Understanding Baby Boomers online: the research challenge

摘要

The ageing Baby Boomer generation, born in the post war baby boom between 1946 and 1964, is challenging stereotypes of older consumers as anxious adopters of Internet technologies. Baby Boomers represent a large and economically vital consumer segment. However, what little consumer research exists on these consumers has focused on their offline consumer behaviour, while research from the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) has focused on older demographics and specific interaction and cognitive issues rather than consumer behaviour. Consequently there is a need to better understand the needs and behaviour of Baby Boomers as online consumers. This paper is an initial proposal for the development of a framework to help researchers and marketers better meet the needs of this important consumer segment.