The Formation Mechanism Based On Brand Repurchases Behavior In Chinese Urban Aging Consumers

Along with the acceleration of the aging process in China, it is expected that by2050, the senior population, with age of65and above, will reach ages the amountfrom330million to470million, a range accounting for23%to27%of the totalpopulation (Gu, Danan,1999). It will form a huge group of elderly consumers andlead to an indisputable fact that the industry for the elderly will have vast potential fordevelopment. At the same time, along with social and economic development, theelderly’s consumer demands tend to be more personalized and diverse. Those specificelements of the brand including product quality, value added, and the characteristichas become an increasingly important factor that affects elderly’s consumption. Allthese factors are quite different from our traditional perception of the elderly asconservative and rigid. Hence, it is necessary to re-examine the new characteristics ofconsumer behavior of this particular group. Despite the indisputable fact that theindustry for the elderly has a vast potential for development, the market developmentfor the elder consumers, in general, is still in its infancy. The brands and products thatare developed based on the elderly’s characteristics are very few. Meanwhile, theproduct type and the development ideas for the related products are alsounsatisfactory. The product supply for the elderly is neglected by the society andindustry and is still in the empty stage. Meeting the increasing consumer demand ofthe elderly and urging our society to realize the importance and urgency of theindustry development for the elderly is key to effectively fullfil the great developmentpotential of the elderly’s consumer market in China in the future. Since the1980s, the consumer behavior of the elderly has aroused a high-degreeof concern in marketing academia. The research scope has included impact factors ofshopping environment, the reflection of advertisement, and elder consumer’sself-perception. However, research on the elderly’s consumer behavior and marketingstrategy is still in its infancy (Moschis,1991). In China, the research of the elderly’sconsumer behavior is mostly focused on the discussion of macro theory and practicaldevelopment issues including the definition of the industry for the elderly, the serviceareas related to the industry for the elderly, and the special market for the elderly. Theresearch from the micro perspective, such as the elderly’s consumer psychology, isrelatively limited.Based on the research background discussed above, this study will use the elderconsumer as the research target, from the scope of the particular self-perception of theelder consumer, to discuss in depth the factors that influence the brand choice amongthe elderly, and hope to provide positive contributions to similar research areas.Firstly, the formation of the aging consumer-brand repurchase behavior model isbuilt from the perspective of self-concept consistency. The self-concept theory willdirectly or indirectly affect the purchase decision of elderly consumers (Jin,2012).Along with the increase in our elderly comprehensive spending power, consumerdemand is also showing the multilevel nature of multiple structural trends. More andmore elderly people are willing to pay higher prices for their consumption in the formof diversification from a single trend for their own health, appearance and mentalpleasure. Therefore, the consistency of brand image and the self-concept of agingconsumer becomes an important factor affecting the attitudes of elderly consumers’brand attitudes and post-purchase behavior.Secondly, this paper investigates the intermediary role of the aging consumerbrand relationship quality among self-perception consistency and repurchasesbehavior. Brand relationships serve as the emotional maintenance of the consumer and the brand; self-perception and repurchase behavior will play a very important role.There will be marked changes in customer repurchase behavior caused by theconsistency of the self-perception due to the variability of elderly and brandconnections strength. At the same time, the use of the brand relationship quality canbe more comprehensive in order to dig out the formation mechanism of the agingconsumer groups repurchase behavior, and can more clearly identify the practicalsignificance of the self-perception consistency among aging consumer groups as wellas providing a useful supplement to the research related to the field of repurchasebehavior.Thirdly, the regulatory role of the intergenerational impact and the degree ofproduct involvement in the relationship between self-perception consistency andquality of the brand relationship is studied. On one hand, the values of the Chinesepeople have long been relationship oriented, and relationship is served as the mainmode of interpersonal operation. Therefore, in the discussion of Chinese culture andsociety, the family relationship has also become one of the main focuses of the study.For older people, the sons and daughters are their “spiritual reliance and emotionalhome”; Brand intergenerational impact is again the most profound influence fromfamily. Numerous studies show that children‘s attitudes of consumption impact thebuying behavior of their parents. Moreover, once the values of the elderly have beenchanged by the younger generation, the elder will have a more profound sense ofidentity with the younger generation, and the attitudes tend to stabilization.Through a literature review and organization of relevant texts written locally andabroad, this article seeks to construct a theoretical framework for this research projectby understanding the theoretical foundations and current research of brandrepurchasing behavior among elderly consumers. Afterwards, through in-depthinterviews and preliminary tests to refine a questionnaire, survey samples fromamong elderly people in Beijing, Shenyang, Changchun and other such big cities were chosen, and questionnaires were issued and collected from them. Finally,through methods such as a structural equation model and regression analysis, theresearch hypothesis of this article is examined. Through empirical analysis, thefollowing conclusions are reached.Firstly, the consistency of elderly consumers’ self-perception is able to affecttheir repurchasing behavior. It is commonly agreed that elderly Chinese consumersare concerned with functionality in their spending behavior. From the starting point ofelderly consumers’ innate self-perception, this article came to a conclusion thatdiffered from past surveys. On one hand, elderly Chinese people are highly cognizantof the concept of responsibility and have a strong sense of identity. Hence, they aremore persistent in their thoughts and choices, and have a lot of difficulty changingthem. On the other hand, with improvements in living standards and daily increases intheir spending power, they are willing to pay more to satisfy their personal emotionaldesires.Secondly, the consistency of elderly consumers’ self-perception can significantlyaffect the quality of their relationship with brands. From this we can see thatrelational orientation is a major antecedent that motivates elderly consumers’spending patterns. When elderly consumers obtain positive perceptions of brands,their purchasing strategies and choices are affected. Their affective commitments tobrands come from how the personality of the brands’ image and the brand’shumanistic qualities invoke deep understanding and recognition among elderlyconsumers. When consumers’ social self-perception is parallel with a brand’s image,consumers will believe that the firms understand their needs and demands, to theextent that they believe the firms specialize in serving customers of their type. At thesame time, this becomes a tool for firms to communicate and foster customerrelationships.Thirdly, the quality of brand relationships has an intermediary effect on the relationship between the consistency of customers’ self-perception and customerrepurchasing behavior. Test results show that after a customer formed a relationshipwith a brand, the connection between each dimension of the consistency of theirself-perception (the dimensions being the consistency of their concepts of their idealselves, the consistency of their conceptualizations of their real selves and theconsistency of their conceptualizations of their social selves) and customerrepurchasing behavior weakened significantly. This proves that the consistency ofself-perception mainly influences customer repurchasing behavior through the qualityof customers’ relationships with the brand. The tangential effects of theserelationships on repurchasing behavior are far greater than their direct effects. Hence,when elderly consumers have a deep understanding and recognition of a certainbrand’s particular image and humanistic qualities, and believe that this brand canrepresent their own personalities and tastes, this means that this brand will becomemore emotionally connected with elderly consumers, and that this connection candrive them to repurchasing behavior.Fourthly, reverse intergenerational influences partially influence consumers’consistency of self-perception and their repurchasing behavior. Hence, becauseelderly people in our country place a unique emphasis on the family and on guanxibehavior and ties, elderly consumers’relationships to brands will be affected byreverse intergenerational influences from their children. Their children obtainrelevant consumer information, values and related skills in their socialization process,and within their continuous consumption of new messages and their spendingpractices, they form their own independent spending attitudes. Together with theirchildren’s strengthening socialization, elderly consumers experience an increase inthe sensitivity of their self-perception, including their pursuit of self-fulfillment ideals,and their proactive maintenance of social communications and ties. The consistencyof the relationship between elderly people’s personal ideals and social selves will be strengthened because of the inclinations of their brand choices. At the same time,reverse intergenerational influences have no marked influence on adjusting howreal-life self-perception has a consistent positive influence on guarantees.Fifth, product penetration has a partial effect on adjusting the consistency ofself-perception and customers’ repurchasing behavior. When elderly customers aremore immersed in a brand, it means that the brand is fundamental to their personalneeds or values, when it comes to their self-perception. Hence elderly consumers willhave a higher degree of concern for collecting information about the brand, and at thesame time, they will experience a higher degree of connection with the brand. Asdifferent elderly consumers are immersed in the same brand to different degrees, theirjudgment of the personal stake they have in the brand and their affectivedecision-making after purchasing will have a big impact on their behavior. At thesame time, compared to consumers who are not as immersed in a brand, consumerswho have a high degree of immersion in a brand have deeper mental impressions ofthe personal benefits that the brand fulfills for them. So the consistency of theself-perception of elderly people and their degree of immersion in a brand aremutually affecting elements, which can effectively increase these customers’ feelingsfor a brand and affect their level of satisfaction and trust for the brand after theyexperience it. In addition, when guarantees of the consistency of personal ideals weretested against the degree of product immersion, it was found that the degree ofproduct immersion did not have a significant impact on adjusting the consistency of apositive influence on self-conceptualization.Beginning from elderly consumers’ particular self-perception, this article isfounded on the research angles of reverse intergenerational influences and the degreeof product infiltration. This article provides deep insight into the mechanisms of theformation of elderly consumers’ brand repurchasing behavior, examines the majorelements that affect this, and provides beneficial supplementary information on this behavior from a marketing perspective in order to provide resources for firms todesign more effective brand marketing plans for elderly consumers.