepts must be conceptually defined.

• Formulate propositions; propositions are constructed by logically connecting two concepts (Ihalauw 2008)

• Construct a Mini-theory; mini-theory is a theory that is applicable to a particular situation, it is developed by connecting one proposition with another. (Jonker and Pennink 2010)

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

This section will present respondent backgrounds, results and discussion of the research. The following table contains the profile of the four respondents in the interview. It is the descriptive formulation of the category of answers extracted from the interviews.

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XT ^

IName Fms Jiau Yin Franky Kaisouo

1. Year of Birth 1961 1957 1948 1943

2. Age (2014) 53 57 66 71

3. Ctirrent Residence Surabaya Surabaya Surabaya Surabaya 4 Hometoun Ruteng, East Nusa

Tenggara

Surabaya Balikpapan, Kalimantan

Berau, Kalimantan 5. Occupation Entrepreneur

* Logistic Business * Spare part Store * Heavy

Equipment Rental

Entrepreneur * Real Estate * Shoes Factory

Entrepreneur (Retired) • Cement Distributor Entrep teueur * Logging C ompany * Sandal Manufacturing C ompany • Shoes Distributor • Palm Oil

Plantation and Refinery 6. Family Member a. Spouse

* Wife

b. Daughters (3) • 23,21.14 years

old

a. Spouse * Husband b. Daughters (3) « 31,29, 18

years old

a. Spouse e Wife

h. Daughters (3) • Three daughters • 38, 36 and 32

years old

a. Spouse e Wife

h. Daughters (2) * Two daughters * 40 and 34

years old e. Sous (2) * 38 and 36

years old 7 Married children None • Two out of

three

• One daughter out of three

• One our of two daughters • Two out of

two sons

8 Grand children None Yes Yes Yes

9 View on Retirement

Positive Negative Positive Negative RESULTS

RESULTS

As background characteristics, all key respondents currently live in Surabaya. However, only one is from Surabaya, the three others came from small cities, Ruteng in East Nusa Tenggara, Balikpapan and Berau in Kalimantan. All of them moved out from their parents' home since they were in Junior High School for attaining better education. Since young age, they have been living independently away from their parents. Those aged 66 and 71 were still able to study in Chinese school while the younger ones (53 and 57 years old) went to study in Christian/Catholic school.

All respondents' parents were entrepreneurs. The younger key respondents followed the tracks of their parents' business, whereas the older group opened completely different and bigger business from their parents. Today, there arc wide ranges of business that these elderly arc involved in logistic business, spare part store, heavy equipment rental, real estate, shoe factory, cement distributor, logging company, sandal manufacturing company, shoes distributor, palm oil plantation and refinery. Their education doesn't contribute to the business they are doing.

All of the elderly are manied with children and some already had grand children. The younger group of key respondents still has children that depend on them, while the older group's

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children axe all independent of financial support. The younger group still takes care of their parents and none had serious illness. While in the case of the older group, their parents already passed away.

Amongst the elderly, none of them has serious health problem that interferes with daily activity, some of those hair problem are mere balding, pinched nerve on the neck and problem with prostate. None of these health problem hinders their movement.

There are two differing opinion for retirement regardless of age. In this case it is more of a personal value rather than age factor. Among the younger group there is different view between the two respondents. While one seeks to be retired in the future to enjoy other things, the other seeks to never retire until death and to continue working, and even admits that she feels sick when she is not working.

In the older group the same case is present, while one is already retired; the other seeks to never retire even at the age of 71 years old. The elderly in favor retirement sees retirement is essential to good life. The elderly not in favor of retirement, sees retirement as death sentence.

There is wide range of interests amongst the elderly. From the interview results those interests are opening new business, travelling, going to exhibition (spare part, heavy construction equipment and new products), hunting for discounted spare part, music concert, off road driving experience, meeting new people, learning singing, going to plantation and forest (business site).

Many of these special interests arc related to the elderly as entrepreneurs. There is a blurry line between work and hobby. Their work is their hobby and vice versa. Among the elderly there are also special interests that arc non-business related such as travelling, music concert, off road driving experience, meeting new people, and learning to sing.

One of the aspirations in the future for one of the elderly is to enjoy retirement with passive income. He aspires for business that doesn't need his day to day involvement so that he can have more free time. The elderly are still actively working to ensure their business is growing. They are devoting their time and energy in expanding their business. The elderly are also still excited to open new business. Despite of their age they arc not afraid to start a new business. One respondent said that without ambition, she is dead.

All of the elderly aspires to be healthy for the long run. This is the reason for their consumption of supplements/vitamins, exercise, and careful observance of their diet. One elderly stated that health is number one and that is why he chose to retire.

There arc varieties of leisure activities enjoyed by the elderly, those activities arc watching TV, listening to music, social activity, shopping, body pampering, spending time with family at home, watching Youtube, doing sport, learning new things, resting at home and reading books.

The younger group has wider social circle, such as high school friends, spare part enthusiasts, friends from religious activities, business friends and others that arc not specified. This younger group has taken the advantage of social network platform such as Facebook, Whatsapp Group, and BBM Group to re-connect with old friends and to connect with more friends. The older group has more limited social circle. Consequently the younger group also has more social activities, such as gathering with friends, reunion with high school friends, religious activities (prayer gathering and visiting religious places), travelling with friends, and shopping. The older group has considerably less social activities and spending more time being home especially with family.

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All but one elderly are still actively working everyday with different intensity. There are not many variety of sport enjoyed by the elderly. The varieties arc, badminton, working out at home, and swimming.

To describe their behavior as consumers there arc several areas that will be discussed, such as role as care giver, children's education, most enjoyable consumption, their preference for clothing, their decision on purchasing clothing, preference for brands, price sensitivity, health related consumption, aspiration for future, their physical limitation to shop, most convenient place to shop and motivation to shop.

There arc several ways of spending money that is enjoyed by the elderly. There arc six categories, namely, business related, hobby, social activities, accessories, investment and family/household goods.

Business related arc spending that contributes to business growth/purpose. There is no clear boundary between hobby and business, Therefore hobby-related most enjoyable purchases arc similar- to business related purchases. Social activities related purchases arc the purchases done in social setting or for social purposes. One of the respondents has hobby of collecting bracelet and necklace.

With huge discretionary income due to the success of the business of the respondents some of them prefer to use their money in investment, such as land, factory building, and real estate. This investment is done out of personal enjoyment and also generating profit. Family/household- related most enjoyable purchase means the products that they enjoy purchasing arc those that can be enjoyed by the family. There is also enjoyment in buying food, being old doesn't always mean forfeiting enjoyment of food.

All of the respondents arc or were taking role as carcgivcr for their parents. Older respondents no longer need to support their children financially while the younger respondents still need to support their children. The youngest respondent (53 year's old) still has all of his children living in the house, the two older respondent no longer support his children financially because they arc all financially independent. One respondent has both financially independent and dependent child at the same time.

All of four respondents' children are studying or have studied in university. Three out of four respondents chose to send their children abroad for education and the reasons are to train their independence, children's own initiative and security and political issues back in 1998.

Among four respondents, three of them are involved in the purchase of their own clothes, while one respondent expresses indifference in the purchase of clothing apparels. In buying they consider fabric material (quality and origin), style, social influence and fit.

The elderly arc well acquainted with technology. Each of the elderly respondents has either smartphone or tablet device or both. Technology has become part of their lifestyle, social networking, watching Youtube, or learning to write mandarin on iPad.

Since none of them has serious health problems, none of them has significant medical expenses. Multiple supplements and vitamins are consumed by three out of four respondents. Information about multiple supplements is obtained from friends, wife, and recommended by doctors. The elderly started to consume multiple supplements and vitamins once they reach middle-age and doesn't stop ever since

With age, there is a great reduce of hair, an elderly claimed that he lost 70% of his hair. To choose certain hair tonic product, the respondent relies on friends' recommendation, and then try it. Other than consuming multiple supplements, the elderly are also careful about their diet. They eat

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more moderately, limit the consumption of unhealthy food, and go for healthier choices such as brown rice, vegetables, fish, oatmeal and fruits. Special pillow is used for the elderly with pinched nerve to avoid the pain. The elderly also exercise regularly; the younger age group is more irregular- compared to the older one. The chosen exercises are light exercise and swimming.

None of the elderly profess physical limitation in shopping. Each of them in unanimously choose mall as the most comfortable place to shop. They are different in their level of motivation to shop. Some are still passionate about shopping while the others reduced motivation or indifference.

DISCUSSIONS

Based on the above mentioned results and the theoritical guides, this part presents the discussion of each research problems.

By understanding the elderly consumers' history, current condition, family and opinion, this study seeks to understand what motivates them and what makes them who they are. Occupation shapes the life experience of the elderly. As they have been working most of their adult life, about three to five decades, they have developed accumulated knowledge or tacit knowledge. This tacit knowledge aids them in decision making. This tacit knowledge led into intuitive and automatic thinking (Papalia, et al. 2007). Their experience through their occupation will also influence their openness to innovation. The following variables emerge from the discussion: tacit knowledge and openness to innovation

The elderly who become entrepreneur grew up in an environment that encourages their development as entrepreneur. According to Howard Gardner, environment plays an important part in developing competencies; people tend to develop competencies that their families and culture value encourage (Papalia, et al. 2007). Entrepreneurship started at young age and has no age limitation. In the course of time, by facing failures and problems, these elderly consumers become highly creative individuals. According to Torrance and Simonton, creative individuals are self starters and risk takers. They are independent, non-conformists, unconventional and flexible, and open to new ideas and experiences. Entrepreneurs get better as they age. In field of work where mature judgement is needed, the elderly performs better than younger people. Encapsulation occurs in the elderly consumers, making their knowledge in the field of expertise easier to add to, access and use. As expert, their thinking tends to be automatic and intuitive. They do not rely on rules but rather their accumulated experience or tacit knowledge (Papalia, et al. 2007). From these explanations, there are two things that can be learned. First, as entrepreneurs there is no need for them to retire as long as they are still healthy for their ability to work is not negatively affected by their age. Second, their expertise and tacit knowledge shows their reliance upon experience in making decision.

These elderly consumers migrated to a place bigger than their hometown when they were very young. This drastic change requires them to be independent and courageous to live in unfamiliar- places, honing their ability to persevere and overcome obstacles. Ability to persevere and overcome challenges, event in life that weaken conventional constraint are the factors that contributes to the development of creativity (Papalia, et al. 2007)

The elderly are highly educated, their parents put emphasize on their education. When there is no education in their city/village, their parents are willing to let them go to another island by themselves so that they can go to school. The older group has stronger association with China and Chinese culture because the culture and the language that the education carried were being instilled in

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them. Therefore as consumers, they are more likely to embrace products and service that resonates with their culture (Solomon 2013).

As the elderly are getting older, their children are getting married and having children, this leads to increase in the size of immediate family. According to household life cycle, the elderly consumers can be categorized into two groups. Full Nest II and Empty Nest II. Full Nest II is the HLC when the middle aged elderly (35-64) has children who still live in their house and are older than six years old. This older children creates need for lessons, school, university savings, transportation, snacks, drinks, toys and many other need related to the children. These needs cause enormous financial challenges in this stage. Empty Nest II is characterized by married couple over the age of 64 years old whom all the children have left home. They are partially or fully retired. They have ample free time, healthy, active, and financially well-off. (Hawkins 2010). They spend considerable amount of money on their children and grandchildren, could be in the form of toys, daily needs, baby supplies or vacation together. In the case of this research the elderly consumer also pays for their children's wedding and is involved in the decision making. The discussion shows the importance of age and household lifecycle as variables.

Among the elderly, health condition could make a significant difference in their life. According to Gabriel, health is one of the three personal influences (health, marital status and financial status) that affect how individuals view their life (Burt and Gabbot 1995). According to Bone, there arc five variables outside of age that essentially segments the elderly; they arc: income, health, activity level, discretionary time and response to other people (Burt and Gabbot 1995).

Healthy elderly consumers have varieties of leisure, social activities and can opt to never retire. They also have more discretionary income to spend into leisure, investment, family and their business. Elderly consumers with good health condition will have younger functional and biological age compared to their chronological age. This means that they will be able to function, live, like their younger peers and feel younger, leading to younger perceived age. In this research it is evident that a mental outlook and activity level has a lot more to do with longevity and quality of life than chronological age (Solomon 2013). This is why cognitive age, which is defined as how old a person feels, is a more appropriate yardstick to use. The relevant valuables arc physical condition and cognitive age

There arc two opposing attitudes regarding retirement, one strongly favors retirement and the others dread it. Their attitude is determined by their belief about what happens after retirement. If they see that retirement bring no value to their life, then they will not consider retirement. Those who have positive view towards retirement value the spare time that retirement provides (Gabriel 1990). View on retirement will affect choice for retirement, leisure activities and most enjoyable purchase. The important variables axe belief and attitude towar d retirement

Having understood who they are, understanding what they like and what they do will help to give clearer picture of their lifestyle. Lifestyle is a pattern of consumption that reflects a person's choice in spending their money and time. Lifestyle a better indicator compared to demographic in understanding market (Solomon 2013).

Elderly consumers have broad variety of interests; these interests arc expression of their unique self. Special interest is also influenced by the elderly consumers' attitude towards retirement and their retirement status. Those with positive attitude towards retirement have many hobby/leisure related interests. Elderly consumers with negative attitude towards retirement are single-minded towards their business. They have none to little interest outside their business-related interests. Status of retirement also determines special interests.

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Work activih" level

Yes (lugh to Low) None

• Work-related interest Attitude

Positive

• Leisure-related inter est • Leisure-related interest towards

Retire in ent Negative • Work related interest

Table 1 Attitude towards retirement and work activity level influence towards interests

The bottom right cell is irrelevant because for entrepreneur who has negative attitude towards retirement can always opt to never retire. The discussion shows the following important variables: attitude towards retirement, work activity level, and special interests Aspiration for future is affected by attitude towards retirement, special interests and values. Health is valued highly among the elderly, special interests that arc still unfulfilled make up for aspiration for future

Among elderly consumers there are different levels of work activity, varying from full time work to fully retired. Elderly consumers whom are entrepreneurs axe not influenced by mandatory retirement; they can choose to never retire. However on the other side, since they own their own business, their decision to retire is not only determined by willingness, but also their business condition, whether or not it is possible to continue the business without their active involvement. Their willingness to retire is influenced by their perception on retirement. If they have negative perception on retirement, although they can, they will not retire. Instead they might opt for flexible or less work hour.

Abilitv to Retire

Williugness to Retire

High Low

High Full retirement Work full time

Low Flexible.'reduc e d working hours

Wort full time

Table 2 Retirement matrix

The relevant variables are attitude toward retirement, ability to retire and work activity

According to a Canadian study by Mannel, retirees who are most satisfied with their retirement are those who are engaged in serious leisure which includes activity that demands skill, attention, and commitment (Papalia, et al. 2007). Leisure activity is the action that is done in

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discretionary time. The leisure activities enjoyed by the elderly consumers are not physically demanding. Types of activities that the elderly consumers enjoy are influenced by their interests, culture (beliefs, set of values in the society) they grow up in, personality and gender. Variables that emerge from this discussion arc culture, gender, special interests and leisure activity

Social circle is influenced by personality, age and usage of social media/network. In personality, there arc extroversion and introversion (Carrigan 1998). As age increases, elderly consumers become more family focused. The older group of consumers (65+) who are empty nesters, enjoy and seek to have more of family time compared to the younger ones. (Mannel 1993). As elderly consumers arc aging, physical limitation increases and extroversion decreases resulting in smaller social circle and decreases in social activity. Therefore as age increase, closeness with family or spouse becomes increasingly important for the elderly because they function as social support. The availability of social platform, increase their social activity and this interaction is more likely to influence their behavior as consumers. The relevant valuables arc age, social circle, social activity, personality and usage of social media/network

The elderly consumer's inclination to exercise is influenced by their belief about the benefit of exercise. If they believe that exercise is essential in maintaining health, then exercise will have value and they will make time and effort to exercise regularly. The relevant valuables are belief and sport activity

Most enjoyable ways to spend money correlate with social activities, special interest, and attitude towards retirement. They arc not afraid of losing their money because they have strong intrinsic motivation in doing business. This causes them to not despair when they lose money and therefore better mental health.

Social circle also influences behavior. Consumers who have wide social circles enjoy spending money for social activities. Elderly consumers with smaller social circle concentrated on family, place more importance in family. Consequently, they enjoy buying family or household related product. The valuables arc social activities, special interest and attitude towards retirement

Elderly consumers still carc about their appearances and style. Each of them has certain style that represents their self concept. However, as they age, preference for clothing is influenced by their physical condition.

Social circle also influences clothing preference. Elderly consumers who have strong attachment with their social circle will refer to their group in clothing preferences. The relevant valuables arc buying intention, social circle and physical condition

Elderly consumers are not amiss from the influence for technology. As it has been explained before, elderly consumers whom are entrepreneur, have a special trait of an innovator. Innovator refers to a person who is always on the lookout for novel product or services (Solomon 2013). The valuable is openness to innovation and buying intention

Elderly consumers from middle upper and lower upper tend to be the person who cares for their parents. Although in the end, their occupation is irrelevant to their education, importance of good education may have been imparted from their parents' to the elderly consumer's personal value. All of their children attained at least bachelor degree and most of them studied abroad. Elderly consumers reflect their strong and enduring value in product purchase, in this case in education (Lunsford and Burnett 1992).

Health related consumption doesn't always have something to do with illness. For healthy elderly consumers, health related consumptions axe more directed toward prevention measures or

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products that help them to cope with physical decline such as nerve pain or simply appearance-related such as balding. The important variable is physical condition

Motivation for shopping is influenced by their attitude towards shopping and health condition. Healthy elderly consumers with positive attitude toward shopping will maintain their positive attitude although it may decline due to shift in their lifestyle.

Mini-Theory

Based on the variables identified in the discussion, linkages to one another can be established. These linkages will be expressed in a system that results in the proposed mini-theory. A qualitative research which doesn't result in mini-theory will only be a story of specific phenomena, the theory allows for the case not just to be descriptive but to have wider meaning (Tharenou, et al. 2007)

Figure 3 Mini Theory

Physical C oaditkm CoEQ-rtivs1 Ase Aee Household Life

Cyde Social Media

and Nn^orfctna _{Sccin L'uzi-e}

SociSj Activities Pefioimtv

Attitude toward

Retifeman Special Jntsrest - a-:

Leisure Actrvitv Work Actmtv

Abilitv to Retire _{. 1J.I OH •:} Spoit Activity

Tacit knowledge Espaisnce

Openesi to Innovation

Buvme InientiotL

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This section contains conclusions from the research, limitations of the research and recommendations for future research

Conclusions

The past, through culture, education, and upbringing, shaped experiences which in turn shapes attitudes and belief which will influence their choices. The present, such as household life cycle, occupation and health affects their buying intention. Household life cycle could predict their needs and want. Occupation would shape their experience which in turn will affect how they process information and openness to innovation.

Elderly consumers have wide varieties of activities and interests. They are still actively working and enjoying life. For the elderly consumers, technology has also become part of the life. It is used for leisure and social activity. The existence of social media/networking has enabled the elderly to maintain and widen their social circle.

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Backgrounds, interests and activities influence buying intention. Their behavior as consumer is shaped by their backgrounds, influenced by their interests through their activities. The elderly consumers must not be seen and categorized from their chronological age. It is more accurate to categorize them based on their backgrounds, interests and activities.

Limitations of Research

In this research, all of the respondents arc of Chinese descents. They arc all entrepreneurs currently living in Surabaya. They are also healthy unlike majority of the elderly. This study doesn't give complete portrayal of elderly consumers especially of those whom are sick, handicapped, professionals, and others.

Recommendations for Future Research

In the future there axe still many studies to be done on the elderly consumers. It is recommended to have more specific or narrower scope of research but uses wider variety of consumers to be able to compare and contrast the differences among the elderly consumers to develop new segmentation criteria for the elderly. It is recommended to test the proposed mini-theory through quantitative research.

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