From old to new: re-thinking and reconstructing ageing consumers

Abstract

First paragarph: “Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been” – David Bowie (Hicklin, Citation2016) Ageing is too often narrated from a deficit perspective, where a problem of decline and dependency invites managerial fixes and narrow segmentation. This JMM special issue encourages marketing scholars to reconsider how our field frames ageing consumers – conceptually, empirically, and managerially – and to question the taken-for-granted connection between old age and the constant requirement to ‘solve a problem’ or ‘fulfil a lack’. This reconsideration continues an emerging stream of marketing and consumer research that begins to capture the heterogeneity, creativity, and agency of later life, from identity reinvention in retirement (Schau et al., Citation2009) to the diverse ways ageing consumers shape and are shaped by markets (Barnhart & Peñaloza, Citation2013). This extant research is not only about representation but also about how markets include or exclude ageing consumers’ choices, dignity, and participation (Rosenthal et al., Citation2021).